Deathwatch RPG - Kill Team Theta - Session Five

The mission logs of Kill Team 'Theta' of the Deathwatch.

This sessions attendees are...
(GM) Garreth  - Iron Hands Techmarine Markus
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Matt - Black Templars Assault Marine Klaus

Tristan - White Scars Assault Marine Hakim
Matt - Space Wolves Wolf Scout Bjorn

Gareth - Imperial Fist Devastator Marine Arno Tyr
Jon - Raven Guard Apothecary Validus
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Designated Leader - Assault Marine Klaus
Kill-Team Oath - Oath of Glory
Mission Requisition - N/A

Hopefully this'll be the last filler session before our regular GM takes back over again . Therefore my Iron Hands Techmarine Marcus will be an NPC for this session along with the absent Ultramarine players character Claudius.

The characters current stats can be found on this page here together with a few explanations about liberties that were taken with the character creation process. Other missions from this and other campaigns can be found here.

Note - As I was GMing and obviously had notes and intro bits written down I've just pasted them into this article directly so they'll be in a 'reading to the group' style. This'll save me a lot of time writing out everything again and hopefully wont effect your reading enjoyment too much bouncing between the two styles of writing. Out of character notes that shed light on certain events will be in red...

Mission Five - Tactical Withdrawal
Introduction
Battered, bleeding and in at least one case badly burned you make your way back to your now somewhat dwindling cache of equipment. Your long-range Vox system was unfortunately part of Bjorn's Deathwatch Scout Armour backpack and is now in need of repair having taken much of the explosion that propelled him from the Taus improvised Vespid hive and his armour itself is barely holding together. Your supplies of repair cement have been exhausted and yet still several of you have holes in your Power Armour that are significantly effecting the structural integrity.

Simultaneously with your arrival the Iron Hand and Ultramarine return to base presumably having accomplished their own mission and apparently deeming verbal communication to be unnecessary you all receive a signal from your Techmarine Marcus. Your networked tactical systems receive from him a mass of information gleaned from the Servo Skull network showing that the Tau are landing on the planet in force including transporters containing heavy vehicles and the armoured suits favoured by them during military operations. Intercepted Tau comm signals are indicating that these landing sites are almost immediately coming under attack from Tyranid Vanguard organisms and it is these that their commanders are blaming for losses of multiple of their patrols. It seems that you have accomplished your mission on this jungle world without needing to launch an full scale assault of your own. Marcus then immediately sets to work on repairing the damaged comms system so you can request further orders...

The Apothecary spent the small amount of time available patching up Bjorn and used much of his remaining supply of stimulants to keep him functional. They also retrieved their remaining ammunition and equipment from their heavily depleted cache.

Editors Note - The 'Stimulants' thing was the best way of justifying the Space Wolf getting some Wounds back despite the fact that strictly by the rules he'd actually be healing at a rate of a Wound a day due to the critical nature of his injuries from the last session (which in game terms happened about an hour ago...). Otherwise he'd be spending this session doing bugger all. He also asked if he could spend some XP on the Demolitions Skill reasoning that he'd have learnt from his many mistakes...It seemed reasonable enough and I quite like PC's gaining Skills through role-playing...

After some time Marcus restores the Vox to a semblance of functionality and relates the current tactical situation to your command. They agree with your assessment of the operations success though there is somewhat of an issue with your extraction. The Tau have a number of anti-aircraft units already deployed near your current location and many of their battlesuits are more than capable of bringing down a rescue craft, additionally airborne Tyranid units have also been observed. Your orders therefore are to head as far as possible from the current hotzone and communicate again once you are clear at which point the situation will be reassessed and the viability of rescue determined. Given the sheer number of hostiles currently active it has been decided by both your Watch Captain and the Inquisition that an Imperial presence is likely to be expected by the Tau and therefore secrecy is no longer necessary...in short you may engage enemies or not as you see fit...

You have a number of viable avenues of withdrawal. You may follow the Ravine you navigated earlier either North into the mountains or South into the wetlands or cross it and head West into the deepest parts of the Jungle where hopefully you can find a suitable extraction point. Given that the operation is no longer covert Markus states his intention to move the Servo Skulls in whichever direction the team moves to hopefully give some navigational data though the significant enemy activity will no doubt account for a number of these once they abandon stealthy movement...

After some consideration the team decides to retrace the steps of their earlier mission towards the ravine and from there move North into the mountains. Given their extensive knowledge of the area, a broad idea of the enemies patrol routes and information fed to them from the surviving Servo Skulls the team is able to select an optimal route to the ravine. Though secrecy was no longer a major issue it was decided that bringing unwanted attention with the Tau having so many reinforcements nearby was still a major risk and therefore stealth was still to be attempted. Unfortunately even Power Armour as sophisticated as that possessed by the Astartes did not lend itself well to silent movement and many of the team made a lot of noise while moving. An idea was put forward that the Wolf Scout would range slightly less far ahead than normal and select a route for the rest of his team optimised to maximise their progress.

Editors Note - I gave the rest of the team bonuses to their Silent Move tests based on the degree of successes made on the Wolf Scouts rolls...this wasn't as helpful as I hoped...so I fudged an enemy Perception test or two...well...maybe three...possibly four...

Other than a few mistakes made due to their attempts to advance too quickly the plan worked fairly well until Bjorn detected movement ahead. Checking through his rifles telescopic sight he could discern several of the heavily armoured battle-suits favoured by the Tau as heavy support ahead and despite a minor objection from the Templar Klaus the general consensus was to wait for them to move past before breaking cover due to the teams less than optimal anti-armour capabilities. With this accomplished and the path clear they continued their journey to the ravine and upon arrival began to follow it Northwards. With Bjorn taking the lead, Validus second, the rest of the team in the centre with the Techmarine bringing up the rear due to his slow speed and the simple fact that he was significantly lacking in any stealth capabilities Kill Team Theta continued onward. Markus reported a large number of bio signatures behind them in the river but as these weren't heading in their direction and were more than likely more of the Crotalids they'd encountered a few days ago they decided to ignore them...

Editors Note - It may have occurred to some of you reading this that I was deliberately throwing distracting targets at the team in the hope that their somewhat zealous Black Templar would decide to engage them and thus slow them all down...Unfortunately it occurred to the team as well...

They were using the river as a guide though were sensibly still using the jungle as cover when Bjorn signalled for them to stop as he detected movement ahead. He could clearly see the jungle foliage moving but there were no signs that anything was actually moving through it and his previous experiences with them made him immediately think of Tau Stealthsuits. Remembering that their Techmarine had previously been able to detect the enemy suits exact locations with a combination of his own Auger Array and by intercepting their own comm systems transmissions he decided to report his suspicions to his fellow Marines and then fall back into range of Markus's scanners.

Those armed with ranged weapons prepared themselves to catch the approaching enemy in a cross-fire while the assault elements waited to finish off any survivors. Fortunately the Iron Hand was able to replicate the desired effect from their last encounter and transmitted targeting information to each of the Deathwatch members own systems. The Tau were caught completely by surprise as Heavy Bolter rounds tore their front rank to pieces, precision shots from the Space Wolves Sniper Rifle, the Raven Guards Stalker Pattern Bolter and the Ultramarines standard weapon neutralised key systems and Markus simply filled the area with rounds from his Storm Bolter modified to explode in a large blast area making their stealth capabilities largely irrelevant. With the enemy softened up considerably it was a simple matter for the White Scar and Black Templar to butcher the disorientated survivors. Unfortunately this firefight had attracted the attention of several groups that had began to converge on their position and the delay had allowed them to close the distance so they immediately moved on.

The approaching enemies seemed to be gaining on them despite their complete abandonment of even the pretence of stealth and caution. The current team leader Klaus wanted to make a stand at their current location but the Imperial Fist Tyr pointed out that as defensive positions went it was absolutely terrible and given that they had no idea of the approaching numbers or what exactly was after them that they should find somewhere better. The veteran Wolf Scout suggested that a few booby traps might help slow any pursuit and so quickly rigged up some grenades to tripwires. Several minutes later there were a number of satisfying explosions from behind them and several screams of pain could also be distinguished that they identified as being Kroot in origin. Ignoring the distraction the Devastator was still looking for a better position for them to defend while awaiting extraction.

Ahead is a position that may suit your purpose. An ancient jungle tree presumably felled in some ancient storm has created a substantial natural barrier to your right several metres in front of several jagged rock formations.  A long ago dried up river bed parallel to this would be useful at slowing down an enemy advance if some additional barricade material could be added to it. Though this still leaves a fourth side with little to slow down an enemy this is still the most defensible position you've come across so far.

Now with a position found that Tyr deemed fit for purpose the team set up a defensive position while Markus communicated with command. Partially empty ammunition clips were replaced with full ones and grenades were readied. If the enemy wished their lives they would be forced to pay a considerable cost for them...

The news from command is hopeful but not ideal. A transport has been diverted to your position but due to the unexpected appearance of a Tyranid Hiveship in the planets vicinity and increased Tau presence the Imperial Cruiser sent to retrieve you has had to approach from a less than optimal direction. It will be at least an hour before the allocated rescue craft can reach your current position...

The approaching Kroot were advancing far more cautiously than before presumingly due to their unfortunate mishap with the grenade traps earlier and so the team had plenty of time to prepare themselves. Each Marine readied an Astartes Frag Grenade and as soon as enough of the enemy was in range launched them into their midst with deadly effect before following up with their eclectic selection of ranged weapons forcing this first wave of Xenos back however it was to prove a brief respite. Markus's sensors were now picking up several large masses of bio-signatures and had intercepted a myriad of communications between the Tau units. It seemed that they had attracted the attention of a vast force of Kroot moving through the jungle to reinforce the Tau encampments already established though of more concern was the fact that the Tau words for 'Battlesuits' had also been heard though whether these were part of the force or not could not be ascertained.

Realising that this position might need to be evacuated and to do that they would need to clear an avenue for escape the Black Templar Klaus and the White Scar Hakim left the safety of their position and moved into the jungle to engage the nearest threats while their team-mates gave suppressing fire where they could. Klaus and Hakim began to reap a bloody toll amongst an enemy completely surprised by this seemingly suicidal move by the Astartes.

Editors Note - I was a taken a bit off-guard by it myself to be honest...

Through the dense foliage ahead Hakim spotted an armoured suit approaching them and decided to engage it himself to buy his fellow Marines some time. Not to be outdone Klaus followed though at a somewhat slower pace than his jump-pack equipped comrade. In a tribute to the courage of their respective Chapters they continued on this course of action even when it became apparent that there was not one but three of the suits ahead of them though two were some distance away. With momentum on his side the White Scar barrelled into the closest suit ripping a huge chunk out of it's side with the Templar following up a moment later with several heavy blows from his Power Maul. Alerted to this new threat by their linked systems the Imperial Fist looked around for higher ground from which to support the teams assault elements and noted a flat ledge above them on the rock formation to which he moved.

The second of the armoured Tau suits would soon be in position to support it's engaged ally or avenge it's destruction but was foiled as a six round burst of perfectly aimed Heavy Bolter shells tore it's chest compartment and pilot to a mass of torn metal and pulped Xenos flesh. A moment later the combined might of Templar and White Scar fighting in an excellent display of teamwork brought about the end of their foe despite it having inflicted several wounds upon them. Victory celebrations were to be short lived however as the third suit opened fire with everything it had. Hakim leapt aside a moment before a plasma burst that would have killed him instantly destroyed a chunk of jungle behind him but his battle brother was less fortunate as a missile exploded at his feet.

Hakim briefly considered engaging this new enemy but prioritised the rescue of his brother in arms over his personal quest for glory and grabbing him under one arm overcharged his Jump-Pack and leapt back to their defensive position. The Kroot were now surrounding the position in numbers that even Astartes could not hope to prevail against and transmissions were now coming on from a number of battlesuit teams that had apparently accompanied them. It seemed that they wouldn't survive to see the fruits of their successful campaign on the planet...

Epilogue

Missiles explode amongst the enemy, while Assault Cannon and Hurricane Bolter fire rakes their front ranks as the Corvus Blackstar transport diverted to extract you engages them with every weapon at it's disposal. The impressive assault vehicle enters hover mode as the two front bay doors open and a number of heavy duty cables are thrown out to assist with your ingress as there is currently insufficient space for it to land safely. You have a moment to act before the Xenos regroup and overwhelm your position...

Dragging their wounded comrades with them the team swiftly boarded the assault vessel and had a last view of the vast army below them that they had unwittingly crossed the path of...

Editors Note - Fortunately 'Climb' tests use Strength...

Back to Reality

Reasonably sure our Wolf Scout will be wearing his Power Armour rather than Scout Armour for a bit...

Every-one seemed to enjoy the session but to be honest it was the only one of my 'filler' sessions that I wasn't at all happy with. This was mainly because with sessions I've had time to prepare for I have hand-outs, maps and some none combat interludes prepared and I would have been far happier doing something a but more 'Predator' and a bit less 'Commando'...Unfortunately this and the last two were a bit too improvised for how I normally like to run an RPG session...anyway...

I gave every-one 500XP and 2 Renown which Martin decided to up to a little as it was effectively the end of a campaign...though I'm reasonably sure it was nothing like what he had planned, lol. I also gave the Imperial Fist player some bonus XP for several bits of suitably in character role-playing such as his dismissing of the Templars first defensive position and pretty much saving both the White Scar and Black Templar from being plasma and/or missiled to death...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.