Siege of Vraks - Third and Other Assaults: This time the 8th Assault Korps was brought into the line to lead the attack on the walls. Again the tides of Krieg infantry swarmed up the breaches, and again they were repulsed. The enemy was fighting back with everything it had. Over the course of the next Terran year four more assaults were attempted and all ended in bloody retreats. Titans joined the battle, and the area around Sector 57-44 became the bloodiest, hardest fought of the entire siege so far. The battle was a meat-grinder that drew in both sides' men and massacred them. The fourth assault ended when the enemy detonated their own massive mine under the original crater, in the process destroying hundreds of Krieg soldiers caught in the crater at the time. The explosion deepened the area further and scattered more rubble, but it effectively ended the attack.How was the breach to be captured? Marshall Kagori was concerned that it was taking up too many resources. Request for more aid from the Titans had to be turned down. The fighting here might be intense, but there was still a war to conduct. The entire region was still one big battleground. Attacks and counterattacks, raids and counterraids, both sides constantly flung themselves at the enemy's positions in a bid to break them. Sector after sector was consumed in the all-out war. The Chaos Spaces Marines continued their devastating attacks. Alpha Legion troops were identified conducting raids deep behind the front line, destroying artillery positions and ammunition storage dumps. The 1st Line Korps was fully engaged against the forces of Nurgle, faced by the horrors of continued chemical warfare. The Legio Vulcanum was still out there, lending its strength wherever a major attack went over the top. The Legio Astorum Titans were needed to counter their threat, and became scattered across the Van Meersland Waste. Daily, the frontline was ablaze with furious battles. More reports of engagements and losses streamed across the Marshall's desk. The tunnelling war also continued.Maybe it could provide another breakthrough, perhaps even a second breach? But it did not happen, as the enemy had learned a lesson and was counter-mining with better effect. Underground the war had become a stalemate just like above. The two sides were evenly matched. Like great pugilists, each bruising attack was met with a counterstrike, but neither seemed to have the strength to knock the other out. After the furious battles and over a 1,000,000 more Krieg Guardsmen consigned to the Emperor's Peace by Vraks, the war's tempo slackened. The Marshall's great plans for a new impetus had run its course. The enemy had matched it and, with herculean efforts, held it. In places the gains saw Krieg regiments within sight of the curtain wall. In others they remained trapped at the inner defence lines.No longer surrounded the enemy could launch flanking attacks and raids far to the east. Out there, far from the trenches, the Krieg Death Rider companies saw their own hard fighting -- riding long distances to scout out any enemy moves. Running skirmishes with enemy reconnaissance units were common.And so another Terran year of the Siege of Vraks had passed, with heavy losses and small gains in ground and no end in sight for the battle-weary Guardsmen who endured it. One piece of good news reported to Marshall Kagori was that patrol sweeps of the Vraks System had found no trace of the lurking Battleship Anarchy’s Heart. She must have fled the system, too badly damaged to risk another battle. The Imperial supply lines into Vraks were secure once again.