Siege of Vraks - Day One: The attack order flashed through every vox-caster set in the forward trenches, and was relayed to the men. The Krieg guardsmen scambled up the ladders and over the parapet, surging forward in a tide across no-man's land. Across no-man's land the enemy responded to the lifting of the bombardment. They ran to crew their crew-served weapons, awaiting the inevitable ground assault. Though their targets had not even come into view, the defenders opened a lethal hail of grazing fire. Men started to fall, but the attackers pressed on. Soon the defensive batteries that had not been knocked-out opened up with their own barrage. Shells started to crash down into the advancing Krieg rank, as the defender's fire increased. As the artillery fire hammered down it caused the utter collapse of the 158th regiment's attack in sector 50-45. The Commissars amongst the retreating assault squads demanded that the men stand firm and push on, summarily executing the first men to take any steps backwards. In return, several Commissars were shot out of hand by their own side as the shredded assault companies scurried back to the safety of their own trenches. At the parapet the first wave collided with the second wave as they moved forwards to begin their advance. Fighting broke out as the officers of the second wave tried to force passage forwards. After only a couple hours the 158th regiment's attack had disintegrated into shambles. For the regiment's abject failure, the colonel and his staff would be arrested and eventually executed. The regiment was then disbanded by the 88th Siege Army's commissars. All the survivors would be sentenced to serve amongst the Penal Legions.In other sectors there was more progress. The Krieg guardsmen pushed on regardless of heavy losses. In places they reached the enemy lines and overran them, bayonets fixed. In places regimental commanders reported good progress, in others failure and heavy losses. Despite the pandemonium, the second wave was ordered forwards, and the guardsmen of surged into no-man's land. As the battle progressed it became clear that most of the enemy had held their positions, but where they had been overrun they had fallen back into the defence line and manned new positions. The 34th line korps attacks seemed to have achieved the most gains. In the 291st regiment's sector they had achieved complete artillery supremacy, having destroyed just about all the defenders' guns. Their infantry pushed on, continuing the attack even in the darkness. The 88th Siege Army seized upon this success as the point of maximum effort tomorrow. The 11th assault korps had so far been held in reserve, and now it was ordered into position to begin a fresh attack through the 291st regiment. The guardsmen clambered aboard into Gorgon assault transports. It would take a day to prepare the attack, so the 291st regiment would need to consolidate its gains tomorrow, and could expect relief on day three.The cost of the first day's attacks had been appallingly high, and many companies were already faced manpower shortages. Those that had won a foothold would need to hold until reinforcements could be rushed to them. Day two would be a day of consolidating those gains and holding against the inevitable counter-attacks, before day three saw another mighty effort. In truth, the gains had been minimal, the enemy had fought hard, in places with fanatical zeal, to hold their ground, but the attack had to continue.