Vulkan realized his opponent was wearing him down with a relay of fighters.
His warhammer smashed apart pieces of the Ork Meks, giving him a clear view of their cockpits. The Weirdbosses inside varied in strength, but every one of them was at least on the level of a Chapter's Chief Librarian.
Psyker power and flames ran wild, while bullets from the Orks' Giant Iron Shootas filled the battlefield.
Whenever an Ork Mek unleashed a powerful psychic attack, psychic energies of every color poured madly from the cracks in its frame.
Frankly, Vulkan's resistance to psychic attacks was not particularly strong. But the son of the Fire Dragon used his Primarch's speed and strength to crush the Orks' smaller assaults outright, forcing them to concentrate their power into larger psychic attacks.
The Expeditionary Force was in poor shape. Their calculations showed that they had to end the battle within three hours, or the sheer number of Ork boarders would leave the Phalanx unable to control the situation inside the fortress. The destruction of the Phalanx was utterly unacceptable.
The Imperial Fists' Third Company Captain urged the other forces onward. They had finished deploying the Forbidden Weapon, and their "conventional" cannons had blasted a vast hole in the Battle Moon. They were ready to launch; the other forces had to complete their missions as quickly as possible.
With that, several fighter squadrons swiftly deployed, circling the airspace above the hole in the Battle Moon to provide covering fire. A silver missile shot out from beneath the Phalanx, heading straight for the Battle Moon.
Normally, the Orks could have stopped this attack. Now, however, the Battle Moon below was on the verge of collapse.
The three Weirdbosses guarding it were all gravely wounded.
Did anyone think fighting Vulkan was easy!? Surviving at