Cassius by Ben Counter

Author:Ben Counter
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2016-04-20T14:02:15+00:00

Chapter Six

The armoured strike force of the combined Third and Fifth Companies had made good time from the landing zone over the western desert towards Harienza. Towards the coast the land was flat and sun-baked, the perfect terrain for tracked vehicles. They entered the forested scrubland that surrounded the city while the sun was up, though thanks to the ever-increasing spore clouds and the aftermath of the Transadverican eruption, the light was dull and hazy.

Finally, the column came to the southern gates of the city, which hung shattered and broken, no longer blocking access from the highway. The tanks and armoured vehicles advanced at pace, while the gunships circled above, watching for the first signs of alien activity. It did not take long. Roused by the terrific noise of roaring engines, the tyranids bled through the shattered hab-blocks and complexes of the southern city, and streamed towards the Ultramarines.

With their heavy armour in the field, the Ultramarines abandoned the defensive doctrines of the Codex Astartes, and instead embraced its concise, ruthless approach to the overwhelming assault.

Predator tanks crashed through barriers and over mounds of fallen rubble, blasting away with heavy autocannons and bolters at clusters of the enemy, which surged from the mouths of hab-blocks and the caverns of torn-open sewer outlets. These tanks were light infantry killers, armed not with lascannons for tank-to-tank warfare, but with weapons designed to tear through the enemy infantry, softening them up for the steady advance of the Ultramarines Tactical squads. The front ranks of the swarm simply came apart under that sustained barrage, but there was no time to hold a defensive position and thin their numbers. The Third and Fifth needed to push further into the city at speed to secure the grand plaza, a defensible position located near to research complex Zeta-Epsilon Twelve.

Fortunately the Scout units, advancing ahead of the main force the previous night, had done their job well. Ghosting into the city in the early hours of the morning, they had designated key fire zones, laid down targeting beacons and identified the areas with the highest concentration of enemy movement.

Armed with this vital data, the armoured task force went to work.

Annihilator tanks and the cumbersome Vindicator siege variants joined the gun-line. The former fired searing blasts at structural weak points in the targeted buildings. These deadly pulses of scarlet energy were followed by the sound of a planet tearing in half, as the heavy Demolisher cannons mounted on the Vindicators hurled forth shells of hideous explosive power that entirely obliterated the lower levels of each structure, collapsing thousands of tonnes of dense rockcrete to crush and seal the enemy within. Great plumes of dust and smoke swirled above the devastation, winding around the pillars and pathways of the upper habitations.

In the wake of this catastrophe came the Ultramarines Tactical squads and Devastator units, marching steadily across the broken rubble, bolters blazing. Thousands of the hated xenos were obliterated before the Space Marines even came under sustained enemy fire. The push was relentless.

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