The Alphalant Mantis: Mantis Warriors vs Tyranids?

 With an operational bastion to work from, the defenders of Drawbridge needed to strike back against the Tyranid swarm hard and fast. Without a rapid counterpunch, it was simply a matter of time before they were overrun. 

Captain Nampo of the Mantis Warriors and Brigadier Cholmondley-Maugham of the Hagan Lampreys quickly came up with an aggressive strategy. If they could find and destroy the major synapse creatures on the ground, the Tyranids would become disorganised. During that period, if they could muster the remaining defence forces, they might be able to recapture the planetary defence sites, get them operational and use them to drive the Hive Fleet out of orbit. This would allow the Imperial Navy to continue landing operations, as well as denying the Tyranids reinforcements. 

Analysis of the Tyranid attacks gave them three likely sites to check. The original landfall had occurred on Drawbridge's southern continent, in an area of dense rainforest, and there was a good chance the Tyranid leader beasts were still there. A detachment of Valkyries were launched to drop Scions in the area, whilst another Scion attack group moved to support the besieged industrial city of Barbican, where the Tyranids were currently pressing hard. 

The Mantis Warriors were already a depleted force, but Captain Nampo insisted on leading a scout team to check out the largest spaceport on the planet, Crenel. It had fallen to the Tyranids only days ago, the defenders going silent after a massive discharge of psychic activity. This indicated the presence of some sort of Synaptic leader, Nampo reasoned, a lead that needed to be checked out. 

Nampo took a fast-moving group of seasoned elites and raced to the ruins of Crenel, hoping to ambush and assassinate whatever Tyranid leadership they could find there. 

The Drawbridge Campaign part four - Stylus is commanding the Mantis Warriors tonight, but he's in for a surprise...

Having seen the fun to be had in this narrative I, Stylus, wanted a piece of the action. And I haven't given up my hope of finally pulling a win with the luckless Mantis Warriors.

As the Drawbridge Commander de Jour, Stylus is given the pick of the three sites to investigate. After second guessing himself, he goes for the ruined spaceport. But little does he know I've already assigned pre-picked armies to each one, and the one he's picked isn't quite what he's expecting!

Yes We Kahn! - Mantis Warriors

With a recon mission in mind, the list practically wrote itself. All the bikes I could muster, plus a Biker Captain to lead them. I'd left his storm-shield behind (points being a premium at this level), but given him a relic and trait that ought to make him lethal in combat. Scouts were another auto-include, not least because I'd just strong-armed Kraken into getting some.

Supporting these lead elements is a Land Speeder Typhoon, which should give me some versatile firepower, and a Land Raider, which is another model fresh from Kraken's painting desk. Iconic, and potentially terrifying (although maybe also a bit of a liability at this level of game).

Inside the belly of this steel beast would be a Chaplain, Tactical Squad, and Veteran squad ready to unleash melee hell when the vehicle finally pops. I went with all firstborn marines to keep to the mobile strike nature of this army, and these interior seats weren't designed for Primaris.

The idea to was create a one-two punch: the vehicles form a firebase in the early turns, blessed by the Chaplain's Recitation of Focus, while the fast elements hold back until that all-important Assault Doctrine, when then can countercharge whatever's coming forward.

Of course, that was until I read the mission...

• Captain in Gravis Armour (HQ)(Warlord)
  Power Sword, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades
  Trait: Chogorian Storm
  Relic: Scimitar of the Great Khan
• Chaplain (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, Crozius Arcanum
  Litany of Hate, Strike off the Head, Recitation of Focus
• 5 x Tactical Squad (Troops)
  Sergeant: Chainsword, 3 x Boltguns, Melta gun
• 5 x Scout Squad (Troops)
  Sergeant: Chainsword, 3 x Boltguns, Missile Launcher
• 4 x Company Veterans (Elite)
  Sergeant: Power fist & storm shields, 2 x Chainsword & storm shields, 1 x dual chainswords
• 5 x Bike Squad + Attack Bike (Fast)
  Chainswords & Twin boltguns, Heavy Bolter
• Land Speeder (Fast)
  Heavy bolter, Typhoon missile launcher
• Land Raider (Heavy)
  Twin heavy bolter, 2x Twin lascannon

Total: 59 PL, 1,000pts, Battleforged + Patrol - Gift of the Kahns = 5 CP

The Expected Unexpected

Is it really a big surprise that it's not Tyranids? My Alpha Legion warband, the Underharrow, are in fact lurking at the site. This is a fairly tame Alpha list by most standards. A big blob of multi-purpose cultists, some small infantry blocks with b-list celebrity characters and then a trio of daemons to do all the hard work. Venomcrawler, Daemon Prince and Helbrute, all more than capable of smashing things up in close combat. 

But the list isn't super-mobile, beyond Alpha Legion shenanigans at least, and is all relatively squishy. Everything feels squishy when you're up against four lascannons!

Alpha Legion Battalion, 5 CPs and 1000 points

• HQ - Master of Possession, Warlord with Cult Leader trait, Cursed Earth and Sacrifice powers
• HQ - Daemon Prince, mark of Slaanesh, We Are Alpharius - Faceless Commander trait, Mindveil relic, Daemonic Strength power and Hellforged Sword
• HQ - Exalted Champion with Power Maul, plasma pistol
• Troops - 20 x Cultists, 10 with close combat weapons, 9 with autoguns, one with flamer
• Troops - 5 x Chaos Space Marines with bolters, champion has lightning claw and combi-melta, one with autocannon
• Troops - 5 x Chaos Space Marines with chainswords and bolt pistols, one with plasma gun
• Elites - Helbrute with multimelta and close combat weapon
• Elites - 5 x Noise Marines, 3 with sonic blasters, champion has a bolter, one with Blastmaster
• Heavy Support - Venomcrawler

Terrain and Mission

Tonight's mission is Recon, adapted from the Crusade games. Or, well, not really adapted at all in the end, we played it straight! 

So deploying in quarters, we both took the game's special secondary, Reconnoitre. One squad can, at the start of the movement phase, perform an action to recce the quarter that it's in, as long as it's more than 10" from the middle and all the usual provisos are checked off. Lots of VPs for getting all four, none for getting 0-1, and the full range in between. 

Also, at least half of our units must start in reserve, appearing on a roll of 4+ on turns 1-2 or automatically on turn 3. Plenty of opportunities for a good ambush amidst these desolate streets.

Otherwise we took:

Mantis Warriors Secondaries

• Reconnoitre: We're here to recon, so that's what we'd better do!
• Assassinate: 3VP per character, and the only way to deal with the XX Legion is to cut off all the heads
• Engage on All Fronts: While I'm checking out the whole battlefield, I may as well fight there!

Alpha Legion Secondaries

• Reconnoitre: As above
• Linebreaker: I figure I'm heading for that quarter anyway, so why not?
• No Witnesses: This is one I made up, more as a challenge to myself than anything. 15 VPs if I table the foe, nothing otherwise!

Deployment

Atypically for a 9th Edition game, we get to decide where the objectives go. And typically for us, we chose very tactical places like: 'right at the foot of that statue'.

I had to pick half my units to start off the table, and while it might have been more tactically sound to guarantee the Land Raider's guns, plus the Chaplain's litanies, from Turn 1, I couldn't square it narratively. So the big vehicle was loaded up and placed in strategic reserve, while all the fast elements scouted ahead.

I split the Bikers into combat squads, and placed them at opposite corners of my deployment zone, ready to race out. The Captain and Land Speeder went just behind the southernmost bikers, to support them. The Scouts infiltrated out of the deployment zone, and sheltered under an archway, securing the top-left obective.

My plan was less coherent. Broadly, I wanted to keep most of my infantry in reserve, the better to counterstrike to whatever Stylus was up to. But what to actually have in play at the start? In the end, I decided to use the Exalted Champion as a recon agent, as he probably wouldn't be doing much until the enemy got close. 

The Helbrute went central, holding an objective and optimistically hoping its pre-new-rules multimelta might catch something, and the Master of Possession and Venomcrawler took a forward position, ready to scuttle forwards and attack whatever showed up. 

That's a lot of lone characters to risk, really. Better stay well hidden...

Stylus takes the roll-off and opts to go first!

Mantis Warriors - Turn 1

Wasting no time, the Scouts immediately decided to perform the Reconnoitre action, which starts at the beginning of the Movement Phase, lasts until the end of my turn and means they can do nothing else. the Attack Bike squad zoomed over to join them, but could see no viable targets.

The Sergeant's Bike squad could also see little (sneaky Alpha Legion!) so just wheeled their bikes onto my home objective, but the Land Speeder took a commanding view on top of the ruin and looked down on the Helbrute.

Meanwhile, the Captain turbo-boosted all the way across to the bottom-right quadrant, because there was some good news from reserves. I had put all my strategic eggs in one basket by loading up the Land Raider, but it paid off on the roll of 4+ and my entire army was on the table!

But my good fortune ended there. Despite catching the Exalted Champion out in the open with the twin heavy bolters and bringing him down to his last wound, the four lascannons failed dismally against the Venomcrawler and only took away two wounds. 

This underwhelming performance was matched by my Land Speeder, which only scratched a single wound off the Helbrute. What had been so promising had ended a damp squib. At least I was spread over three quarters to claim some early VPs. 

The Reconnoitre VPs will depend on how many of the four quadrants I'm able to scout during the game, so we won't know the final score until the end. 

Objectives secured: Engage On All Fronts (2). Reconnoitre x 1 

Mantis Warriors 2 : 0 Alpha Legion

Alpha Legion - Turn 1

Half my reinforcements show up at this point. The Daemon Prince and the chainsword marines appear to the north of the scouts, ready for the inevitable long bomb. And the Exalted Champion is extremely relieved to find the cultist mob appearing between him and any more shooting! 

My plan for him was to get reconnoitering, but I mess this up by deciding to move him to the next quarter down. That action has to be done at the start of the movement phase, but I figure I still have time to play scout later on, once all the actual scouts are dead. 

The Psychic phase is a bit of a whiff. The MoP manages a single wound off the Land Raider with a rather tame smite, and that's it, I fail my other attempts. 

Then the Venomcrawler and Helbrute both peg it forwards, trying to get nice short charges on their nearest foes. Both of them fire off their guns at the Marine armour, with the Helbrute missing the Speeder and the Venomcrawler getting a couple more wounds off the Land Raider. And it's not the last wounds it loses - the Cultists pepper it with autogun fire, and scrape another two wounds off! Definitely having a case of new model syndrome on its armour saves, there. 

This just gets worse in the charge phase. Despite some desperate rerolling, the only charge I make is the Venomcrawler, who rips gleefully into the Land Raider and reduces it to five wounds in short order. Mostly thanks to Daemonforge, which is a great strategem for this occasion. 

Everything else is left hanging in the breeze, though. And I'm not scoring much, so I really hope I can ride out another round of being punched and make some progress after that!

Objectives secured: none

Mantis Warriors 2 : 0 Alpha Legion

Mantis Warriors - Turn 2

The Land Raider's seen better days, but with all those failed charges, I've gotten away lightly with that.

I'm also on two objectives to the Alpha Legion's none, so maximum Primary points for me.

To start with, the Sergeant Bike squad stays put and performs the Reconnoitre action on the bottom-left quadrant - now I've got two secured, I'll start scoring points off them. The Land Speeder also stays hovering, hoping for better luck against the Helbrute.

Wishing the Scouts good luck on their objective, the Attack Bike squad turbo-boosts to the statue objective. 

The Captain sees the Master of Possession exposed, and so skirts around the Cultist blob to get his scimitar wet.

The Land Raider remains in combat with the Venomcrawler, but I can't hang around for the Assault Doctrine any more. My Veterans, Chaplain and Tacticals all pile out of the Land Raider, ready to take the fight the heretics.

In the Shooting Phase, the Land Raider opens up against the Venomcrawler, but does little better at point-blank range. Various bolt shells and grenades are flung at the Cultists, killing half of them. The Scouts even take a few ambitious shots at the Chaos Space Marines - and nail two of them!

The Land Speeder has a second try at the Helbrute and, though it only scores one hit, it's a critical one that leaves the creature on a single wound remaining. So I use the Born In the Saddle stratagem to have the Attack Bike squad, who advanced, plink off the last wound with the heavy bolter.

Things don't fare so well in the Assault Phase when I realise I'd messed up my order of disembarkation, putting the Veterans where the Tacticals should be. The result was: the Veterans make an unfailable charge into the Venomcrawler, while the Tacticals fail a longer-than-it-should-have-been charge into the Cultists.

This leaving the Chaplain to go in alone against them. But then, they're only Cultists, right?

The main meat and drink is the Captain's charge against the Master of Possession. With the Chogorian Storm bringing him up to eight attacks, and the Scimitar of the Great Khan doing up to four wounds per hit, the chaos sorcerer dies many times over.

It's a less rosy picture against the Venomcrawler, since the sergeant's power fist fails to harm the beast, and only the chainswords manage to chip off a few more wounds. At least their storm shields hold up and I only lose one in the fightback.

Tasty marine flesh! That's a wound back for me.

That proves to be a picnic compared with the Chaplain's performance against the Cultists. Not only does he only kill one of them. but he fails three armour saves and is beaten down to his last wound. Hardly what I'd call inspiring.

But I won't let that obscure what has been a very good turn for me. I'm racing ahead in VPs, and half of Kraken's army has still failed to materialise. He's got some catching up to do.

Objectives secured: Primary (15), Engage On All Fronts (2), Assassinate (3). Reconnoitre x 2

Mantis Warriors 22 : 0 Alpha Legion

Alpha Legion - Turn 2

No more reinforcements for me this turn, which is annoying. Still, I have a decent amount to work with - the chainsword guys trot towards the Scouts, firing ineffectively on their way, the Exalted Champion again ducks his recon mission to run away from the Biker Captain and the DP uses the Mindveil relic to swoop silently up behind the bikers in the middle, and then soups himself up with Daemonic Strength. 

Shooting is a bit of a bust - as I said, the chainsword guys are too busy revving their motors to hit anything. Even if the Venomcrawler is ripping through the Raider's armour in melee, it's left its guns on the outside and can't take any more wounds off. And the Cultists aren't quite able to pistol off the Chaplain.

They can totally mob him in the fight phase, though, so that's the end of him. He doesn't even take any of them with him, this time, and the nine survivors pile into the back of the Company Veterans. Who are suddenly left without a transport, as the Venomcrawler (once more on Daemonforge) pulls the doors off, gets inside, eats the crew and then bursts through the top screeching.

Nearby, the Exalted Champion decides his last wound will be spent killing Mantis Warriors, and charges the Tactical Squad. I ran out of points when equipping him, he's only got a power maul instead of the hammer the model has, but he still puts it to good use and wipes out three of his opposite numbers before someone chainswords him out of his misery. 

Speaking of misery, though, the Chainsword team barely manage to kill a lone scout as they charge in, before losing another of their own to the return attacks. And although the Daemon Prince doesn't disappoint, smashing through the bikers in a fury, the Attack Bike manages to survive on a single wound. This means I still don't have any objectives, and I haven't had the luxury of spare squads for scouting purposes, and that means I'm falling behind fast on points!

Objectives secured: none

Objectives secured (Mantis): Assassinate (3)

Mantis Warriors 25 : 0 Alpha Legion

Mantis Warriors - Turn 3

Once again, I think I had a lucky escape there. And with the Attack Bike surviving and the Scouts outnumbering their attackers, I'm still on full points for the Primaries. And it goes without saying: we're in the Assault Doctrine now.

Eep.

With their Chaplain cut down and their armoured transport being chewed to shreds, the last two Tactical Marines decide this would be a fine time to Reconnoitre. 

The Land Speeder pivots on the spot, hoping to claim another daemon engine, and the Sergeant Biker squad turbo-boosts across towards those pesky Cultists. The Scouts are going nowhere - they will not yield the bridge to these heretics!

The Attack Bike vrooms away from the Daemon Prince and parks itself on the top-right objective. But the Captain has glory in his sights and heads straight for him.

In the Shooting Phase, the Scouts actually manage to pop a Chaos Space Marine with their bolt pistols. Even better, the Land Speeder lands a couple of krak missiles and finally manages to destroy the Venomcrawler!

Unfortunately, the daemon engine has the last laugh and explodes, taking out one of my Veterans and the whole squad of Tacticals (who I guess aren't going to reconnoitre after all).

All the small-arms fire I can muster goes into the Cultists, followed by the Biker squad and last two Veterans. When the dust settles, only one lone Champion stands ... and passes his Morale check with Insane Bravery. What is going on?!?

These aren't just Cultists. These are Alpha Legion Cultists, the cream of the crop, hand-picked by artisanal corruptors from the fields of the Imperium. Plus if there's one thing I know how to do in 40K, it's roll ones! 

The Scouts lose two of their number against the Chaos Marine Champion, who dodges the return blows, but the main event is the warlord vs daemon action.

My Captain doesn't roll so high for Chogorian Storm, and the high toughness of the Daemon Prince makes wounding a problem. On the flipside, I now get to inflict extra damage, and with the Scimitar of the Great Khan, the two wounds that get past the invulnerable save are enough to destroy the Daemon Prince!

...until Kraken rerolls one of the saves with a CP, and survives. I think I'm in trouble now.

Sure enough, my Iron Halo only stops one of three wounding hits (suddenly not spending points on a storm shields seems like false economy) and the Helforged Sword cuts him down.

It's an ignominious end, and because I've been so spendthrift with my Command Points (mostly trying to make the Land Raider hit something), I can't even have him fight again.

That one fight might be the turning point. I've lost of lot of assets to built up this VP lead, and the rest of the Alpha Legion is about to descend on what's left. 

Objectives secured: Primaries (15) Engage On All Fronts (3)

Mantis Warriors 43 : 0 Alpha Legion

Alpha Legion - Turn 3

Hmm - a lone cultist surviving, and I've just gone back up to two CPs. I think I feel a Tide of Traitors coming on!

Much to Stylus's abject horror, another twenty cultists rock up in his back field, along with the long-awaited Noise Marines. The Autocannon squad appear in my deployment zone, drawing a bead on that wretched Attack Bike, and the DP slips across the battlefield to arrive just behind the other Biker squad, wiping their Captain off his blade as he does it. 

Shooting is abysmal, as all the newly-arrived marine fail to connect with anything. The Super-Cultists don't disappoint, though, and at least claw a couple of wounds off the Land Speeder with their autoguns. Those plucky devils! Someone's going to get possessed by a Greater Daemon as a reward later. 

Lots more failed charges later, I still can't get rid of the Attack Bike. Not so the other bikers, who rapidly follow their Captain to the grave as the DP cleaves his way effortlessly through the whole squad. 

After that, it's on to what it fast becoming the main event of the game. Chaos Champion vs Scout Sergeant, a one-on-one supremacy battle for the ages. Pistol shots ricochet off armour, blades squeal as they scrape off each other, but neither combatant yields the objective!

Objectives secured: Primaries (5), Linebreaker (4)

Mantis Warriors 43 : 9 Alpha Legion

Mantis Warriors - Turn 4

Only five models left on the board - and those Cultists are back to haunt me! But I still manage to score 10VP for being the only player holding an objective (the Scout Sergeant and Chaos Champion are hotly contesting the other).

In the face of oncoming heretics, the Attack Bike decides to apply the parking brake and perform the Reconnoitre action, the Land Speeder flies over to target the Daemon Prince, and the last two Veterans move in.

The Land Speeder has a wealth of targets, but only picks off one of the farthest Chaos Space Marines and its krak missiles streak past the Daemon Prince.

With the Scout Sergeant and Chaos Champion dodging each other's blows, the two Veterans charge the Daemon Prince. This time, the power fist is warmed up, and the maelific creature is smashed back to the Warp.

That was probably the last turn I'll get to do anything meaningful, so I hope it was enough to count.

Objectives secured: Primaries (10), Assassinate (3), Engage On All Fronts (2), Reconnoitre x 3

Mantis Warriors 58 : 9 Alpha Legion

Alpha Legion - Turn 4

Oh boy, I am so far behind on the actual mission points here! But I'm having too much fun killing these wretched Mantis Warriors to care very much, and there aren't many of them left now. The Autocannon guys stroll up to the Attack Bike. They somehow manage to shoot the Land Speeder out of the sky with a perfect pair of Autocannon shots, before charging in and letting their Champion's lightning claws finish the big bike.

Job: Done.

But that's all I really achieve this turn. The saga of the Scout Sergeant and the Chaos Champion continues atop the broken arch, as neither of them manage to land a killing blow. And although I'm now in sole possession of Stylus's deployment zone, I don't quite manage to get the Cultists on the objective there, and the Noise Marines can't see anyone now the Speeder is down, so it's not like there's much to do there!

Objectives secured: Linebreaker (4)

Mantis Warriors 58 : 13 Alpha Legion

Mantis Warriors - Turn 5

There's only one quadrant lest unscouted, and the Mantis Warriors came here to gather intel, even at the cost of our lives. The final two Vanguard Veterans down tools and perform the Reconnoitre action.

The hero Scout sergeant falls back and charges back in (using his White Scar trait), to get the benefit of Shock Assault. This will trigger his opponent's Hateful Assault, but it's all-or-nothing now.

The Scout manages to land two wounds on his foe, who fails one armour save... and then passes it with a CP reroll! The heretic's victory is completed when he finally smashes the loyalist to the ground with his chainsword.

That's all for me, I just have to see if I can avoid the tabling (which I now recall carries a lot of VP with it).

Objectives secured: Reconnoitre x 4

Mantis Warriors 58 : 13 Alpha Legion

Alpha Legion - Turn 5

Only two Mantis Warriors left! The Noise Marines pelt forward, just managing to get a bead on the Veterans with two of their guns, but the speed of their advance throws their aim off. The Cultists finally surge, too late, on to the objective. 

This just leaves the Autocannon squad to open up with rapid fire bolters and finish off the last Mantis marines with a hail of fire, as the Chaos Champion performs what is sadly my only recon action of the whole game. 

"Scout that, you dead bugger!"

Objectives secured: Primaries (15), No Witnesses (15), Linebreaker (4)

Mantis Warriors 58 : 47 Alpha Legion

So it was pretty close... and then we added in the points to be scored for successfully Reconnoitring all four quadrants - a whopping 45VP! (I has assumed it was 15VP max - guess there is no cap in Crusade games).

Mantis Warriors 103 : 47 Alpha Legion

Result: Victory to the Mantis Warriors!

Locker Room

Well, it was nice to finally chalk up a win for the Mantis Warriors, but I'd never have thought it would be so overwhelming (and yet, in true Mantis Warriors style, so destructive).

Yeah, we probably should have house-ruled the usual VP caps into this game. Not that it would have made any difference! I really needed to play the objectives here, and absolutely not doing that very much settled the game. 

I felt like I'd caught a lucky break with my Land Raider arriving so early, but most of the scoring was done by my lead elements. I love the Bikers in this list, and the Land Speeder was an impressive fire platform. The Scouts too, notwithstanding their heroic defence of the bridge, were great at being able to get ahead and start reconnoitring early.

Clearly there was a bonanza of points to be gained by maximising Reconnoitre, and with armies of this size, it was a sacrifice to have a whole unit do nothing for a turn. That may have accounted for how my forces were getting gunned down, often without reply, but kudos to Kraken for springing a good ambush and wiping out the loyalists, despite having to chase the game.

Writing this up two days later, I still have a huge Jack Nicholson grin when I remember those Cultists. Funny - I took Cult Master as the Warlord trait, and it actually never came into play directly. But its influence still spurred them on to great things!

For all that I clearly lost, it still felt like a win, somehow. I put this down to finally beating that Scout Sergeant, definitely the defining narrative in this battle. 

But despite their losses, the Mantis Warriors got the word out. For the Emperor! 

Campaign Update

Crenel Spaceport was empty when the Mantis Warriors arrived. 

The Tyranids had seemingly left little behind, just the ravaged remains of the port's infrastructure. But even as Captain Nampo's recon force swept through the ruins, he realised something was amiss. There was no trace of the Tyranid synapse creature he'd hoped to hunt down. In fact, there was almost no trace of the Tyranids at all - a few stunted tyrannoforming spires here and there, and none of their bioforms. 

The Alpha Legion struck without warning, appearing from carefully disguised dugouts to surround the Mantis Warrior strike group. Nampo immediately realised there was no escape from this trap. He sent his scouts into the ruins ahead, giving them a set of coordinates to hold at all costs, then led his bikers straight into the fray, supported by a group of veterans mounted in a Land Raider. 

The bike charge bought enough time for the Land Raider to deploy reinforcements, even as it was crushed by a Chaos construct. And this second wave of troops kept the Alpha Legion engaged just long enough for the Scouts to perform their task - at their coordinates, they found and reactivated a comms-link beacon, long enough to send a data burst through the inevitable static screen the Alpha Legion were projecting. 

Why were the Alpha Legion there? Nampo and his marines never found out. The ambush did its work, the chaos noose closed around them. But the Alpha Legion had been uncovered, and the Mantis's broadcast gave detailed instructions on where the foe were located. 

High in orbit, the Millstone of Guilt performed a daring U-turn, racing past the Tyranid hive fleet just long enough to perform a carefully targeted bombardment. The Mantis Warriors had lost even more of their already scarce ground forces, but whatever the Alpha Legion sought to achieve on Drawbridge, they wouldn't accomplish. Their cell was wiped out by the orbital strike, and the remaining Defenders of the planet were at least spared having to fight a second foe. 

That just left the Tyranids...