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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→Last Stand
In the ensuing months of bitter fighting, the defenders made the traitors pay for every piece of ground gained. Eidolon launched multiple attacks upon the Precentor Palace but each time was beaten back by Tarvitz and his Emperor's Children. The [[Venerable Dreadnought]] [[Rylanor]] fought alongside Tarvitz, gaining infamy in the battles. Many times Rylanor was thought destroyed, only to always rise again and reap carnage upon the enemy.{{Fn|1m}} In one engagement, Eidolon was forced to scurry away after the loss of his [[Chaplain]] [[Charmosian]].{{Fn|2e}} Meanwhile, Loken and Torgaddon continued their strategy of mobile defence, proving too elusive to encircle and pin down. Roving bands of loyal World Eaters continued to harry the traitors, and to the northwest the loyal Death Guard stubbornly fought on in an intact bunker network.{{Fn|1m}}
However despite the determined and skillful loyalist resistance, their foes were too many and too well-supported by heavy armor, air power, and Titans of the Legio Mortis. It was only a matter of time before they were dwindled down to nothing by sheer attrition. The defending loyalists were well aware of this reality and had no delusions of surviving the coming struggle, but this did nothing to shake their determination to resist their foes. The only advantage benefit that the loyalist could take advantage of was the eruption of violent storms across Isstvan III that were brought on by its destruction. These storms served to further delay the traitor advance.{{Fn|1l}} By two months into the conflict some 10,000 loyalists were believed dead, but they had inflicted twice that upon the traitors.{{Fn|1m}}
The first cracks in the loyalist defense came from the Death Guard in the northwest of the Choral City, who were faced with the most desperate situation as both Angron and Mortarion each advanced on their position. Already hammered by the vicious frontal assault of the World Eaters, Mortarion landed his great relic assault ship ''[[Omen]]'' and used its turrets to sweep the ground clear of trenches and pillboxes. In their wake came heavy [[Spartan Assault Tank|Spartan]]s, [[Fellblade]]s and [[Typhon Heavy Siege Tank|Typhon]] tanks with Mortarion personally leading them. One by one, the loyalist defensive bastions were subdued.{{Fn|1m}}
