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The Battle of Isstvan V, also known as the [[Drop Site Massacre]], saw Angron and the World Eaters unleashed, their assault splitting the [[Raven Guard]]'s line of communication from that of the Iron Hands. The World Eaters then turned their ire upon the Raven Guard, causing many casualties in the sable-clad legion.{{Fn|25}} Indeed, the World Eaters seemed to focus on the Raven Guard as their targets even after the battle had been settled in the favour of the traitors. As well as sending out hunter squads after the Raven Guard survivors trapped on the surface, the World Eaters were recorded to undertake a strange and barbaric practice, almost akin to a ritual; they decapitated and flensed the heads of the fallen, stacking them in ossuary-cairns. The [[Khorne|significance]] of this post-battle development would not be truly appreciated by observers of the legion until some time later, but the cairns were noted to have a bizarre and deleterious psychic effect on the Raven Guard marines hiding in the area. Angron himself remained upon Isstvan V, leading the force hunting the Raven Guard personally. Eventually, after 98 days of cat-and-mouse hunting, the World Eaters were able to run the Raven Guard survivors down, launching themselves at their exhausted prey in what would surely be another, final massacre. This was not to be however, as the Raven Guard force - including their primarch, [[Corax]] - were rescued by a relief force of their own legion, in what some would come to refer to as a miracle.{{Fn|26}}
====A Shadowed Purpose====
After the opening of the Great Betrayal, Angron and the World Eaters were invited by the primarch [[Lorgar]] to accompany him and a force of his [[Word Bearers]] on a campaign into the [[Ultramar]] [[sector]]; the [[Shadow Crusade]]. A force of around 70,000 World Eaters assembled around their Primarch and joined a smaller force of Word Bearers. While Lorgar had a specific first target in mind - [[Armatura]] - the World Eaters insisted on attacking four other worlds of Ultramar upon the way, killing all who stood against them. These bloody diversions caused a rise in tensions with the Word Bearers that almost came to blows between their fleets, but after an [[Eldar]] attack on them was jointly repulsed, union of purpose was reached and [[Battle of Armatura|Armatura was successfully assaulted]].{{Fn|27}}
The World Eaters were instrumental in the battles of the [[Shadow Crusade]], and the [[Siege of Terra]] itself.{{Cite This}}
*{{Endn|25}}: [[The Horus Heresy Book Two - Massacre]], p. 35
*{{Endn|26}}: [[The Horus Heresy Book Three - Extermination]], pp. 34-35, 38, 45
*{{Endn|27}}: [[Butcher's Nails (Audio Book)|Butcher's Nails]] by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
[[Category:Armageddon Wars]]
