For the first time, Zelanis's new Imperial technology bared its savage, efficient fangs before the world.
When the Dawn expeditionary fleet began its assault, everyone who witnessed it was stunned to the core.
Attacking the Ork lines was the Iron Fist battlegroup, led by Alcato and composed of the Imperial Fists, the Iron Hands, and several Penitent Legions.
Every Macro-cannon shot from the orbital warships struck the largest, loudest war machines in the Ork formations with pinpoint accuracy. Gargants, Kill Tanks, and Battlewagons-the steel behemoths that had plagued the Astra Militarum-were excised one by one with surgical precision in the first salvo.
Then came the airborne assault.
Tens of thousands of Astartes clad in hybrid Power Armour made with memory ceramite slammed into the disordered Ork ranks like meteors falling from the sky.
The weapons in their hands baffled every Imperial commander watching the battle. They were Storm Mk-III Gauss Impact Rifles, shaped like Boltguns but sounding more like air being torn apart.
There were no muzzle flashes, no gunsmoke.
Only streaks of silent green lightning.
Wherever a bolt of lightning passed, an Ork and its heavy scrap-metal armour were erased at the molecular level, leaving only a small pile of dark ash.
Meanwhile, in orbit, another equally astonishing battle was unfolding.
Facing Abaddon's vast, chaotic black fleet, the Dawn expeditionary fleet displayed extraordinary tactical discipline and technological superiority.
Their warships were covered by nearly invisible energy barriers known as Ghost Void Shields. The countless lance beams and shells fired by the Chaos Fleet struck those shields as though they had plunged into jelly, slowing drastically before an invisible force twisted and deflected them into the empty depths of space.
"What... what sorcery is this?!"
Harken, the Word Bearer and champion of Slaanesh, stood on the bridge of his flagship,