Mortars fired. The
bombs were landing around Y Company’s rear, causing casualties. Squads scattered to avoid the stonk, seeking
cover in the rubble. The forward
positions, already in cover, found their movements constrained by sporadic but
effective sniper fire. Tanks that had
moved up[1]
only hours before raked the likely vantage points with Heavy Bolter and Heavy
Stubber fire. Troop Commanders tanks
fired up their engines and joined in with las cannons. Third Battalion’s own mortars fired stonks
into the buildings in front of Y Company’s position. The Battalion’s embedded Vostroyan liaison Officer managed to
raise a fire mission from the Death Korps to the north, raining Thudd Gun and
Heavy Mortar fire into the city beyond the Valhallan’s own light mortar stonk.
The seven or eight minutes of fire taken by Y Company
resulted in thirty eight minutes of fire from various sources supporting the
Valhallans.
Purple rain began to fall.
Weird meteorology had begun about four months ago and steadily increased
in frequency as 72AG advanced on Xyphonica[2]. None of those involved in the ground campaign
thought anything of it. However, at that moment their attention was on
the stricken Devastator strategic bomber.
Carrying a full load of 31.5 tonnes of unguided HE and incendiaries, the
78 tonne bomber was on its outward journey to the East of the City[3],
but now, aflame and with two of the crew having bailed out[4].
In almost full view of the Valhallans, the burning bomber
overflew their positions, still heading into the city, losing altitude all the
while. The bomber crashed, its load
detonating, two thousand four hundred meters east of Y Company, directly on
their line of advance. Valhallan sub
unit commanders were swift to raise their men, issuing their orders to be ready
to move just before 1* General Polkovnik Komenichi, the commanding officer of
540th Kado Regiment of the Valhallan Imperial Guard, told them to. 3* General
Tolstoy, 17 Korps Commander, was already talking to his other Divisional
Commanders. 903 Div would advance into
the gap torn by the crash[5]. If it met significant resistance, it would
halt or fall back to its prepared positions.
If it found a commensurate gap in the PLA’s defences, the rest of 17
Korps would immediately redeploy in support, allowing any opportunity to be
exploited.
In the space of three hours the Valhallans were beginning to
dig in at the eastern extreme of the Devastation wrought by the crashed
bomber. Comrade Major Puchov wryly
commented to his second in command that rarely had the Imperial Navy managed
something so idiomatically eponymous with one of its assets. Resistance was light, although signs that
the enemy had invested a great deal in protecting this approach into the city
were evident. Places not blasted by the
explosion had been subject to a brief but violent firestorm, which had robbed
the oxygen from confined spaces such as bunkers and their interconnecting
tunnels even if the fire had not touched those inside. In more than one place the exits from bunkers
were blocked with the bodies of men who, on experiencing what might only have
been partial asphyxiation, had panicked.
Engineer assets, those immediately available, began clearing
routes to the furthest extent of the Valhallan’s advance. As other formations reached what had been the
Valhallan positions earlier in the day, the DMPC sorted them out – recce units,
especially those on foot and walkers were waved straight through. Engineer assets were immediately directed to
assist with route clearance. All others
had to wait for their lines of advance to be cleared.
General Tolstoy has then informed 72AG of this possible
breakthrough and requested support from Army level assets. A detachment of half a dozen Knights from the
Legio Astoria’s allied houses is sent to secure and reinforce the breach. It will take them another eighteen hours at
flank speed to reach the FLOT.
To the south, 18 Corps, reaching its objectives for the first day of the
Operation, began to dig in, but its perimeters were not secured. Bloodpact infantry began to infiltrate
imperial lines. In post event analysis,
it became evident that they were not immediately engaging 18 Corps front line
positions, except to force small local breaches. 23 Inf Div had been thoroughly penetrated and
the entire TAOR degenerated into fire fights between platoon and company sized
units on both sides, thoroughly intermingled in depth. 3rd Sacon Line Regiment had been
in the van and seemed to be less thoroughly compromised than other parts of 23
Div. General Robbeme (Cadia) had ordered
the Sacon to begin to turn its reserve companies around to face back into what should
have been Imperial territory in preparation for eliminating the infiltrating
Blood Pact.
The reserve companies had just made the turn and were facing
west when a large force of Emperor’s Children struck the forward lines. Large numbers of annihilator and exterminator
pattern predators swept through the front lines, supported by numbers of space
marines armed with sonic weapons as well as more usual marine arms. Un-warned
of the possibility of traitor marines[6],
where ever they appeared, resistance was only offered after the marines had
begun their attacks.
Accompanied by more shadowy, unconventional elements, the
Blood Pact and the Emperor’s Children shattered 23 Inf Div in a matter of
hours. The 2nd Urdeshi, the
highest quality, hardest fighting part of 23 Inf Div was particularly hard hit
saving Vitrian Highlands and Brimlock Dragoons.
If 72AG was going keep the ‘Rowin’ Industrial District, 23 Inf Div would
not be leading the charge.
Meanwhile the rest of 18 Corps braced itself for a possible
counter offensive.
[1] A
detachment of the Armageddon 22 Armd Regt
[2]
Along with increasing losses of allied aircraft. As the PLA’s air brigades were beaten, by now
reduced to possibly ten viable airframes or less, enemy action was not
suspected until the matter came to the attention of Inquisitor Gibbs of the OM;
his savants analysed the available data and predicted that Hellblades (of the
cursed forgeworld of Xana II) were responsible, making their attacks under the
cover of their weather-bending side effects.
This would later prove to be true as the battle for Xyphonica unfolded.
[3]
The ‘Rowin’ Industrial District, the objective of 38 Corps.
[4]
Out of nine. There is no record of these
two crewmen, or any sign thereof, being found during the campaign, despite
having bailed out over the centre of 17 Korps positions.
[5]
The Korps Recce assets are already on the move to the Valhallan FLOT, the Korps
reserve, 904 Div are immediately ordered to move up to what are currently the
Valhallan’s positions. The DMPC are
immediately told to facilitate the immediate moves and also work out how to
move them though 903 Div when the time comes.
[6] 18
Corps staff were not forewarned that Traitor Space Marines might be on Devos
IV. At Battalion level, the notion that
traitor marines might even exist was generally suppressed by the Commissariat
as bad for morale.
Was the bomber manned, or was two the full compliment of crew?
ReplyDeleteA devastator strategic bomber is a shallow 'v' flying wing design with twelve engines (arranged in pairs). Depending on world of manufacture, these might be turbofans like the marauder or 'push' turboprops (some examples have been built that were just airscrew driven, but these need significant rocket assistance to take off). They have a crew of nine (see footnote 4).
ReplyDeleteThe payload is carried in a centreline internal bomb-bay (for fuel efficiency) and some examples have been seen mounting paired AAMs for self defence. The maximum payload mathematically is 33 tonnes, however, even carrying racks of 500kg free fall bombs, as this example was, there is always some wasted space.
Love how Marines are represented in your report. This is how they should be, extremely rare, even mythological amongst the regular Guard.
ReplyDeleteWaste of a good bomber.