Battle of Phall - Surprise Assault: The attack led by Perturabo was sudden and overwhelming. From his flagship the Iron Blood, the Iron Warriors primarch commanded the first one hundred warships that burst into reality at the same moment. The Iron Warriors vessels brought their weapons to bear, firing as one upon the Imperial Fists vessel Hammer of Terra.The doomed vessel exploded spectacularly as the enemy salvo set off a chain reaction in the ship's plasma engines. Within seconds of the death of the Hammer of Terra 12 of its sisters followed, consumed by nova-shell explosions and torpedo spreads. The Imperial Fists' grand cruiser Sulla fired a single salvo before macro-shell fire stripped its shields and its hull became molten slag. The six destroyers clustered around it ended in the explosion of its plasma reactor.The Crusader and Legate lasted scant seconds longer. They and their escorts took a trio of vortex warheads and vanished into the hungering dark. Twenty-four grand cruisers and battle-barges made up the tip of the Iron Warriors' fleet. In close formation around the capital ship Contrador they moved as one.They rammed through the debris of their kills, fire and molten metal smearing their prows. Around the Iron Blood hundreds of warships followed in close formation. Behind them hundreds more pulled themselves from the warp to add to the Iron Warriors fleet.Initially, the Imperial Fists' fleet fragmented under the attack. Flame-wreathed battle-barges pulled back, trying to outpace the guns of the Iron Warriors. Heavy cruisers staggered in their flight, the first one taking fire and then the next, while faster strike cruisers tried to cover the heavier warships as they pulled away.As the golden fleet broke into pieces the Iron Warriors continued to press forwards. Smaller ships crippled targets, and then larger ships delivered the killing blows. It was methodical and merciless, like a siege drill eating through rock.Plunging his fleet into the midst of the Loyalist fleet, Pertuabo's strategy was to scatter the Imperial Fists' fleet formation and then destroy it piecemeal. His plan was dependent upon the loyal ships not being able to fight back quickly enough to break the momentum of his thrust.However, Captain Alexis Polux and his fleet commanders quickly recovered from the shock and suddenness of Perturabo's attack and fought back.Directly in the path of the Iron Warriors a lone battleship turned to meet its enemy. Forgotten hands had made the Oath of Stone under the light of a sun far from Terra. It had been old before it served the Imperium, and it had aged in scars and honours since.Its guns blazed, filling the closing space between it and the enemy with fire. Its target was a grand cruiser that bore the name Stheno. The Iron Warriors ship faltered, its void envelope peeling back as it pushed forwards through the storm of fire. Lance beams spat from the Oath of Stone and suddenly the Stheno was burning, a glowing gouge running from its spade-shaped prow to its fins.The Oath of Stone surged forwards to finish its kill, but the Stheno was only one ship amongst a closing fist of iron. Three heavy cruisers fired. Energy crackled across the Oath of Stone’s void shields as they burst like oily bubbles. Shells and missiles hammered into the old ship. Its armour cracked and glowed. Crenellated gun towers sheared off, scattering clouds of stone and metal in their wake. Hundred-metre armour plates flaked off its hull. Deep inside the hull fire ran between compartments, suffocating those it did not burn.Trailing wreckage, the Oath of Stone continued to close and fire on the Stheno. For a moment it seemed as if it would face down the might of an entire fleet and survive. Then a line of turbolaser fire cut its engines in two. Building-sized thrusters fell away as explosions kindled in the wound. With the last of its momentum and guttering engines' power the Oath of Stone rammed the Stheno.It hit the grand cruiser in the belly, its prow ramming through the iron ship's spine. The Stheno shuddered, transfixed like a fish on a spear. Gas and fluid sprayed from its hull. For a moment the two spun on, locked together in death.Then the Oath of Stone’s prow ripped free of the Stheno's hull, and pulled the guts of the grand cruiser with it. Discarded and dying the Stheno drifted on, turning end over end, like a broken spear thrown at the night sky. The rest of the Iron Warriors fleet did not even slow down.Around the Iron Blood hundreds of warships followed in close formation. Behind them hundreds more pulled themselves from the warp to add to the Iron Warriors fleet. Months ago scout units had captured details of the Imperial Fists' fleet, each capturing a single snapshot of data and pushing it into the mind of the astropath slaved to each machine.The psykers' death screams had cut through the storms, carrying dream images of the Imperial Fists fleet. They had used that data to plan, and that plan was a timetable for obliteration. Perturabo ordered his second captain to scour the Imperial Fists fleet to find where Sigismund lurked. He was to be found, not killed. That honour would belong to the Lord of Iron.The killing continued with murderous rhythm. The ships at the front of the Iron Warriors fleet had begun to split into groups to hunt smaller Imperial Fists ships. Behind them fresh arrivals advanced in a tight block. These were the macro-vessels, vast cliff-sided ships filled with battalions of Iron Warriors and thousands of slave troops. Beside them lurked the hell burners.Old system ships, orbital haulers and tugs, they had ridden through the Warp on tethers behind the macro-ships. Unstable plasma fuel and munitions filled each of the ramshackle craft.Their slave crews, lobotomised into blind obedience, drove the hell burners into the throats of the Imperial Fists guns. Many detonated before they reached their victims, but more did not. Chains of explosions formed glowing nebulae that hung in the void like lava clotting in water.The Imperial Fists ships that emerged from these infernos were half-dead, their armour peeling from their superstructure, their weapons blind. The macro-vessels poured boarding craft onto the crippled ships as they limped from the firestorm. The Imperial Fists crews did not die swiftly. Swamped by thousands of slaves, they held until the Iron Warriors came to finish them in person.Dozens of ships died this way, gutted from within and left to drift, their insides filled with the dead of both sides. To the Iron Warriors the process of victory had begun and the only question was how long it would take to complete.The first sign that all was not as it seemed was a bright explosion on the trailing edge of the Iron Warriors fleet. The Imperial Fists cruiser Veritas and a destroyer wing cut towards their prey. Their target was a grand cruiser, a hulking brute named Calibos. The destroyers released a spread of fast-running torpedoes towards the Iron Warriors ship as they closed.It tried to evade but turned too slowly. Blisters of fire opened along its dark metal back. The destroyers accelerated past the injured ship. The Calibos listed drunkenly, its course veering as the rest of the fleet pulled away.The Veritas struck an instant later, its dorsal cannons crumpling the Calibos's shields and punching through its carapace. Half-dead, it tried to turn its prow towards its attacker.The Veritas raced past, broadsides raking the Iron Warriors ship. The grand cruiser exploded in a shockwave of energy and atomised matter. As the Iron Warriors fleet responded, the Veritas and its strike group was beyond its reach and turning for its next attack run. It was the first blow of many.