The Adeptus Mechanicus ships were in grave danger. The enormous Nova Cannons aboard three Fire Ships opened fire, but still failed to relieve the beleaguered Fire Ship. They did, however, drive the Dark Mechanicum ships back again and again.
Nova Cannons had been introduced before: immensely powerful weapons firing enormous shells at tremendous speed. One hit overloaded a Dark Mechanicum ship's Void Shields, forcing the enemy to hurriedly bring its reserve shields online amid the ion wind vented by the cooling shield systems.
Meanwhile, aboard the Mechanicus ship under attack, determined resistance from the Skitarii prevented the Iron Warriors from quickly seizing the enemy reactor and command centre.
"Morgen, take the assault squad in."
The Iron Warriors generally issued no orders during battle unless something happened that deviated from their battle plan.
The Iron Warrior named Morgen said nothing more and led his squad in a charge. Most of these warriors looked perfectly normal, apart from the extra skulls hanging at their waists as trophies to flaunt their strength.
Beneath their armour, however, all of them had suffered some degree of Warp corruption.
Take the big warrior charging at the front: his abnormally enormous left hand held a large assault shield, while his right kept firing his Bolter.
His left hand had actually mutated under Warp corruption. Almost insensitive to pain and extraordinarily resilient, it was probably a gift from Nurgle. His hand was embedded in the shield itself, and attacks that penetrated the shield were stopped by that enormous hand without a hitch.
The warrior usually concealed his mutated hand behind his great shield. Others were more extreme. It was said that the Iron Warriors serving directly under their Primarch simply cut off their Warp-corrupted flesh.
Morgen followed behind the big warrior, providing covering fire.
Almost as soon as