Board Thread:Warhammer 40k Roleplay/@comment-4948356-20130719024255/@comment-3580035-20130723115739

As the Eldar crusiers approached the first station, waves of attack shuttles and transports were launched. With the Ion Cannons facing in the wrong direction and still recharging their power, they could do nothing as the fighters blew off their defences and the boarding parties cut their way inside.

As the first shuttle docked and unloaded its payload, Shas'O Ionus himself stepped out of the rear door and led his Battlesuit command team in blasting a way in through the viewports ringing the space station.

"All units in Manta assault force 1, prepare for boarding."

Cutting beam turrets underneath the modified Manta activated, rotating in their cupolas and swiftly cutting in a large entrance in before XV25 Stealthsuits teams activated their jetpacks and fanned out in invisible formations. There would be no mercy on the defenders, for the element of surprise had to be kept. There would be no witnesses. The unlucky Guardsmen just inside were sucked out as soon as the hole was opened in the station's armour, their bloated bodies drifting past the Stealthsuits and into the cold vacuum of space. Those few blue Space Marines stationed inside were caught completely by surprise and were annihilated in a single fussilade of Burst Cannon fire. Elsewhere around the Ion Cannon, similar scenes were repeated. XV8-06 Coldstar Battlesuits were deployed in force on the uppermost face, working on rewiring the Ion Cannon and purging it of Imperial technology, whilst XV46 Vanguard Void Battlesuits made surgical raids deep into the heart of the station from the underface of the station. Within minutes, the station's defenders had been overwhelmed by the elite Battlesuit assault.

Shas'O Ionus: "Kor'O Fi'ores'ti, I need you to bring in the Unbound Wing and take this in. We've seized the primary target and need extraction." Kor'O: "Acknowledged. We've got this covered." The first Protector-class Cruiser peeled off from its defensive heading, activating its gravitic hook and capturing the Ion Cannon within its powerful energies.

Elsewhere, the second Ion Cannon assaulted by the Manta squadrons had also been seized and was already being towed by the second Protector-class cruiser away from the battle.

However, on the third Ion Cannon, the defender's had put up a more stout resistance and shut themselves in the core room as soon as they realised they could not beat back the assault.

Shas'El Tynel'dia: "O'Ionus, we're detecting an extreme energy spike coming from this Ion Cannon. My Hunter Cadre is pulling out now before it blo..."

The station's core detonated, flinging out a vast wave of debris that battered the assault squadron Mantas severely.

O'Ionus: "Shas'El, report in!" El'Tynel'dia: "Our fo***es are safe comma****. We **** fine.  Two ***** Mantas have their drives ***aged and will need repairs" O'Ionus: "Good. That could've been far worse. The primary objectives have been completed Shas'El with miminal loss. Well done." O'Ionus: "Kor'O, our work here is done. Message the Security Orbitals and tell them to fire off the drone missiles at the secondary targets and extract our forces. The Imperial fleet will arrive soon and we do not want to be around when they do."

As the Security Orbitals received the order, their cloaking fields were briefly deactivated before swarms of drone-guided missiles were fired from their gravitic launchers at the two nearest Ion Cannons. Numerous of them were shot down by their servitor-manned defences, but enough made it through to impact on their sides. Their precisely caculated trajectories ensured that they did not do too much damage. That was not their purpose, for even they could not hope to completely ensure the complete destruction of the weapon stations. Instead, their detonations forced the two Ion Cannons on a collision course with each other - one that would play itself out slowly and inevitably.

For the Tau fleet, all of the Mantas and Barracuda squadrons were recalled and docked inside the cruisers. As they turned and powered up their engines to leave, the two weapon stations behind them simply collapsed upon each other, their impacts killing nearly all the personnel inside. Escape pods attempted to launch, but found their exit holes either blocked by the other station or by the mangled metal leftover by the missiles' impacts. Those few still living inside were doomed as the wreckage began to twist and fall through the planet's atmosphere and into a fiery cometary descent...

"Deactivate the hologram disguise fields and reactivate the cloaking fields. Hopefully, they will be more confused than ever."

The graceful Eldar sails of the cruisers and their pointed designs flickered out of existence, revealing the flat wings of Tau spacecraft for a brief moment before cloaking was activated and they disappeared from view. Two of the Ion Cannons had been seized, whilst another three had been destroyed. The Imperial forces only had time to send out distress signals that mentioned Eldar attacking them. The Imperial fleet that arrived afterwards only found the gutted wreck of a single Ion Cannon and its overloaded core, whilst the wreckage of the other two obliterated a small base upon its planetfall. As for the Tau, the next stages of their plan were already underway...

-Out of Character- So basically, the Imperial forces now think there are Eldar in the system rather than Tau, thanks to the experimental disguise field tech. I'm not sure how Hern has basically been wiped out completely already, but hopefully more fighting erupts around Septicus soon. I'll be needing distractions from some other pawns for more assaults.