Deploy Eagle: Kill Team

The sensorium was painted in green half light by hundreds of cogitator displays.  A polypheme of raw data and composite pict captures gave form to the hololith of the bridgehead at the epicenter of the chamber.  An adjunct approached the enthroned Lord General. "They are in position and stand ready M'lord".  He blinked.  The cascade of information fed to his cortex by the laurel of mechandrites receded.  All was silent, a hive bathed in amber, hanging on his word.  "Deploy Eagle"

Eagle assembled and ready to play some Kill Team.

Like many hobbyists I'm been excited by the incoming release of Kill Team.  As information is coming to light it seems that 40k will be getting a skirmish game in a style reminiscent of Necromunda which works for me because I had a lot of fun participating in the turf war with my Carnadon Queens.  Low model counts and fast paced gaming with a builder component tick the majority of boxes that work for me in a game but that's less than half of what piques my interest. 

Troopers with hellguns.

I've enjoyed the 40k universe since I first introduced to it back in Rogue Trader yet the weight of those years is rather light considering how rarely I have actually played.  Give me cool models to build, paint, and convert and some Dan Abnett stories and I'm a pretty easy beast to please.  I usually discover that the dice don't lend themselves to the heroic sagas I see playing in my head but, painting huge armies is like torture and probably a worse memory than most of my tabletop experiences. 

The sergeant and troopers with hellguns.

Small scale 40K skirmish means I can have what I like best and still participate.  I look forward to painting up multiple Kill Teams and getting some paint on models I think are just plain cool.  I admit to doing that anyway but this is an opportunity to actually do something with the finished figures other than having them collecting dust until the day I paint fifty of them.  I'm not holding my breath.  With Eagle ready to go I'd also like to paint up teams for the Dark Eldar, Night Lords, and even some Tyranids.  The former are a long time coming.  I've had the Space Hulk genestealers waiting for a purpose for ages and now with a little help from a lictor I can finally get them painted up and active.

Specialists with melta and plasma guns, and grenade launcher

Eagle are my way of returning to the Imperial Guard without getting bogged down in a hundred or more models.  The figures are all, excepting the sniper metal Kasrkin figures that I have been hoarding for years.  I like them so much because they manage to present as spec ops soldiers while still remaining firmly within the 40k universe.  Their kit is clearly top of the line but, for all the bells and whistles remain extensions to the ubiquitous Cadian pattern origins.  There is still another direction to go in while exploring the guard.  I imagine Eagle as faceless professionals who's character lies in presenting none.  At some point I may build a second guard kill team that is a homage to the Dirty Dozen or Schaffer's Last Chancers;  The kind of team where everyone has their own story.

Specialists with flamer and sniper rifle.

To guardmen serving in warzones across the Onomasti Sector Eagle are a legend.  The best of the best, the highly trained men in black are the bane of aliens and the heretics.  Their operations are the surgical strikes that allow the hammer of the Imperial war machine to fall.  Just the rumour of the squad entering theatre is often enough to lift spirits, and bolster the morale of troops on the ground.  The truth of Eagle is different than Command might have these soldiers believe. 

Advancing through the war-torn ruin of Euphrates Secundus.

Without a doubt Eagle operators are some of the most aggressively drilled and trained soldiers in the Imperium of Man.  Like the stormtroopers the majority are recruited from the most promising candidates the Schola Progenium has to offer.  Those that survive the training program become, "The Emperor's Firemen"  traveling from warzone to warzone supporting Imperial forces with their operations.  Attrition among Eagle operatives is terrifying.  Even the greatest of men are still only men.  Propaganda describes Eagle as a squad but the cadre numbers nearly two hundred; With just ten serving while others train and await their turn to put on the mask.  It is not unheard of for Eagle to appropriate personnel from regiments deployed in warzones they are assigned to.  While the cadre cross trains in simulated environments perpetually the value of an acclimatized veteran is not to be underestimated.  On the authority of the Lord General, no Regimental Commander can refuse.   

A heretic in his sights.

At the three minute mark the roar of bolter fire shattered the silence.  HUD sigils representing Eagles 4 and 6 went black.  Eagle 5 reported contacts and engaged.  Amid the din the brief answer of the hellgun made no sound, a stutter of light in the distance before Five went dark.  Traitor Astartes!  The cultist militia had offered small resistance, but Intelligence had neglected to mention this new threat.  Already his visor painted armoured contacts approaching.  Ahead of his position Eagle One and Three laboured over the last of the demo charges, requiring but a few precious seconds. A distraction.  He had no illusions.  Specialist Sul Kasutas, formerly of the 12th Artesian Grenadiers was going to  die.  Small consolation Eagle 2 was forever.  His knife was in hand before he landed on the first corrupted titan's back, a flash of silver arcing toward the vulnerable seal at the base its baroque gorget.  The fiend caught, then splintered his ceramite vambrace and forearm so swiftly he never felt the pain.  Stimm injectors in his combat harness nulled the wave of agony as the heretic's augmented voice rumbled in language too terrible to comprehend.  Kasutas felt his shoulder part as it wrenched him inexorably forward.  "Immortal", he bawled then spat in the traitor's face before releasing the spoon on the krak grenade that tore them apart.