A slightly smaller Mess

He raises his gun to the major and pulls the trigger

The red striped figure, while the comissar is distracted glancing around, charges. His power bayonet stabs right into the comissar's power fist arm, stabbing straight through before pinning it to the trench wall behind him. He then pulls out his sidearm and points it at the comissar's forehead, the barrel touching his head.

The old man catches it in the shoulder, spinning a half turn before falling into the mud at the bottom of the trench, his head cracks off the firing step, leaving a greasy red mark.

For a split second, the red figure sees the terror in the young mans eyes, before it is glazed over by a hard mask of discipline. The pause seems to drag for an eternity. "Do it."

The armoured warrior, presuming the major dead, now continues scything down defenders. Elsewhere in the trench more armoured figures are doing likewise.

*Blam*

Within a few more minutes, the last holdout is cut down.

Several more of the armoured figures had joined the fight in the first trench by now. They gather into a sperahead now and, as several other soldiers barrage the second and third trenches with grenade launchers, they go over the top

They're met with eerie silence, and, once over the top, they can see lights in the distance, stab lights, moving closer. It turns out explosives are loud, i guess.

the soldiers quickly get to work. They fill the trenches and remains of the bunker with concealed explosives. Once they have done this, the cannon fires in the direction of the torches. High explosive this time.

in standard guard protocol, the stablights scatter and blink out as the high explosive shell hits. And vague yells of terror and curses float over the trench

the attackers soon disappear into the night, scattering in all directions, using cameleoline to remain hidden.

Angry shouting chases them, and they can be sure that high command is aware of a ground incursion, or that it will be soon.

they're too fast, and having moved during the confusion after that explosion, the PDF never stood a chance of finding them. The cannon too, is gone.

The report is rather pathetic. "Something" has fucked up all the guys in a section of trench, the surviving major has described them as "Twats"

*and from there, there is no sign of the attackers....*

Upon hearing this report, laurence pulls the combead from his ear and hurls it off the balcony. "SON OF A FUCK-..." He inhales deeply, and plucks the combead from the air before it drops past the top of its arc. He turns, and stalks out into the gardens of the manse, shadowed by sidonai.

Meanwhile, a rather important plot thread we forgot about raid is taking place to retrieve a knight.

*we require the welshman for that*

*That is true.*

Laurence stalks right down the path and out through the gates, into the night, mumbling about 'Useless fucking humans' facing the city, he begins to expand the periphery of his senses. Always left at an almost paranoid radius, to provide forewarning of assassination attempts, his mental presence rolls out across the moorland, searching for souls.

*...um*

*...does man find anyone who shouldn't be there?*

Laurence walks all the way to the site of the trench breach. Looking over the devastation with his dispassionate masked glare.

suddenly, trenches n bunker go boom

Laurence tries to throw up a shield as the debris rushes up towards him, clods of dirt, the splinters of wooden supports and bodyparts flying in all directions with deadly forces. The shield deflects the shower of detritus, but the wave of force still picks him up and hurls him like a rag doll. Likewise, Sidonai, who had taken a handfull of laurence's coat, intending to drag him behind her, so she could absorb a portion of the blast for her master, is thrown clear. Leaving the pair crumpled in a pile some distance away from where they once stood.

smoke rises now from he debris that was the defences. There's little to no evidence of what transpired here.

Laurence coughs, and groans as two of his ribs snap back into place. Sidonai, lies still as her own form regenerates itself in similar fashion. There is a good time of silence, before laurence lets loose a flood of multilingual profanity that would make scarbrand blush, with the general gist being 'I'm going to find whoever set those charges, and kill them in creative ways'

*dey gone chief*

Sidonai mumbles an agreement, before Laurence searches the general area for survivors of the blast.

aint shit. Hard enough to find intact remains, let alone survivors

Behind his mask, his teeth are bared. He voxes to the command, that this area needs to be refortified, and reinforced. The command comes out as a growl, snapping at the men safe in bunkers as their men bleed.

there are no real trails to follow

He orders security to be increased, checks of mens numbers and such. All in all, laurence ends up feeling rather useless.

things go somewhat quiet for a bit

Laurence sets off walking back to the manse, a palpable aura of anger around the man.

Lyanna's just sorta sat around

He comes through the door, the smell of cordite and blood rushing into the air conditioned atmosphere. "Lazarus, get ready to deploy. The rest of you, standby." The five masked soldiers, four men and one woman, rise from the bench, and walk into an adjoining room marked as the armoury.

her eyebrow raises at that

"First strike's hit. Infiltrators..." he points upwards and circles his finger to encompass the sky. "And the sorcerers up there are doing a damn good job at fucking the warp up. So i can't find them."

"Sounds about right for that lot"

"Any information to add, Lyanna?"

"Odds are they'll be looking for a place to set up a teleport homer"

Laurence: "Well... the first line is going to fall... earlier than i expected... Still, an opportunity to put down some astartes."

"Its a teleport homer. I doubt it'll be just plain ol' astartes coming in"

"Terminators are not too much more effort."

"Depends how many. And when they hit."

"For Lazarus and myself... well we will see." He looks over his shoulder, towards the armory, checking to see if the team has reappeared, then turns back. "And Sidonai, of course."

"And if you're busy elsewhere? Chances are, they'll hit the walls, and THEN send in the terminators while everyone's focussed there"

"The city was always going to fall. It's simply a matter of what we can force the heretics to pay for it. We will hold the artillery positions in the outer trenches, and either the terminators attack inside the walls, and we shell them, or they attack the trenches, and we are in position to respond."

"They're not going to hold back on the walls laurence. You'll want those big guns pointing elsewhere"

"I'll want those big guns suppressing the breaches they make, and setting fires within the walls. They'll be trapped inside, with the remains of our forces, and they'll burn. We hold the trenches, and keep firing until there is nothing left."

"...You're underestimating what they'll throw at us. I'd wager Gorgons filled with infantry, land raiders, knights, the works."

"All the more reason to concentrate fire."

"How do you plan to suppress knights?"

"With basilisk fire. We have a limited supply of mars pattern shells, i intend to fire them all before the warriors can lay their traitorous hands on them."