Liberation of Numinal - The Iron Horde: The Battle-servitors advanced pitiless and measured, without fear or remorse; hulking metallic bodies striding from the waters or clambering down from hover barges and short range transport lighters like an army of iron and brass statues come to life.Larger, manta-like Cyclothrathine aerodynes swooped in low, unleashing Triaros carriers and Krios tanks from their cage harnesses directly behind the advancing line. Silent save for the rumble of their engines and the rasp of their servo motors, answering ghost-commands from their djinn-network, which would have been mere howling static to Human ears, the Taghmata Cyclothrathe moved by a single all-encompassing will; the will of Yelav Draykavac.Already, long-range barrages from batteries of concealed Earthshaker Cannons were falling among their ranks, sending up great sprays of sand and rock as their shells exploded. But up from the craters the Battle-Automata and Thallaxii rose, scarred but indomitable, all but impervious to wounds that would have torn mortal flesh to rags. The fleshless army advanced across an eleven-kilometre-wide front, through the mines and on into a storm of cannon shells and las-fire that would have melted even a Legiones Astartes attack before it.Some of the Battle-Automata staggered under the weight of fire; some fell, but few, very few. Now the guns of the Dark Mechanicum answered; thundering Bolt Cannon spat fire and Lightning Cannons jetted their incandescent fury, blasting gouges in the defence lines and sending sundered bodies spinning into fragments. Through it all, the Agathean cohorts did not waver, their ranks closing over the breaches made by the dead.They fired and fired again, answering the disciplined cries of their sergeants with measured volleys, making the very air crackle and burn before them. The duel went on, and the lines began to close. On the Loyalists' side, casualties began to mount as the Mechanicum troops entered optimal firing range. Placed in the first line of the Agathean defences, the 48th Infantry Tercio suffered heavy casualties but steadfastly held its position.The lines were only a few hundred metres apart now, and from within the Taghmata ranks Vorax-automata darted forward at breakneck speed on their sickle-gaited mantid-legs, power blades humming in expectation of the kill. Then MaSade at last issued the order. With practised haste, power feeds were jettisoned from steaming lasrifles and the bulky blast-chargers fitted in their place. As one, the Infantry Tercio troopers primed, raised and fired. It was as if a destroying hand had slammed down from the heavens as the air burned with a crackling roar.The Vorax-automata at the vanguard caught the brunt of the fire, all but disintegrating in rippling explosions and sprays of molten metal. Behind them the Castellax Battle-Automata stumbled forwards as if they were men caught in a sudden powerful headwind, defensive energy fields snapping like angry hornets and their ceramite plates cracking and splintering in dozens of locations as overcharged las bolts found their way through.Meanwhile, other Vorax attack-automata had successfully infiltrated the Agathean defence lines, their objective being the assassination of the Solar Auxilia's commander: a task they were ideally suited for. Here the Vorax encountered the vigilant members of MaSade's personal guard, the Veletari of the 108th Tercio who quickly destroyed the would-be assassins with disciplined fire of their Volkites. Two more attempts on MaSade's life would be thwarted in the same manner before the battle would reach its bloody conclusion.The Solar Auxilia firing line quickly rotated, one trooper stepping back to eject the smouldering and spent blast-charger as another took their place. Keen-eyed Agathean gunners zeroed in their Rapier batteries on the Castellax which showed the most damage, focusing their heavy weapons fire until they were smashed to debris. Beside them, Multi-Lasers raked their staccato beams back and forth across the beaten ground where damaged servitors and shattered, smoke-bleeding Automata strived to drag their broken bodies towards the Agatheans' lines.A second wave of blast-charger fire hammered into the Taghmata, then a third and a fourth, until suddenly only the heaviest of the Mechanicum units remained; the few surviving Krios tanks, their overworked flare shields rippling, trading shots with the dug-in Solar Auxilia support tanks, and behind them the hulking Thanatar Siege-automata, scorched-black and superficially damaged, but largely impervious even to the augmented fire of the Auxilia.The Thanatar held the line, but now advanced no further, their bulbous plasma mortars slinging white fireballs of gelid, high-density plasma into the Loyalist defence works, making a burning hell wherever they landed. The broken ground between the Siege-automata and the Agatheans was now a wasteland of ash, wreckage and fused silica glass whilst behind the bulwark of the Siege-automata, the lesser magi of the Taghmata Cyclothrathe lurked alongside their baroquely armoured bodyguards, unwilling to risk themselves in the storm before the Agathean fortifications, and unwilling to press forward until further reinforcements arrived. For the time being, the Mechanicum assault had been stymied.