Siege of Vraks - Here We Are...: The enemy had emergency plans in place to counter the breaching of the curtain wall. A rapid response force of tanks and Chimera-borne infantry was stationed to move quickly to meet any breakthrough. As news of the defeat reached their commanders, this force was sent into the counter-attack to blunt any exploitation and drive on to retake the breach. With it would follow the Titans.Before dawn the two opposing forces were on a collision course. Commander Ainea’s battle brothers occupied the blasted wreckage of the curtain walls and the rubble strewn ground. Devastator squads were positioned at the breach, with the Terminators withdrawn, ready to rush in and block any breakthrough should the enemy attack get too close. Here the Red Scorpions would stand, unbreakable in their defiance. Enemy shelling was still landing accurately and Ainea’s men had to dig in and erect hastily-built barricades. Behind his strike force reinforcements were on the way.The 11th assault korps’ battle group had been preceded by engineer squads. These set about demolishing the remaining obstacles around the breach. Following them came tanks, the spearhead of the breakthrough force, each company again accompanied by a super-heavy tank. Behind them came infantry and field artillery, which were soon deployed and supplied, ready for immediate action.In the first glimmer of a pale dawn light the enemy counter-attack began. Titan weapons opened fire at long range, raking the breach with earth shattering impacts, causing more of the wall to collapse. A Razorback took a direct hit and was vaporized by the high-energy beam of a volcano cannon, leaving only black scorched rocks to mark the machine spirit’s passing. Chaplain Nalr lost an arm, torn away by a large white- hot piece of shrapnel. The Krieg artillery returned fire. From far to the rear the siege guns sent shells rumbling and whining over the Space Marines’ heads, impacting about the Titan’s feet. Ainea watched the blossoming explosions through his magnocular scanner. He could see enemy vehicles racing forward, heavy tanks with infantry carriers behind. Several carriers were already burning, caught in the artillery strikes and belching acrid smoke. More incoming Titan fire blasted his positions, leaving craters and shattered rocks. Where was Drauca? He needed to be able to respond to the heavy firepower before it was too late. These massive guns could would make short work of even mighty Space Marines. He turned to scan back towards the Krieg lines and, through the lingering smoke, he saw the lumbering form of a Reaver Titan appear.High Princeps Drauca's Reaver strode towards the breach, stepping over and around the tanks and light vehicles still ploughing forwards. At full striding speed the Titan raced ahead. Drauca'a augurs had already detected the enemy Titans. His weapons Moderati was busy calculating long range firing solutions for all weapons. In the Reaver’s wake followed two Warhounds. Praetorian was first through the breach as its void shields flared and crackled under the first impacts. Ainea looked up as the towering war machine stepped directly over him, its Princeps riding far above, eight stories high. He had a god-like view of the battlefield, fitting for the god¬like powers of the machine at his control.Ainea smelt ozone and felt the air vibrate and buzz as the Reaver’s three turbo-laser destructors powered up and suddenly burst into life, blindingly-bright triple beams flashing. He tracked the bolt's flight and saw the void shields of the enemy Titan flare brightly from the impact. Pistons whined as the great war machine strode clear of his men, two smaller Warhounds behind, almost nimble by comparison with the Reaver’s earthshattering footfalls. The Warhounds also opened fire. Satisfied Ainea snapped his helmet back into place. With the Titans locked in their own duel, his men could concentrate on the approaching enemy tanks. Firing was intensifying as the enemy closed in. Lascannons and krak missiles shrieked. A Chimera exploded into an expanding orange fireball. Ainea withdrew. This time he would keep an overview of the battle, this was not the time for his personal involvement - that would come later. For now it was a long range duel of firepower. Looking back again he could see the first Shadowsword Titan-hunter slowly crawling its way across the crater, cresting the slope and gunning its engine hard as it forced aside the remaining rubble. Soon it too would be engaging the enemy Titans.The enemy counter-attack pressed hard all day, but more Krieg forces poured through the breach and out into the wider battlefield beyond. Several times enemy infantry reached the breach, only to be repulsed by the charge of Ainea and his Terminators. Ainea himself was wounded in the fighting by a direct hit from a plasma blast. His Terminator armour had saved his life, but the thick breastplate had been punctured, the searing heat of the violent impact burning away the armour and the Commander's chest, exposing the black carapace implant within. When an apothecary dragged Ainea from field, assisted by Sergeant Culln, the commander was barely conscious but still issuing orders despite the pain of his wound. It was a grievous injury but once the apothecary had administered stabilising drugs he declared the commander would live, with the aid of extensive cybernetic rebuilding.Command on the ground now passed to Veteran Sergeant Zhyr and brother Nalr as they orchestrated the stoic defence. All day the Red Scorpions fought until their ammunition was expended. By then the Krieg forces had fought the enemy to a stalemate. Princeps Drauca’s battle group had duelled with the enemy Titans. One Warhound had been destroyed by a volcano cannon strike, leaving just two great legs jutting skyward, the scout Titan’s torso and head obliterated in a catastrophic plasma reactor explosion that had illuminated the battlefield like a second sun bursting into life. But the enemy had been heavily damaged in the exchange of fire and had withdrawn rather than be destroyed. Rand Drauca could list another victory over the despised Legio Vulcanum Traitors on Praetorian’s honour banner.When Zhyr determined that the Imperial Guard forces were now in position in such strength that no enemy attack would move them, he ordered his own survivors to withdraw. The Red Scorpions fell back, mostly on foot or clambering onto the hulls of the few surviving vehicles. Ninety six battle brothers had begun Operation Execution Place. Just 34 returned, many of them also bearing horrible wounds. Commander Ainea was badlywounded and venerable brother Nalr had lost his lascannon right arm. Brother Daeres had been destroyed, lost to a tank’s armour piercing shell that had punched through the Dreadnought’s armoured sarcophagus. The wreckage was towed away to be rebuilt and one day fight for Emperor again.The apothecaries searched the battlefield and collected the all- important progenoid glands of the slain, then survivors loaded the bodies into Rhinos for transport back to the Chapter’s fortress. Upon their return, the correct burial rites would be performed before the Chapter’s Lord High Commander. Sergeant Culln was still alive, his jump pack now discarded, he trudged back, his armour was rent and pitted, his left shoulder pad torn away and his helmet shattered and lost. Soon the Thunderhawks would arrive to lift them back to orbit. High above the Arx Fidelis had survived its exchange with Vraks’ defence lasers, it had been damaged in the approach but escaped without further harm.Their mission was complete. The Red Scorpions’ sacrifice to the Emperor’s cause on Vraks had been made. The price for victory had been paid in the loss of many brave battle brothers and the spirits of vehicles vanquished forever. But the Chapter’s role in the siege had been a vital one. Few other forces in the Emperor’s service could have done it. Thanks to the Red Scorpions' sacrifices, in Sector 57-44 the Krieg Guardsmen were finally through the curtain wall.Only the Fortress of Vraks lay before them.