Above Pluto's orbit.
With the Imperial Fists having withdrawn and pulled back their space forces, the orbital airspace and those star fortresses had fallen under rebel control.
Densely packed warships flooded into the region. The combined Sons of Horus and Iron Warriors fleet sought to seize the Gemini Gates as quickly as possible and establish sufficiently solid beachheads on the two planets.
Little Horus Aximand and Perturabo had both issued harsh orders for war: victory at any cost.
The Iron Warriors traitors in particular attacked the star fortresses guarding the Gates of Hades and Elysium with bloodshot madness.
Their old and new hatred for the Imperial Fists filled them with fury.
The Iron Warriors demonstrated their vaunted siege-breaking prowess, using warship firepower to crush the star fortresses' void shield defenses before boarding the war bastions.
Saduran was one of the Iron Warriors assigned to assault and destroy the Cerberus satellite fortress. He was also one of the few veterans who had served in the Legion for more than a year.
Many of the battle-brothers accompanying him on the mission were newly created rapid-recruitment troops.
These recruits, rushed through surgical augmentation and gene-seed implantation, had no time to learn how to fight.
They were issued weapons and equipment salvaged from the dead, then subjected to hypnotic training through brainwashing and drugs, with a few basic combat techniques forcibly drilled into them.
Then, led by a small number of "veterans," they were sent to the battlefield.
Because Iron Warriors gene-seed had an exceptionally high compatibility rate, practically anyone could be augmented. That was why Perturabo had an endless stream of recruits to squander.
Saduran led his squad with difficulty into the satellite fortress beneath their feet. Two Iron Warriors had died during the boarding operation, smashed into pulp by rapidly drifting space