Turn One – Sisters of Battle: Inquisitor Soulis looked about the clearing angrily. He had been too zealous in his pursuit of the tainted guardsmen and now he had led the remaining forces of the Sisters of Our Martyred Lady into a perfectly laid trap. His forces were completely surrounded. He cursed himself – he had underestimated these guardsmen. True, they had gone insane from their encounters with Chaos, but they remained Imperial Guardsmen at heart. The inquisitor had no choice but to order the Sisters ahead and try to escape the jungle before the encirclement was complete and they were destroyed. The Celestians' Rhino ahead of him crushed the barbed-wire entanglement the Catachans had set and thundered forward into the trees. Soulis ordered Sister Marguerite's squad to follow directly behind the Rhino and waved the Immolator down the hill. He took up the rear himself to ensure none under his charge were left behind. He nodded in approval as he noted that the Redemptionists had moved up along his left flank.
The engine of Sister Superior Quita's Rhino whined as the vehicle forced its way through the dense trees, but the dozer blade on the front kept it from being bogged down, the Emperor be praised. Through the forward vision slit, she could make out a squad of guardsmen moving through the jungle. She ordered her squad out immediately. As the Rhino turned the Sisters jumped out of the moving vehicle. "Let them know the Emperor's mercy, Sisters!" she screamed and the two flamers in her squad spewed holy flames onto the enemy. Six of them fell to the ground, screaming and thrashing. Sister Quita put the last one out of his misery with a well-aimed bolt.
More screams echoed through the trees and as Quita looked to her left, she could see more flames licking the trees from the Celestian squad. The entire enemy squad that they had been firing at was laid low by the purifying flames.
Turn One – Catachans: Captain Juarez ordered his troops forward. The enemy was well equipped with fast-moving vehicles and they were close to escape already. From spending his whole life in the jungle, he was able to peer through the thick trees and see the enemy far ahead. Most of them had already escaped the clearing. If he and his men did not hurry, the encirclement would fail.
"Now!!" Sergeant Carruthors shouted and he leaps from his carefully concealed position in the trees. His men emerged with him, coming face to face with a large mob of what he could only assume were Chaos Cultists, wrapped in dark red robes. Likely followers of Khorne, he thought, then opened up with his laspistol. Flames leapt out of Private McKane's flamer to his right and gave the enemy a bit of their own medicine. He ducked as the squad behind him opened up with their lasguns. As he scrambled back to his feet to assault the enemy, he counted eight dead.
Captain Jenkins looked about him in disbelief; the squad in front of him had been totally wiped out as had the assault squad to his left. They had all died horribly agonizing deaths engulfed in the flames that poured forth from the enemy's weapons. He did not know who they were, but they had slaughtered his men with barely a care in the Imperium and he would avenge his men's deaths. He sprinted towards the enemy, firing off a shot with his bolter, which glanced harmlessly off black power armour. That was just as well he thought, his lip curling into an evil grin. He wanted to see the look in their eyes when his power fist crushed them!
He closed the ground quickly. As he wound up to strike with his power fist, one of the enemy snapped a close range shot off. Pain seared through his side but he did now slow and smashed three of them to the ground. The remaining troops tried to fall back, but became tangled in the undergrowth. Screaming a battlecry, Jenkins charged through the trees, years of living in jungles allowing him to close quickly. He caught the enemy with ease and cut them all down as they tried to free themselves from the roots and vines of the jungle floor. Another band of troops in black power armour were not far behind, and he carried on his charge into them.
On the other side of the clearing, Sergeant Carruthors led his charge on the cultists. He and his men scythed down four of the maniacs, but they seemed not to notice. A man holding aloft a large book exhorted them to carry forward, and piled into Carruthors' patrol team.