Siege of Vraks - Back from the Brink - The Kagori Offensive: Even whilst the 19th regiment was being massacred to the last man, Marshall Kagori's new offensive was being planned, ready to begin the next big attempt to crack the inner defence line. After a long period of bitter defensive battles, the 88th siege army was re-supplying and reinforcing daily, ready to go over to the offensive again. New attacks were being planned all along the front for every regiment. No longer would they just hold their trenches, the Krieg guardsmen would again surge out across no-man’s land and take the battle to the enemy.Preparations for such a large offensive were long and involved. Each regiment in the line now required vast amounts of staff work to equip new guardsmen with everything they needed from the stores and post them into the fighting companies. The ammunition and fuel stockpiles had to be built up, along with supplies of every type. Companies of men and batteries of guns were on the move, being positioned for the coming battles, whilst regimental commanders worked day and night on their attack plans, artillery fire plans, positioning reserves and all the other myriad of details that would be required for such a big operation.The "Kagori Offensive," as it had become known, was set to begin on 249.825.M41. The aim was to recapture all the ground lost since the enemy counter-offensive in 078.823.M41 and to crack the inner defence lines, precipitating a breakthrough to the curtain wall. It was a very ambitious plan and it took almost a year to prepare the battered siege regiments for the coming offensive. This would be Marshall Kagori’s first bold stride towards winning the war.A major decision for the Marshall's headquarters would be the deployment of the Titan battle group. Although the lines of command did not permit him to give the Legio Astorum Princeps direct orders, his reports to the lords of Lucius forge world would influence any decision they made. In the end, after a careful review of the situation, it was decided that all the Titans would support a main effort in the sectors held by the 12th line korps. All the Reavers and Warhounds would operate in support of the line korps’ four siege regiments: the 143rd, 149th, 150th and 158th. They would also be backed up by elements of the 8th assault korps, including its super heavy tanks.The first part of the plan involved a prolonged artillery bombardment and new shells and mortar bombs were prioritised for the bombardment korps and artillery companies. With the system now secured, more supply convoys were arriving every week, millions of artillery shells were being transported and stockpiled at the artillery positions, ready to unleash a massive bombardment which would last for weeks before the first men went over the top.The long bombardment of the enemy was gradually stepped up over the weeks before Marshall Kagori’s grand plan was ready to be put into action. The artillery shells rumbled overhead constantly, keeping up their steady rhythm to harass the enemy and make the movement of troops and supplies to the front difficult and dangerous. In the last days before the infantry offensive was to begin, the bombardment intensified, then stepped up again until the guns were hammering away relentlessly, barrels glowing red hot whilst breach blocks and recoil pistons wore out under the strain.On 249825. M41, everything was finally in place. In the forward trenches all across Vraks the first assault companies stood ready, bayonets fixed, awaiting the order to attack. Across no-man’s land the artillery shells impacted in a furious tempest on the enemy frontlines, reaching a crescendo in a constant roll of thunder, smothering the enemy in dust and shrapnel. Then, suddenly the guns fell silent.In sector 54-46 Colonel Thryan of the 143rd regiment had joined his men, an ensign carried the honoured regimental banner at his shoulder. On time the Colonel ordered the launch of a single red flare that arced into Vraks’ sky and burned like a bright drifting star. The master-vox operator flashed the codeword throughout the regiment, the order to attack was given. It was time to go.The men scrambled up and over the parapets like so many thousands of times before and out into the crater- scarred killing fields of no-man’s land. Behind them Leman Russ and Macharius heavy tanks thumped into gear and began to grind forward. Batteries of mortars launched a barrage of smoke and high explosive shells to keep the enemy gunners’ heads down. Still further back High Princeps Rand Drauca received the attack signal on the command bridge of his Reaver, Praetorian. Wired into the Titan’s cognitive logis engine via mind-impulse leads, Drauca gave the unspoken instructions for the Reaver to advance and its great gears and pistons heaved the mighty war machine forwards in a long stride. The other Titans followed their commander’s lead and Legio Astorum strode into battle.All along the 12th line korps’ front the same scenario was being played out.Infantry and tanks plunged into the inevitable defensive fire, slithering through the quagmire to reach the enemy razorwire, trenches and pillboxes. Tanks laid down a curtain of high explosive shells. Their heavy bolters and heavy stubbers rattling out a stream of suppressive fire. The field guns and mortars opened fire again, lobbing shells just ahead of the infantry. To the rear the large artillery guns resumed their bombardments, shifting to targets further to the enemy’s rear or concentrating on strongpoints. The battle had been joined.For the first hours it seemed that the battle was being fought in the same old way - with the same old results. Heavy losses for small gains. But on 12th line korps’ front the attack was preceding well. The 1,000 tonne metal monsters of Legio Astorum were advancing, crushing everything in their path. Engaging the enemy with all their formidable firepower, the Titans smashed a path forward as their void shield generators flared under the impact of enemy weapons. In sector 54- 45 the enemy counter-attacked with its own tanks and infantry and a battle developed in the centre of no-man’s land with bayonets and knives. Tanks were burning, but they could not stop Drauca’s advance. Soon Thunderbolt fighters screamed overhead, adding their bombs and strafing autocannons to the maelstrom of fire descending upon the enemy. The forward trenches were overrun, and Krieg infantry platoons and grenadier squads were pushing on through the maze of trenches and dug-outs, clearing as they went. By the end of the first day the 158th regiment had recovered the ground it had lost, and all regiments could report good progress wherever the Titans had backed them up. At nightfall the Titans withdrew to safe laagers as fresh infantry and tanks were pushed forward ready for the next day’s continued push.Across the Van Meersland Wastes the siege regiments reported a variety of successes and failures. Some had been repulsed by fire or thrown back across no-man’s land by heavy enemy counter-attacks. Wherever the Chaos Space Marine warbands joined the fighting, the Krieg infantry faired poorly. The 5th regiment had come under intense attack from enemy chemical weapons and sustained heavy losses. In response the regiment requested that they be allowed to respond in kind. Marshall Kagori, against the advice of many of his staff, granted permission for their own chemical weapons to be used as a direct response. The 5th regiment’s barrages were soon soaking the land in more toxic poisons. Little did they suspect that they were playing into enemy hands, even with the losses inflicted.The second day of the offensive started with more air attacks, but this time the enemy countered and Thunderbolts and Hell Blades twisted and swooped high above the battlefield as the two sides braced themselves for another day of intense fighting. In sector 57-48 two waves of Marauder bombers hammered the enemy frontlines, racing in low and fast to unload their huge payloads directly into the trenches. With such heavy air support the 468th regiment made good gains and Marshall Kagori noted that more Imperial Navy bomber squadrons should be requested.As another great lightning storm rolled about them, Drauca's Titans pitched forward into the battle again. Praetorian itself quickly destroyed eleven enemy armoured vehicles that it had spotted moving forward as reinforcements. Its missile launcher firing salvos of missiles as its gatling blaster and laser blaster raked the column into a burning, smoking ruin. Just as the weapons Moderatii reported the target eliminated, the Reaver’s augurs identified enemy Titans approaching. After the previous day’s heavy losses, the enemy had responded to the Titan attack with their own. Legio Vulcanum had come to match its ancient war machines against the loyalists. The High Princeps issued new orders. Enemy Titans were approaching, they were to be the priority targets, adjust all firing solutions accordingly. Whilst the land battle raged about their feet, the Reavers and Warhounds engaged the enemy Titans in their own separate dual.Turbo-lasers and volcano cannons flashed, void shields sparked and flared, blazing under the high-energy impacts of massive weapons. Soon missile launcher pods were empty. The ammunition hoppers of the gatling blasters were running low as the six-barrelled battle cannons hammered out shell after shell. Plasma reactors were straining under the demand - Tech-priests and Servitors working furiously to direct extra power to the void shields and weapons as the Titans growled and groaned under the stresses. Evenly matched, the Titans tore at each other, rocking under the impacts, armour scorched, rent and dented. Invigila Alpha was the first to fall. Closing with the enemy the Reaver was raked by fire from a Vulcan mega¬bolter, the roar of its gatling barrels spitting out thousands of rounds per minute was known as the "the laughter of the devil" to Titan crews, but the last of her void shields was overloaded and shut down. Before the Techpriest could power up the generators to raise the shields again, the Titan took a direct hit to the command bridge. A super-heated blast melted through the thick armour and blast shielded screens, immolating the entire bridge crew in seconds. The tortured screams of the Princeps and Moderatii burned into the Titan’s cognitive engine via the mind-impulse links as they were obliterated. Its higher functions destroyed, the Reaver ground to a halt, weapons still held erect, but silent now. More enemy fire lashed the Titan as it stood motionless and defenceless. The sole surviving Tech-priest could not abandon his dying machine. He simply fell to his knees in prayer as the Titan shuddered and groaned in its own death agonies. Peppered by more enemy fire Invigila Alpha stood in defiance, a blasted and scorched silent sentinel, looming over the battlefield. There the god-machine would remain for the duration of the war, a towering landmark in an otherwise barren landscape. Back on Lucius forge world a bell would toll for the lost war machine and for each of its fellow Titans that fell on Vraks.The titanic battle lasted all day, giants duelling over the heads of the men below as they fought back and forth along the trenches. Progress had slowed, without the direct aid of the Titans there was hard fighting all along the front. By the end of the second day, when the Titans withdrew, little extra ground had been captured. Day three would see the battle resume and then continue into day four.Both sides had taken heavy losses as the fighting resumed on day five. Weary men in grey trenchcoats gathered weapons and ammunition and prepared for another day in the meat-grinder. Of all the regiments in the offensive, the 143rd had pushed the furthest, driving a salient into the enemy lines in sector 54-45, and here the Titan battle group would concentrate its efforts. A slim crack might be forced open, and failing that, it would draw the enemy Titans to them and with any luck allow another regiment to force the breakthrough further down the line.With the Titans re-armed and battlefield repairs completed by the cowled Adeptus Mechanicus ordnancers that accompanied the Titan battle group, Drauca again led his survivors back into the inferno. Striding amongst the tanks, each Leman Russ closely followed by a huddle of grey infantry, the Reavers and Warhounds marched unharmed through the enemy’s first artillery barrages. After five days of constant battle the enemy line was thinning. They had lost a lot of men and equipment during the first day’s fighting and now those losses were being felt. Their allied Titans had taken losses too, and only their fearsome presence had stemmed the tide. Now, outnumbered and bearing the scars of the last three days encounters, the Legio Vulcanum war machines pulled back to regroup. The enemy infantry could not hold alone against Drauca’s firepower. They managed to topple one Warhound with the direct hits of a battery of Basilisks - repeated artillery shells eventually sending the Warhound crashing to the earth to lie forlornly amongst the mud, but it was their only success. Some of the renegades fought with fanatical zeal, but others had their will to resist broken by ‘Titan-shock’, and soon fell back in a pell-mell retreat. The 143rd regiment was pushing ever forwards, and tanks and Death Riders of the 8th assault korps joined the rout. One more day of fighting saw the inner defence line breached and fresh tank columns streaming through the gap. Success at last! Kagori’s offensive had broken through the defensive belt and was now driving ever deeper towards the curtain wall. The Titans had won him the battle.However, unlike when the outer and second defence lines had been broken, the enemy did not abandon his positions this time. The area around the curtain wall and the inner defence line was no longer a bare plain. It was now riddled with a maze of trenches and pillboxes, all constructed over the years as the siege had ground on. It lacked the hardened dug-outs and careful planning of the actual defence line, but the enemy still had many places from which to make his stand and would fight for every inch of ground. The traitors’ commanders knew they could not afford to simply pull back to the curtain wall and dig in again. As they drew closer to the fortress, so every inch must be fought for. They could not afford to keep falling back, trading ground for time as soon there would be nowhere left to fall back to. So, this time there was no sudden clear breakthrough and swift advance, but a monotonous crawl forward against daily attacks and counter-attacks. But in sector 54-45 the enemy strength was spent and the 143rd regiment made more large gains before it too had to halt before it outran its supply lines and artillery support. The Titans were withdrawn from the frontline to the reserve, to refit and await their next deployment. They had made the difference and won their battle. Their battle losses - some four Reavers and seven Warhounds would have to be replaced from Lucius. It was estimated that in all a dozen enemy Titans had been destroyed, a fine total for Drauca’s men who could return to Lucius with honour.The battle to reach the curtain wall was not over, there were still many more battles yet to be fought but Marshall Kagori was already preparing to put a new phase of his offensive into operation. A large stride had been taken towards victory. The outcome of the siege was no longer in doubt. The enemy had lost heavily and new replacements would soon arrive again for the Krieg regiments. The enemy’s losses were irreplaceable and Kagori knew that attrition always favoured the besiegers.The 88th Siege Army could at least claim that they were once again winning the Siege of Vraks.