Marsh Silas II: Bloody Platoon

Chapter 35

Hyram was right; they did have to fight it all week and more.

The fighting of that morning proved to be the start of a series of brutal, wheeling attacks all along the lines. Combat became far more frequent, even more so than the high-intensity action that first took place after the Black Legion's arrival. In those earlier months, battles were hard-fought but there were lulls. Major assaults occurred only in the mornings and sometimes at night. Now, there were huge battles at dawn, midday, dusk, and at night depending on how heavy the earlier fighting was. Artillery barrages on both sides were quite constant and trench raiding became a nightly affair.

No man's land was gone; the entire plateau had become a massive array of trenches with sometimes only fifty to a hundred meters of unclaimed ground between them. Everywhere, there were huge shell craters, blasted out pillboxes, half-destroyed bunkers, collapsed trenches, gun positions, and sinking vehicle hulks. In between bigger battles, pockets of Astra Militarum troops and Adeptus Astartes fought with the Band of Dusk and the Traitor Marines over these small pieces of ground. Each one reclaimed gave them avenues to attack to the main lines, always in flux.

On the ridgebacks, Astra Militarum troops and their foes dug in. Massive tunnel networks, mirroring those in the underground fortresses which ran through the mountain ranges north of Kasr Sonnen, turned the ridges into a series of holdouts. Fighting there was apparently bitter, closely fought, and resulted in great cost. Mining operations were underway. Every so often, the Imperial troops detonated a mine underneath an enemy position, creating gaps in their defenses and obliterating many of the troops. The Iron Warriors, accustomed to this manner of warfare, gleefully responded with their own mines. Entire bunker complexes sometimes disappeared.

Troops still poured into the Imperial camp and the other blocking positions. But the enemy received reinforcements as well. Reports began to refer to the area of operations as the 'Sonnen Perimeter,' as the Astra Militarum force had effectively surrounding the heretics position which now stretched across the plateau, onto the ridgebacks that bordered the east and western sides of the valley, the road network, and the hills to the north. But each day, the Sonnen Perimeter grew, like a casket of water beginning to bulge from overfilling. Lines did not area but they did bend.

Although the Imperials purchased some ground, often at high costs, the grim realization that the enemy was gaining more land was settled in. When they were able to rip a piece of territory from the heretics' hands, they could only hold it for so long. Cadian Shock Troops, Interior Guard Regiments, and Youth Regiments, greatly used to overrunning many hostile invasions in the span of a few weeks, grew accustomed to this protracted siege which approached its third month.

All fought very hard but Marsh Silas knew their morale could never peak like it did before. Tactical victories were well and good—dead heretics and denying ground to the enemy reminded an Imperial soldier his opponent was not invincible. But the lack of strategic triumphs weighed heavily on the minds of even the most common, inexperienced Whiteshield. They were losing the high ground and all knew what kind of disadvantage that put them in. The cordon grew smaller and smaller. Victory was inevitable, but it just seemed so far away.

At the very least, the men were still excited to have Hyram back at the head of his platoon. His absence felt longer than it actually was. Although the man was still quite stiff and was getting used to the bionic plating that kept what was left of his arm attached to his torso, he was fighting as hard as ever.

"I thank you for getting my men through it. You've handled the men well."

"We did not succeed in destroying their stronghold, nor did we hold Elevation 142."

"But you got both platoons out in one piece. Even that fellow Afdin's platoon did not suffer. That is the real victory these days."

They trundled down a dirty, heavily shelled trench in the rear. The bombardment had shifted a few minutes ago to the west so they were free to move around now. "Foster and Fleming have made full recoveries; Ledford will be with us within a few days. You didn't lose anybody during any of those terrible attacks while I was gone. You should be proud."