Battle for the Forward Air Base Finale

The Kharkovians sensed victory lay in their grasp as they watched the Stygians begin pulling back.  The vanquisher tank opened fire on the retreating possessed predator slamming a round through the frontal plate armor that caused the cursed tank to burst into flames.  The vanquisher driver cursed however as he realized he could not advance as his infantry support was firing wildly at the deamons attacking them.  The Kharkovian veterans drenched the daemons in flame but on they came.  A short melee followed with the daemons all being vanquished back to the warp but the handful of survivors was too worn to join a quick pursuit.

Meanwhile a skittarii who had survived the napalm attack grabbed the AA gun and fired the lascannon into the neck of one of the heldrakes.  The blast severed the neck and head from the body and sent them both spiraling into the ground to burn.

 

                                     
The rest of the Kharkovians advanced and soon reached the control tower to find it abandoned.  The Air base was now theirs but the remnants were in no shape to take up pursuit operations.  They would have to await the next wave from the Kharkovian 8th guard regiment to reinforce them before the advance and OPERATION SCIMITAR could continue.

The Kharkovians had won but at a frightful cost.  There was still one more casualty to come however.  The basilisk commander was shot by the commissar for aiding the enemy when his errant shell destroyed the abandoned hell blade.  It turned out the mechanicum had been quite keen to get their hand on an intact one for study and disassembly.  Unfortunately the hell blade on the landing pad had been burned down to nothing.

special thanks goes out to Chris Edstrom (pictured below) for all his help with these battle reports.  Thanks again Chris!