Second Veletaris Storm section and 4 Lightnings

I finally got my hands on the Lightning squadron for Legions Imperialis and assembled 4 of them. With a little kitbash, I had them all outfitted with lascannons. Yay! Lascannons for the win! Anyway, I only need 4 for Legions Imperialis, so I will probably give the other 2 to my friend. Maybe. We shall see.

I also assembled a second Veletaris Storm section, so yay. All volkite, as usual. That gives me a mechanized force to play with, with 3 Dracosans. I can't wait to field them! But I might need to acquire 3 more Leman Russ assault tanks first. We will see!

Legiones Auxilia

I'm sure that by now everyone knows who the Solar Auxilia are. Whether you read it on Bell of Lost Souls or some other blog, or watched it on some YouTube video (there's plenty of Warhammer 40,000 lore videos on Solar Auxilia on YouTube), you should have the basic gist of what the Solar Auxilia is. The elite 25% of the Imperial Army (Excertus Imperialis or Auxilia Imperialis), they have the best weapons, tanks, equipment and gear, from hardened void suits that can automatically seal and repair, lasrifles with blastchargers that can go up to Strength 6 AP4, entire Veletaris tercios with voklite weapons, and environmentally sealed vehicles such as heavily armored Dracosan tanks and reinforced Mars Alpha patterned Leman Russ tanks. Even their Basilisks and Medusas are armored and environmentally sealed.

What else...uh, they fight in tercios, which are multiple sections within a cohort that practice and drill in close-order fighting so that they can operate in a unified manner. Also, unlike the myriad regiments of the Imperial Army, the Solar Auxilia is a pattern; a culture of warfare and an order of battle that has been successfully replicated on hundreds of worlds. Consequently, the Solar Auxilia cohorts have formed the backbone of the Imperium's military forces since the beginning of the Great Crusade. They provide the numbers that the Legiones Astartes lack, forming occupying forces and making the bulk of the Imperium's military might.

Originating from the Sol System and Terra, the Solar Auxilia functions as frontline soldiers whose principal theater of war is the void and hostile environments of all kinds, to both support the Legiones Astartes or to deploy in their place so that the Space Marines are free to pursue other frontline operations. They are heavy void infantry formations, a specialized division in the Excertus Imperialis.

They draw heavily from the structure of the Saturnye Ordo, the elite armed forces of the militarized tech-enclaves of Saturn, also known as the Polities of Saturn, who are experts in void warfare. The Saturnye Ordo was then expanded and reorganized into the ten regiments known as the Saturnye Rams. You'll recognize the name if you've been involved in the recent Legions Imperialis expansion, The Great Slaughter or even The Battle for Beta-Garmon campaign book for Horus Heresy. Well, actually, the Saturnye Rams don't really get mentioned in The Battle for Beta-Garmon, presumably because they got wiped out in The Great Slaughter prior. Oh, well.

Anyway, the important point is that amidst all of these elite soldiers of the Imperial Army, the famed Solar Auxilia are sometimes given the honor of being inducted into the Legiones Astartes as honorary auxiliaries, or perhaps they are Solor Auxilia Cohorts founded upon and raised in the Legion's homeworld itself, and thus have closer ties to the Legion and directly serve under them, such as the Prosperine Spireguard, for example. Wait, the Prosperine Spireguard are actually regular Imperial Army, not Solar Auxilia, but before people complain about "rectons," I should point out that the Prosperine Spireguard is not entirely Solar Auxilia. They are still largely regular Imperial Army. Perhaps only 20-25% of the Prosperine Spireguard, known as the Spireguard Templars, actually follow the Solar Auxilia cohort pattern. The rest of the Spireguard are regular Imperial Army soldiers, with the Spireguard Templars forming only a fifth or a quarter of Prospero's mortal military.

So rest assured, your favorite Imperial Army regiment or Prosperine Spireguard are not being retconned into being Solar Auxilia. It's just that 20-25% of them have been Solar Auxilia all along, and the regular Imperial Army soldiers who appear in the lore and Black Library novels are the face because they make up the majority of the regiment.

Back to the Legiones Auxilia, well, the Solar Auxilia have the numbers that the Legiones Astartes lack, and their void armor and environmentally sealed equipment allow them to accompany the Legions into battle in hostile environments. Their strategies of aggressive defense, measured advance and asymmetrical assault complement the Legions' highly mobile lightning warfare, and over time, the inducted Solar Auxilia cohorts are refashioned to serve their patron legion directly.

While Legiones Auxilia and Imperial Army units completely seconded to Legions are typically raised and trained upon a Legion's homeworld, domains or territory (with Ultramar being a potent example of Ultramar Auxilia, the Calth Irregulars, Numinus, Armaturan Academy Guard and Armaturan Wardens being among them), there are many Solar Auxilia cohorts who become codified as Legiones Auxilia because they spend many years fighting alongside a single Space Marine Legion in a single Expeditionary fleet across dozens of worlds. This was done for practical reasons, particularly because they had to fight on the far flung edges of the Great Crusade, far from any Excertus Imperialis command. Others are awarded honorary Legion membership, and depending on the Legion, they could just induct them with a simple gesture or formal ceremonies that go on for days.

Unfortunately, this led to conflicts within the Imperial Army itself, because the Legiones Auxilia are more loyal to their patron Legion than to the Excertus Imperialis's command hierarchy, and they often ignored commands from the Imperial Army commanders in favor of assisting their Legion.

In 847.M30, the Divisio Militaris formally ratified the Praecepta Inductionis to recognize those Solar Auxilia cohorts officially inducted into the service of the Legiones Astartes. This means a complete withdrawal from the supply structure of the Excertus Imperialis, and the inducted cohorts would have to surrender any void craft, vehicles and supplies, as well as relinquish all rights to planetary domains at the end of any Auxiliary's service. Of course, this was difficult to enforce, particularly with the authority of the Primarchs and the establishment of broader Legion fiefs.

The Legiones Astartes supply the Legiones Auxilia instead of the Excertus Imperialis, and they usually raise these cohorts within their own domains, so more frequently these cohorts are formed directly as dedicated bodies instead of inducted hosts. These Legiones Auxilia are fully formalized as a militant arm of the Legions. However, with the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Legions are forced to return to the induction of existing Solar Auxilia cohorts because they are desperate to supplement their diminishing numbers.

Also, each Legion treats the Legiones Auxilia differently. The Iron Hands and Iron Warriors, for example, treat them as expendable meatshields, while the Night Lords expose theirs to psychotropic toxins. Yikes. Fortunately, there are many Legions who treat them with respect and honor them as kindred warriors, such as the Thousand Sons and the Ultramarines - their Legiones Auxilia being the Spireguard Templars and Ultramar Accensi.

Examples of Legiones Auxilia (some might be regular Imperial Army units, though):

Dark Angels: Caliban Jaegers

Emperor's Children: Arkadian Janissaries

Iron Warriors: Selucid Thorakites

White Scars: Chogorian Rough Riders (I kid, I have no idea)

Space Wolves: Last Vigil, Fenrisian Kaerls, Aettguard

Imperial Fists: Inwit Phalangites, Jovian Grenadiers

Night Lords: (I have no idea)

Blood Angels: Baal Seraphims (okay, I have no idea), Blood Valiants (I made that up)

Iron Hands: Medusan Chain Shroud, Veridan Korracts

World Eaters: Bodt Berserkers (okay, I kid), Numen Gun Clans

Ultramarines: Ultramar Auxilia, Calth High Guard, Calth Irregulars, Numinus, Armaturan Academy Guard, Armaturan Wardens, High Wardens, Ultramar Accensi

Death Guard: Barbaran Ambaxtoi, Bleak Marchers

Thousand Sons: Prosperine Spireguard, Spireguard Templars

Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus: Cthonian Headhunters, Byzant Janizars, Petran Voltigeurs

Word Bearers: Ouranti Draks, Colchis Crusaders (again, I kid)

Salamanders: Nocturnal Knights (okay, that was a joke), Themis Hunters, Hesiod High Guard

Raven Guard: Therion Cohort, Capricorn Suppression Regiments, Lothor Pioneer Corps

Alpha Legion: REDACTED

Rules in The Battle for Beta-Garmon

I'm not that competitive a player, so I can't do rules analysis like Goonhammer or tell you if they're good or bad. But since nobody is covering them for some reason (maybe everyone's either too busy with their Legiones Astartes or they prefer pure Solar Auxilia), I think I'll just run through the sort of, uh, bonuses you get for playing Legiones Auxilia alongside your favorite Space Marine Legion.

Yes, you heard that right. If you field Solar Auxilia as an ally alongside a Legiones Astartes primary detachment, you can choose to make the allied Solar Auxilia detachment a Legiones Auxilia one. If you choose to do so, they gain a few flavorful bonuses that reflect the way they complement their patron Legion's fighting style.

They are divided according to whichever Patron Legion you have for your Primary detachment, so the list will be according to that.

Dark Angels: A Dark Angels Legiones Astartes unit can make the same shooting (at the same target) or movement Reaction as a reacting Tercio within 6" of them. Or him. And it's free for him too (but he can't React again in the same phase).

Emperor's Children: If one or more of your Legiones Auxilia model dies from a shooting attack, his unit gets Hammer of Wrath (1) for one turn.

Iron Warriors: Ignore negative Leadership modifiers for Pinning or Concussive tests.

White Scars: Tercio units with Line get Feel No Pain (6+) or improve it by +1 to a maximum of 5+ if they already have it whenever at least half of their models are within 6" of an Objective or within your Deployment Zone.

Space Wolves: Their Reaction shooting attacks Ignores Cover or nullify Shrouded Damage Mitigation. Only for Reactions, not normal attacks.

Imperial Fists: Line units improve Cover Saves granted by terrain by 1, so you get a 4+ cover save in Ruins, for example. Maximum of 4+, by the way.

Night Lords: Immune to Fear. Tercio units get Rage (2) whenever they start the Assault phase within 12" of any friendly Night Lord Legiones Astarte model with Fear.

Blood Angels: As long as they're within 6" of a Blood Angels Legiones Astartes model, they get +1 to their Attacks when locked in combat.

Iron Hands: Whenever they fail Morale after getting shot at, they don't Fall Back and instead suffer D3 Mortal Wounds (Feel No Pain and Damage Mitigation still works, though).

World Eaters: Whenever they shoot units that are Falling Back or already lost one or more models previously, they get +1 to their Hit rolls.

Ultramarines: If your Ultramar Auxilia (or Legiones Auxilia for Ultramarines) shoots at an enemy unit and kills at least one model, any shooting Reactions by that enemy unit against a Charging Ultramarines Legiones Astartes unit are resolved as Snap Shots.

Death Guard: Reduce the Wound roll of Fleshbane or Poisoned attacks by 1 (but Strength remains the same, for Instant Death purposes), and infantry can re-roll failed Dangerous Terrain tests.

Thousand Sons: Whenever a Thousand Sons Sorcerer suffers Perils of the Warp, they can allocate the wounds to a Prosperine Spireguard (or Legiones Auxilia for Thousand Sons) infantry unit within 12" instead. Fortunately, your Auxilia infantry get Adamantium Will (6+).

Sons of Horus: Whenever your Legiones Auxilia units shoots at an enemy unit and kills at least one model, any Sons of Horus Legiones Astartes unit adds +2 to their Charge roll when charging that enemy unit.

Word Bearers: Tercio units get Fleet (2) and Crusader for a turn whenever they begin the turn within 12" of any Word Bearers Legiones Astartes model.

Salamanders: Get a Cover Save of 4+ whenever they're hiding behind Salamanders Legiones Astartes models. I'm not joking. Yes, your tanks too. Screen your Leman Russ tanks with Salamanders and they get a 4+ Cover Save.

Raven Guard: Increase Leadership by +1 to a maximum of 10 whenever they can draw line of sight to a Raven Guard Legiones Astartes model within 24".

Alpha Legion: Whenever an opponent shoots an Alpha Legion Legiones Astartes unit that's within 12" of a Legiones Auxilia unit that they can also see, they must make a Leadership test. If they fail, they must target the poor Auxilia unit instead. Obviously, if they pass, they get to shoot the sneaky Alpha Legionnaires.

I wonder if we'll get any bonus rules for fielding Questoris Auxilia. Meaning, Solar Auxilia cohorts founded and raised on Knight Worlds, and being a militant arm of the Ordo Questoris. It's not like the Legiones Astartes are the only ones who have Solar Auxilia cohorts seconded, inducted or directly under them, right? Who am I kidding, probably not. In any case, I can still field an Imperial Knight army with Solar Auxilia allies, I don't think I need the bonus rules anyway. Or a Solar Auxilia armored cohort with Questoris support. We'll see. Still pretty fun to think about, though!

Will my Ryuusei Katanas (formerly Draconian Defenders) be Legiones Auxilia for the Thousand Sons? Nope, they'll be Solar Auxilia (or Imperial Militia) support for my Imperial Knights of House Yato. More on the name change next time, as I slowly build up my Solar Auxilia army, but ever since I changed the name of my Knight World from Draconis III to Ryuusei, I had been entertaining altering my Imperial Guard/Imperial Army regiment accordingly. Like I said, that's a blog post for another time. Till then!

Beginning of a Solar Auxilia armored company

I have assembled my third Dracosan and the first Solar Auxilia Leman Russ tank! The Mars alpha pattern, to be precise, but whatever works!

I always wanted a Leman Russ Incinerator, but the Forge World resin kit was too expensive, and I hate working with resin. Thankfully, Games Workshop released the plastic kit at about half the price, and plastic is so much easier to work with! Yay!

As you might notice, my Solar Auxilia is full of volkite weapons, ha ha. I just love volkite. So that's kind of my theme, along with plasma. I will get the Executioner variant soon! I hope.

But yeah, you might also observe that my Leman Russ Incinerator has multilasers. Two of them - the hull mounted one and the pintle. They complement the volkite macro saker very well - both as defensive weapons and a lot of Strength 6 low AP shots! That would be like 14 Strength 6 shots in a single volley, even on overwatch! Yay!

I can't wait to field them all once I've finished assembling my Solar Auxilia army! As you can see, it's mostly an armored and mechanized cohort with elite infantry and lots of volkite, and hopefully some plasma! I decided to convert the command squad into a Lifewars section for now because it might help my lost more, but we will see!

Second Dracosan

I assembled a second Dracosan. Yay! Now my Veletaris Storm section has their own dedicated transport!

I went for a demolisher cannon this time because I feel like it fits with the volkite of the Veletaris more.

Veletaris

I assembled a storm section for my Veletaris Solar Auxilia. They are armed with volkite chargers and supported by a squadron of three Aethon Heavy Sentinels. Also armed with volkite culverins! I'm going all in on volkite!

I say that, but I didn't actually glue the weapons for my Aethon Heavy Sentinels, so I can swap the missiles and volkite culverins out for the hunter-killer missiles and other weapons, which include multilasers, lascannons, autocannons, heavy incinerators and melta lances. Pretty cool selection. But volkite is my go to because it's my favorite.

I originally wanted to sell the lasrifle tercios and command squad, but nobody wanted to buy them. Oh, well. That's okay! So now, instead, I've converted the command squad into a lifeward section to serve as bodyguards for my marshal. He will not be so lonely anymore, and I will save money on purchasing a third Veletaris storm section, which would originally be equipped with power axes. So we're back to the basic lasrifle tercio and 2 Veletaris storm sections instead (the second one will be arriving soon, but I have no idea when).

My plan was to do an armored cohort, though using the Solar Cohort rules to give me Line Veletaris tercios, who would be mechanized infantry in the Dracosans. I can still do that, but I would have lasrifle tercios guarding my Leman Russ tercio. I think. We'll see. Funnily enough, the Lifeward section can't take an augury scanner, so that will go to my lasrifle tercio instead. Interesting. That will also give me quite a few line units, so I can capture objectives.

Well, I still have 2 Dracosans and a Leman Russ tank to assemble (and I'll slowly build up the Leman Russ collection over the next few months).

Oh, and I actually wanted to play Legions Imperialis on Saturday, but there was a change of plans. My original opponent had an F1 thing going on, so I ended up playing Crusade against another friend instead! You saw the battle report, I hope. I'm wondering if I should do a PNGtuber thing with the Crusade battle reports. Might be fun, even if nobody watches the videos.

Blitzog's SpeedWaagh Returns, and Sir Kanda's Last Stand

"Those tin humies look good for krumpin'!" Blitzog growled as he rode atop his Dakkajet, waving his custom power klaw. "If we grab their blastas and tin parts, I iz promoted to Mek! And not just any Mek! A Big Mek! Once ze codex drops, I iz gonna change my model to the new shiny, plastic Big Mek model! Let's go, Boyz! We iz got some krumpin' to do!"

His Boyz howled as they followed hot on the heels of his Dakkajet, their warbikes bleching a puff of black smoke.

"Wait! Not so fast!" Blitzog snapped. "We don't wanna get caught in ambush! Remember dees, Boyz! Brutal and kunnin'! Not brutal and stupid!"

"What ya mean, boss?" One of the warbikers asked, puzzled. Blitzog krumped him on the side of his head, almost sending the greenskin careening off his bike.

"I iz mean what I say! Kunnin'! Ya git! Ya so dumb zat yer don't get it?"

"Sorry, boss. But zat's why yer ze boss, boss."

Blitzog buried his face in his power klaw, only to wince when his metallic jaw clanked violently against the contraption.

"I've had 'nuff. Less talkin', more krumpin'. Let's wait for the tin humies to come to us, and we'll krump them real good! We don't wanna rush forward and get dakka-ed off the battlefield! Ya gitz see zat?"

He gestured toward the contra-immaterial nodal matrix thing that the skully xenos had assembled.

"I dunno what zat is, but it iz producing some funny field that turns off our kustom bubbles. We don't wanna go in there naked without our bubbles now, right, Boyz?"

"No, boss!"

"Slow and steady, ya gitz. Slow and steady. Ya too, ya speed freaks! All of ya! Listen to me!"

"Yes, boss!"

Blitzog's SpeedWaaagh! didn't consist of just him and his warbikers. There were all sorts of wartrikes, dakkajets, boosta-blastas, Snazzwagons, scrapjets, and even a single squigbuggy. Trailing the buggies was a single Trukk, packed to the brim with Boyz and another Warboss. Or sub-boss, since he was under the great Blitzog.

+That...doesn't look good.+ Skitarii Marshal Sigma 44-Kariya couldn't help but gulp in binharic when he caught sight of the approaching SpeedWaaagh!. The scouting Skitarii Rangers he had sent forward detected anomalies in the augurs, and it had resolved in the homicidal Orkoid xenos speeding toward them.

The probability of success for their mission to secure and analyze the Necron contra-immaterial nodal matrix that they had assembled in this area of the Nephilim Sector had just been cut by 63.28%. That wasn't good. 44-Kariya winced. He didn't anticipate that there would be an Ork presence on Kuroishi, of all places. Archmagos Theta-Rho had instructed Skitarii Hunter Cohort 428-Sigma to defend and secure the area so that he could conduct a more thorough analysis of the blackstone material used to assemble the xenos construct, but it appeared that the Orks had been drawn to this place by all the fighting and violence.

+I'll go ahead and buy as much time as I can,+ Delta Yari said, leading his Sydonian Dragoon squadron forward.

"I'll provide support," Sir Kanda said, his Cerastus Knight Lancer loping forward to meet the enemy. Squad Alpha-1 covered them with galvanic, arc and plasma fire, with a single sniper round whistling past a laughing Blitzog and simply taking out a Biker instead.

+Squads Alpha-1 and Beta-2, Protector Imperatives. Brace.+ 44-Kariya transmitted the order through the noosphere. Beside squad Alpha-1, Onager Dunecrawler Alpha-1 crawled forward, its neutron laser sizzling forward and catching a warbiker, disintegrating the bellowing greenskin in mid-flight.

However, that was all the shooting they could do before the Orks crashed into them at full speed. Having drawn the Skitarii and Knight Lancer out into the open, Blitzog demonstrated the full might of his kunnin' by flanking the fearsome Knight and instead smashing the Sydonian Dragoons. An accompanying Wartrike drilled into one of them, and the impact of the warbikes plus Blitzog's own buggy crushed the rightmost Sydonian Dragoon. Delta Yari did the best as he could, but even as he struck with his taser lance and electrocuted a couple of greenskins, his other surviving subordinate fell under the weight of choppas and power klaws. Blitzog laughed in delight as he caught the rider in his clacking klaws, squishing the cyborg into crumpled metal and red bloody mist.

"This iz fun!" He chortled.

On the other side, the Warboss and his accompanying Boyz piled out of the Trukk, which had skidded to a stop behind a ruin and was left empty. Hollering in joy, the Orks charged into squad Beta-2 and massacred them before the Skitarii Rangers could react, the power klaws and choppas making short work of even the augmented cybernetic plate that served as armor for the Mechanicus soldiers.

44-Kariya cursed in binharic. Beta-2's demise far exceeded even his most pessimistic calculations. He was hoping they could at least buy him several minutes worth of time, but the nullification field that the contra-immaterial node emitted was messing with their cybernetics and switching off their protective barriers.

The Onager Dunecrawler fired at a buggy with its neutron laser, but because it had been suppressed by another with its weird squig rounds that launched from behind a building, it missed its shots. Despite unloading volleys of hard slugs from the Onager Dunercrawler's pair of cognis heavy stubbers, the combined fire from the Skitarii Rangers' galvanic rifles, plasma caliver, arc rifle and transuranic arquebus, as well as shock bursts from the Knight's lance, were only able to whittle it down to a couple of Boyz, the Nob and the Warboss. Kanda was not having any of it, his Knight Lancer smashing aside a weathered statue to strike the survivors with his crackling lance and pulverized the Orks before they could so much as roar, "Waaaagh!"

Blitzog was too busily fighting Delta Yari to notice that his Boyz had just gone down. The tin-man atop the skinny walker was more resilient than he had thought. Delta Yari parried and blocked blows from the choppa and retaliated, the esoteric energies of his taser lance bursting another couple of warbikers apart. With a roar, Blitzog hacked, forcing Delta Yari to retreat. The wartrike swerved about and drilled into the rear of the Ironstrider engine, causing the Sydonian Dragoon to teeter, but Delta Yari fought on bravely, refusing to go down until Blitzog finally finished him off.

"Are yer serious?!" The Big Mek to be exclaimed when he saw that only a single warbiker was left in his once proud squad after he crushed the tin-man in his power klaw. "Where did ze rest go?!"

"Dey got krumped real good by zat electric lance thingy, boss," the sole survivor replied. Blitzog groaned and smacked his forehead with his power klaw, only to regret it with a geyser of green blood spurted out. Ignoring the stinging pain, he shook his head, disgruntled.

"Idiots."

Now it was Kanda's turn to be surprised by the weird ammunition the Orks hurled at his Knight, but even so, he was able to inflict damage on a buggy that had zoomed forward. Another couple of trikes and scrapjets had emerged from Blitzog's reserves to hammer his Knight with rokkits, but they barely left smudges on the adamantine armor despite exploding spectacularly upon the lean frame. Instead, he focused on returning to the center to protect Theta-Rho's survey.

That left the Onager Dunecrawler to eliminate the buggy that was bearing dangerously close on Skitarii Ranger squad Alpha-1, but its neutron laser merely grazed it, dealing no damage to it at all. Meanwhile, the Orks continued to bombard the Skitarii Rangers' dug-in position with all sorts of exotic ordnance and hard shells, but the emanatus force field emanated by Dunecrawler Alpha-1 protected them. Only one Mechanicus soldier went down despite the fierce onslaught from the wildly firing Orks.

"If the shootas ain't workin', then krump them up close, ya gitz! Do I 'ave to do everything myself?!" Blitzog cried, turning his buggy away from the wreck that used to be Delta Yari's steed and accelerating toward the squad. His loyal warbiker followed, chuckling as he waved his power klaw.

"Ya got me, boss!"

Blitzog rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. Instead, he barreled toward Sigma 44-Kariya, having spotted the Skitarii Marshal directing his men. Even so, the Rangers of squad Alpha-1 literally threw their bodies on the line to shield their commander, butchered by the incensed warboss. When the dust was clear, there were only three Mechanicus soldiers left.

Skitarii Alpha Alpha-1 jabbed the Warbiker with his arc maul, causing the greenskin to yelp and flinch. Before he could counter, 44-Kariya took his head off with a sweep of his control stave, leaving Blitzog on his lonesome.

"Hah! Don't think ya 'ave won. Dis iz ze way I like it!" Blitzog crowed, confident that he could crush the tin man commander with his brute strength and trusty power klaw.

He didn't reckon Kanda. The Cerastus Knight Lancer slammed into Blitzog with near apocalyptic force, driving his shock lance into the backpack generator and shorting it out. Blitzog shrieked as he was flung across the battlefield, flailing wildly as his green skin turned black. Like a rocket spiraling out of control, he was sent on a corkscrew trajectory away from the contra-immaterial node. The explosion of his backpack generator hurled him further away, and like a pyrotechnics display, he disappeared into the distance.

"I'll be back!!!" He yelled, vowing vengeance. And perhaps, the next time he showed up, he would be using a new, shiny plastic miniature, along with improved and upgraded rules from an updated codex.

The Onager Dunecrawler was buckling under the sheer weight of fire, and its emanatus forcefield failed, taking a few rokkits to its frame and causing it to shudder. It fired in retaliation, and this time, its neutron laser finally wrecked the elusive buggy. Unfortunately, the scrapjets and other tellyporta buggies continued to pummel it with rokkits until it was a hulking wreck.

+That can't be good,+ 44-Kariya realized, especially when the emanatus forcefield once generated by the venerable walker went down, exposing the surviving Skitarii infantry to the elements. And shells of the surviving buggies. There were still so many of them...at least half a dozen, perhaps more. Despite Blitzog's early demise, the SpeedWaaagh! showed no sign of abating. Instead, the drivers' bloodlust had increased, each of them eager for glory now that the boss was no longer in command.

A buggy sped by, its flamers spewing burning promethium across the bunker where 44-Kariya and his surviving squad had hunkered down. The torrent of fire bathed the infantry and incinerated them, leaving them twitching amidst blackened cybernetics.

+Ouch,+ 44-Kariya moaned as he lay on his back. +I hate the smell of promethium in the morning.+

"Uh...what now?" Kanda asked somberly when it dawned upon him that he was the only one left. While the Orks couldn't damage his Knight suit, there were far too many of them for him to hunt down and destroy. They were laughing as they sped around him in circles, and while his Knight armor was faster and could catch up, they had wisely spread out so as not to present to him a single target.

The greenskins were smarter than he thought, and so numerous.

+Prioritize my protection,+ Archmagos Theta-Rho ordered from the center of the battlefield. The Tech-priest Dominus had been concealing himself within the contra-immatterial node to study it this entire time. +Do not allow the xenos to achieve proximity to my current locale.+

"Understood," Kanda replied uneasily. He ignored the hooting and jeering Orks and turned his back on them, his Cerastus Knight Lancer loping back toward the blackstone node. The squigbuggy tossed several expletives and accompanying explosives in his direction, but they fell short. Kanda did not fall for their provocations. The mission was everything, and Theta-Rho was so close to finishing his initial study of the xenos technology.

The Necrons were the greater threat. For now.

"Hey, gitz! Over here!" One of the buggy drivers yelled, waving toward the horizon. "I see more juicy targets! Dey iz our size too! Smaller and easier to krump! Shiner too! Let's krump 'em! Waaagh!"

Apparently, he had spotted a phalanx of Necrons that had just been dispatched by an Overlord to disrupt Theta-Rho's research. The Orks, bored because they couldn't do frak all to the Knight armor, aside from running around in circles, perked up at the prospect of a fairer fight. Besides, the tin skull-things were fun. They could heal and get up after being krumped, which meant the Boyz could krump them again and again.

And more krumpin' was always a good thing!

"Waaagh!"

"More tin men!"

"I wantz me some shinies!"

Kanda watched incredulously as the SpeedWaagh! departed the scene, the hollering Orks headed straight for another fight. He shook his head and glanced back to check on Theta-Rho's progress.

"You done, Archmagos?"

+Almost.+ The Tech-priest had been oblivious to the whims of the Orks. +Just another 72.98 seconds.+

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." Kanda sighed, half in exasperation and half in relief. "I think you have all the time in the world now. Our...uh, green friends have just achieved all of their agendas."

Dracosan

I finally assembled my Dracosan armored transport. Yay! I think. I gave this guy gravis lascannon just in case. I don't know how it will go, but we will see. Anyway, that's about it. The infantry, including a command squad and Legate Marshal, an Aethon Heavy Sentinel and now a Dracosan!

I think I will sell the Leman Russ tank because I want the assault variant instead of the strike one, and I want plasma or volkite. We will see, and I will be able to recoup some money while getting some back for the assault variant that will be out for preorder this Saturday! I can't wait!