and calling down the terrible wrath of the Astra Militarum upon this world once again . But even at a swift pace , the calamitously slow cogs of Imperial bureaucracy , and the ever-treacherous delays of Warp travel , meant that when the Emperor ’ s armies landed upon Montulax , they found a fortress primed to outlast a most terrible siege . As Imperial forces clashed with the rebel defenders , and the might of armament on both sides began to visit that same pockmarked ruination upon the world again , it became clear to those commanding the war that the collateral damage had grown beyond even what the Imperium would permit .
And so , remit of this siege was taken from the mortal warriors of the Astra Militarum , their failings recognised for the folly of mere men . Instead , the invasion of Montulax would be overseen by the Emperor ’ s Angels , the mighty warriors of the Adeptus Astartes ; soon , the Space Marines would come to Montulax .
***
Colonel Arctura Loft had found the order to halt their advance to be bittersweet ; she could not deny that Montulax ’ s defenders had turned the world into a fortress of such magnitude that her regiment , the Cadian 57th Light Infantry , had struggled to make any real headway without terrible losses . Day after day of urban siege warfare had taken its toll on the soldiers under her command , with injury and worse leaving the regiment ’ s makeshift field hospital overwhelmed with a variety of wounds ; the usual casualties from firefights were to be expected , scorched flesh from las-bolts and the comparatively subtle bloody messes left behind by primitive solid slug stubguns were a grim minority among the tent ’ s bloodstained canvas stretchers . More frequent by far were those cut down without even a chance to face their assailant , blasted by the same artillery pieces that this planet had once provided for the Imperium , or having been unfortunate enough to trip the innumerable cruel traps that their opponents had littered the abandoned hab-districts with .
Beyond the physical carnage wrought on her regiment , the effect these indirect losses were having on regimental morale was terrible ; the foe seemed ten steps ahead , unseen phantoms that cut down entire squads without the 57th having any opportunity for retribution . It seemed less like fighting an army , and more like trying to weather some inevitable storm of attrition . The regimental Commissar , a grim-faced man by the name of Styark , had done his best to stomp such talk out , but the political officer had confided in Loft that he dare not use the harshest of punishments for fear of shattering the 57th ’ s will to fight altogether .
There was no doubt then , that the regiment was in desperate need of relief ; Loft ’ s most trusted officers were clearly fatigued at every debrief , worn ragged from days active at a time as they did what they could to keep the battered 57th as a cohesive force . Even ordering them to rest did little to alleviate their exhaustion ; for some reason , even the most battle-hardened of the regiment seemed unable to sleep well under the constant bursts of the defender ’ s artillery . Throne damn them , it was like they ’ d forged the cursed things to unsettle us as much as butcher us , she mused . Indeed , there was something especially irritating about the off-kilter whistle and whine of the enemy ’ s big guns ; it was like you could never quite fall into a rhythm with the bursts and soaring shells , like a clock with a tick not quite in time with its tock .
So , she should ’ ve welcomed the chance to pull her decimated regiment from the forefront of this siege … But High Command , damn them , had only given the order to pull back once they ’ d started making progress . After near a month of
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