Boarding Action to disable Sol Invictus

## Prelude Lore

The Sol Invictus tarried at the Mandeville point, awaiting news from the assault on the Cultist meeting. When the grim news came over the wireless, the bridge of the Sol Invictus was silent for a long moment as Marshal Dagobert considered his options. The rest of the Lucem Ferre Crusade Fleet had already translated and was on their way through the Warp to the Alovus system, so there was no time for a lengthy war council.

Dagobert's first thought was the horror of recognition when he saw the image of the lithe monster cutting down Chaplain Hubertus. The Marshal was one of only a few senior astartes in the Lucem Ferre Crusade who knew the horrible truth about Chaos Daemons and the Warp. He resisted the urge to call for the Exterminatus of Berkoff, not wanting to burn the breadbasket world of the Kahlenite chain rashly, and prefering to leave that weighty decision to Inquisitor Gorgo. Dagobert was a veteran of centuries of crusading, and had faced Chaos Daemons before. He knew that even when a world appeared lost, it could still be saved if the portal could be found and closed. Even without Beverus' company of marines, the Vanguard Cruiser still held orbit over Berkoff, and could incinerate it anytime.

Dagobert's first orders were dictated to the wireless operator, and sent on to the Vanguard Cruiser. They were to hold station over Berkoff, re-broadcast their astropathic call for aid against heretics, and be prepared for the Exterminatus of Berkoff on a moment's notice. If superior enemy forces arrived, the Cruiser should burn Berkoff before fleeing and attempting to rejoin the rest of the fleet at the fleet at the Alovus system. Otherwise, they were to await further orders, and continue observing the surface of Berkoff.

Dagobert took his trusted Astropath aside, and explained the encrypted message he was to immediately send to the Ordo Malleus of the Inquisition, explaining that Slaanesh Daemons had been seen on Berkoff, that unprepared Astartes had been defeated, and that any help containing the Chaos threat would be welcomed.

With his orders sent over the wireless, and his Astropath hurrying to the broadcast chamber, Marshal Dagobert ordered the Sol Invictus to translate into the Empyrean and set course for the Alovus system, following the wakes of the rest of the fleet...

\*\*\*

Back on Koteal, the servants of Slaanesh rejoiced at their victory over the mightiest warriors of the False Emperor! The blessings and delights of the Dark Prince were shared with the surviving mortals and astartes who had provided the distraction while the daemonette legion of Cetabel the Herald had surprised and butchered the company of space marines.

Ariel, right hand of Zelamine, dread sorceror of Slaanesh, had been charged with command of the heretic forces on Berkoff, and while he wouldn't deny his men their celebration (as a matter of principle, Emperor's Children do not depart a field of victory until they have partied over the bodies of their enemies), he knew that the victory would be fleeting, and that they must flee into the warp before the Cruiser above them had the chance to burn the planet to ash. So just as the party was reaching it's peak, Ariel used the Blade of Penetrating Corrupt to tear a portal into the Warp.

Cetabel (Liaison Herald to the Crusade of Endless Joy), the Masque, and their daemonettes guided Ariel and his chaos marine brothers into the portal, through the madness of the warp as quickly and directly as only daemons can, and directly onto the bridge of the ancient Strike Cruiser, the Endless Joy, already travelling through the warp towards the Alovus system. There Ariel advised the crew of the Endless Joy about recent events, and shared the plan he and Cetabel had concocted.

\*\*\*

The Endless Joy had spent aeons sailing the Warp, and had grown into a dark creature of the Empyrean sea, as at home in the flow of pure Chaos as it was in its original habitat of the void. It was now crewed mostly by daemons, who protected its mortal and astartes passengers, so there was no need for the offensive vulgarity of a Gellar field.

The Endless Joy sensed it was getting close to its quarry, as it could taste the fresher wake it followed mingling with the larger stale wake. It matched course and speed, and closed the distance as its masters had requested...enduring the sharp discomfort as its hull passed into the Gellar field of the Sol Invictus, but also felt the joy of a predator about to sink teeth into prey.

The distance between the voidships shrank in the tiny real space bubble of the Sol Invictus' Gellar field. On the bridge of the Sol Invictus, sensors delivered strange, seemingly impossible readings, but only servitors were watching the displays, because while warp travel is perilous, boarding actions in the warp are an unheard of peril, and sensors are known to report nonsense while traveling through the warp. Assault ships were launched from the Endless Joy, and alarms finally sounded on the Sol Invictus as they crashed through the hull and disgorged their herectic astartes cargo onto the engineering deck of the Sol Invictus.

Just before the alarms sounded, the rail guns and bombardment cannons of the Endless Joy opened fire across the tiny bubble of real space, and the bridge of the Sol Invictus began to fill with Slaanesh Daemons! Attacking while in the Warp had secured the advantage of surprise for the Crusade of Endless Joy, but even surprised and stricken, a battle barge full of angry Black Templars is a fearsome and dangerous target...

## Board Setup and Armies

The board should be set up space-hulk style, with hallways connecting galleries and junctions, and few or no long sight lines.

One long side of the table will represent the outer hull of the ship, and there should be at least three hallways that touch that side of the table. Chaos forces may be deployed anywhere within 12" of that board edge. Imperium forces may be deployed anywhere on the board more than 9" away from the Chaos deployment zone.

Place two objectives in large rooms near the opposite long side of the table. One objective represents a power regulator for the Gellar Field generator, and the other represents a plasma manifold that supplies the gun deck above. Both are explosive and important to the safe operation of the Sol Invictus.

Each side musters an army of 1800 pts. The Imperium army must then be divided into three equal ~600 pt parts: One part deploys on the board before the game begins, one part can be set up as reinforcements on turn 2 or later, and one part can be set up as reinforcements on turn 3 or later.

Units in the reinforcement parts of the Imperium army should probably be able to deploy through the teleportarium, but may instead choose to walk onto the board, being deployed wholly within 6" of any board edge, and at least 9" from enemy models.

Any special characters that appear in this battle may not appear in the simultaneous battle on the bridge of the Sol Invictus.

Chaos takes the first turn. No units from either side may deepstrike on turn 1, as normal.

## Special Rules and Scoring

**Use the BattleZone:SpaceShip special rules.**

 And any side may use the following 1 CP stratagem once per movement phase to manage the tyranny of distance:

**1 CP: 'Fate of the Ship' Hustle:** In your movement phase when a unit is chosen to advance, instead of rolling a D6 for that unit's extra movement, treat the result of the D6 roll as if it had been '7'. This should be used to move units quickly down empty hallways, and units that use this stratagem cannot be chosen to charge in the following Assault Phase (which will only matter if they had some rule that let them advance and charge in the first place), but they may fire assault weapons as normal in the following shooting phase.

Daemon units in the Chaos army may be deployed in the warp by paying CP as usual. For units not normally able to deploy into deep strike, either army may pay 1 CP to put any <= 5 model unit in the teleportarium, or 2 CP for any 6+ model unit. Normal rules about the fraction of your army that must begin on the board, and units in reserves being destroyed if not deployed by end of round 3, are waived for this scenario.

Each of the two objectives can be damaged if an Heretic Astartes unit (so Daemonettes can't do it) BEGINS AND ENDS A ROUND at least partially within the room containing the objective. If either objective is damaged, and on what turn number it is damaged, should be recorded, as it might have a fun narrative effect on the bridge battle.

But for just this scenario, Chaos wins a minor victory if either objective is damaged, and a major victory if both are damaged. Any other result is an Imperium major victory.

The battle ends after round 7, or by tabling or resignation.

I believe that deep striking units and blocking deep strikes will be very important, as empty hallways will have a tendency to fill with daemons, and an unguarded objective rooms are likely to attract heretic astartes unit from the teleportarium.

## Battle Report and Fluff

Sirens sounded and lights flashed as the noise marines hustled down the empty gangways. Ariel and Lucius came to a junction, and parted ways, unsure of the best path to their targets. Opposition was suspiciously light, but he could hear the echo of sonic blaster and reaper chaincannon fire from not far away.

Suddenly the chaos marines in front of him were cut down! He used his jetpack to get back behind cover, and called for reinforcements to his position. The enemy were using hellfire shells! In the tight spaces, the heavy bolters firing hellfire shells could effectively block the junction, killing any chaos marines that tried to advance through the narrow space.

The reaper chaincannon near him answered the heavy bolter, but a protracted firefight would take too long. The air shimmered, and his reinforcements arrived! A squad of plasma chosen materialized, and immediately loosed a volley through the junction, killing the squad with the heavy bolter and hellfire shells. For a moment, it seemed the rapid advance would resume with the chosen now the tip of the spear, but then enemy plasma troops arrived and got their own fiery vengeance on the plasma chosen.