Beware and tremble in your space-boots, galaxy defenders, for the Eye of Chaos (and my other eye both) have been going distinctly myopic in its efforts to paint chaos marine after chaos marine, and unleash their fury upon the galaxy!
 Having completed my first squad of nasty evil destroyers of all that is insufficiently mutated, I of course put 'em immediately on board an intergalactic space cruiser to go massacre some xenos - and what should pop up on the space-a-scope but a backwater Tau colony where the Tau Empire were exploiting the natural resources while teaching the native Lizardmen the rudiments of civilisation.
Their peace-loving ways would not stand! Under the command of a mighty Sorcerer, the forces of Chaos poured forth into the swamps, gunning down numerous natives and small animals along the way.
Their charge soon faltered and turned into irritated slogging, however. For all the joy of machine-gunning primitives and levelling their thatched-roof cottages with demolition charges, the swamp closed in thickly around them and the marines' fervour for killing soon turned to pure disgust for this world and its occupants.
Where were all the Tau?
 As if in answer, the foliage parted to reveal a multitude of Tau gathering in small sniper groups, staying well out of range of attack as they levelled their high-powered weaponry at the foliage.
"ENEMIES!" roared one Marine, mere moments before an unseen stealth drone's railgun blew off his head. This was all the encouragement any of the others needed. Thunderous war cries went up, the Icon of Nurgle was hefted, and marines poured out of the bracken marsh in a mass of rage and chainswords - only to find a river blocking their way!
A hail of gunfire awaited them, the high-pitched sound of Tau longrifles ringing out again and again as the aliens coolly reloaded, took aim and fired round after round into the mass of heavily armoured marines. Bullets ringing off their Chaos armour, the Marines responded in kind, leaving several Tau shot to pieces on the opposite shore. Gritting their teeth in anger at being stuck on the other side, the Marines soaked an army's worth of munitions as they began to wade across. The ripple of a stealth field wavered as the hidden railgun drones fired again, leaving more of the marines dead in the water.
Losing patience, the icon bearer flung his standard to another Marine and hefted his plasma gun. In a mad rage, he cranked it up to maximum power and fired it at the Tau. Its casing superheated in an instant, the electronics went haywire, and the weapon exploded, killing him instead.
 Grimly, the marines pressed on. As they were about to reach the other shore, their assailants leapt into a hover-transport and flew away, leaving the marines trudging helplessly while stealth drones took turns sniping them with railguns, and other Tau hid out in and behind buildings, not daring to even show their faces.
Finally, the Chaos Sorcerer drew upon the energies of the Warp to open a gateway to the nether realms, drawing on the power of the Gods to summon an army of the living dead. Animated by a fell daemonic will, the skeletal warriors came leaping from the air itself and fell upon the cornered stealth drones, utterly destroying them.
Together, both groups then poured into the native village wherein the Tau hid cravenly, more stealth drones and the transport gunship laying down withering fire as the marines continued to advance.
One by one, the marines fell, their grim daemonic champion driving them forward with threatening sweeps of his crackling power-claw. Without warning, the Tau artillery was supplemented with a trio of Crisis suits, the massive robotic warriors using their jetpacks for rapid hit-and-run tactics the marines could do nothing about. Their rapid-fire bursts and plasma attacks left several marines dead and dying, the combined Tau onslaught thinning the unit considerably.
 Ordering his undead minions forward, the sorcerer narrowed his eyes and called once more upon the power of the Chaos Gods. Drawing on the irresistible seductive power of his patron, the Daemon Lord Slaanesh, he seized hold of the minds of the cowardly Tau raiders and forced them group by group to come out of hiding, exposing themselves to attack from the marines and his skeletal fiends. Crackling with the raw energies of the Nexus, the skeletons' weapons sheared quickly through Tau and battlesuit alike, slaughtering their way through the ranks indiscriminately.
The incessant fire of the stealth drones and hovertank had claimed the lives of most of the marines, however, leaving only a couple of marines besides the massive, daemonic aspiring champion and the Chaos sorcerer himself. Mired in the swamp once more and losing men fast, the unit was abandoned by its Sorcerer, who joined his skeletal army as it rampaged forward to claim more Tau lives.
Overwhelmed, the Tau crisis suits fell back to protect the stealth drones still sniping marines from atop their high perch on a native pyramid. Falling back did them no good, however, as their minds were putty in the hands of the cruel Slaaneshi conjurer. Their bodies betrayed them, driving their suits directly into the path of their attackers, and the undead horde fell upon them, leaving them broken on the ground.
As the skeletons swarmed up the pyramid, dealing with the last of the railguns, the aspiring champion implacably pursued the Tau hovertank, its rapid-fire weapons and gun drones shredding his armour with high-powered bullets without managing to halt his inexorable advance. Pressing forward, one step after the other, only the sheer weight of the gunfire slowing him down, he fired one plasma blast after another from his pistol, shrugging off even the barely-contained explosions of raw plasma fire as he pursued the skimmer on its constant rapid-firing retreat.
Set upon, the transport disgorged its complement of Tau, the survivors of the marines' earlier shooting-spree. This proved a poor stratagem as, having destroyed the last gun-drones, skeletal fiends swarmed around the rapid-firing Tau and mercilessly slaughtered them, despite the ranged support they were receiving from a distant group of Tau up in a building.
 The transport, surrounded by enemies, blasted hot steam from its vents and took off, flying to reinforce the Tau left in the building. Together, the aspiring champion and sorcerer led the remaining skeletons in a death-march at the fortified position, with the sorcerer once more using the compelling power of his magic to draw his enemies out into the open.
As the skeletons prepared to lay into them, however, the Tau transport landed in front of the remaining warriors and the crew immediately dragged them aboard in their stupour. Rescued, the Tau took off in their hovertank, safe there from the psychic machinations of the sorcerer, but still pursued by both of the enemy leaders, an army of skeletal horrors at their back.
A frantic chase across the swamps ensued, with skeletons dropping left and right as the aspiring champion pumped plasma rounds repeatedly into the tank.
Refusing to even slow down, the Tau nevertheless could not evade forever: in the dense marshes, the marines caught up. Ordering the charge, the aspiring champion was suddenly gunned down by a strafing barrage as the retreating Tau gunship disgorged its complement of warriors and swerved to fire its main guns upon the pursuing Chaos forces.
Undeterred, the sorcerer and his few remaining skeletal minions set to the slaughter, detonations of lightning tearing Tau troopers apart as they fought tooth and nail against the merciless attacks of the undead.
Finally, when all his foes had been butchered, with a single skeleton warrior remaining, the Chaos sorcerer turned in pursuit of the transport, which gunned its engines, jetting away at a dangerous pace with its back-door yawning open. Imbued with the speed of Slaanesh, the sorcerer and his minion crossed the gap to the hovertank in the blink of an eye, before its had a chance to escape.
For a split-second, the vehicle crew thought they'd got away... and then they saw a single skeletal hand, still holding on in the doorway. The unarmed crew shrank away as the hand drew up the entire horrific form of a skeleton warrior onto the transport.
The creature drew its rusty blades with a disturbing rictus grin.
Shrill screams marked the end of the battle. | 
For the Chaos Gods!
RJorb: Fantastic work there Grub, the marines are looking amazing.
GrubLord: Thanks, my dear Jorbyman. Believe it or not, all ten of the guys you haven't seen yet were done in one long unbroken assembling & painting session.
teh_saq: Lookîng greaŧ Lîv, ŧhe Sorcerer's sword ŀooks especîaŀŀÿ boss. Love ŧhe baŧrep ŧoo, fanŧasŧîc wrîŧîng as üsüaŀ ŧhoügh I'm a ŀîŧŧŀe püżżŀed aboüŧ ŧhe presence of skeŀîngŧons?
Ash: I believe the skellies were deep striking daemons. The models for those are not done yet, I think.
