"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Hundreds of drop pods slammed into the outer industrial districts of the City of Hope like iron fists hurled down by the Emperor. The tremendous impacts gouged deep craters into the ground, instantly flattening the surrounding Gretchin buildings.
The hatches blew open, and Iron Fist Space Marines in black-and-yellow armour strode out with heavy footfalls. The Boltguns in their hands began to roar in fury, tearing the terrified Gretchin workers and the production lines behind them to pieces.
At the other end of the city, across a broad stretch of open ground, the 88th Cadian Regiment rapidly established a beachhead under cover from Chimera infantry fighting vehicles and Leman Russ main battle tanks.
"For Cadia!" A Commissar drew his Chainsword and stood atop a tank, roaring, "Unleash our fury upon these wretched Orks!"
Meanwhile, holy flames engulfed the area around the Pulpit in the central square, that symbol of the Big Boss's authority.
The Sisters of Battle flickered in and out of sight amid the flames. Singing hymns in praise of the Emperor, they reduced every "heretic" who tried to approach to charcoal with their flamethrowers and Meltaguns. One of their leaders, her saintly face alight with fanatical devotion, swung an enormous Sacred Flame Hammer. A single blow drove a charging Vanguard mech to its knees, and the intense heat instantly melted its cockpit.
"Purify! Purify all blasphemy!"
From the outset, the Imperium's offensive displayed overwhelming force. Three armies drove into the flesh of the City of Hope like three red-hot branding irons.
The resistance they encountered was initially scattered and feeble. Before the Space Marines' precise gunfire, the tanks' crushing advance, and the Sisters' flames, Gretchin recruits who had only just taken up weapons fell in swathes like dead leaves swept away by an autumn wind.