Editing LeonidasAndCollin (section)

===VIP Capture===

Third mission, and the group are at the Hive City, in a docking area where the Valkyries belonging to the local PDF and Guard regiments are housed.

(I'll give a little bit of a back-story to Collin. Out-of-game, Collin is home tutored, likes the sound of his own voice, and can't get along with a group consisting of more than three people. He knows very little of 40K background outside of the Ultramarines, and his characters are all invariably Ultrasmurfs.
Fenrir had approached me during the week, and said "Look, I'm looking after my cousin this Saturday. I don't want to leave him alone in the house, and he can't go off on his own. Can he come to the next session?"
I was assured that Collin "Knew his stuff", and so I said "Yeah, okay.")

Big mistake, right there...

So, Valkyrie hanger, and the group are introduced three new characters.
The first is Angelion's new character, a Blood Angel specialising in close combat.
The second is my second attempt at a party NPC, a Deathwatch Black Shield sent to oversee the group and prevent a repeat of the Astronomic Array calamity.

The there was Collin.
Collin was an Ultrasmurf scout, armed with a sniper rifle, who had committed deeds high beyond his station (In his background, he took on a Slaaneshi sorceress single-handed and came out on top, then "did things" to her while waiting for reinforcements.I should, then and there, said "No, you can watch instead.")

Angelion's intro was simply this: "I stand in the corner, observing the new arrivals with a cold, unwavering gaze." (< This from a 13 year old! The kid's amazing.)

I introduced the nameless Black Shield as a man of little words, who briefly explained the situation in the city to the team members (The Tau were preparing to mobilize, and the Imperials had their guns trained on the forces gathered outside the city).

Collin introduced himself as follows: "I hide under the wing of a gunship, and jump out and scare the shit out of you all as you go past!"

After Collin does his intro, a collective sigh goes up amongst the group, but I figure its only for one game, so we can put up with his shit.

The Black Shield gave the group their briefing for the next mission, and, as things had escalated so quickly, the Imperials had decided that the best course of action was to capture a Tau representative, specifically an Ethereal, to use in a hostage situation and throw the Tau onto the back foot.
This would give the Imperials a distinct advantage, as the Tau wouldn't make a move while the Imperials had one of their spiritual leaders held captive, and would be forced to negotiate.

It was a bargaining chip, and I thought it was a brilliant idea, so did the group.
But I guess some people just love killing too much to consider the possibility of staving off a mobilised Cadre with minimum losses.

The Ethereal had fled the Hive Spire where negotiations had failed, taking his bodyguard of XV8's with him, and was now heading for the nearest exit to the Hive.
The group were shipped out in a Rhino APC to a point where they could directly intercept the Ethereal, and capture both him and his bodyguards in an ambush.

The ambush site was a Hab district near to the city's southern entrance.
I had given all of the squad jump packs (Bar Leonidas, cuz Devastator, and Collin, cuz dickwheel scout Ultrasmurf).
The plan, devised once again by Fenrir, involved Collin manipulating the Ethereal into taking the route through the Hab district (which he would have taken anyway, fyi), and once in, the others would jump down from the rooftops and block the exits whilst Leonidas, having traded his missile launcher out for a heavy bolter, would lay down an arc of fire as a distraction while the others closed in.

Shit happened right from the start.

Here's an idea of the map for you.

The Hab district is shaped like a T junction.
To the north, where the road splits, Leonidas is hunkered down behind some cover thrown together from bits of Hab block (I allowed the group a little setup time before starting the scenario.
On top of the east building is Karel, the Black Templar.
On top of the west building is Angelion's Blood Angel.
On top of the North building, (Who would have guessed?) are Fenrir and Wulfgang.
Collin (God! such a stupid name for a Space Marine!) is stationed to the south, armed with demolitions to hem the Tau in.

So, the scenario begins, and Collin voxes the others that the Tau have entered the ambush site.
This is a direct quote "Three mother-fuckin' mechs, and an ugly goat man." (Ultrasmurfs are the NOBLE sons of Robot Gillettemuff, right?)

Bear in mind the firepower of XV8's, and our group knew that the best chance of taking them out was to get close and strike quick.
Instead of using the demolitions to bring down the hab block at the far end of the street, Collin, without voxing the rest of the group, picks up his rifle, takes aim and fires...at the Ethereal.

Dumb fuck.

So, the Tau are now prematurely alerted to the Deathwatch's presence, and the Ethereal is still alive anyway (Collin failed his crits, amongst other things).
The marines jump from their positions to intercept the fleeing Tau, and what followed next was pretty much carnage.
Leonidas could have salvaged the situation by laying down suppressive fire, but instead focusses fire on the Ethereal, managing to kill him but not in time to help the others.
One of the battlesuits fires at Collin, and fails to take him down, instead setting off the detonations he was meant to set off.
This collapses a Hab block on top of Collin, Fenrir and Karel.
No-one is dead, but to replicate the utter fuck-up they made, I ruled that they were all incapacitated for the rest of the scenario.

Collin, Fenrir and Karel are out of it.
The latter two know who to blame.

This leaves Leonidas, Wulfgang, Angelion's Blood Angel, and the Black Shield.

Now that the Ethereal was dead, the XV8's were making for the gate with haste.
Leonidas is now taking his role seriously, and is laying down covering fire for the others while they pursue the battlesuits.
Wulfgang and the Black Shield are charging, Wulfgang with his two-handed chain-axe, and the BS with his shield and power sword.
Angelion is firing off pot shots with his plasma pistol, hoping to glance the retreating battlesuits.

We follow them all the way to the southern gate (I had to extend the map using cardboard boxes and books, FML!) in what can only be described as a very close game of jump-pack leapfrog.
After fleeing through the gate, the Tau turn and collapse said gate on top of Wulfgang and Angelion, leaving Leonidas and the BS the only two not buried under rubble or wounded.

Now, I try to stay out of group decisions as much as possible as a DM, and I asked Leonidas if he wished to dig out his fallen comrades.
He denied, stating "We should avenge their deaths, that they should not have died in vain!"
The others tried pointing out to him that they weren't dead under the rubble, but he was having none of it.

None of the group were dead, a spectacular accomplishment considering the fuck-up that Leonidas and Collin made of the ambush, but a few were injured, and most were buried.

It was here that the group split up, and we played out three different scenarios before getting to the climax (those who were part of a different group played temp characters.)