Siege of Vraks - First Victory of the Final Battle of Vraks: On 081.830.M41, as the attack on the ravine was going over the top, Inquisitor Rex craned his neck and peered skywards as the first dozen of some 68 Marauder bombers passed above, their four engines a bass rumble, passing like dark crucifixes as they flew overhead en route for their target As the inquisitor watched, the bombers dumped their payloads onto the Lower Gate spur, which instantly vanished from sight m a cauldron of smoke and flame that boiled up from the hillside The next wave was already inbound, and more bombs followed the first. Hundreds of artillery rounds then joined the bombardment as the Lower Gate spur was pounded with alt the high explosives that the 88th siege army could throw at it. Five more bomber waves soon followed the first.As the last Marauder bomber banked away, its engine noises fading to nothing, the smoke and dust of the saturation bombing began to clear. The Inquisitor was handed a surveyor by an aide and scanned the walls. In at least four places the wall had been breached. At least two towers had been turned into smouldering piles of nibble, fires still burning deep within the rums. The Lower Gate itself stood in defiance, scorched and blackened but resolute. Above, parapets had been smashed and ramparts crumbled. Inside their bunkers many of the defenders had been crushed by the falling masonry, others had been deafened by the bombardment. More crawled from the nibble digging their passage out into the open again.The intense bombardment had been an awe-inspiring sight, and the Krieg guardsmen of the first wave now rose to begin their assault. Their objective was still the wall, even if it was little more than rubble in many places, but still enough sections had survived to make it a fine defensive position for the survivors to fight from. And fight they did! Despite the destruction, the bombing was actually of dubious benefit. The survivors set about burrowing into the rubble, creating new finng positions. The heavy weapons that had survived nestled in the masonry, gunners and snipers soon perched on the broken ramparts. The southern bastion of the defence laser silo, the strongest of the spur's defences, had also survived mostly intact and would soon be operational again.On command, the 269th regiment's assault companies sprang forward, with companies of tanks and super-heavy tanks alongside the platoons, along with High Princeps Rand Drauca's Titan Praetorian and two other Reavers, Tritus and Invictorus. There were also four Warhounds dose by Inquisitor Rex watched as the first waves set off towards the Lower Gate spur, climbing the ever-steepening slope as they vanished into the dust and cordite smog.In defiance of the air raid the defenders were still waning, and soon the first Krieg wave had slowed to a crawl again. But the weight of armour - nearly 100 vehicles had been dedicated to this wave alone - and the raking blasts of the Reaver Titans with their massive missile pods and gatling blasters were smashing the remaining walls and defence lines asunder. It was only a matter of time until the attacker's firepower overwhelmed the entrenched defenders and carved a path for the infantry to exploit. Still, the tanks found it hard going, the ground had been heavily cratered by the air raid and many were bogged down in the churned earth, becoming pillboxes until their ammunition bins were empty. From Lord Rex's command post, the attack seemed to be working - if slowly. The first infantry platoons were now fighting in the rumble of the walls, clearing them section-by-section. The Titan Invictorus had retired to rearm, whilst Praetorian was supporting the main thrust. On the right Tritus led the attack against the southern bastion. Then came the first major hitch. The bastion might have been heavily scarred by the air raid, but buried within its weaponry had survived. As the Reaver launched salvoes of missiles at the bastion, suddenly, surprisingly, it returned fire. The first defence laser shot overwhelmed Tritus' remaining void shields, the second scored a direct hit - the massive laser cannon penetrating through the Reaver's frontal armour and critically damaging the plasma reactor within. Tritus staggered under the impacts, came to a halt and its weapons fell ominously silent. Then, spectacularly, the plasma reactor detonated. With the force of a small sun the reactor exploded into an iridescent ball of super-heated gases, so bright that its after image burned into the retinas of those who saw it, and it was so hot nothing within 100 metres survived. Rising into a mushroom cloud, when the gases eventually dissipated there was nothing left of the once proud battle titan. Only black scorched ground for a hundred metres in every direction marked its death. Small fragments of smouldering, melted wreckage was all that could be recovered. Another of the Legio Astorum's venerable machines was gone.Inquisitor Rex commanded more artillery onto the bastion, and a barrage of heavy bombard shells was soon hammering the area. Then, his battlefield retinue trailing close behind him, the Inquisitor left his command post to join the front line.At the front the Krieg guardsmen were still pushing forward. In places they had almost reached the walls, in others they had been checked and were pinned down Lord Rex took direct command of the attack on the defence laser bastion, calling off the heavy artillery barrage as he ordered the lead platoons and their supporting grenadiers to charge. By nightfall they would be inside, fighting in the tunnels and galleries within. Inquisitor Rex and his retinue led the close quarters fighting and it was he who triggered the demolition charges that finally disabled the defence laser.Meanwhile, as the Krieg guardsmen forced the enemy from its boltholes and section-by-section captured the Lower Gate spur wall, the enemy counter-attacked. Just as with the first assault upon the Great Gate, the enemy spilled out this time from the St Leonis Gate high above and raced down the Pilgrim's Road. Armoured vehicle, Dreadnoughts, Blood Slaughterers, Defilers and other great clanking war machines, shrieking and screaming their hatred joined the battle. They were reinforced by the Black Brothers of Ayreas, a warband of the Black Legion - once the personal legion of Horus himself. There were no troops in the galaxy more dedicated to Horus' ambition to overthrow the Emperor.At first their counter-attack swept the Krieg guardsmen back from the wall only for the survivors to rally, and fresh waves of infantry, supported by massed battle cannon fire surged up the rubble glacis again and over the rubble piles. Fighting for the wall was bitter. Six times it changed hands as the day long battle stretched on into the night. It was a night of hellish combat against daemonically powered war engines. The air was filled with their shrieking wails - the tormented screams of those sacrificed to give each machine life. By dawn the rubble pile was back in the Traitors hands again and four full Krieg infantry companies had been broken in the repealed counter-attacks. Bodies littered the rubble and filled the craters.On the second day, as the Krieg infantry again attempted to wrestle control of the objective back. Inquisitor Rex summoned his own reserves Grey Knights squads raced to his assistance Still in the thick of the fighting. Inquisitor Rex organised the survivors around him for the next push, as the Grey Knights strike force roared into the battle. Ornate silver Land Raider transports dulled by their exposure to Vraks sulphurous atmosphere arrived attacking head-on in a blaze of lascannon and heavy bolter fire. The assault ramps dropped and out burst the elite Space Mannes within force halberds glowing with a corona of blue light. Psychic forces flashed and sparked as the daemon-hunters unleashed their powers. Hacking and slashing with unstoppable wrath they cut their way through the enemy.Bellowing invocations against the corruptions of Chaos, Inquisitor Lord Rex joined them, bounding up the rubble scree, Krieg infantry close behind. They once again reached the top of the tall rubble piles, beyond which was the cliff-like slope of the hill’s southern face, across which ran the Pilgrim's Road, climbing up under the Citadel's walls to the St Leonis Gate. Back along that road the surviving enemy now withdrew, still firing wildly as they went. The Grey Knights sudden strike had tipped the balance and smashed the traitors back. In a sudden furious holocaust, Daemon Engines had been sent wailing, exorcised back into the Warp. As he surveyed the battlefield, all around the Inquisitor Lord was a scene of utter devastation. The Lower Gate spur was all but gone, the towers had tumbled, the walls had been pulverized to rock and dust. Shattered tanks and war machines lay about on the crater- scarred ground, many were still burning fiercely like orange beacons upon the dust shrouded field, spewing black smoke. The dead of both sides littered the ground, but after two days of fighting, what remained of the Lower Gate spur was in their hands. Here the enemy counter-attack had been defeated and the Emperor's forces had won themselves a platform for an assault on the St Leonis Gate.It was the first victory of the last Battle for Vraks.