Battle rep: Necrons vs the new BFFs Tau and Ultramarines

Commander o'Ralai and his small but elite force of battle suits and fire warriors had been exploring the planet of Caerphillax VI for some time. They had thought it was uninhabited. They were wrong. When the first of the Necrons awoke and emerged from their underground tombs the usual first encounter protocols were followed, and torn to shreds by gauss and tesla fire. Since shaking hands wasn't turning out to be an option the order was given to retreat, regroup and figure out how to deal with the metal menace. By a strange twist of fate a small Ultramarine contingent made planetfall at around the same time as the conflict was starting. A quick vox transmission between the force commander and o'Ralai established that both armies were prepared to work together, the Ultramarines would help the Tau with the Necrons, using their past experience. The fast mobility of the Tau would assist the astartes in locating a relic they had recently learnt of.

Caerphillax VI was a relatively flat planet, some hills and rocky outcrops. Not a huge amount of vegetation but many old abandoned ruins and bunkers scattered across the landscape. Little was known to the Tau of the previous inhabitants which was exactly what had o'Ralai's interest piqued. On the plateau of land designated as Mill by the accompanying air caste, the wind was still and the nearby sun was rising high into the sky as the first of the combined Tau and Ultramarine force approached where they believed the relic to be located. The lack of wind and the tenseness brought to the foray by the possible appearance of the Necrons was putting everyone's nerves on edge so the majority hung back at a distance to provide support if the worst happened. It soon did. As soon as the battlesuits and astartes vehicles, a Predator and a landspeeder, approached the rough location of the relic some warriors, immortals and a transport ark were spotted. o'Ralai made a mental note to add these to the libraries of species encountered when he could next return to his quarters onboard his personal Manta.

As soon as hostiles were spotted Ultramarine force commander Brennan blink clicked the order for a drop strike to be launched. Two dark blue drop pods streaked through the bright clear sky towards the ruins where the immortals had camped. As they plummeted to the ground Brennan barked orders over the vox to the contents of the rapid insertion comets. Seconds after they punched into the surface the hatches sprung open on miniature charges and out emerged Dreadnought Heltaris and a squad of tactical marines. With all guns blazing the first squad of warriors went down, ably assisted by the multi melta snap firing while on the advance. Covering fire from the predator strafed towards the ghost ark which exploded. As the crew yelled their celebration over the vox Brennen reprimanded them for their lax battlefield discipline, reminding them that if they were to win this war they would need their full concentration. As much of a great opening salvo they'd fired at the crons was, the robots or whatever they really were returned fire and the tactical squad took the brunt of the strange weaponry.

While the Ultramarines were duking it out with support from a team of Broadsides, o'Ralai and his crisis team were circling around the nearby buildings, picking up as much intel as they could about the new enemy but also of their new found battle brothers fighting style. Buoyed by the brave hand to hand display between Heltaris and the overlord 1001101 he strode into the thick of the fray, shield at the ready. The crisis team jet packed back into cover after delivering their master into the assault to lay down covering fire for their blue battle brothers. The fighting between 1001101, Heltaris and o'Ralai was hard, many others joined and many died, the rate of attrition was huge with both sides taking losses. Lychguard and even what looked like a shard of the necron c'tan deity applied their weight and eventually won out with Heltaris' illustrious lifetime coming to an end and the Tau commander having to eject from his advanced XV-9 battlesuit at the very last minute to avoid destruction. Brennan, fuelled by his desire to avenge his oldest friend's death plunged headlong into the star god fragment, thunder hammer swinging and storm shield raised. In his anger all thoughts of the codex left Brennan's mind and this rage was unfortunately his downfall. While he focussed on fighting the c'tan and avoiding his gaze of death, 1001101 swung silently behind and his almighty warscythe sliced through the mark III battle plate with surprising ease.

From that point on with most of the allied command out of the picture, any hopes of halting the rise of the necrons and recovering the relic were failing fast. Squads of fire warriors, astartes and crisis suits did their utmost to stem the tide of Spiders, Wraiths, Stalkers and Destroyers but were all overpowered by the strange and alien technology. The immortals who had spent much of the battle observing and sniping from a height scrambled, as much as robots can scramble, towards the relic objective and the remaining Ultramarines located their fallen commander, voxed in an emergency thunderhawk for immediate extraction and medical attention from their apothecary while the Tau regrouped, laying low waiting for the manta to swoop out of lower orbit.

Little was said between the two circumstantial allies in the aftermath of the battle but many communicae have since passed between the recuperating Brennan and o'Ralai as they plot a return to Caerphillax VI to exact their revenge on the living metal overlord.

So there you have it, my first report written using the amazing articles and advice of a gentleman named Charging Carnifex. I apologise to those who wanted more of a commentary of how I felt 6th played (bloody awesome actually) but that might be coming along in a follow up post. So let me know what you think of the report, and perhaps more importantly please have a look at Charging Carnifex's blog, it's at http://voxdiariesoftheimperium.blogspot.co.uk/ and he is also on twitter where he tweets as @chargincarnifex. Although this is far from perfect and I've probably missed more of his advice than I've used, it was a huge amount of fun and will hopefully develop this style further in my next report, stay tuned!