With a final, sickening lurch, the Incendium Spesum tore itself from the tides of the Warp and emerged into realspace. Deep, sonorous tones like monastery bells signaled the detection of unknown ships. The ship’s captain, clad in his green power armor and ensconced in his command throne, gave no sign of hearing them. Instead, he reviewed the incoming data through his mind-link to the ship, noting the disposition of the enemy warships. Closest contacts – three Infidel raiders patrolling the outer reaches of planetary space. More pressingly, an Archenemy ship, positively identified as the Murder-class crusier Misery, glowered menacingly above Seffix. Sending his commands in the blink of a mortal eye, the captain leaned back and prepared to run the gauntlet.

The Archenemy capital ship immediately comes about, locking weapons on the trespassers. Its prow lances prove unable to pin down the nimble escorts.

The Infidels set a course straight for the enemy, salvoing torpedoes as they go.

The Gladius frigates – Infernus, Exterminus, and Moltemus – move to screen the Incendium Spesum from the incoming ships. Their gun batteries manage to bring down the Misery’s shields, but cannot penetrate its desecrated hull.

The Spesum launches Thunderhawks. One squadron intercepts the torpedo volley and returns to base. The other begins its attack run on the Misery.

With a roar that floods the open vox channels, the Misery lurches forward. All weapon batteries fire unceasingly as it lunges through the escort formation. The Infidels pounce at the same time, torpedoes and plasma salvos rippling across space. The Salamander frigates brace for impact, and as the explosions die down, only the Moltemus continues to cut through the void.

The Astartes ships continue their push towards Seffix. Weapon batteries and bombardment cannons pummel the Misery, but it remains undeterred. Thunderhawks launch a hit-and-run attack on the cruiser, starting a shipboard fire.

The Misery screams past the Spesum’s aft, firing its batteries point blank. The Strike Cruiser’s shields crackle and overload, but contain the damage. The Misery, dangerously close to its target, loses its shields to the debris and energy waves of its own attack. Its damage control teams quench the raging fires from last turn’s hit-and-run.

Ever the opportunists, the Infidels swarm the Moltemus, but the doughty Salamander frigate withstands their feeble attacks.

The Strike Cruiser captain, sensing an opportunity, strikes hard. Reserving his gun batteries for the Infidels, he orders a Terminator teleport assault against the Misery, along with a wave of Thunderhawks. The attacks leave the Archenemy cruiser with two separate fires to deal with.

The Misery burns retros to stay in the fight. Infuriatingly, the Strike Cruiser continues to be unassailable by the Chaos cruiser’s formidable gun batteries.

The Infidels, knowing where the true threat lies, change course to attack the Spesum. Even though their ally is in the path of the torpedo volley, they fire anyway. Both the Spesum and the Misery take hull damage from the massed warheads.

This time, the Misery’s slave engineers prove less effective, and neither fire is put out, costing the cruiser two hull points!

Ignoring the cruiser for now, the Astartes ships focus their wrath on the Infidels, immolating one in righteous fire.

The forces of Chaos continue to hound the Loyalists, but the Salamanders refuse to be deterred.

Misery’s damage control fails once again, and the cruiser is crippled by the raging fires. Even in the void, the Salamanders will purge you by flame!

Its path clear, the Incendium Spesum diverts all power to the engines, closing on Seffix. The Moltemus, ignored by the enemy forces, begins to circle around.

The Strike Cruiser continues to swat away the Chaos attacks like annoying gnats. The Misery ignores the pitiful Gladius and continues its long range attacks on the Spesum, before losing another two hull points to fire.

The Moltemus, passed over in favor of larger targets, shows its true mettle and unleashes hell on Misery, taking its last hull point and turning it into a drifting hulk. His brothers are avenged.

The Strike Cruiser begins its assault on Seffix, launching drop pods and Thunderhawks, as well as starting the preliminary bombardment. The invasion of Seffix has begun!