>>5629834>>5630071>>5630159>Urban advance: 77 vs 80. Costly success.>Highway advance: 25 vs 80. Strong success.>Styrian counterattacks: None prepared in time.Palatine Shen leads Sanctus 4 and Sanctus 3 down the broad 8-lane highway that veers northwards and cuts through the urban landscape. Battle Sisters lead the way in the steady advance, moving on-foot between abandoned civilian vehicles before the dozen Castigators behind them ride straight over the detritus. Heavily armed Retributors and over a dozen Immolators and Rhinos follow behind, their guns scanning the surrounding towers and hab-blocks.
On several occasions small-arms fire erupts from the windows of the distant buildings, stitching the ground and pinging off heavy Sororitas armour. Whether they're scattered rebels or local civilians means little to the Sisters of the Order of Bloody Tears and avenging cannon fire smashes into the offending position, often collapsing half the building along with it.
Leading with infantry proves to be a wise choice as the Styrians have lined sections of the highway with heavy anti-tank mines that could have devastated your vehicles. With the Battle Sisters up front they are identified and destroyed without incident. The Sisters Seraphim and servo-skull scouts jump and soar along the tops of the adjacent buildings, scouting ahead of the steady advance, and they identify roadblocks that the Styrians have built from wrecked vehicles and ferrocrete blocks, heavy weapon emplacements - more lascannons and heavy bolters - hidden behind and waiting to open fire.
Thanks to the forewarning of the scouts, Shen's Exorcists lay down covering barrages of missiles so Battle Sisters can move forward, taking up positions and laying down a blistering storm of covering fire to keep the enemy suppressed while Castigators target the heavy guns one by one. The Styrian roadblocks are blown apart by well-prepared Sororitas fire before the surviving rebels attempt to retreat from their failed ambushes, bolter fire raking them down as they flee, Battle Sisters blowing them apart with merciless precision.
While Shen's advance is highly successful it is not entirely one-sided and desperate Styrian defenders managed to snap off a few shots with their heavy weapons before they are quickly destroyed.
cont.
