Battle of St Jamal's Shrine finale

Darkness now began to fall upon the battlefield.  It had come none too soon for the Knights of the Sacred Flame.  Their battle line was torn completely open.  Xerxes ordered his marines to begin a retreat while he himself turned to take on the Possessed rhino.  His heavy flamer poured burning promethium on the machine burning it's tracks off before Xerxes rushed in.  Planting krak grenades against the hull he rushed off into the night as the explosion set the foul war machine on fire.

Tiberius on the other hand met the charge of the Alpha Legion marines his force staff waving in a blur keeping their attacks at bay.  He would now burn them to ash with his psychic abilities.  Unbeknownst to him however was the fighting with the Gene-slaves had damaged the circuitry of his psychic hood.  As he activated his power a short in the hood disrupted his concentration.  It was only a split second lapse of mental discipline but it was more than enough time fore the hungry warp entities impatiently awaiting their sacrifice.  They burst into real space and grabbed the Imperial psyche and two of the Alpha Legions marines for good measure screaming into the warp where they devoured them.

Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield the tactical squad regrouped and together with the two remaining terminators trapped the Alpha Legion marines in a deadly crossfire cutting most of them down.  only the sorcerer Killi still stood but the charging terminators cut him down in a matter of seconds.

The Knights of the Sacred Flame then moved to withdraw under the cover of darkness.  Behind them they saw the first flames begin to erupt around St. Jamal's shrine as the Alpha Legion put it to the torch.  The cries of victory were clear to hear as the Alpha Legion dug up and defiled the sacred relics of the dead saint.  A possessed vindicator still prowled after them firing a massive shell that blew apart one of the terminators.  Slowly but surely the knights retreated even as they called in warnings of the defeat and sought reinforcements.  Luckily the Alpha Legion seemed content with looting the battlefield and passing the follow on Stygian forces north and south along the road to hammer the Imperial line in the flanks.  The Imperium would have time to recover and reorient their defenses.  The sacrifice of the Knights of the Sacred Flame would not entirely be in vain.

 

 

 Special thanks goes out to John Ondich-Batson (pictured below) for all his help with this battle report.