"Sir, the swarm has begun attacking again. Our reserve fleet will need at least three more days to arrive."
Once again, a guardsman brought news that gave Leontus a headache.
To pursue the swarm and bring their fighting strength to bear more effectively.
Large numbers of Imperial ground troops had been deployed to several key planets to establish new bridgeheads.
The naval fleets, relieved of those troops, could also reduce their losses in battle.
Now, however, those tens of billions of Astra Militarum soldiers and the Space Marine forces had become a problem he could hardly abandon.
Successive defeats in space had steadily diminished their ability to keep the war effort running.
Troops on some planets had run so short of supplies that they had begun fighting the Tyranid Swarm hand to hand.
And with the swarm now holding the advantage, it would not give him a chance to evacuate those ground forces.
"My lord! Those mysterious allies have returned!"
A guardsman stumbled into the command room and shouted his report to Leontus, who had been deep in thought.
"The mysterious allies? Those mechanical ships?"
Leontus did not share Guilliman's many concerns about the Men of Iron. After all, the immediate problem was far more serious. If the swarm broke through their defensive line, its next advance might take it straight into the Segmentum Solar.
And the combat capabilities of these mysterious Men of Iron had genuinely impressed Leontus.
They handled their own supplies, needed no food, and fought autonomously. Efficient, swift, and precise.
Their efficiency was absurdly high compared with the sluggish deployments of the Departmento Munitorum.
When he had learned that these Men of Iron had disappeared into the Warp under attack from the tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan, Leontus had assumed they would become lost there or