Rurik Sureshot of the FrostwolvesNightstalker Infiltration Pack slowly moved his hand to the sight of his marksman bolt carbine. He had the Dire Avenger Exarch dead in his sight. But as the Aeldari Guardian Defenders were patrolling at street level below his sniper’s nest in the ruined tower, he would be unable to make a stealthy exit if he took the shot. His orders were to observe only, and he had been very surprised when Aeldari from the Eiyoltan Craftworld had appeared. He was expecting some Necrons coming back for their damaged constructs. It seemed there had been some kind of teleportation malfunction, as the Necrons normally teleported their dead and damaged away. This time, however, there were still a few damaged Necron constructs littered about the battlefield, where the Beaststalkers had defeated them a few days ago. The Nightstalkers had been ordered to remain and observe if the Necrons returned.
On cue, there was alarm among the Aeldari, and Rurik moved his scope to the other end of the street. A Kill Team of hulking Necron Immortals and Lychguard appeared, led by a Deathmark. The Dire Avenger Exarch and his three Dire Avengers swiftly scaled a ruin to get a better firing position, as the Guardian Defenders advanced down the barricaded street with the scatter laser weapon platform hovering before them.
The Exarch peppered the Deathmark with shuriken discs from his two avenger shuriken catapults, but the construct merely suffered minor damage before ducking out of sight behind the ruins. One of the Lychguard scaled the wall to the Dire Avengers and cut one in half with his warscythe. The Guardians shot down the other Lychguard, as he ran towards them, but they were soon pinned down by the return fire.
After most of the Guardians had been killed or lost their nerve, the Exarch signalled for a retreat and the last surviving Aeldari withdrew.
The Necrons did not pursue, and Rurik watched them dig around a few the piles of damaged bodies before the Deathmark triumphantly lifted the head of a Necron Overlord. It was the same head that the Farslayers had put a bolt through, and the damage was still evident. The Deathmark called the Immortals to his side and the larger Necrons dug up the rest of the Overlord’s damaged body. As the Necrons took their prize and departed, Rurik quietly voxed his pack leader.
’It’s too open. I don’t like it,’ murmured Jarek Nightstalker under his breath.
Rurik had followed the Necrons to another part of the ruined city, where they had descended down into some subterranean tunnel. Jarek and the rest of the Nightstalkers had met up with him there. ’We need to see what those tunnels lead to,’ said Jarek. ’We move in and eliminate the guards. If the metal bastards bring reinforcements, we withdraw.’
This said, Jarek and Alarik snuck up the middle of the road, crouching behind cover. The sniper Rurik and auspex-equipped Dag deployed in some ruins on the left flank, covering the road and opposite building. Nord moved up the right flank in the cover of the containers.
But the guarding Necrons were immediately alerted and moved to intercept. A pair of Flayed Ones appeared out of a pile of debris in the building and advanced on Nord. Alarik gave Jarek a stimm-shot and he vaulted the cover to engage the Necron Warriors in close combat. Dag used his scanner to assist Rurik and both fired on the Necron Warrior on the other end of the road. Nord gained the higher ground by standing on top of the container and firing on the approaching Flayed One. Jarek ripped pieces of the Necron Warrior before him, but was unable to take him down.
The Nightstalkers ducked the Necron return fire, and Nord used his shock grenade to confuse the charging Flayed One, but only managed to wound the tough construct. The Necron Warriors fell back from Jarek and let the unengaged Warriors fire on him. Jarek was wounded several times, but denied death and stood firm. Alarik joined him and threw grenades into the Necron Warriors, but they proved tough to displace.
Another volley of fire brought a severely wounded Jarek down, and the Nightstalkers decided to withdraw. Nord seeded the battlefield with his remaining shock grenades and fled from the reanimated Flayed Ones he was engaged with, as Rurik and Dag covered Alarik, as he pulled the prone body of Jarek from the fighting.
’Fall back!’ Dag shouted into the comms, and fired his marksman bolt carbine again. Alarik had picked Jarek up and was running as fast as he could, while the rest of the Nightstalkers covered his retreat.
’The Necrons have a much greater presence here than we thought. It’s time to report back to command.’
Torleif crouched low in the ruin and moved stealthily among his new packs. He was still unused to the added bulk and strength of his new Primaris body, but at least the chronic pain from the surgeries had disappeared. He was now in a better state to lead his new Vanguard Space Wolves, or the Beaststalkers, as they had started calling themselves. They were a mix of Terran veterans fresh from the Indomitus Crusade, and the first batch of Primaris Space Wolves hailing from Fenris. He still had a decade of experience over the most senior of them, but felt good about teaching them how to hunt and kill as a Space Wolf. This was to be their inaugural battle under his command, but he had trained with them enough during the last weeks to be confident in their abilities. Their objective was to lure out and cripple the Necron leadership, supported by Fander Quicksilver’s packs. Fander was a Wolf Guard Pack Master, also a Terran transferred from the Indomitus Crusade, where he had served as a Lieutenant.
As the dawn fog lifted from the ruins, the Necron and Space Wolf forces were revealed. Fander led Rost’s Intercessor pack, the Gorefists, Ulven’s Wildclaws, and the Aggressor Pack Frode’s Stormlords on the left flank, with the Fenrisian wolves further out. Alrik’s Wyrmslayers, the Long Fangs, had setup in the centre ruins, with a good line of sight and supporting a small pack of Grey Hunters from Ragnar Blackmane’s Great Company. The Blood Claws from the Blackmanes were deployed in the Rhino on the right flank. The Monolith took central position for the Necrons, surrounded by Warriors, Immortals, a Cryptek, a C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer, and the Necron Overlord. The Doomsday Ark deployed on the Necron left flank, surrounded by Necron Warriors. The Annihilation Barge deployed on the right flank, close to the Nightbringer. The last of the fog revealed Torleif, Rune Priest Hrafn Shadowstorm, the Infiltrator Pack Jarek’s Nightstalkers, and the Eliminator Pack Skule’s Farslayers, hiding in the ruins closest to the Doomsday Ark.
Fander led the Wildclaws and Gorefists forward, behind the thunderous fire of the advancing Aggressors. The Grey Hunters advanced and took cover behind a wrecked Predator in front of the Long Fangs. Jarek’s pack moved up and took position in the ruins, aiming at the Doomsday Ark. Hrafn sped their advance by creating a Temporal Corridor. The Farslayers found their primary target in the form of the Necron Overlord and ended his life with accurate head and heart shots from their bolt sniper rifles. The Wyrmslayers poured fire and flakk missiles into the Monolith, which absorbed most of the punishment with a minor scratches.
Surprised by the death of their Warlord, the remaining Necrons advanced cautiously. The Monolith hovered forward, as the Annihilation Barge moved through the ruins to target the Fenrisian wolves. The Monolith unleashed its weapons, killing all of the Wulfen except Ulven himself. The Doomsday Ark opened fire with its gauss weapons on the Infiltrators in cover. However, the Primaris were difficult to shift. The Fenrisian wolves fled after they had been decimated by the Tesla weapons of the Annihilation Barge.
The Blood Claw Rhino sped forward under the cover of a smoke cloud, as the Night Terrors arrived in the ruins where the other Beaststalkers were. Fander recognised the threat of the Nightbringer, looming in the ruin before him, and his surrounding packs stopped their advance. Only Ulven made a suicide approach on the Necron Warriors before him, but was cut down. Jarek and his surviving pack member fired on the Warriors surrounding the Doomsday Ark, while the Wolf Priest Adept Alrik desperately tried to save some of his wounded brethren. Meanwhile, the Farslayers calmly picked their next target in the exposed Cryptek, and killed him with the same accurate Mortis rounds to the head and body, that they had used to end the Overlord. The Wyrmslayers kept up a steady stream of krak missiles on the Monolith, blowing off chunks of the Necron construct, only to see it heal again.
The damaged Monolith opened the translucent gate at the centre and the Immortals disappeared from the back of the lines and stepped out of the gate. The Nightbringer flowed over and through the ruins and destroyed an Aggressor with his unnatural powers. The Immortals and Monolith poured fire into the remaining Aggressors, Long Fangs, and Eliminators. The Aggressors were killed and but the Long Fangs and Eliminators, who were excellently concealed by their camo cloaks, were unharmed. The Doomsday Ark and Necron Warriors finished the last of the Infiltrators. The Tesla destructors of the Annihilation Barge fried two members of the Gorefists.
Fander and the remaining Gorefists ran towards the Annihilation Barge and away from the Nightbringer. The Blood Claws disembarked from the Rhino and moved towards the Necron Warriors surrounding the Doomsday Ark, while Hrafn and the Night Terrors also approached through the ruins. The Wyrmslayers kept up the fire on the now pretty damaged Monolith, but were unable to take it down. The Farslayers in the ruins spotted a small crack in the Monolith power crystal and put another set of accurate rounds into the breach, cracking the crystal and causing a catastrophic explosion. Fander was unable to damage the flying Annihilation Barge enough to cripple it, and the last Gorefists did not reach it. Hrafn led the Blood Claws and Night Terrors into the Necron Warriors, killing them easily with his glaive Shard of Ryne. The Wolves swiftly took down all the Warriors and consolidated into combat with the Doomsday Ark.
But the Ark simply flew away, targeting the Rhino, but not managing to destroy it. The Annihilation Barge moved away from Fander and shot down the last of the Gorefists together with the relentless Nightbringer. The Immortals targeted the Long Fangs and felled many with sheer weight of fire.
Fander chased after the Annihilation Barge. Hrafn led the Night Terrors and Blood Claws after the Doomsday Ark. The Long Fangs returned fire on the Immortals, and the Eliminators switched to hyperfrag rounds and proved that the Immortals were no such thing. The Doomsday Ark was easily destroyed in close combat. Fander did not fare as well, not managing to do much damage to the Annihilation Barge, and being acutely aware of the looming Nightbringer.
The Annihilation Barge moved forward and destroyed the last of the Long Fangs in power armour, with only the Terminator Wolf Guard left standing. Nightbringer charged Fander and made short work of him, as the last of the Necron Warriors moved through the central ruins.
The Blood Claws were eager to get to grips with the enemy again and Hrafn helped them moved up to the Necron gunline. However, the Blood Claws overestimated their resilience and fell to massed fire by the Necron Warriors, Annihilation Barge and powers of the Nightbringer.
But the Necron tactics final caught up with the death of their Warlord and the teleported away. The standing, but badly mauled, Beaststalkers recovered what they could. They had managed to slay the Necron Warlord, but were unable to kill the powerful C’tan shard. Satisfied with the kills and needing to take care of the wounded, the Space Wolves signalled the Frostfang and its transport soon arrived to evacuate the Wolves. Torleif spent the rest of the week contemplating ways to destroy the C’tan. He was in his quarter when he got the news: an Inquisitor named Ashfall Rain had arrived on a small ship and requested an audience with the lord of the Frostwolves.
