Heglas Hive Outskirts

Ten kilometers ahead of Heglas Hive, over a million Astra Militarum soldiers had formed a ring of defenses around the hive city to resist the Ork invasion.

A hive city.

Private Joseph had just slotted a standard ballistic plate into place before him. He sat resting atop a small mound of dirt dug up in the temporary trench to serve as a footrest. He adjusted his gas mask so its poor fit would not numb his face from squeezing it too tightly. The sealed protective suits, heavy trench coats, gloves, and masks wrapped every soldier from head to toe, leaving not a scrap of skin exposed.

As a heavy industrial world that manufactured vast quantities of equipment for the Imperium, Armageddon's land beyond the hive cities had long been deeply contaminated by industrial wastewater. The toxic fumes in the air could corrode the lungs of anyone without a mask into a puddle of blood within three minutes.

Joseph gripped his Lasgun tightly, feeling that the whole situation was utterly insane.

Those green-skinned Orks had broken through the planet's orbital defenses with unstoppable force. Countless pieces of metal debris glowed a searing red as they scraped through the atmosphere, like the fiery rain described in old legends.

These balls of metallic scrap crashed down all across the planet without the slightest concern for accuracy. One after another, they smashed through the towering spires formed by hive-city buildings. The massive ruins of those structures collapsed helplessly into the lower levels amid explosions, crushing everything beneath them and creating even more chaos and destruction.

God-Emperor above, those damned nobles and officials must have died in droves. The thought brought heartfelt joy to Joseph, a soldier conscripted from a mining factory in the lower hive. Countless creatures leaped from those metal spheres, with gaping maws, ragged iron armor, and crude guns whose ammunition did not even match their calibers. Emperor knew how those Orks had survived such unbuffered impacts, but the shoddy firearms that even the poorest gangsters would scorn had absurdly loud reports and unimaginable destructive power.

Under the leadership of his sergeant, Joseph had been fortunate enough to help surround and eliminate a group of Orks slaughtering hive residents. When he picked up one of their oversized guns, covered in bandages and welding holes, and carefully inspected the contents of its chamber and magazine—

They were nothing but random bits of junk stuffed inside, vaguely shaped like bullets. Their diameters varied, their lengths differed, and some did not even have stable primers. Yet the Orks shoved this garbage into their magazines and somehow fired it perfectly through their barrels, shredding rows of soldiers in body armor to pieces.

Now, the hive city's cleansing operation had been over for quite some time. The administrators and military officials had hurriedly sent them to this polluted, poisonous land to dig trenches and reinforce the line with metal plates that appeared to have been torn from homes in the lower hive.

Joseph felt that he probably would not survive the battle ahead. On the way here in a Chimera armored transport, he had seen plenty of powerful artillery pieces such as Basilisks and Manticores. His comrades also had quite a few quadruple heavy mortars and autocannons held in reserve.

But as a soldier positioned on the very front line, he would not only have to endure the fiercest enemy assaults—he might also have to withstand the "warm" artillery support from friendly forces behind him.

With that thought, Joseph lowered his head and looked at a similarly dressed comrade beside him. Their eyes met beneath their protective goggles, and each saw in the other a careless resignation and despair in the face of death.

"Hey. For the Emperor, right?"

The man across from Joseph raised a hand toward him, his voice muffled through his glove. Joseph high-fived the soldier he did not know, using the gesture to ease his tense nerves.

"For the Emperor, brother."

"Here they come! Prepare for battle!" A thunderous voice rang out from another part of the position. Joseph knew it was his bio-modified officer, who had specially installed an adjustable loudspeaker in his throat so he could issue commands with that enormous roar on the battlefield or in training camp.

He adjusted the helmet on his head and stood atop the level dirt mound where he had been sitting, watching the distant movement through the gap between two ballistic metal plates. The enormous clouds of dust kicked up by running feet and vehicles resembled a naturally formed sandstorm, magnificent in scale. He could even feel the trench he leaned against trembling faintly. There had to be a great many of those green-skinned savages, and they had to be huge.

As several flashes of explosions blossomed within the dust storm, the green tide surged into the minefield laid earlier. To ensure the hive city's defense and the stability of the line, the officers had not bothered to leave any passageways through the mines. They had simply buried every mine they could find in a ring around the defensive line. Still fearing there were not enough, they had violently requisitioned more improvised explosives from hive gangs and buried those as well.

Fireballs of varying sizes shot into the sky. The black smoke they produced mixed with the rising dust, making the sky before Joseph even more dreadful.

"Prepare for bombardment!"

Another roar slammed into Joseph's ears. He hurriedly ducked into the trench. He had no intention of being wounded by his own side in the first barrage.

At positions several kilometers away, neatly lined Basilisks, Manticores, and soldiers operating heavy mortars and howitzers created a thunderous symphony. Thousands of shells tore through the air over Joseph's head and crashed into the minefield the Orks were crossing.

The explosions completely drowned out the Orks' roars, leaving only the ground trembling beneath the blasts and the frontline soldiers battered by the shockwaves. The relentless bombardment also drew an Ork counterattack. Louder cannon fire erupted from their side, and even more shells came flying in.

The Ork shells trailed black smoke that spoke of substandard industrial quality, drifting crookedly into every corner of the positions. They probably did not care. They simply fired because they were there, without the slightest artillery trajectory calculation.

After wiping the steaming mud splashed across his goggles, Joseph could clearly feel that the Orks' barrage was fiercer than his own army's. It had no accuracy whatsoever, but the unceasing shockwaves still rattled his lungs and organs with pain.