The advance

The force of several thousand quickly deployed under the direction of Commissars at every level and their Company commands.

The Cruiser had originally been carrying out nothing more than a transport mission for the Ultramarines, and had no heavy weapons aboard.

Even the Mortals present were actually Imperial Navy armed personnel temporarily playing the part of the Astra Militarum.

Their defensive equipment and offensive weaponry were astonishingly scarce.

Their only large weapons were a handful of armed Tauros transports.

The one advantage, however, was that no cover remained anywhere in this Ork camp.

As long as they skirted the huge craters blasted out by the Macro-cannons, they could head straight for the War Factory, which already looked partially melted.

None of the Transport Shuttles or Thunderhawks returned to the ship after deploying their ground troops.

Once the ground troops secured the War Factory, the Tech-Priests mixed into their ranks would immediately begin searching for materials and loading them aboard.

Even patching the lower hull enough to let the Gellar Field form properly would count as completing the mission.

The Ultramarines formed up and began advancing behind the Tauros transports, while the Navy soldiers cautiously followed farther back.

Truth be told, it had been a long time since they had fought in such wide-open terrain.

Still, thanks to their standard tactical training, no major problems arose.

There were just the occasional soldiers who fell into the scorching bombardment craters because of formation issues.

The Tauros transports handled rough terrain well. With the shock waves having leveled the ground completely, they advanced at considerable speed.

The metal perimeter walls, melted by the intense heat and then solidified again, still radiated scorching heat, but that did not stop the transports from plunging inside over the slopes formed by the melted walls.

Their mounted