After paying the heartbreaking price of nearly a thousand Astartes casualties, the Imperial forces finally leveraged their overwhelming firepower and thick armour to force their way to the edge of the enormous fortress city.
Inside the fortress city lay a vast labyrinth of shattered walls, twisted reinforcement bars, and collapsed towering buildings. For the invaders, it was hell; for Viola's defenders, it was their hunting ground.
Using their familiarity with every inch of terrain, they fought the Imperial troops pouring into the city in brutally savage battles for every building. Every brick and stone here might have been tampered with, and every shadow might conceal a gun barrel.
Every corner could be a one-way ticket to the Emperor's Throne.
"Open the door!"
A warrior of the Iron Hands Chapter brought his mechanical arm surging into action and kicked open the door of a seemingly unremarkable home.
What greeted him was not a crowd of terrified civilians, but twelve gun barrels aimed straight at the doorway.
"Zzzzt-"
Without a word, more than a dozen high-energy plasma bolts slammed into his face at once. His heavily augmented, immensely durable body became a burning honeycomb in an instant. Even as he fell, his electronic eyes were still frantically flashing red error signals.
Elsewhere, a squad of Lamenters was clearing the ruins of an administrative building being used as a firing position.
"Just dust. No sign-"
Before the Scout could finish, a faint click came from beneath his feet.
Ingeniously concealed beneath the thick rubble was a linked high-pressure mine. The violent explosion instantly engulfed the entire floor, blasting the squad and every piece of cover around them into the air.
The war became a fight to the death, advancing inch by inch, trading blood for ground.
Here, the tactical expertise the Astartes prided