As Ollanius Persson and his companions struggled through the ancient foundations of the Imperial Palace.
The war on the surface was developing in ways none of them could understand.
The orbital strikes had stopped.
No more beams or shells fell from space.
At Mortarion's command, the fleet in orbit had ceased its futile attacks.
All the Titans of the Firebee Legion and Sentinel Legion outside the Mercury Wall had returned to their hangars through the sortie gates.
Just as the overwhelming barrage all but blotted out the entire killing zone.
Sheltered beneath the immense void shields of the two Emperor Titans, Blazing Inferno and Exemplary.
Large numbers of loyalist defenders struggled back inside the Mercury High Wall.
Apart from forcing Glorious Flame to keep dodging amid fire and explosions, the succession of concentrated orbital bombardments had achieved nothing but a string of casualties among the loyalist troops attempting a counterattack.
Yet those gains were a mere fraction of the losses inflicted on their own forces caught in the blasts.
To destroy Glorious Flame utterly, this wave of orbital strikes had delivered an extraordinary concentration of firepower.
Yet far more rebels than loyalists remained in the killing zone.
Hundreds of Knights, more than a dozen armored formations, and millions of soldiers were reduced to ash beneath the bombardment.
Almost none of the Death's Head Titans attempting to flee survived.
Some Death's Head Titans even experienced the joy of flight for the first time.
Racing at astonishing speed, Glorious Flame snatched Warlord Titans and Reaver Titans from the ground, then hurled them precisely into the fire falling from the sky.
The "slender" bodies of the Reaver Titans could generally be thrown higher than the somewhat boxy, comparatively heavy Warlord Titans.
The instant a Reaver's princeps felt, through his neural link, an irresistible