Day 263
It was wise of the Imperials to have a natural suspicion of peace; An emergency signal comes through the lookouts that a large group of Pirates are establishing a communications array… The second battle of the Great Pirate Wars is about to begin!
Within seconds the scanners are ring with multiple warnings. Large groups of attackers are swarming towards the facility. In the pitch darkness of night, it is impossible to tell the exact location of the command point, but the Imperials can tell the rough area. Kev assigns himself and Phill, Charlotte and Luke to the assault team. Steve, Craig, Sally and James are left to command defence of the base. As the majority of the team leave the north gate, Luke decides that he’s not doing anything till he eats and says he’ll catch-up. Charlotte, currently at the opposite end of the facility, takes a short cut from the south to RV with the others closer to the base. She heads out into the night alone, equipped with a set of sweet IR goggles she ripped from a corpse.
It’s dangerous beyond the gates. Besides the impenetrable darkness, the first groups of attackers are beginning to reach the colony. The Inquisitor and the Stormtrooper take care to avoid any unnecessary firefights, slinking through the mountains and caves towards their destination.
Day 264
As you can see, pretty dark at night. The three agents finally meet up and begin their advance on the Pirate HQ. In the distance, they can hear the sirens and gunfire as the first attacks begin on the colony.
Charlotte locates the command post and draws a bead on the nearest guard. Astonishingly she times her shot and the exact moment a clap of thunder rolls across the sky. A pirate drops to the ground, his head a bloody ruin. Lightning illuminates the scene as the imperials begin their night assault on the unsuspecting foes.
Muzzle bursts flicker across the darkened planes. In just a few seconds four more heretics are dead, but Phill takes a solid round to his right arm and gut in the fighting. The Stormtrooper ignores the pain and continues firing.
As dawn peaks on the horizon, the remaining pirates break and flee into the distance, firing as they go. Luke pounds forward in his heavy armour, belches, and joins the agents in opening fire on the abandoned command post. Bullets and lasers obliterate aerials and listening stations. Soon the Pirates will be without any communication or strategy, halting their invasion in its tracks.
Back at the colony, most of the fighting has been occurring at the Southern Gate, but the first scouts moving in from the north increases the pressure by attacking the second gate. It goes about as well as could be expected; one dies as they burst through the door, sending the remainder fleeing for their lives. The few brave idiots that try to stand and fight drop in 3 seconds. It’s an easy victory, but there are far more inbound raiders descending…
Just as all seems well, over half a dozen heavily armed pirates suddenly appear around the command post in a blaze of light. They open fire at exposed Imperials with heavy machine guns and anti-tank rifles. Phill bears the brunt of the unexpected attack as he’s hammered with bullets, many of them punching through his carapace. He begins to run back from the hail of gunfire, but a bullet catches his hand and his left thumb is blown clean off. The other agents have little choice but to stand their ground and keep firing, desperately trying to kill their attackers before they’re cut down themselves. “Where the hell did they get a teleporter!?” yells the Inquisitor over the roar of his bolter.
Phill gets annoyed with retreating and turns to blast at the three men chasing him, killing at one instantly in a blaze of laser death. Luke punches his lightning claws through a heretic as Charlotte and Kev both keep firing. They too are taking injuries; the assassin has a rounds lodged in her chest and arm, Whilst Kev is bleeding heavily from a series of huge anti-tank hits to his power armoured chest.
The heavy bore rifles continue to cause damage, a few even managing to wound the mighty Space Marine. Yet more pirates teleport in as the team’s guns begin to glow from the constant firing. Kev takes several more heavy hits that punch bloody holes through his armour. He bellows and blasts away the fools that fired upon him. Alas, his wounds are too grievous. Blood pouring from six anti-tank rounds in his torso, the Inquisitor drops to one knee and keels over. The remaining agents pour their clips into the remaining pirates, enraged at the sight of their fallen leader. The few pirates that survive the renewed onslaught try and flee, but the Agents cut them all down. But for the distant sound of battle at the colony, the planes fall quiet. The agents rush to the Inquisitor’s side but it’s clear there is nothing that can be done. He whispers for them them to complete the mission, before handing his Inquisitorial Rosette to Phillip. And then, with a last bloody cough, the Emperor welcomes him.
The Imperials pause to say a silent prayer, before turning their attention back to the mission at hand. They still have a job to do. The base must be destroyed. They send Phill back to base to see to his wounds, the bleeding becoming too severe to keep him fighting. Phill agrees. They don’t need to lose two Inquisitors this grim day. Charlotte demands reinforcements over the vox.
Charlotte and Luke move back from the command post and keep watch from afar. It’s a good move as yet more Pirates beam in and begin attacking. Fortunately, Steve and Craig arrive with a swarm of Guardsmen.
A bitter and vicious fight ensues. The Imperials are incensed and throw everything they have at their well armed foes. An anti-tank round blows Craig’s left foot clean off. He continues to stand on the bloody stump, swearing and firing. A guardsman goes down, his arm and leg shredded into ribbons of useless meat by intense gunfire. Steve takes wounds as he swings his righteous chainsaw into men’s faces. Soon the pirates are dead, but there’s no reason to think that more wont suddenly appear. The agents decide to evacuate and recover the Inquisitor’s body at all costs. All of them are bitter at this sudden cruel twist. They resolve to obliterate the place with artillery, no matter how long it takes.
The team safely extracts and most are rushed into the infirmary for emergency surgery. The Inquisitor’s body is placed in the mortuary whilst the battle continues. There will be time to mourn, but for now the colony is under constant attack and its defence must take precedent. High above them, the first shells of the Imperial artillery barrage whistle through the dawn skies. They thunder out across the planes, sending chunks of dirt and mangled corpses high into the air. The Imperial artillery is extremely inaccurate and very slow to fire, but each shell is extremely powerful. It’ll be some days before the artillery scores enough hits to eradicate the command station.
Day 265
The fighting is ceaseless. The guardsmen and agents take turns manning the artillery as the rest rotate between manning the guardhouses, providing medical care for the wounded, and clearing corpses. Only the most gravely injured remain in the infirmary long, most have little choice but to head back out onto the frontlines the moment their wounds are patched up. Exhaustion is beginning to take a toll. Sick of the siege, Charlotte picks up her rifle and heads back out into the night for a spot of cathartic pirate hunting.
Day 266
The pirates continue to launch attacks on the colony and teleport in fighters to reinforce their artillery ravaged command post. The ceaseless bombardment and Charlotte’s scope take their toll; The base’s destruction is inevitable, it’s only a matter of hours now. Getting desperate, the pirates airdrop in a huge force from the South in the hope of overwhelming the defenders. The Southern gate is lightly defended, with most able fighters either manning the thundering mortars or having their wounds treated from the last assault.
The pirates burst in, their advance briefly derailed by the automated bunker. They immediately start taking heavy casualties as the internal guns chew through them. Many flee, but the rest charge to try and escape the killzone and slaughter the paltry defenders.
It’s a bad move. The pirates are slaughtered and soon join their friends in racing for the hills. The new turret was a rousing success, dividing the pirate forces and proving very difficult to destroy. Expect to see a lot of the automated bunkers turning up very soon.
The pirate base finally falls. Charlotte watches through her sights as the entire thing erupts in one last explosion. All that is left is a wasteland of blood-showered craters, discarded equipment and mangled bodies. Counting the death toll will be impossible since the artillery utterly pulverised so many corpses around the command post, but there are at least 75 visible across the area and in the gatehouses. A further 9 languish in the prisons. At the least, the colony was outnumbered 7:1 over the last sixty hours.
The Inquisition agents must now reassess their situation. Their Inquisitor has fallen, a martyr of their holy mission. The facility is embroiled in a major conflict, one it could possibly lose. Many of the Agents are crippled and will need to consider the replacement of limbs. The stink of corpses chokes the air as the prisons resound with moans of wounded foes. They may have won the battle, but there is no triumph here.
The 
They attack just before dawn. As usual, a team of close combat specialists sprint forward to disrupt the Imperial line. They do not last long; the Imperials have faced worse. The remaining elite troops take cover around the doorway, blasting at the defenders.
As the alien sun creeps over the horizon, many of the heretics witness only a few seconds of their last ever day. Within minutes they are dead or impaired. Victory to the Imperium!
As ever, war makes for plentiful ‘converts’. Archbishop Stephen goes to work lamenting the injured for their sins, even as they are being patched up by harassed-looking surgeons.
A huge pirate raiding force drops into the northern countryside and prepares for an assault. Eager for revenge, the Imperials hurry to their weapons. They have been busy the past few days; the countryside is awash with fortified turrets!
Craig orders an artillery barrage. Downs picks a couple of troopers to assist and the guns begin to sing.
The pirates begin their advance at dawn. The guns took their toll overnight, but there are more than enough fighters left. They split into two groups, with the main force moving around the walls to attack from the South. Had they been hoping to catch the defenders by surprise, they were sorely mistaken. The bunkers pepper the army with streams of gunfire. By the time they reach the gatehouse, barely any remain.
Those in the north suffer even worse. A pile of bodies builds up in front of the gatehouse entrance as the guns focus in on the entrance. Not a single pirate passes the wall.
The main force in the south succeeds in breaking through the outer gate, but it is a futile effort. As the door crashes down they are hit with a wall of lasfire. The few remaining pirates break and flee on both fronts. This serves to only bring them back through the gauntlet of machine guns.
Raiders drop one by one as the unblinking sensors demonstrate their unnerving accuracy. Soon the countryside is littered with the dead and injured. The Imperials head out to drag back prisoners and strip the bodies.
This has left the prisoner population rather severe. Several Imperials are evicted from their bunks to make room for the crowded convicts. They grumble, but it’s all for the greater good; More manpower means greater strength. Construction of the Inquisitor’s tomb is advancing rapidly thanks to all these new 
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