Battle of St. Jamal's Shrine part3

Determined to crush the hated Imperials Sorcerer Kalli ordered the Alpha Legion advance to meet the onrushing Imperials.  Leading the advance on the Alpha legion's left flank came Kalli himself in his rhino and a few picked marines.  They bypassed the marines in the ruins leaving them to fall before the defiler's advance.  Leaping out of the rhino they unleashed a flurry of shots into one of the pinned combat squads with the Alpha legion wielding the squads flamer doing the worst damage.  Four of the five loyalist marines lay dead before them.  Meanwhile the defiler fired it's cannon at the marines in the ruins killing the meltagunner and Sgt. Vibius.  No sooner had the shot cleared the daemonic warmachine crashed into the ruins tentacles flailing.  The mechanical tentacles eviscerated two of the marines in seconds before their was a explosion from  a Krak grenade thrown by brother Remus which glance off the horrific engine of death.  Stalwart an oathed to the moment brother Remus held his ground reaching for another krak grenade rather than falling back and regrouping.

In the center the Alpha Legion marines leapt out of their transports and opened fire upon the approaching dreadnaughts.  A blast from a meltagun ruptured the power supply of the first dreadnaught and it detonated in a deafening explosion leaving a flaming crater.  A possessed vindicator opened up on the second dreadnaught.  the massive shell of the daemonic machine easily punched through the armor of the walker to detonate within  with titanic force that left a second burning crater.  Within seconds only a single immobilized dreadnaught held the Imperial center.

On the Alpha Legion right flank the hellbrute traded ineffective fire with the lan raider while the rest of the force made ready to receive and destroy the charge of Xerxes and his retinue.  A few opened fire on Xerxes but were unable to inflict any harm so great was the terminator armor.  The possessed on the other hand leapt from their rhino and began to run towards a patch of disturbed earth just past the road.  Their daemonic senses spotting it for what it was, the skull relic of St. Jamal had been hidden there.  The aura of the relic acted as a beacon to them an so they threw off all discipline in their eagerness to defile it. 

Special thanks goes out to John Ondich-Batson for all his help with this battle report