The Chaos Daemon Host Descends

"The attack by those Iron Warriors dog bastards has started to fall apart. That's obviously good news."

"Their allies betrayed them too. Betrayers would always be betrayed. I wonder how ugly Perturabo's expression is right now."

"For the Emperor! As long as we hold on, our reinforcements will soon reach Terra and trap Horus and his traitor allies between two fronts, crushing them for good!"

Jeremiah Blitz lay prone inside the scorching fortress cover, shouting to the Solar Auxilia around him.

Though he had always claimed to be an unlucky man, he was practically luck incarnate. Nearly half a month had passed since he and his Solar Auxilia brothers had fought the Death Guard.

It was difficult to describe just how brutal this horrifying siege had been. Forget the Solar Auxilia—even the more elite Astartes units had been wiped out formation by formation.

The Solar Auxilia were used as militia, the Astartes as Solar Auxilia, and Titan war engines as Knight suits. That was the best description of this meat-grinder war.

The comrades at his side had been replaced over and over. Even among the old subordinates who had once followed him on adventures, few remained. Jeremiah had been tempered quickly in this unimaginably brutal war, and his rank had soared like a rocket.

He was now a combat company commander in the 177th Solar Auxilia Regiment. Any veteran who survived a battle would generally rise one rank with every engagement endured.

The mutants and beastmen deployed onto the surface when the war began had long since died to the last. Their flesh and blood had fused with Terra's soil, and no one could tell whether what lay in the earth was ash or gravel.

The main forces on the battlefield now were the mortal auxilia of the traitor legions,