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With the objective gone, Lord Varlan withdrew his forces towards Brenmarc. As the two armies regrouped and prepared to battle for the rights to the Mechanicus complex, their leaders were hailed psychically by a new entry into the fray. Ulthwe Eldar had entered the planets atmosphere. The Eldar's leaders, a Seer Council, relayed their interest in also obtaining access to the complex. But, the Council suggested that the leaders of the different factions meet to discuss a joint venture. For, when the Orks made their initial discovery of the complex several months prior, the Mechanicus Adepts had sent out a distress call. The call had not only been picked up by the Ulthwe Eldar, but by a Chapter of Space Marines. And while the Chaos and Ork forces were fighting in the Dead Plains, a contingent of Marines had dropped into the facility and was now defending it. Uncharacteristically, the three forces leaders agreed to meet. This meeting occurred at Post 85. The Eldar set up camp to the Northwest of the destroyed Arbites Precinct. The Orks set their camp to the Southwest. The Chaos Horde set up to the East. Lord Varlan had no intention of allying with the other forces, it is doubtful any of the leaders did. Once the leaders were gathered, Varlan attacked the Seer Council, wounding the two farseers, and then retreated. In retreating, he failed to take advantage of his superior numbers and let victory slip through his grasp. As the three leaders and their retinues fell back to their camps, the Chaos Horde began to surge forward. Alerted that something had gone wrong, the Eldar Wraithlord and Dark Reapers swung into action. The Wraithlord killed the Orks standard bearer, leaving the Ork leader alone in the open. The Dark Reapers exacted a heavy toll, destroying over half of Lord Varlan's Thousand Son retinue. Their next salvo killed Varlan and the rest of his unit. With Varlan dead, the Chaos force launched towards the enemy, bent on vengeance. Sorcerer Erdaquan took control of the force but unable to reign in their fury, could do little more than provide supporting fire with his Tzeentch marines. The Horde split in two, the Chaos Cultists chasing after the Seer Council, the Possessed Marines charging towards the Orks. The Ork Warlord was able to retreat to his camp unscathed, in spite of the firepower of the Eldar Wraithlord and War Walker. When the battle had begun, the Ork camp had broken into chaos as the different Orks fought for control, believing their Warlord dead. The only units engaging the enemy were the Orks artillery units, which could see that the Warlord was still alive and well. The Warlord's "miraculous return" accompanied by several crushed skulls and kicks to the hind quarters, brought the Orks back to order in time to meet the Chaos charge. In an amazing show of marksmanship, a unit of Ork Shoota Boys killed the Possessed marines to a man, riddling their warping bodies with shot. A unit of Horror Demons summoned by the Sorcerer slammed into the Orks determined to exact vengeance for their fallen brothers. Many Orks were torn limb from limb, but as the Demons pushed further into the camp, the Orks were able to bring their numbers to bear. One by one the Demons were sent back to the warp. As this was occurring, the Sorcerer and his unit took up position on a nearby hill. From this position, he was able to destroy the same Ork Dreadnought as in the previous battle. (The pilot pulled himself from the wreckage of the Dreadnought cursing. He had just repaired it and the same friggin' thing had happened again.) At the same time, the Eldar were engaging the other half of the Chaos force. Taking horrendous casualties from Eldar ranged fire, the Cultists came on. From their midst emerged a unit of Flamer Demons bent on catching the Seer Council. Seeing the danger, an Eldar Swooping Hawks unit launched forward into the Demons. The Swooping Hawks appeared to have the upper hand as they tore into the Flamers, when they were charged from the flank by the Cultists. Outnumbered 4 to 1, the Eldar were drug to the ground and killed. Their death was not in vain, as the Seer Council was able to enter the protection of the camp. As the Cultists turned on the Eldar another unit of Horror Demons was summoned. This unit slammed into the Eldar line. The Eldar unit, a regular Eldar infantry unit, sorry Mike I can't remember what they are called, was bolstered by the Seer Council. Another unit of Eldar was able to fire on the Cultists and remaining Flamers and was able to kill them to a man. After a long fought battle, the Horrors killed the remaining Eldar infantry they were engaged with and the battle continued between the Horrors and Seer Council. For each Horror that fell, another Council member fell to. Finally, in a nail-biter of a finish, the last Horror faced off against the badly wound Farseer. Unable to foresee the Horror's next action due to it's demonic mind, the Horror assaulted under the Farseer's guard and disemboweled him. With that, the battle was over. The Orks stood upon the battlefield victorious, having suffered very little in casualties. The Eldar fell back to a defensive position. In spite of having lost their leaders, the majority of their force was still intact. On the other hand, the Chaos Horde had been annihilated. All that remained was an unscathed Tzeentch Marine squad led by Sorcerer Erdaquan. Erdaquan and his squad of Tzeentch Marines, fell back into the ruined human city of Brenmarc. There they called down reinforcements and moved to skirt around the Orks and remaining Eldar, to get at the Adeptus Mechanicus complex. In so doing, they ran head first into an unexpected Dark Eldar raiding force. "Cursed aliens!!”
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