After being flung out of the Starport, the fully loaded Transport Ships fired their engines one after another and vanished into space.
For this shipment, Leontus had specifically ordered Astartes reinforcements from different Chapters stationed aboard every ship. These demigods of the Imperium were to guard the cargo holds once loading was complete, then accompany the cargo down to the surface upon arrival to reinforce the Imperial forces.
Although many Astartes were curious and wanted to know exactly what they were escorting and what enemies they were guarding against,
Leontus had no idea how to explain it.
He could hardly tell them they had to stop the Adeptus Mechanicus from getting into the holds and causing a circus.
Still, every Astartes received an additional, special order: assist allied forces in the battles to come.
At the time, however, no one paid any attention to the meaning behind that instruction, nor did anyone consider that these so-called allies might not be the Astra Militarum or the Planetary Defence Force at all.
And so the Astartes aboard the Transport Ships all assumed they were escorting some mysterious, classified cargo, and stood vigilant guard at every cargo hold entrance.
When the Transport Ships reached the frontline battlefields, the beams flashing through space and filling the skies above the ground spoke of the brutality of the fighting.
The explosions and brilliant flashes that occasionally lit up space each signaled the destruction of a ship.
As the ships' cargo holds opened, enormous Transport Aircraft carried cargo containers straight toward the ground battlefields. By the time several Thunderhawks flew out of the holds, those strange transports were already almost out of sight.
On the ground, the Astra Militarum struggled to hold their lines, fighting the Tyranids swarming over every hill and valley with their blood and