Arrakia: Just what the heck is it?

      Arrakia. Interesting name, isn't it? Derived from Arrakis, a planet in Frank Herbert's 'Dune'. But just why the heck are we even here? Well, it began on a regular warhammer Thursday. Myself, the guy who owns the renegade chapter, and a few friends were just laughing and joking around while we were playing. The running joke became Abbadon starting another failing crusade in some system near the eye. Just humor, good times and whatnot. Afterwards though, we began really talking about it, since the game had no true end, what if we have a continuation of what's going on? What if we keep playing until it's resolved? Thus, the Arrakian campaign was born. Field Marshall Peach, which started as a joke, Became the source of the finest quotes of the battles we play, and may possibly make an appearance in future games with his own model. However,since my Imperial Guard Army is being massively reorganized and repainted, It gives me a chance to try out my Marines and see what works and what doesn't. By no means though have I abandoned the Marachan Crusade though. The reason no progress has been made on that is because the VII Legion's CO has gone off to college for the Fall Semester. We will be able to play, but not until whenever he comes back to visit. We have everything lined up for it, too. And I apologize if this seems rambly, ive been up for quite some time. If you haveany suggestions for Organization, the campaign, or anything really, leave a comment. All are welcome. Otherwise, see you all On The Bounce.

 

Glory to Vatar! Glory to the Legions!

 

War of Arrakia pt.2

      After the defeat at the capital city, Leton, Imperial forces were routed. The Imperial Guard company had lost itself a nearby desert due to negligence of the command staff. Nearly fifty miles away, the Space Marines were securing an already war-torn town. This puzzled the Astartes since the war had not yet reached this part of the planet.
      The Chapter Master of the Thunder Dragons, Varlen, and his newly fitted Terminator Armour was discussing possible options with Captain Lysander of the Imperial Fists. Lysander had come to this planet to try and bring back loyalty to the populace. When the chaos marines attacked, he had taken up arms with the band of  "Renegade" marines to act as their leader. Unable to agree on the best course of action, a new and experimental land speeder, the Fremen-pattern,  was sent into the centre of the battle-scarred town. Not long after it vanished over a line of buildings did gauss fire erupt from all directions. An explosion was heard and the last transmission was simple. "Unable to maintain altitude. Necron presence confirmed. Crash Landing imminent." With those three simple sentences, the battle for the town of Melange had begun.

 

 

Land Speeder Fremen crash site

 

      The advanced units of the Thunder Dragons crept up the streets without saying a word. All units stopped at the hand signal of the Lead marine. First and Second squad took up defensive positions along the side alleyways and waited patiently. A single voice broke through the silence. "Hostile Astartes spotted. Rhino approaching. Not responding to Communications." The Steel Nightmare Chapter had arrived and was in a battle formation. 

First and Second squad advancing by the numbers

      The Thunder Dragons advanced rapidly into combat positions. Assault Marines soared over the battlefield and landed behind the approaching Steel Nightmare Rhinos. A krak grenade was thrown at the Rhino to no effect. The lead scout summoned Chapter Master Varlen on the vox with an idea. Fire into the side of the Rhino and try to rend through the armour. It was a gambit. And it Worked.

Forward Scouts Spot the Oncoming Rhinos

The scouts' fire destroy the Rhino, Embarked unit evacuates

 

      The Marines from the Steel Nightmares were cut down without mercy. A librarian from the Nightmare's appeared not long after the destruction of the Rhino. As he began to summon a Vortex of  Doom, the perils of the Warp overtook him. He was torn limb from limb by the powers of the dark gods. The ground shook violently beneath the approaching Space Marine advance force.

The advance was going smoothly

 

All hell broke loose as the Necrons sprung up from the ground

 

      The ground roared as a Necron Monolith teleported onto the battlefield, bringing with it the death and destruction of Immortals and Warriors. Leading the Necron onslaught was Anrakyr the Traveler. He had come to Arrakia on the eve of the chaos invasion to reactivate a small tomb world that had laid buried far below the surface. Flying over the main force were a brutal-looking squad of Necron destroyers. Lysander ordered one of his renegade predators to open fire. At first, the autocannon only chipped away at the rugged chassis of the destroyers. But then, one by one, the destroyers crashed and burned from as the autocannon began to rip them apart. The victory was a small one, because soon after, the Monolith opened fire. The Renegade's Librarian saw an opportunity to push forward and try to carve a path through the Necron lines. They never made it to the front line. The Necron monolith fired its main weapon at the advancing Astartes.

 

And then there were none

 

 

      Seeing an opportunity to strike, Captain Lysander led a squad of Terminators against the enemy immortals. The assaulters charged against the Necron Immortals, losing only two brothers in the process. They struck the immortals like a hard tidal wave. However, from the rear of the Immortals, He appeared. Anrakyr the Traveler. He stood before captain Lysander. The challenge was made and accepted. Time seemed to slow as the two great warriors circled each other. Thunder cracked with each blow struck. The epic duel seemed to last a lifetime. Beside the two great warriors in their duel, The Terminators and Immortals were locked in vicious combat. But suddenly, as if the Emperor himself empowered Lysander, A killing blow was struck against Anrakyr. The Necron immortals seized the husk of their fallen leader and skulked back to wherever they had come from. A great cheer arose from the surviving battle-brothers.



 

 

The Epic Duel

 

 



 

     Even though Anrakyr had fallen, the battle was far from other. The Monolith roared back into combat and continuously bombarded the marine positions. The Astartes had no choice but to take cover and go to ground to prevent being wiped out entirely. During the exchange of bolter fire and gauss fire a frantic transmission had been sent from the Thunder Dragon's Scouts. "Sir! The Fremen-pattern, they have it! The foul Necrons have secured the crashed speeder. No sign of the crew of the speeder, presumed dead."

 

 

        The Necrons had won. While the forces of Astartes were occupied fighting Necron diversionary forces, a Necron warrior squad was able to raid, secure, and capture the downed land speeder. This means that the experimental technology and computing systems of the Astartes can now be analyzed by Necron spies. Unfortunately the Friendly Fire incident with the Steel Nightmares Chapter has led to many casualties. In the coming battles, The allied forces numbers are significantly few. There are three companies of Astartes, a company of Arrakian PDF soldiers, and the soon arriving 44th Arrakian Light Infantry.

 

"We are reduced to fighting a running war. We must hit them every chance we have with whatever we have. I am currently organizing a retaliation force at Con-D'Ben. Bring your respective companies back to this line. Victory is soon to be ours, but first we must regroup to hit them right where it hurts. You have your orders. Carry on." -Field Marshall Peach

 

 





War of Arrakia pt. 1

      In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war! Abbadon the Despoiler leads a chaos warband with Daemons in tow to a planet that has known nothing but peace. Arrakia. To make matters worse, using some twisted warp-spawn magics, he has managed to lure orks into fighting for his cause. Only a localized company of imperial guardsmen and a handful of space marines stood between the Planet and a horrid chaos infestation.





Abbadon and his Justaerian terminators

 

      It was a chilly evening on the planey Arrakis, the sun was just setting on the horizon and the PDF had just finished their training for the day. All was calm in the night until a violent explosion consumed the city centre. From the fiery inferno charged forth the Warbands of the Black Legion; Hell bent on killing all who stood in their path. Planetary alarms sounded as men, women, and children were mercilessly slaughtered by the rampaging traitors. The few guardsmen that could escape from the Slaughter rallied near the Spaceport. Not long after the rally, Colonel Brinkman assumed command of the Imperial forces. Fearing his life, Baelstrom ordered half his company to stay in reserved near his temporary HQ, while the rest of the company sallied forth undermanned. Unknowingly to all of the warriors, a civilian distress beacon had been picked up by a passing Imperial fleet. Luckily enough for the Imperials on the planet, a small contingent of Space Marines was deployed to help maintain the Hopeless Defence.

 

Imperial Commander and Advisors

Half of the Imperial Comapny

Forward Space Marine Scouts

 

 

      The Space Marines were a hundred strong, Fifty marines were the Thunder Dragons, and Fifty were a Renegade "Chapter." Between the hundred the two half companies sported ten suits of the Honoured Terminator Armour. Two predator tanks, a razorback, the Ironclad Dreadnaughts, and a Experimental Land Raider.

Thunder Dragon Biker Squad

 

 

      The Space marines charged out of their landing zones and into defensive positions. They did not have to wait long. The ground began to shake uncontrollably. Suddenly from far ahead a single shout was heard. "Orks!!!!" Cries of "WAAAAAAAGH" echoed down the streets from the city centre. Mobs upon mobs of greenskins were charging down the road toward the Marine Positions. Then the Marines saw them. The wartrucks of the greenskin horde barreling down a nearby road. Then the unthinkable happened. Daemons. Great monstrous beasts were in the air flying above the ruined buildings and began assaulting the Renegades' Scouting positions. On the right flank a lucky lascannon shot had destroyed an ork dreadnaught and the surrounding boys. A feirce firefight was erupting up and down all the streets on the left flank.

 

 

 

 

      The orks charged against the Marine positions all across the front. Casualties were horrid. The green tide was smashing against the space marine positions over and over again, chipping away at their defense little by little. The Imperial guard commander saw the eventual collapse of the line and ordered all his men to form a defensive position around his headquarters. Seeing the Guard falling back, the Black Legion warband entered the fray and quickly overwhelmed the already overtaxed loyalist marines. The Traitors combined with the brutish forces of the orks completely overwhelmed the Marine lines, forcing them to fall back.



 

 

 

 

      Chapter Master Varlen of the Thunder dragons was trying to fend off chaos terminators when he realized just exactly who he was fighting. The Justaerian guard of the Black Legion. Abbadon's person guard. Then he saw him in his black terminator armour. Abbadon the Despoiler. Varlen was struck with a very real feeling of danger as Abbadon's black eyes looked him over. The fanged mouth of the traitor turned to a grin as he struck a challenge. "Fight me, Dog of the Emperor." The Justaerian guard backed off, as did Varlen's honour guard. So began a duel of epic proportions. Varlen's armour was rended to a point of needing major repair. However, before Abbadon could strike a killing blow, Varlen struck out with his relic blade. The blade went clear through Abbadon's armour and wounded him. Sensing that victory was no longer certain, Abbadon ordered his forces to full back.

 

       Varlen looked around at what little was left of his forces. Fifty eight Battle brothers had deployed. There were only seven left. Of his allied chapter, only a Razorback, their Chapter master, and Four battle-brothers were left. Of the Imperial Guard, Baelstrom brought up his reserves and they had fended off the ork assaults. Of their seventy man company, fifty were left. Of their three chimeras, two were left. Both Leman Russ's were still active, and there were little wounded amongst the ranks of the guard. The First battle of Arrakia had taken an extremely heavy toll on Imperial Forces and the Traitors had taken most of the capital City. So with a butchers bill of nearly a thousand total, Civilians, Marines, Guardsmen, Orks, and Traitors, The war of Arrakia had begun.

 

"In no situation should the body count of Space Marines ever be Higher than that of the Imperial Guard." -Field Marshall Peach, After the first battle of Arrakia.

 

(Post note: This is the extremely shortened version. Of the hundred or so pictures I took with an Iphone, only about thirty were actually delivered to me. So I had to leave much out. Will add more parts as I get more pictures.)