Fate of Ganthi: Reconnaissance

 

The Ganthi system was still in contention. A bunch of armies from a bunch of races were involved. Some armies had decided that it wasn't worth it, other new armies decided to fill in the proverbial void left over. This led to a whoooole lot of fighting in the Ganthi system. Almost every planet in the system (7 total) was host to some major fighting. By now, it was rumored that the forces of chaos and the tyranids were involved too. The funny thing was that this was not your particular conflict, but one that was very, very Dark Eldar in ideology. It appeared that of all the armies fighting, almost none of them wanted control of the Ganthi system, they just wanted to suck it dry of its resources and move on. This included the people there for some races, after all sentients are resources just like anything else. With that in mind, the Jade Emperor knew that Scarab's influential taint was infecting this battle, and the rumors of the Tyranids had to be true. More important than that, it became a game of if-I-can't-have-it-no-one-can, except everyone was plundering as much as possible instead of outright destroying it.

There were rumors of a group that were actually trying to cultivate and develop the system: the Imperial Guard. Word was that while the mega battle took place previously on Ganthi Prime (actually the 4th planet in the system), the Imperial Guard was given time to set up shop on Preo, the 6th planet in the system. The Jade Emperor needed to confirm this before anything else. As far as he was concerned it would be more convenient to attack those that are setting up shop instead of outracing those attempting not only to hit and run, but hit and run from each other. The fact that so many armies were acting like...true kin in the first place as direct evidence of thier denial of their inferiority and desire to be something that they are not. In other words, they were 'haters. And so, the Liquid Sword was off to Preo for a Recon.

The Imperial Guard was totally caught off guard. One would've thought that they had never encountered Dark Eldar before. Nevertheless, J.E. told Archon Shaka not to underestimate them, as they had yet to confirm what manner of Imperial Guard these mon kei were. The Liquid Sword moved in incredibly fast, flanking the 'Guard to the west. The Talos moved in west with them and killed 2 troops at an incredible distance. Meanwhile, the Obsidian Squad shot and destroyed a 'Guard tank, later confirmed to be holding their Captain. The Captain and his crew was forced to regroup amidst the husk of what was their tank. The Emerald Squad had no such luck firing against the Lehman Russ. Upon shifting his cam, he saw the Zulu Raider had missed its mark as well. The Curse of the 'Lance had begun. Meanwhile, Imhotep and the Monster Horns (as his unit was now dubbed since he led them on a jetbike) took out 3 more Imps (as the Jade Emperor liked to call them) and assaulted the unit that they fired upon. Imhotep activated his combat drugs in order to get in as quickly as possible, and the other reavers tried in vain to keep up. The wind velocity should have burned his eyes out but with the drugs he was able to maintain. If Imhotep was expecting an easy victory on his own, he was wrong. These Imps had heart.

The Imps were dead set on fighting back, and fighting hard. The audacity of these...things. The Lehman Russ took a shot at the Talos and damaged it some. Apparently, the Talos terrified the Imps, just as the Jade Emperor had planned. Off in the distance, a Demolisher let off, and rattled the Emerald Squad as well as the grotesques in front of them. The grotesques were incapable of being good meatshields against tanks like that, so J.E had to think fast. Meanwhile, a missile launcher smacked into the Zulu raider and stunned its gunner. Thankfully, the autocannon missed the raider. Nevertheless, there was missile fire and explosions going on all over the place, and by the time the first hail of massive Imperial fire was over, J.E. checked the multi-screens and saw that two of the Horns had been shot down, and the Talos took another missile shot. It was visibly falling apart but it kept on moving. It was drawing fire very well. That was why it was on the field more than anything else. Upon shifting cams, J.E. saw a grotesque literally absorb an autocannon shot that should've killed it.

As the Monster Horns descended upon the troops of Imps that were fighting Imhotep, the other unit of Horns get a mental grip on themselves, as they were shaken up pretty bad from the fire that they took. The Monster Horns wiped out the remaining troops in that unit, and J.E. gave the order to consolidate into the Sentinels. J.E. wasn't entirely confident that they would win close combat against the machines, but he definitely wanted to curtail their speed. Nothing pissed J.E. off more than speed being used to the detriment of his army. The Leopard Squad came into the battle rather quickly, but they missed their target landing spot and had to quickly regroup. Meanwhile, the Obsidian Squad used the lances to snipe more troops one at a time. At first it looked like one troop was hit, but he took cover and the tree he hid behind had a hole plugged into it. To the flank, the Talos shot down 2 more troops with its wildfire, much to the dismay of the Imps, who were growing increasingly concerned about its steady advance and chaotic tactics. Meanwhile, the Reaver Horns (led by Succubus Mali) suffered the curse of the 'lance, as the blaster failed to penetrate. The curse didn't affect the Emerald Squad this time though, as they destroyed the Demolisher that posed such a threat to them. The Leopard Squad, upon gaining a better sense of direction, went after the missile team at the direction of J.E. Their hail of crystal rain was phenomenal and they took out the entire squad in one fell swoop of splinter cannon fire [13/16 hits, all 13 hits wounded, 6 men dead!!!]. J.E. was going to make it a point to reward them very, very, very, very well if they survived the conflict. The Monster Squad Horns had a very difficult time with the Sentinels that they assaulted, just as J.E. predicted. However, Sentinels [which are built like All Terrain Scout Transports from Return of the Jedi] were not built for hand to hand combat, and they had an equally difficult time.

J.E. shifted to the Zulu Cam. The Zulu Knights adeptly deployed from the raider and collides with another unit of Imp troops. With the utmost deftness they cut down 3 Imp soldiers. Their Lieutenant tried to be a heroe and upon tripping off of one of his soldiers bodies was cut down before he hit the ground. He was very, very unlucky. However, Incubi Master Jedi was just as unlucky. Upon seeing their esteem leader cut down, the Imp troops got really pissed and penetrated his armor with [gasp] regular machetes. He went down. Smakahoe tried to step to his defense and also fell prey to the fury of these Imps. Normal humans! J.E. was dumbfounded. The potential of these inferior things was amazing at times. J.E. shifted to the Reaver Horn cam and only saw the reavers finishing off yet another unit of troops. He was pleased with that. Then, J.E. shift to the Emerald cam and saw fire coming from the Lehman Russ, which killed 2 more grotesques and another warrior. The Emerald Squad was going to really catch a bad one if they took any more missile fire. Upon finishing off the troop squad, Shaka and the Zulu Knights were under fire from the Imperial Snipers, but those guys sucked. J.E. laughed aloud and said, "How the f*ck did they get their jobs?" The next camera shift showed a scourge get shot down, but most of them ran for cover and was blanketed with leaves and trees. That's why they were called Leopards, they were fast and slick like that. J.E. shifted to the Monster Horn cam and saw Imhotep overdosing on drugs. He was so desperate to take out these sentinels in close combat he was hurting himself and doing their job for them. With that in mind, J.E. gave Shaka the order to leave the Imps there and raid the colony on Preo. The Imps were too broken to keep up with the Liquid Sword, making their jobs that much easier...

WIN- Slaves Captured: 8 troops, 2 Lieutenants.