Turn Two:  The battle paused momentarily as the massive sun overhead, beating down on both sides with triple digit heat for what seemed like days, began to slide toward the northern horizon.  The sun picked up speed and in a matter of moments it was down, plunging the battlefield into pitch black.  With the Phaeton-esque sunset, the unnatural plant life withered and died in mere moments. In fact, like weights lifted from their chests, the combatants suddenly felt lighter, as though gravity had suddenly halved.  A few moments of experimentation had revealed that was exactly what had happened.

With these dramatic landscape changes, men looked around to find their comrades suddenly gone.  Blue One, taking cover in the rocky outcropping to the side of Blue Two found themselves behind Blue Two.  Shaking off the confusion, Blue One took aim at the approaching Eldar forces.  The Chimera containing the Highlands Ogryns was whisked away right out from under the Ogryns’ feet!  The Chimera simply appeared on the other side of the battlefield, to the north of the War Walkers.  Esoteric thought not being their strong suit, the Ogryns simply shrugged their shoulders and accepted their new situation.  At the General’s commands, the Highlanders moved out from behind the Leman Russ to better react to the changing battlefield.

On the west flank, the lone soldier of Blue One could take no more.  Despite Sgt. Parsons’ blustering, the soldier simply could not muster the courage and began an unchecked flight from the battlefield.

The Basilisk opened fire with it’s second salvo, this time elevating the cannon for indirect fire at Al Vala’s Wave Serpent.  In the darkness, though, the shot was a guess at best and deviated well off of target.  The Leman Russ shined its spotlight at the Wave Serpent carrying the Striking Scorpions yet, despite illuminating the thing, the battle cannon shell went wide.

On the east flank, Green Platoon and the Ratlings fired wildly into the night, unable to find the enemy in the murky, smothering darkness.  At point blank range with the War Walkers, the teleported Chimera opened fire on them with it’s multilaser.  One shot managed to find home and the smoking remains of the mobile gun platform toppled over into the now placid sludge.

On the other side, however, Blue Platoon had its choice of targets.  Blue Command fired it’s lascannon and plasma guns at the illuminated Wave Serpent.  The plasma gun scored a hit on the hull that seemed to do little, but in fact shorted out the guidance controls and sent the vehicle into a lethal spiral.  Despite crash landing, all 10 of the Striking Scorpions survived.  However, they were now stranded quite a ways off.  (I proceeded to do my happy dance whilst Mer threw dice at me—Corey)

Blue Three, at point blank range with Al Vayle’s Wave Serpent, lost sight of it!  The shifting shadows of the hellish night shielded the transport behind an aegis of invisibility.  Behind them Blue Three could see the Wave Serpent but, tantalizingly, only the autocannon had range.  Despite this, a single shell managed to clip the anti-grav plate of the vehicle sending it plummeting towards the ground.  Yet, only 1 Guardian perished in the crash.

In the darkness, Al Vayle ceased to be, reforming in the blink of an eye directly in the midst of the Imperial lines, with the General and the Ogryns before them and Blue Platoon behind them.  Undaunted, Al Vayle moved forwards towards the General.  The Scorpions used the lowered gravity to their advantage, scampering over the wreckage of their transport.  The only remaining Wave Serpent, that of Al Vala, zoomed over the central dune towards the very center of the IG line.

Having peered through the twisted veins of time and informed the War Walkers where their enemies would be, Farseer Meési guided her jetbike behind the crew of the Shadow Weavers.  The Walker themselves, now assured of their targets, stalked towards the IG lines.

The Shadow Weavers were unable to get a fix on Green Platoon in the swirling darkness and all but one of their monomolecular nets deviated off target.  The last one, however, managed to catch the autogunner of Green One.  The War Walkers had more luck.  Knowing the exact location of the enemy Chimera, the two Walkers set a lower rate of fire to ensure accuracy.  Five shots cut through the night, three of which connected with the transport, immobilizing it.

In the center, Al Vayle let loose a firestorm from their Shuriken Catapults.  Two flayed Ogryns toppled over without even understanding that they were dead.  The Highlanders couldn’t decide if they should get away from the tiny Eldar, but the argument of grunts was settled when one reminded his two compatriots that the metal-head-leader guy told them the flag-thing was something that they needed to protect.  Besides, the metal-head-leader guy always made sure they got into a good scrap.  So, the Ogryns stayed put.

Further west, the Scorpions tried but could not find Blue Two in the murky darkness.  In the distance, the Dark Reaper Exarch tracked the glaring spotlight beam of the Leman Russ back to it’s source.  Snapping off two rounds, one corkscrewed off target and the second exploded harmlessly on the vehicle’s armor.

Out of desperation, Al Vayle threw itself at both the Ogryns and the 442nd Artillery’s Command HQ.  The nimble Guardians wounded one of the Ogryns and killed the lascannon spotter in the HQ.  Several Guardians threw themselves at the General, who reacted much swifter than they would have thought.  The Eldar wounded him, but only at a cost of one of their own dead.  The remainder of the HQ, stunned by the assault did nothing.  The Ogryns, annoyed at their lithe attackers, smashed two Guardians to a pulp, wiping the smears onto the ground.  Despite this, the Imperial side was really from the weight of the attack.  (We count total wounds, not simply models, for purposes of who wins the combat and outnumbering—Corey)  However, the presence of the General and the regiment’s standard strengthened their resolve.

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