Veteran sergeant Dozzel of the Bloodfists lowered the magiscope & turning to brother venerable dreadnought Lars said the bridge is in the hands of the enemy, I can make out a Leman Russ battle tank on the far side of the bridge & to the left of it a well camouflaged Chimera near some woods.
In order to outflank the enemy the Bloodfists needed this bridge & Dozzel orders where to take it so the the main column wouldn't be delayed in crossing the river.
Dozzel had with him a small deployment of Bloodfist space marines that consisted of his own tactical squad & tactical squad Vern, as well as the venerable dreadnought & a lander speeder typhoon.
Under the cover of darkness they headed down into the valley along the road from the west & got within a couple of hundred metres of the bridge when the rhino of squad Vern which was leading the way was lit up by the search light of the Chimera before been rocked violently by shell from the leman Russ which thank the Emperor just glanced off its side.
The dreadnought & the typhoon both returned fire while the two rhinos pushed on for the bridge, they did not get much further however before the lead rhino became a wreck as from all along from the other side of the river IG heavy weapon teams opened fire on it.
With the transport a wreck squad Vern had to disembark only to get pined down from the incoming enemy fire, with the road in front of them now blocked by the wreckage of squad Verns rhino, the rhino of squad Dozzel was forced to go off the road to get around it, but this close to the river the ground was very soft & the vehicle quickly got bogged down becoming immobilised.
Given orders for all units to regroup in the ruins on the far side of the road the veteran sergeant knew they where up against it but the sons of Dorn where made of stern stuff & would complete their mission or die trying.
As his squad worked it way towards the ruins trying to keep the rhinos as much as possible between themselves & the guards for as much cover as then could get, a couple of krak missiles flu over their heads on their way to taking out the Chimera.
Once regrouped in the ruins Dozzel knew that they wouldn't be able to hold out here for long in the face of such over whelming fire, squad Vern was already down to 60%, as if to reconfirm the point there was a loud explosion as brother Lars got blown to pieces by a direct hit from the Russ quickly followed by the speeder getting immobilised after been hit by a lascannon.
Moving squad by squad through the ruins giving one & other covering fire the marines worked their way towards the bridge & although with their discipline in bolter drill they were taking a heavy toll on the guards, still the rate of incoming fire was tremendous.
So much so that by the time they reach the ruined building nearest to the bridge squad Vern was down to 40% while Dozzel own squad was down to 70%. Dozzel knew that the mission was now in danger of failing & that the only chance they had now was to try to rush to the bridge & engage the enemy in close combat.
So given the order & yelling out for Dorn lead the charge over the last 50 metres of clear ground to the bridge back up with some covering fire from the grounded land speeder.
The sight of 11 charging space marines is enough to put fear in to braver things then the guards holding the bridge and their shooting which upon till now had been very accurate became very poor, still such was the volume of fire that it was still taking its toll.
Squad Dozzel which was now down to just 2 had taken an awful beating in the charge as it had been the nearest to the river but at least it had shielded squad Vern who where still at 40% as they step onto the bridge to launch an assault on a guard infantry squad that had taken up a firing position there.
But at last they where to lose another marine as they covered the final 2m to engage the enemy, still 3 space marines is still more than a match for a squad of guards men & they cut them down in no time.
The bridge was now in the marines hands but with such few numbers would they be able to hold onto it. Brother Raham who together with Dozzel where trying to make their way onto the bridge to support their brothers was the next to fall before Dozzel himself was killed when he was hit by a krak missile.
Though the remaining 3 marines fought gallantry they could not hold out long enough under such over whelming firepower & so by the time the main force arrived the bridge was back in enemy hands.
There was then another battle for the bridge with the result been very different but the cost to the Bloodfists in both manpower & time had been high.
The mission played out was one that I wrote a long time back & it was nice to finally play it out, My thanks to Pearce for what was a very enjoyable game.
I hope to do more of this type of stuff as I find it more enjoyable then a normal 40k game.
So thanks for dropping in & please do so again.
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