As the artillery crews got their bearings, the Earthshaker bombardments rose to a storm. Soon the water ahead of them was erupting with plumes of smoke and spray.

The traitor counter-bombardment started a few minutes later. The guns of Tor Tartarus targeted the Imperial batteries, while those of Margrat and Ophio turned to face Tor Kharybdis.

The first shots were surprisingly accurate. Minka kept her head down, but she risked a few glimpses and saw the beach erupting with fountains of sand.

‘Spectacular, but wasteful,’ Elhrot said.

The sergeant of First Squad had always considered himself sup­erior to the other sergeants of Dido’s platoon. Minka noted she would have to handle him properly.

They held tight, watching the lead Gorgons steaming forward through the swell. The sheltered straits between the islands were much calmer than the swells they’d faced, but even so, the Gorgons were low down in the water – harder to hit from the shore but easier to swamp – and true enough, one sank when the pilot got the angle of approach wrong.

The Cadians held their fire until the first Gorgons roared ashore, slewing water from their armoured flanks. The giant tanks dwarfed the defences. Their engines howled as they ploughed forward, smashing through the first lines of wire and tank traps. The lead behemoth hit a mine halfway up the beach and it threw a track. It skidded to the side before its armoured prow slammed open, bridging the wire.

Traitors spilled out. They wore the brown greatcoats of the Swabian Fusiliers. As one, the Cadians of Seventh Company opened up. The heavy stubbers and heavy bolter barked out and a lightning show of las-bolts streaked down the beach.

Minka aimed the lasrifle she had found and pumped shots down into the enemy. It was glorious. Two more Gorgons disgorged their cargos of traitors. The whole of Seventh Company seemed to be rapid firing, and the traitors fell in their hundreds – some as they ran down the ramps, others shot dead where they stood, waiting their turn. The beach was a charnel house. Half-drowned men were taken out as they staggered from the water, and their bodies hung on the wire, like a warning to the others.

The Cadians held on for the rest of that day as waves of attackers crossed the narrow waters separating it from the island of Tor Kharybdis.

Holzhauer piled more and more troops onto Tor Kharybdis: Swabians, Ongoth Jackals, all manner of second line regiments – feral, hive-world, Gallows Cluster conscripts.

All this time the Cadians were isolated. After a week, reports came back of dawn landings by a new force. The first sightings confirmed the news. Black carapace, visored helmets, and officers wearing grox-skin capes. The Elnaur Chasseurs had landed in force.

As soon as Bendikt heard he poured himself a mug of amasec. ‘Excellent!’ he declared, raising his mug to the symbol of the aquila on the wall. ‘Holzhauer gives us what we need.’

Four

FOUR