Editing The 13th Black Crusade (section)

===In Their Towering Shadows===

The first attack came from the west, as traitor drop ships slipped as close as the edge of the Phalanx's weaponry as they could before they unloaded their cultist cargos. These pathetic dregs came from a myriad of worlds and backgrounds, all united under their new "freedom" from the Emperor's dogma, and driven into a frenzy by the [[Dark Apostle]]s among their midst. In their thousands they tried to swarm the fields with , but as they crossed into the Phalanx's range, hundreds were instagibbed by the fortress' bombardment cannons. Still the maddened horde pressed on.

The soldiers of the Cadian 9th held their fire until the last moment. They recalled their shame when they broke and ran at the Kriegan Gates, and each had lost comrades to the [[Commissar]]s as they bloodily re-instilled discipline after. What's more, they looked at the insane throng with pity and disgust, as they were a dark reflection of what they might had been, had their fates been different. As one the 9th peeked from their trench lines, and as one they fired. Countless cultists crumpled, lasbolt holes in their chests, while Apostate preachers screamed their last as Earthshaker shells hit their marks, but thousands more rushed in, and crushed the remains of their fallen into bloody paste.

More assault craft landed in the north and east, and heralded the arrival of Abaddon's second wave. In the North, Celestine led the Sisters of the Order of the Martyred Lady against the newly-deployed Daemon Engines. Exorcist rounds met gouts of daemonic flame, while Seraphim squads stalked [[Warpsmith]]s before they could bring their mechanical nightmares back to the fray. Meanwhile in the east, the Imperial Knights united under Baroness Vardus lent their support to the tanks of the 185th, as they dueled the massed armor of the [[Crimson Slaughter]] and the remaining Titans of Legio Vulcanum.

The south that the Cadian 8th and 21st defended however saw Abaddon's most determined strike yet, as an armored column two miles wide drove through the Phalanx's bombardment relentlessly despite heavy losses, with swarms of Helldrakes providing air cover. Imperial AA guns opened up, but they could only disperse this hellish flock, and not clear it entirely from the skies.

As he saw the plight of his allies, Korahael finally deployed the Space Marines to assist, with the Black Templars and Imperial Fists sent southward, while he and the Crimson Fists headed north. Of the Space Wolves there was no sign, though there was a suspiciously defended bastion far southwest that had seen an entire Black Legion armored column annihilated...