The veil over the Nachmund Gauntlet was torn open. The massive hull of the Macragge's Honour led the vast formation of the Indomitus Crusade fleet through the warp, arriving at the crucial strategic node—Vigilus.
Yet what greeted Guilliman and every officer and soldier in the fleet was not an orderly Imperial fortress awaiting their takeover, but a blazing crucible of Chaos that had plunged completely into madness!
The cold data from orbital scans and Calgar's urgent battle report instantly painted a hellish picture of the planet:
The underhive abyss: The lower hive districts spreading beneath the planet like cancerous blood vessels had been utterly occupied and twisted by the Genestealer Cults. Deformed, mutated human followers and purer Genestealer descendants surged like a filthy tide, madly digging tunnels and corroding structures, turning the colossal hives into grotesque breeding grounds for the Four-Armed Emperor. Piercing shrieks and blasphemous prayers crackled through the communications interference, chilling the soul.
The upper hive: The Chaos Raptors led by Harken Worldclaimer had launched a preemptive assault. Great numbers of hive nobles, Astra Militarum high command, and Adeptus Mechanicus priests had been slaughtered. Harken had even arrogantly declared that he would take Vigilus within eighty days and offer it to Chaos Warmaster Abaddon as a trophy.
The hive streets: Different Chaos warbands were cooperating with Abaddon's war plan, wantonly harvesting human souls and blocking the reinforcements of Imperial warriors.
The outer mining regions: Chaos Warmaster Abaddon himself was leading the main force of the Black Legion in frenzied destruction of the planet's precious Blackstone deposits! More troubling still, they were deploying some kind of mysterious, enormous device within the mine's core area.
Hunters in the shadows: Ghostlike Drukhari raiding fleets prowled along the edges of the battlefield. They did not intervene in the main battle on a