This was only a very small part of it.
Running into Hatutàn had been pure dumb luck. Cast the net wide enough, and sooner or later, they would catch someone.
With Hatutàn's intelligence, the fleet groups began moving.
The Light of the People barely stopped, attacking all the way. Against some Chaos-corrupted opponents, the flagship did not even conceal its movements. It appeared, opened fire, and disposed of them as quickly as possible.
Its route had been perfectly planned. The Light of the People made a wide circuit through the chaotic front lines. Rogue Traders were not its only targets; weaker xenos fleets also came under attack and suffered devastating losses. But every species had its own way of escaping. Some strange extradimensional jumps baffled even the Techmarine who had eaten a Haemonculus.
The surrounding xenos were squeezed to a certain point, then forced into an alliance to resist the human Expeditionary Force's invasion.
They agreed to attack the Expeditionary Force from several directions. The absolute destruction wrought by the Iron Hands Expeditionary Force intimidated most xenos, but a few generals with strategic foresight saw an opportunity.
The enemy's destruction had been too thorough. They surely could not have fully rebuilt their rear supply lines. Once the xenos broke through the blockade imposed by the enemy's frontline armies and penetrated the Imperial Expeditionary Force's rear, those scorched planets would offer its supply lines no protection.
Cut off the supplies, and the front would collapse. The xenos could then pursue and slaughter them, driving the Expeditionary Force, which lacked system-wide defensive hubs, all the way back to where the war had begun.
Wouldn't that effectively drive out the weaker xenos while helping the stronger ones consolidate and expand their territories?
So while the Crimson Tide and Raven Scions penetrated deep behind