The footage cut off there.
Cold sweat instantly soaked Shadowsun's back.
At last, she understood.
This was no accident. This was a trap. An enormous, vicious trap that encompassed the entire battlefield!
The seemingly fragile Imperial Guard had become a jungle littered with steel traps.
What had begun as a one-sided hunt had become a nerve-racking gamble-you never knew how many Astartes reapers, disguised as mortals, might be lurking among the next targets you attacked!
The T'au raiding forces suffered devastating losses on an unprecedented scale.
Overnight, the roles of hunter and prey had been completely reversed.
"The time has come."
Aboard the orbital flagship, Saul watched the icons representing the T'au raiding forces wink out or fall silent one after another on the tactical display. He knew the operation to clear the perimeter was complete.
Now it was time to unsheathe the true blade.
"Order the Iron Hands Chapter's Land Raider formations to take the vanguard and form an armoured spearhead."
"Order the Warlord Titan Imperial Fists to deploy to the surface."
"Order every Imperial Guard artillery position to lay down a continuous creeping barrage on the designated targets. I want you to plough every inch of ground between us and the T'au capital!"
"Order the main force of the Sons of Sorrow Chapter to launch an all-out assault as the central strike group!"
Order after order issued from Saul's mouth, resounding like thunder throughout the Expeditionary Force.
After days of silence, the Imperium's great war beast finally unleashed an earth-shaking roar.
On the horizon of Dal'yth Prime, a storm of steel and fire was brewing.
Dozens of Land Raider tanks from the Iron Hands Chapter formed an unstoppable wedge of steel. Their thick armour shrugged off the sporadic return fire from the T'au positions, while their massive twin-linked