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Changes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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edited Lufgt Hurons Name to Lugft Huron
|Combatant2 = '''Secessionist Forces'''
|Commanders1 = [[Zhrukal Androcles]] (d)<br>[[Tyberos]]<br>[[Carab Culln]]<br>
|Commanders2 = [[Lufgt Lugft Huron]]<br>
|Strength1 = [[Star Phantoms]] (entire Chapter)<br>[[Carcharodons]]<br>[[Fire Hawks]]<br>[[Sons of Medusa]]<br>[[Exorcists]]<br>[[Legio Crucius]] [[Titan Legion]]<br>
|Strength2 = [[Astral Claws]]<br>Badab Primaris [[Tyrant's Legion]]<br>
==The Final Assault==
With the star system now under Loyalist control and surviving defense ships hunted down and destroyed, deployments were quickly put into place to surround and besiege [[Badab Primaris]], with the ships of the [[Exorcists]] Chapter along with the [[Imperial Navy]] detachments breaking off to blockade the star system to ensure none would escape what was to come. The assault from orbit against Badab Primaris was to have been spearheaded by the ''Raptorus Rex'', but that was no longer possible, the strain of the core fragment attack having caused significant structural damage which destabilized the engines of the vast craft, making close-orbital operations impossible. The guns of Badab Primaris were still to be greatly feared and it was a forlorn hope that even a [[Space Marine]] [[battle barge]] would survive long if they could not be silenced quickly by orbital counter-battery fire. The Star Phantoms had asked for and been granted the glory of leading the first wave, and it was their ancient battle barge the ''[[Memento Mori]]'' which would be first to brave the guns of Badab. Further hazard to the assault was presented by the [[High Guard]] orbital station which the [[Astral Claws]] had first used as a [[fortress monastery]] before [[Lufgt Lugft Huron]] had descended to take over the [[Palace of Thorns]] below. The hastily revised attack plan was to be a three-pronged offensive. The first axis of attack would be formed by two [[Space Marine Company|companies]] of [[Star Phantoms]] Space Marines attacking the High Guard orbital fortress in concert with the smaller [[Fire Hawks]] and [[Sons of Medusa]] contingents. For the second, the [[Carcharodons]] would descend in full force to the surface of Badab Primaris's [[hive]] to crush any opposition. The third and most vital attack would be formed by the bulk of the Star Phantoms, some seven companies in strength, assisted by heavy assault elements drawn from across the Loyalist Chapters and [[Inquisitorial]] [[stormtrooper]] companies. This would take the battle to the heart of the foe and besiege the Palace of Thorns itself.{{Fn|1}}
The attack was heralded by waves of orbital bombardment and hurled debris from orbit sent to sow havoc below as weapon fire split the heavens above Badab Primaris. The sable form of the ''Memento Mori'' led the attack and was rocked with explosions as it breached the upper atmosphere, its own cannons roaring in answer and vortex missiles screaming out from its weapon deck to rip great wounds in the planet's crust. Behind the dauntless battle barge, dozens of other warships swept low to unleash their deadly cargo. Blazing bright lances of energy pierced upwards and the skies darkened as wave after wave of drop pods painted in midnight black and cold grey rained down in precisely executed assaults. Brighter yet, from the halo edge of space, the Carcharodons' relic-flagship ''[[Nicor]]'' unleashed the vent plasma-destructor weapon concealed in its belly and burned a great trench in Badab's surface, sundering the bastion wall of Primaris's main city, [[Hive Dominar]], and soon after [[Thunderhawk]]s and [[Caestus Assault Ram|Assault Ram]]s spiralled down to exploit the breach. Such was the burning pall of smoke, swirling cinder ash and choking dust that came up, that night fell over Badab's northern continent as the siege assault raged, the darkness riven with meteoric streaks of flame as wreckage fell from high above.{{Fn|1}}
As true night fell over Hive Dominar and the Palace of Thorns, the fighting and killing went on unabated, spreading out to the planet's sub-hives and industrial zones. The pall of smoke from Badab's burning cities thickened the night to an umbral black deep enough to fog the [[auspex]]es of the ships in orbit; and then to them becoming a mass of indistinguishable heat blooms from the fires below. Titans stalked the benighted and ruined cityscapes, their powerful weapons lighting up the darkness like thunderstorms as their footfalls shook the earth. Crushing any hint of resistance they encountered and systematically smashing manufactora and habitation blocks, the Titans' machine spirits and crews reveled in the desolation they brought, driving waves of screaming refugees and routed Legion troopers before them in a disordered swarm. Meanwhile, the Carcharodons haunted the shadows of the Badab Hives like blood-painted grey specters, the city was theirs.{{Fn|1}}
Of [[Lufgt Lugft Huron]]'s actions during this long night of destruction, little can be said for certain. Some reports have the Tyrant sighted almost everywhere in the defense of the Palace, hurling back the rent and shattered bodies of his enemies, roaring his defiance, while other tales place him alone and silent in the throne chamber, impassively watching the destruction of all he had wrought in the flickering light of his holo-sphere. Regardless of the truth, what can be accurately said is that no Astral Claw surrendered to his fate. Each fought to the end, whether at the Palace of Thorns or in the hive cities of Badab or in defense of the High Guard orbit station, the Astral Claws sold their lives in a blaze of fury and spite.{{Fn|1}}
At the dawn of the second day, the Carcharodons took matters into their own hands to bring about the end. Assigned by Lord Commander [[Carab Culln]] the task of attacking the planet's infrastructure and preventing an organized defense from taking root, they had devised their own plan, and set their own deadly measures to the extremes to which they would go. Having ravaged the Tyrant's Legion forces defending the cities and setting the hives ablaze, they continued to the final stage of their plan and dispatched strike teams deep into the hive sub-surface. There they sabotaged the vast and ancient atomic and geo-thermal reactors which powered the hives and provided the hungry planetary defense batteries with energy. Across Badab Primrais power failed or suddenly spiked adding to the chaos, and slowly, with inexorable horror, the hives began to quake and the towers of Badab toppled like felled trees. Silently and in good order, the Carcharodons began to withdraw from the surface, the fatal blow struck, the [[God Emperor]]'s judgment on treacherous Badab delivered.{{Fn|1}}
All over Badab the ground began to quake and shudder as high above in orbit auguries registered the massive tectonic upheaval in the planet's sub-hive structures radiating out across ancient geological fault lines, spewing molten magma and radioactive ash up from the earth. Badab Primaris began to die.{{Fn|1}}
At the Palace of Thorns, the bastion was finally breached, collapsing the lightning shield. The Star Phantoms now stormed the citadel, much of which was now no more than a rubble-strewn butcher's yard. At the height of this desperate last battle at the palace, Lufgt Lugft Huron was mortally wounded by the dying Star Phantoms Captain Androcles. Records recovered after the clash from the auto-sense logs of the Star Phantoms indicate a brutal melee erupting between Androcles' forces and the Tyrant's personal guard to their near mutual destruction in one of the Palace's deep sub-levels, and it is likely Huron's party were attempting to flee to a concealed escape craft via the sub surface. Captain Androcles was struck down by the Tyrant in the confrontation, who in his arrogance strode over the fallen hero believing him dead. As his life bled from him, the grimly determined Star Phantom's Captain succeeded in discharging his [[combi-melta]] at the looming figure of Lufgt Lugft Huron at point blank range. The melta-blast struck the arcane lightning claw the Tyrant habitually wore which catastrophically exploded unleashing a baleful pulse of energy. This blast incinerated the Tyrant's arm and much of his right side, and the remnants of his burning armor collapsing on the ground was the last image recorded by the fallen captain's auto-senses. Soon afterwards, when a second Star Phantoms squad entered the vault, they found the bloody remains of the melee, along with the shrapnel and organic detritus later identified by the [[Magos Biologis]] of the Consistorial Court as belonging to the Tyrant. The bulk of Lufgt Lugft Huron's body was not found, nor were any remains that could be later identified as belonging to the Astral Claws' [[Master of the Forge]] [[Armenneus Valthex]], who had also been present in the combat. Further investigation of the matter or deeper exploration of the lower levels of the Palace of Thorns proved impossible however as the wider situation on Badab Primaris began to deteriorate rapidly.{{Fn|1}}
Beneath the hives of Badab Primaris, the cascading destruction of the deep-sunk reactor cores was taking its tool. Tectonic shocks and volcanic eruptions were increasing at an exponential rate and entire hive sectors collapsed into gaping maws that opened in the ground beneath them to be replaced by seas of lava. The campaign of purgation and conquest on Badab quickly devolved into anarchic retreat and many were caught in the path of destruction. Wherever they could be found interface vessels of any and all kind were commandeered by Loyalist and renegade alike in a desperate effort to flee.{{Fn|1}}
