Soon, Major Falletta of the 44th Artillery Company contacted the command center with word that the excavation site was in range and could be shelled at will. Fortunately for the prisoners, the aerial reconnaissance that fed back to the HQ had identified their presence and the artillery was told to stand down until the bulk of the civilians were clear of the area. Reconnaissance also revealed the presence of the portable Eldar gate that had been providing such a strategic advantage.
The Salamander scouts were the first to make contact with the Ravagers of the Pain’s Way. Heavy bolter fire rang out across the dunes ripping gaping holes in the Ravagers' armor plating and sending the exposed gunners’ bodies flying into the sand. Disintegrator fire returned from the Eldar pirates and cut into the lightly armored scout vehicles. Against the first attacks the dark kin stood their ground before regrouping tightly to meet the wall of steel that approached from the east.
Lascannons and light battlecannons punched through the Raider craft and their transported forces before many were able to disembark. Leman Russ Conquerors plowed through the Eldar lines, heedless of the danger, not wanting to break the momentum of their desert charge. But before the tank crews could celebrate the xenos resistance was reinforced by something entirely new. Two Dark Eldar Tormentor Titans sprang from a nearby section of canyon like spiders upon their prey. Metal shard-splinters cut Chimera armor to ribbons while heavy bladed appendages knocked tanks aside like a child amongst insects. Slower Leman Russ tanks crested the dunes above the canyon only to see that their enemy had come to meet them head on. Dark Lance fire blasted from all directions, puncturing steel and snapping treads. The ground forces weren't alone in their counter-strike as Razorwings appeared above the battlefield, cutting dagger like across the Minervan lines. Finally, the massive shadow of an Executor appeared from behind the canyons, blotting out the sun as it approached and showering a hail of splinter fire down upon the Imperial Guard as it approached; finally, the Dark Eldar had ceased their fluid raids and had turned at bay to fight.
Barely withstanding the punishing damage, General Sikir’s forces had managed to bring the Dark Eldar to battle in a dune covered valley before Digg's Canyon, no more than a mile from Dig Site 113. The general knew that the enemy could not wage a war of attrition with the Minervan Legion; barely a sixth of his main force was engaged so far, and the pirates were already hard- pressed to hold back the Imperial advance. Setting units of mechanised infantry and armor as a forward picket, Sikir called on his artillery to hammer the now-revealed Dark Eldar battle line, but Major Falletta's artillery would be calling for help before the first shell could be fired.
Mandrakes that had been stealthily lingering in the boulders of the rocky plateaus made their presence finally known by striking firmly at the artillery positions. Three companies of Stormtroopers rapidly answered distress calls from the gunners only to be caught in a crossfire from supporting Scourges. Five Valkyrie transports dove and crashed under the heavy lance fire, sending fifty Storm Troopers with them in comets of fire. Once on the ground, however, the surviving Storm Troopers took up defensive positions amongst the damaged artillery companies, their hellguns dropping the invaders in their tracks.
With little more than bladed weapons to defend themselves with and the element of surprise gone, the Mandrakes retreated from the artillery position and vanished into the desert again.
As the battle ground on, the Dark Eldar fought viciously against the Imperial advance, inflicting horrific losses but taking steady
losses in return. The Solitudo Custodis and its Reaver Titan support strode toward the battle with the best speed achievable but were beginning to encounter problems of their own. Every few minutes, Dark energy beams sliced through the atmosphere and struck the void shields of the mighty Titans. The god machines were undamaged, but their generators whined and screamed as the energy fields surrounding the Titans were drained, becoming weaker and weaker.
Communications could still not be established with the station in orbit or any other orbital assets; the evidence seemed to indicate the total loss of all Imperial craft and resources above Scarab. Time after time, the unmolested Dark Eldar space craft would strike down at the slow-moving Titans. Hours would go by in their march as their shields would steadily build up only to be fired upon again by the cowardly ships in orbit. The Princeps never showed his fear, but he silently mused on whether the Titans under his banner would be cut to pieces before they even reached the distant battle at Digg's Canyon.
On the front line, Sikir was finally able to assess the true strength of his enemy. From the belly of the hovering Executor, raiding vehicles and jet bikes of all configurations swept towards the battlefield in numbers far greater than the transport could ever carry. This huge transport seemed to be equipped with a portal presumably allowing instantaneous travel from an unknown distant location. The battlefield was a swarm of xenos activity as the light vehicles ducked behind dunes and rocks and popped up to pick at his tanks. Despite the thick armor of the Leman Russ, these Eldar weapons cut deep into their targets to shut down squad after squad. With treads sliced from their wheels, many of the crippled tanks took up static positions and acted as ad-hoc bunkers, sending a storm of bullets and explosive rounds into the air.
Raiders fell from the sky in scores as the grinding waves of Imperial reinforcements finally forced the Dark Eldar to retreat. Even the Tormentor Titans had taken heavy damage from the heedless charge of a Stormhammer tank company which had closed to minimum range before unleashing a hellish salvo of unmatched firepower, forcing the Tormentors back into the canyon. Shifting targets, the Stormhammers opened fire against the Coven formations that had taken refuge in the shifting terrain, easily uprooting them as demolisher cannons shot into the dunes, sending sand and body parts flying in all directions.
A second Executor support craft hovered into view above the canyon, maneuvered low to the ground and fired its main weapon
at the lead super-heavy tank. A hole burned through the thick armor like a flame through paper. When the beam reached the reactor, the noise of the explosion echoed against the Executor's underbelly as burning shrapnel flew in all directions. One large fragment cut through a Leman Russ gun turret and detonated the round inside. The crew crawled from the wreckage, horribly injured, quickly bleeding to death on the uncaring sand. Amidst the chaotic aftermath of the Stormhammer's destruction it became clear that the remaining dark kin had fallen back under the Executor's covering fire to Dig Site 113.