Raid into Guttar part 1

With the outskirts of northern Guttar taken the Imperium prepared to advance into the city.  However the Kharkovian regiment had been badly bloodied so far in Operation Scimitar and many doubted the units ability to take the hab zone.  Worse Stygian reinforcements were rushing towards the city.  The Imperium decided to commit more resources to the fight.   The Adeptus Astartes chpter of the Arctic Hawks chapter arrived to lend aid into a probe to test the Stygian defenses.  The Arctic Hawks were a successor chapter of the Raven Guard and devised a two part strategy.  First scouts and limited ground forces would move in along with an Imperial knight and locate the defenses before a second assault wave would come in hammer the defensive line then withdraw and allow Imperial guard regiments to exploit the weakened defenses.  The Stygian forces had however infiltrated forces close to the main jump off point and sought to overwhelm the Imperial assault before it even began.  Stygian Vehicles raced forwards determined to wipe out the Imperial interlopers.

On The Stygian left flank the infiltrating squad moved through the ruins as the attached psyche muttered a chant.  sudden cold filled the area and the psyche began to bleed from his eyes as a vortex suddenly appeared.  Stepping through the warp a pack of crazed bloodletters appeared to haunt the Imperial right flank.

Capt. Vecca of the Stygian Guard meanwhile ordered his heavy weapons teams to concentrate all fire on the approaching knight.  A flurry of shots lanced out only to vanish against the knights shields.  However a single shot got through slamming into the knights shoulder and burning a hole through it's armor.  Smoking the Imperial Walker still stood defiant.

 Both Stygian Manticores opened fire then.  Both of them launching a maximum burst of rockets to come crashing down onto the knight.  Engulfed in a veritable rain of fire the imperial warmachine had system after system blown off line until finally one rocket pierced the energy storage units.  A titanic explosion followed in which the walkers torso was vaporized leaving only a pair of flaming legs to mark the death of the titanic war engine.

Meanwhile an advanced stygian picket squad opened fire on the marines on the Stygian right flank.  heavy bolter fire punching into one marine to send him toppling back off of the ruined upper floor to land dead in the rubble below.

An Advancing russ opened fire on the sniper scouts perching in the ruins.  The massive battlecannon shell slammed into the building blowing apart one of the scouts but leaving the rest of the hidden killers unscathed.

Special thanks goes out to Josh Zakerski, for all his help with this battle report.  Josh can be seen below.  His face is hidden in the first photo due to the shame that accompanies being a loyal Lions fan.  However due to his reminder of some of the Vikings less than noble stunts over the years has allowed us to reconsider the ban on showing his face in public and thus the second photo.  Thanks again Josh, oh by the way the marine army and knight are all assembled and painted by Josh.