Last time, he'd fallen foul of a pocket of Genestealer Cultists. Can his bodyguard rescue him?
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.
One single terminal remained open, saved for the time being by the desperate sacrifices of the Mantis Warriors - Cullis, a relatively small port on the northern continental mass. It was here that the Hagan Lampreys would have to deploy.
Overhead, their strike cruiser Millstone of Guilt fought in low orbit to keep a space lane open. Valkyrie strike squadrons raced from hangers in a trio of Imperial Navy cruisers, but their time was limited. Hive Fleet Afanc already dominated the skies, and the larger ships would have to withdraw in scant hours.
On the ground, the story was no less dire. The remaining defenders of Cullis could see what appeared to be a massive cloud rolling swiftly towards their now-open gates. Somewhere between a dense sandstorm and a black thundercloud in appearance, it would certainly overwhelm the last spaceport.
Unless the first Lampreys to arrive could create a beachhead in time...
Part three of the Drawbridge campaign! And it's me, Kraken, playing me, Pootle, in an incursion battle as the Scions finally join the fray!
Primaris Librarian Nagai Ryozo, who had been wounded during the fight, found himself in command of a small group of marines and veterans, trapped inside the generator tunnels. Unable to contact their cruiser either via comms (they were underground) or psychically (the Hive Mind drowned out his attempts to broadcast), Ryozo decided on a simple course of action.
If they could cleanse and retake the generators, repairing even one would be certain to attract attention from the planet's defenders. There was the added bonus that they would also be helping the defence effort at the same time.
They were, however, deep inside territory that Hive Fleet Afanc had already infested. At least they weren't near a swarm front, but if they didn't move fast and hard, even the relatively small numbers of tyrannoforming organisms nearby would be certain to overwhelm them.
