The lunar orbit, engulfed in war, was choked with smoke. Even with the thin air, the shock waves were greatly diminished in the absence of a breathable atmosphere, but Frix still felt a wave of scorching wind slam into his Power Armour.
Even without optical equipment, the Iron Warriors Space Marines could see the enormous portal above the orbit, endlessly spewing out steel warships, thanks to their superhuman, terrifying eyesight.
The Ultramarines, the Night Lords, the Death Guard, the World Eaters, and the Blackwatch—the especially despicable lot who liked to lurk at a distance and take potshots.
The Luna Fortress, battered by repeated attacks, was already in ruins. The Iron Warriors stationed there had no choice but to resort to guerilla warfare to hold back the Second Imperium rebels who kept springing up out of nowhere.
But Luna wasn't Isstvan. As the first world reclaimed after the Unification Wars, Luna had always served as the Imperium's biological laboratory. And, in another world, it had played the same role.
As a true biological Big Mek, Hogg was probably more familiar with Luna than any other place in the Solar Segmentum besides Holy Terra. He could find his way through the maze of passages hidden beneath the rock with his eyes closed, and his Blackwatch had made the place their second home.
As the encirclement gradually tightened, Frix, captain of the Iron Warriors' First Company's First Squad, had been fighting a guerilla war in the tunnels. He realized that no matter how they ambushed the enemy, the black-armoured traitors always saw through them. In the end, they were stripped naked, captured, bundled up, and stuffed into a huge incubation pod.
"Better to die than suffer humiliation!"
Frix was an Iron Warrior, but he wasn't some rigid old-schooler. He liked to connect to