Landfall, battle and retreat

"Early in the morning we made landfall near the location where the spy drone had crashed. The Pathfinders set out to find the imperials. After a few hours the scouts reported that an imperial mechanised company were heading towards a small rural village. Why were they here on this planet? I decided to ambush the company and take some prisoners. The village would provide good cover. At nightfall we were ready and waited for the imperials to drive through. In early dawn we heard the loud noise of their primitive vehicles and saw the glint of their lights. They were here!

The ambush would consist of pathfinders marking targets from their vantage point in a tall building in the middle and me and two groups of fire warriors hidden in two other buildings. The second group of pathfinders in a devilfish would scout out the imperials and mark a landing zone for the XV8 tank hunter suits and drones to drop in a surgical strike from orbit.

The plan was set in motion and had started well

It was a sound plan, but there is a truth as old as warfare that victory requires both cunning and luck. In the cover of darkness the Devilfish with the homing beacon drove forward to mark the landing zone. My fire warriors took up position in the buildings. The pathfinders in the tall building painted the front Chimera with their markerlights. Two flashes was seen from the speeding Devilfish when the Seeker missiles launched in to the air and speeded towards the Chimera. Two large explosions followed and I could feel how the sight bolstered our fighting spirit. But alas, the crude engine of war just pushed forward. Soon after a hail of fire rained down on our position. The flimsy building just barely held together and many a proud hunter fell. Pinned down by the heavy fire I really hoped that the suits would descend any moment to turn the imperials to smouldering heaps of slag. The Devilfish reported that it was also taking heavy fire but was in position and marked the LZ. I could hear over the communication grid that several hails were made to the skies, but no response came. Something blocked our communications to orbit, either they were jammed or then some electrical weather phenomenon blocked the signals. 

The Devilfish was marking the LZ, but the orbit was silent.
Chimeras closed in on our postion in the middle.

The wall of steel was rolling towards our positions and we could as well throw rocks as fire our weapons against them. The situation was dire and I had just a few of my men left. Even if the combat discipline held I could sense the underlying despair in the voices on the com grid. Suddenly the building turned to a burning hell. Drops of the burning liquid touched my face and I fell to the ground in agony. Around me I could hear the screams of my men and the guttural battle cries of charging humans. Somehow I managed to save myself through a space under the floor and crawl outside. Blinded by my wounds I scrambled for safety in a random direction. After a small eternity I was grabbed by my arms and dragged inside a vehicle. After I regained my posture I learned that our forces was withdrawing. We had managed to get an emergency extraction signal to orbit and the landing crafts were waiting for us a few clicks away. We had suffered horrendous casualties in just a few moments and I will bear the mark of my failure on my face as a sober reminder and to commemorate our fallen warriors.

My last warrior buying me time to esacpe in the midst of the confusion.

A few days have gone past. We are heading back to Sa’cea sector.  I look into the darkness of space and fear for the future. The fire caste will demand retribution and I crave for it also. We still don´t know why the Imperial armies are mustering on that planet. Revenge will only lead to escalation and the possibility of a full out war with the imperium, a situation we are not prepared for. Maybe we should wait for Imperials next move. On the other hand a pre-emptive strike with overwhelming force could be the other solution to stall any Imperial lordling’s ambitions for conquest in this sector…”