Battle of Phall - Counterattack: Despite their long sojourn at Phall, the Imperial Fists fleet had been kept in a state of constant battle-readiness. This policy paid off for the Imperial Fists as they began to concentrate their fire at the leading ships of Perturabo's fleet. It was what the solar months of planning had been for, the hundreds of hours of training. The Retribution Fleet was ready to resist an attack, but they faced an enemy far greater than Captain Alexis Polux had ever planned for.The Iron Warriors had taken losses, but their strength remained. If the Imperial Fists had broken in the first moments they would have died. If they attempted to fight the Iron Warriors head-on they would have been slaughtered. The Iron Warriors knew their weaknesses, the Imperial Fists theirs.The Iron Warriors had hoped to find the Loyalists unprepared, but they had not cracked after the first attack. The Imperial Fists' defence had snapped back into place like the cogs of a clockwork mechanism. It was an unfixed fortress made of moving strike groups, fading resistance and punishing counter-attacks.Slower battleships drew fire, pulling Iron Warriors ships out of formation, while on the edge of the battle sphere fast strike groups looped around and through the margins of the Iron Warriors fleet. They struck again and again, crippling, destroying, trimming ships from the edge of the enemy fleet like fat carved from meat.The Iron Warriors fleet was pulling itself apart as it tried to engage the Imperial Fists, and it bled at every turn. The Imperial Fists rallied and began inflicting casualties, significant casualties. The Iron Warriors still had greater numbers, but that margin quickly diminished.Commanded by the Imperial Fists' 14th Company Commander, Captain Amandus Tyr guided the vessel Halcyon through the battle storm. Its leaf-blade hull glowed with reflected light from explosions and weapons fire. The void was thick with debris and plasma clouds, tumbling together like blood and entrails sinking through water.The Halcyon fired as it dived, prow and dorsal weapons thrusting ahead of its path. Behind it two of its sister ships followed: Unity and Truth. They were smaller, knife blades to the Halcyon’s spear tip. They spun, their flank batteries spiralling a bright helix around them as they sliced through the Iron Warriors fleet.This near to the core of the Iron Warriors formation, the hulls of enemy ships were so close that the gunners could aim by sight. The Halcyon and its escorts relied on raw speed and aggression to keep them alive. Though the Imperial Fists had lost two ships in three passes they had managed to kill four times as many.As the Halcyon continued its attack run, it approached the Iron Warriors battle cruiser Dominator. The Halcyon rotated on its axis, swooping under the Dominator, its flank batteries firing. The belly of the Iron Warriors ship split open in a string of explosions. The Unity and Truth followed close behind the Halcyon, hammering into the gaping gut wound in the Dominator's hull.It disintegrated, plasma from its ruptured heart burning it from within. The Halcyon arced away from its kill, engines clawing for speed as it aimed for the edge of the battle sphere.The Iron Warriors battle-barge came out of the surrounding swirl of battle. The Unity vanished in a spread of detonations. As the Halcyon came out of its attack run, Captain Tyr spied a massive vessel -- 15 kilometres of cold iron and battle-blackened adamantium.This vessel was the oldest daughter of the ship forges of Olympia, a breaker of fleets and planets -- the Iron Blood. Tyr knew that only one being had ever been her master, the Lord of Iron. The Imperial Fists commander ordered the vox-master to get a signal to Fleet Master Polux, to warn him that Perturabo had come.