Operation Larisel
Operation Larisel was a military insertion/assassination operation carried out by members of the Tanith First Imperial Guard regiment on the planet Phantine as part of the Guard's efforts to retake that world from the forces of Chaos during the greater Sabbat Worlds Crusade, with the assistance of the Phantine Air Corps. Its goal was the assassination of Chaos warlord Sagittar Slaith prior to the invasion of the city of Ouranberg by massed Imperial forces.[1]
Background
A larisel is a small arboreal mammal native to the world of Tanith which was often hunted by the planet's inhabitants, making use of its name in an assassination mission appropriate. During the Imperial retaking of Cirenholm on Phantine, Imperial Guard faces faced heavier than expected resistance from the Blood Pact, a highly-organised element of the Chaos forces that had overtaken the Sabbat Worlds.[1a] Phantine, a highly polluted industrial world where atmospheric gasses are harvested in cities built on mountaintops above the layer of poisonous cloud, had been taken by the Blood Pact under the command of Sagittar Slaith as part of a large-scale Chaos counter-offensive which took advantage of the Imperial Crusade forces becoming over-stretched thanks to the ambitions of Warmaster Macaroth and captured several vital resource-production worlds.[1b] The city of Cirenholm was only taken by pure luck after elements of the Tanith 1st reached the city's main vapour mill and shut down the power supply to force-fields that had trapped the Imperial Guard forces.[1c] Taking note of this, and the heavy casualties sustained in the frontal assault on the city, Imperial General Van Voytz decided to take advantage of the Tanith regiment's specialist recon skills and planned an operation to take out Sagittar Slaith with the goal of weakening Blood Pact resolve prior to the invasion of Ouranberg.[1d]
Preparation
After receiving orders from Van Voytz, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, the commanding officer of the Tanith 1st, hand-picked sixteen troopers to undertake the mission. Divided into four teams, each group of four was joined by a specialist from the Phantine Air Corps and trained in the use of grav-chutes for use in a high-altitude deployment drop. Each team consisted of one squad leader, one scout, one sniper and one ordinary trooper. Due to reports of loxatl mercenaries being deployed by the Blood Pact in Ouranberg, one member of each team was assigned a U90 heavy gun armed with penetrator rounds capable of killing loxatl, as their hides were proof against ordinary las-fire.[1e]
The teams were as follows:
Larisel 1: Sergeant Ceglan Varl with the team's U90 cannon, Verghastite trooper Noa Vadim who was chosen for the mission due to his experience with roof-spaces and working at high altitudes, sniper Jessi Banda and scout-trooper Bonin. They were joined by Phantine Air Corps Corporal Innis Unterrio.[1d]
Larisel 2: Corporal Flyn Meryn with the team's U90 cannon, trooper Kuren, master sniper Hlaine Larkin and scout-trooper Mkvenner. They were joined by Phantine Air Corps Lieutenant Goseph Kersherin.[1d]
Larisel 3: Sergeant Lhurn Adare, trooper Brin Milo with the team's U90, deaf Verghastite sniper Nessa Bourah and scout-trooper Doyl. They were joined by Phantine Air Corps Private Lex Cardinale.[1d]
Larisel 4: Scout-sergeant Oan Mkoll, Verghastite trooper Nour, Tanith trooper Cocoer with the team's U90 and sniper Rilke. They were joined by Phantine Air Corps Private Arye Babbist.[1d]
The Operation
The four Larisel teams were deployed into Ouranberg in troop-ships that accompanied a massed aerial assault on the city. The assault met heavy resistance, and only Larisel 2 and Larisel 3 made their deployment drops safely and into the designated drop-zone. Larisel 1's troop-ship came under enemy fire while already suffering an engine problem, and while most of the team made their jumps under the instruction of Sergeant Varl and managed to regroup at the drop-zone, scout-trooper Bonin went to the cockpit to get the pilots out. The co-pilot was killed, but the ship's pilot, Commander Bree Jagdea of the Phantine Air Corps whom Bonin had worked alongside in the taking of Cirenholm, was able to blow out the cockpit's canopy so she and Bonin were sucked out of the crashing ship. Larisel 4's ship also came under heavy fire, and Phantine Private Babbist was killed by a tracer round passing through the troop bay shortly before the drop-ship's engine was hit and the whole vehicle exploded, killing troopers Nour, Rilke and Cocoer and apparently ending the life of the Tanith First's celebrated head scout, Oan Mkoll.[1f]
Sucked from their crashing ship, Bonin and Jagdea were able to make a clumsy grav-chute drop onto Ouranberg's external rooftop section which briefly incapacitated Bonin. They were discovered by a squad of Blood Pact searching the rooftop for downed pilots and although they managed to take out most of the squad they were only saved by the arrival of the rest of Larisel 1. Able to find a way down into Ouranberg proper thanks largely to Vadim's expertise they located a vehicle departure area but but were caught laying low in a storage room and only just escaped through a back window. Returning and easily stealing a vehicle they used it to gain access to Ouranberg's Alpha Dome, where Sagittar Slaith was believed to be, but were caught out in a vehicle inspection and forced to drive into a building, with Varl using his U90 to shoot out the front wall just in time. Once inside the building they crashed badly and most of the team was incapacitated, and Unterrio was killed by a loxatl's flechete fire trying to buy time for Bonin to drag the others clear. Stunned insensible by an enemy synapse mine, Larisel 1 was captured.[1g]
Larisel 2 was the only team in the operation not to suffer any casualties. Making a relatively easy drop into a shell-damaged building, they were forced to kill members of a rescue crew searching for survivors in order to maintain their cover. Proceeding through Ouranberg's centre they were the first team to catch sight of Slaith as he made a city-wide address through public monitors displaying the corpses of two members of Larisel 3 and the captured Cardinale and demanding that the Imperials surrender and the citizens hunt them out. Scout trooper Mkvenner was able to determine Slaith's whereabouts after finding a statuette that matched a larger version of itself seen in the background of Slaith's address. Making their way through Alpha Dome, Sergeant Meryn ruthlessly killed a civilian man who stumbled across them by accident. Setting up atop a building with a good view of the square where Slaith was preparing a mass sacrifice including Cardinale and Larisel 1, Larkin prepared a kill-shot but was stunned when another las-shot hit Slaith first.[1g]
Larisel 3 landed in Ouranberg's out-hab section and made their way inwards by hiding amongst the crowds of enslaved workers the Blood Pact were forcing to prepare the defences of the city. Spooked by an unnerving broadcast calling for the citizens to worship Khorne, Cardinale accidentally dropped his Aquila pendant and it was discovered by the Blood Pact's genetically-enhanced war dogs. Giving in to panic, Cardinale broke his cover to fire at the closing beasts, forcing Doyl and Sergeant Adare to reveal themselves as well. Though he killed three dogs Cardinale was taken down by the fourth and his face and neck savaged. Adare and Doyl where able to rescue him and drag him away in the confused firefight that erupted, barely escaping the indiscriminate fire of the Blood Pact who mowed down dozens of civilians to try and hit them. Escaping into a side tunnel, Doyl almost ended up facing a whole squad of Blood Pact alone after Adare was wounded, but both Adare and Cardinale recovered in time to help him. Unfortunately, they were then ambushed by loxatl whose flechete blasters shredded both Adare and Doyl. Brin Milo and Nessa Bourah, the two other members of the team, managed to avoid notice in the firefight and did not suffer the same fate. Hiding out in Ouranberg's habs they were discovered by a pair of loxatl, but thanks to Nessa's powerful long-las and Milo's U90 cannon were able to kill both and escape ahead of the Blood Pact storming their building. Staying undiscovered, they got close enough for Nessa to make the first shot at Sagittar Slaith as he was preparing to sacrifice Cardinale, but neither her nor Larkin's shots were able to do more than knock down and bruise the Chaos warlord, who was wearing a personal shield. Literal chaos ensued, and Larkin was able to make a pinpoint shot that freed Bonin from his chains, allowing him to strangle the nearest Blood Pact trooper and take their weapon, which he used to free Jagdea and mow down more Blood Pact. Jagdea in turn freed the rest of Larisel 1, and Larisel 1 and 2 joined forces to stay alive in the furious fighting that followed as Imperial forces including the bulk of the Tanith stormed Ouranberg.[1g]
Despite the valiant efforts of the first three teams, Operation Larisel was ultimately completed by Larisel 4. Oan Mkoll had survived the explosion that destroyed his troop-ship and used his grav-chute to land on the mountainside below Ouranberg and the level of the toxic gas layer known as the Scald. Saved by his rebreather gear, Mkoll climbed hand-over-hand up the mountain and a refinery stack atop it, reaching one end of a long pipe that ran between the stack and the city. Edging along a support beam that ran alongside the pipe, Mkoll survived the perilous walk even after it began to rain and he was attacked by a local flying predator, though the latter incident almost made him fall. Reaching the city around the same time as the main assault began, he made his way right into the heart of Sagittar Slaith's command building, where the warlord retreated after being hit by Nessa and Larkin's shots. Attacking outright with his lasgun, Mkoll mowed down all of Slaith's Blood Pact officers but could not harm Slaith or his two loxatl bodyguards. However, when Slaith gloatingly pointed this out, Mkoll replied that his attack had just been a distraction and that his real method of killing the warlord was under the desk. Both loxatl opened fire on Mkoll but he leapt aside, and Slaith, going to investigate Mkoll's claim, found a bomb beneath the desk which promptly detonated, killing both loxatl and vaporising the Chaos warlord.[1g]
Aftermath
Sagittar Slaith's death had a profoundly demoralising effect on his Blood Pact forces, who lost the city to the Imperial assault. Colonel-commissar Gaunt made a point of seeking out and personally thanking each member of Operation Larisel who had survived, eventually fighting his way to Larisel 1 and 2 who had all survived, with only Cardinale dying of his wounds during the fight. Larisel 3 and 4 were all believed lost, but Tanith forces located Milo and Nessa on their rooftop shortly afterwards, for which Gaunt was profoundly grateful. The mystery of who had killed Slaith, however, was not solved until Imperial forces took the command palace and discovered Mkoll unconscious but alive in the rubble.[1g]
Sources
