Siege of Fortress Delta - Vigilus Wastelands

Points: 1000.

Mission: Reconnaissance Mission.

Secondary Objectives: Assassination, Grind Them Down and Retrieve Nephilim Data.

Opponent's Secondary Objectives: Assassination, Nourished By Terror and Reality Rebels.

The siege of Fortress Delta was an engagement between the Rift Wardens and a host of Slaaneshi daemons around an ancient fortress. Daemons led by the infamous Shelaxi besieged a garrison of space marines. Fortress Delta was ringed by a serious of minor fortifications but these had fallen to the daemonic attackers in the days before this battle.

The daemonic attack began with their hordes attacking the surrounding fortifications. Fortress 1 was almost immediately overrun, Fort 2 was destroyed by the arrival of Shelaxi and a attendant host of greater daemons and the others captured by daemonettes. A counter-attack failed and the Rift Wardens withdrew to the more easily defenders Fortress Delta. Arthurus ordered a number of battle brothers to withdraw to Hyperia Hivesprawl to alert them to the growing daemonic presence in the wastelands.

The daemons then concentrated their attacks upon the Rift Wardens, casting their psychic might into the very walls of the redoubt. Many went mad and had to be put down by their battle brothers. At this time there was no attempt by the daemons to breach the walls and neither did they pursue the withdrawing squads.

By the third day ammunition was running low and Arthurus prepared the marines present to repel any attackers in close combat. On the next day Shelaxi and the other keepers of secrets began to attack the gates of the fortress. The Rift Wardens had prepared defensible barricades at the entrance, and were able to bog the attackers down in a confined position. Eventually daemonic attacks forced the Rift Wardens back giving them access to the courtyard.

At dawn on the fifth day, a sizeable host of Slaaneshi daemons manifested from the Warp beyond the walls and came under fire from the battle brothers on the battlements. For a short time, these Intercessors were able to hold them bac but the continued flow of daemonic assailants became too much to stop. Arthurus decided that the Rift Wardens must continue to defend the fortress, containing the enemy until reinforcements or evacuation transports arrived. For a short time the courtyard was recaptured but again were again forced to withdrew into the central keep under sheer weight of numbers.

Further north, daemons engaged the reinforcements dispatched to bolster the beleaguered space marines. With those troops bogged down in brutal fighting, the much needed reinforcements failed to arrive. Likewise, this blocked any escape route north to Hyperia Hivesprawl and offered nothing but a swift death. Thankfully, when word of this blocked aid reached the command sprawl, a squadron of Ultramarine thunderhawks was dispatched to airlift the survivors out. The chapter was severely bloodied and dishonoured by this engagement.