Since this pitiful rebellion had erupted, this was the first time the Loyalists and the rebels had gone to war on such equal footing.
In most previous battles, the despicable traitors had exploited gaps in information and time to stab their former comrades in the back. Isstvan III, Isstvan V, and the Shadow Crusade in the Ultima Segmentum had all been like this.
Yet once the Loyalists reacted, they had helplessly discovered that the initiative was already firmly in the traitors' hands. More often than not, they faced encirclement and annihilation by numerically superior enemy forces.
But today, in the Beta-Garmon Cluster, a grand and evenly matched war, for which both sides stood ready, was about to begin.
The commanders of the two sides—Warmaster Horus and Lion El'Jonson—had once both been candidates for the position of the Empire's supreme military commander.
Although the Emperor had favored his Sagittarius greatly, and the title of Warmaster had practically been reserved for Horus, the Lion had never been inferior to his brother.
In Lox's view, Jonson was inferior to the Wolf Lord only in matters outside war. In the pure domain of warfare, he might even have been stronger.
Now that he had an opportunity to confront Horus head-on, the Lion had exerted every ounce of his command and calculation abilities. He would prove to Horus that he had been the better candidate for Warmaster.
As if sensing Lion El'Jonson's fighting spirit, Horus's rebel forces arriving from the Pacificus Sector also began concentrating their strength around Beta-Garmon II and III.
They too wanted to swallow the Imperial forces gathered here in one bite. As long as Horus's rebels could annihilate the Imperial expeditionary fleet, the lone Imperial Fists, already below full strength, would never be able to stop Horus's vast army.
A week