In the Void, the passage of time seemed warped by the gravity of stars, diluted by the tides of the Warp.
Months passed in a flash amid the mighty expeditionary fleet's precise Navigation, repeated brief Warp jumps, and battles.
Guided by the will of their Primarch, Lorgar Aurelian, the Word Bearers Legion's expedition drove like a warhammer tempered through countless trials, cleaving through the fog and advancing unhindered toward the lost corners of the galaxy shrouded in the shadow of xenos.
When the immense, mountain-like prow of the Gloriana-class Battleship Law of Faith burst across the boundary between reality and unreality with the entire expeditionary fleet, appearing at the edge of the Tians Star System, it signified far more than the arrival of a warship.
It was an indisputable declaration of human civilization, a beacon calling lost brethren back into unity, and a merciless judgment upon every nonhuman species.
Its arrival heralded the return of humanity's glory, followed by the Imperium's order of iron and blood.
The Star System's third planet, Tians Prime, lay beneath the dark clouds of war.
Ominous black smoke spread across several regions of the once-blue planet's surface. In Orbit floated the wrecks of several strangely shaped xenos ships, their cold metallic sheen bearing witness to the hopelessly uneven resistance that had taken place here.
In low Orbit, a small silver xenos fleet, its technology clearly superior to that of the local defenders, circled like vultures, continually sending landing capsules down to the planet's surface while delivering precise, brutal strikes against the remaining defenses.
On the planet's surface, across a war-ravaged plateau strewn with scorched earth and shattered ruins, the surviving Tians defenders clung desperately to their final defensive line.
Their weapons seemed hopelessly primitive beside the enemy's, and their courage was being worn away, bit