My Lords,
I am amazed by the sights that I witnessed today. A Chaos and Tau force engaged in a moving firefight, and I was there to bear witness. The Chaos had brought with them a Defiler, a Basilisk, a Vindicator, a Dreadnought, two squads mounted in Rhinos, a long-range squad, a mighty Daemon Prince, a lieutenant, and, to my surprise, a squad of assault troops that had snuck closer to the opposing army's lines. The Tau had with them a trio of Hammerheads, two trios of Crisis battlesuits, two commanders with Crisis battlesuits, and five squads of Fire Warriors.
The two forces lined up opposite each other in the ruins of a shattered city. The Tau took the initiative, moving quickly forward. They blasted the cannon off of the Vindicator, immobilized a Rhino, and blew apart the other Rhino. A small number of traitor Marines died to long range pulse rifle fire. The Chaos forces answered by swiftly moving forward. Their fire was largely inaccurate or out of range, but they managed to drop a battlesuit. The forward assault squad charged a unit of Tau, killing them all in an orgy of destruction.
The Tau moved around again, firing on the Vindicator and immobilizing it. More Marines died, leaving their squads depleted. The Chaos forces moved up, opening fire again. They killed another battlesuit and blasted the railgun off of a Hammerhead. The Chaos Daemon Prince came out of his cover, charging quickly across the battlefield. I was shocked to see the speed with which this behemoth moved. He swung his large black blade, and rent apart the Tau force commander. His bodyguard, unable to face such a beast, fled.
The Tau were unable to contain their fright. They repositioned most of their units to fire upon this new threat. More than half of the army fired into the Daemon Prince, who howled as shot after shot hit him, some of them getting through his armor, until finally a railgun shot tore through his chest. But all of this distracted them from the rest of the Chaos army. The Vindicator, having re-mobilized itself, moved forward swiftly. The Dreadnought went mad, firing all of its weaponry into a nearby Hammerhead and destroying its railgun. The assault squad moved up and swiftly destroyed another squad in combat, the survivors of which fled from the battle. A handful more Crisis suits died to heavy fire, including meltaguns.
The Tau redirected their attention to these new threats. The mobile squads of the Chaos force were quickly wiped out, their last members dying to a hail of pulse rifle fire, missiles, and plasma shots. The Chaos force reacted by opening fire with its remaining weapons. The Dreadnought moved up and assaulted the Hammerhead it had been firing on, tearing the vehicle from the sky. The other vehicles continued to pound the oncoming Tau, destroying the majority of the remaining Crisis suits.
The final moments of the battle were a blur of action. The Tau moved forward, firing missiles into the hidden Basilisk and destroying it. A shot hit the Hammerhead and almost destroyed its engine, but at the last moment decoys saved it. The Dreadnought ran toward the Fire Warriors heading for the Chaos battle lines, ready to tear them apart as well. A hail of shots blasted apart the last Rhino, seconds after it had remobilized itself and tried to run down some of the Fire Warriors. The Vindicator, having 'grown' its weapon back (I can think of no other term for this, sirs), ran through a squad of Fire Warriors, causing them to flee from battle. It fired its cannon, hitting a battlesuit, but somehow the suit survived without significant harm.
At the end of the battle, the battered Tau realized they were beaten. Their last unharmed Hammerhead proved to have been harmed after all, its engines failing as it fell back to earth and plowed into the ground, its ammunition storage erupting in a ball of fire. The rest of the Tau turned and headed home, as the traitor Marines called for reinforcements to bring medical and technical aid.
Your obedient servant,
Scribe Titus Maritius
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