Battle for Vogen 06 – Cut off the head

Previous battles:
Battle for Vogen 01 – Embers
Battle for Vogen 02 – Rescue Mission
Battle for Vogen 03 – Assault on 176th FOB
Battle for Vogen 04 – Lost souls
Battle for Vogen 05 – Relief column

M40.852
Planet: Khai-Zhann (Agri-world)
Location: Southern Rim – Ashshore district 4

Major General Mattius Serpathion, commander in chief of PDF forces in Ashshore stepped out of the staff car, flanked by his body guards. Two highwayman APCs with PDF troopers had already unloaded, and the troopers were securing the area.

An scruffy man in the robes of a tech acolyte walked up to them after being accredited and searched by the troopers.
“Good to see you sir, I am the foreman at the manufactorium. Prefectus van Hilder ordered me to escort you to the rendevous.”
Mattius ignored the man’s outstreched hand.
“Fine, lead on.”

The group followed the man deeper into the manufactorium, keeping a brisk speed and scanning the area for hostiles. But there were nobody around. They were deep inside the secure zone, so that was hardly a surprise to the general. However, something still felt wrong. He stopped the foreman and called over his vox man.
“Call up the Prefect office again, request confirmation on the location.”

He scanned the environment again. The only movement was from machinery and robots. Then it hit him, and he spun to face the foreman.
“Where are the workers?”
The man was already turning a corner at full speed, disappearing in the maze of steaming pipework, but he caught a glimpse of the man’s eyes that told him everything.
“It’s an ambush! Back to the vehicles!”

Generals retinue
General Mattius Serpathion, power weapon, plasma pistol
2x Body guards, carapace, melta, plasma
2×3 PDF guardsmen, grenade launcher, flamer
1x PDF specialist, grenade launcher
1x PDF veteran sergeant, plasma pistol

Ambushers
Warp Talon
Tactical marine
Sniper
4×3 insurgents, ccw+pistol

The plasma gunner takes the warp talon down to his last wound, but the chaos forces are all mingled up in the imperial group, and firepower is dwindling fast. They have little to follow up with.

This was an insane combat. The warp talon split his attacks, and got two hits on Mattius, who was on one wound left, but Mattius saved both on 6+. Hitting back, Mattius put two wounds on the warp talon too, and he was also on his last wound. However, he also managed two 6+ saves, leaving both main combatants standing, and just the sergeant, with the last plasma pistol, torn to pieces.

Another cinematic battle! The warp talon and sniper really pulled the chaos team, while the horde of insurgents busied the imperials. The imperials had some bad luck in the beginning, killing just two insurgents in the initial two volleys, and failing some clutch saves against the sniper, which left them in a bad position when the close combat started on all fronts. They really needed a sniper of their own to take up the sniper fight. General Mattius did his best, cutting down 3 insurgents, nearly killing the warp talon and even dispatching a marine before he finally bit the dust.

Just a few hours after the skirmish, the area had no trace of the ambush to a casual observer. Nobody in Ashshore HQ knew where the general had gone. However, a day after the generals disappearance, a vox message signed with the generals personal security code, and spoken in the voice of Mattius went out to all PDF units in Ashshore.

“This is general Mattius. All units in Ashshore stand down, do not engage any civilians. Khai-Zhan belongs to the people, not to the corrupt government. This is a legal resistance to the tyrannical rule of governor Kadulus!”

With the general in charge of Ashshore captured and coerced to give the order to stand down, the defending PDF forces were thrown into disarray. Some units followed the orders of the general, laying down their arms, or joining the rebels, some continued fighting, and some waited to see what happened next.

Captain Schneider shook his head. “What the hell is this? How can the general just swap sides from one day to the next? I called up HQ to confirm, but they are saying that the general is unavailable right now, and to just hold tight. Sounded like there was total confusion in the background too!”
“We have both seen what kind of enemy we fight. This is no normal resistance movement. They make use of unnatural monsters for Emperors sake!” Jeager cut in.
“You are right of course, the general has either betrayed the Imperium, or HQ is compromised in some way, but what should we do now?”
“Lets gather the men, we have to decide the next step together.”

So please drop a vote on the next action for the 176th/32nd PDF regiments and help decide the fate of Ashshore.