On the battlefields of Iex Cardinal, the expeditionary forces of the Imperial Guard entered into a fierce confrontation with the dark armies of Chaos. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and his regiment, the Tanith First-and-Only, are thrown into the hell of trench warfare, where it is so easy to meet death at the hands of a treacherous enemy. The only chance of survival for Gaunt and his lightly armed scouts is a mission so dangerous that no one else would dare take it on voluntarily!