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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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A more dangerous threat to the invading Astartes were the Warsingers which managed to kill dozens of Space Marines each with their sonic songs.{{Fn|2c}} It was at this point in the battle that an enormous scream erupted across the Choral City and beyond, driving the people of Isstvan III into uncontrolled hatred and madness and driving them to resist the Imperials by any means necessary. All four Space Marline Legions now had to contend with waves of frenzied civilians in addition to the standard rebel troops.{{Fn|1g}}
At the Precentor Palace, the Emperor's Children advanced room by room at significant cost thanks to the presence of many Warsingers. There were also large numbers of a previously unencountered type of rebel elite. These warriors were surgically modified and mutilated, clad in black vitrified armorarmour, and wielding strange weapons that spat killing blasts of sound or darts of liquid metal. However they eventually were able to fight their way to the throneroom, where Captain [[Lucius (Emperor's Children)|Lucius]] slew the heavily augmented Vardus Praal personally.{{Fn|1h}}{{Fn|2d}} Simultaneously deep within the Siren's Hold Tomb Spires the Sons of Horus under the command of [[Garviel Loken]] fought into a strange corpse-filled shrine and slew many Warsingers before destroying the complex. These two acts managed to dispel the strange cacophony that held sway over the Choral City, and within hours the rebellion was smashed. Quickly securing their remaining objectives, the victorious Space Marines celebrated their hard-won victory, unaware that disaster was about to strike.{{Fn|1h}}
====Betrayal====
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 armorarmour, 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 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 [[Astartes Assault Ship|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}}
====Endgame====
Nearly two months into the fight, the last of the great storms began to wane and the loyalist situation rapidly worsened. Tarvitz and his Emperor's Children still held the Precentor's Palace and the Luna Wolves still held the Siren's Hold, but in the northwest the loyal Death Guard were finally smashed by Mortarion and Angron's onslaught. In a confusing battle dubbed the "Veil of Grief", the legendary discipline of the Death Guard broke down as some surviving loyal elements within Mortarion's own armies turned their guns upon their traitorous brothers or the World Eaters. Traitor and Loyalist became lost in the maelstrom, with Death Guard Marshal [[Durak Rask]] being killed by [[Crysos Morturg]]. Mortarion himself is said to have been wounded in the battle, burned by plasma fire from one of his own [[Predator]] tanks before he and his [[Deathshroud]] hacked it to pieces. The respite the confusion brought allowed some of the surviving loyal Death Guard to withdraw. In the aftermath a spiteful Mortarion used the waning storms to land massive amounts of reinforcements and poured heavy armor armour and Titans into the area, annihilating what resistance they still encountered. The loyalist Death Guard did not give up however, and withdrew to subterranean bunker and catacomb networks to continue to fight on. Mortarion had expected this however, and brought in [[Vortex Weapon|Vortex charges]] and [[Hades Breaching Drill]]s to clear out these remaining bastions.{{Fn|1m}}
Meanwhile at the Choral City, Horus unleashed [[Abaddon]] and his elite [[Justaerin]] to the southwest. Backed by heavy armorarmour, airpower, newly christened [[Dark Mechanicum]] troops, and Titans, they flushed out and wiped out what resistance was encountered. Shockingly, the traitorous Sons of Horus were accompanied by the witch-priests of [[Davin]]'s [[Serpent Lodge]], who used the power of the Warp to unleashed a sickening shroud across the battlefield.{{Fn|1m}}
Eidolon launched another assault on the Precentor's Palace, this time backed up by freshly landed Titans of the Legio Mortis and [[Legio Audax]].{{Fn|1n}} Formerly loyalist Captain [[Lucius (Emperor's Children)|Lucius]] had grown to despise Saul Tarvitz and wanted to rejoin his Legion. Using a slain [[Chaplain]]'s helmet communicator, he contacted Lord Commander Eidolon and arranged for the betrayal of his comrades. Lucius himself had slain all the defenders at that part of the encampment promising Eidolon not only glory by defeating the loyalists but giving him the head of Saul Tarvitz. Despite his boast, Lucius was defeated when Tarvitz had reinforcements, forcing Lucius to flee back to the Emperor's Children Legion.{{Fn|2f}} Meanwhile, the traitor Titans combined their fire on part of the structures wall, finally blowing a hole in the structure and allowing them to advance inside for the first time. The first into the breach however was not the traitorous Emperor's Children however, but Angron and his World Eaters who massacred any remaining loyalists encountered inside.{{Fn|1n}}
To the northwest at the Siren's Hold, Abaddon's Justaerin came into contact with Loken and Torgaddon's Luna Wolves after landing via [[Caestus Assault Ram]]s.{{Fn|1n}} Backed by gunships and heavy armorarmour, Abaddon's [[Terminator]] elite were finally able to break their way into the Siren's Hold. Hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, the Luna Wolves fought to the last but the Siren Hold fell within the hour.{{Fn|1n}} Despite a valiant final battle against Abaddon and [[Horus Aximand]], Torgaddon was slain and Loken was buried under rubble from a Titan's blast.{{Fn|2b}} The traitors unleashed [[Phosphex]] into the lower catacombs, burning those who remained below alive as Davinite Priests used their dark arts to identify any living who remained. By now, the war had devolved into a hunt for the small pockets of remaining loyalists who were all eliminated to a man.{{Fn|1n}}
There were ultimately only handful of loyalist survivors, such as Loken,{{Fn|5}} Morturg and Decima,{{Fn|6}} and Rylanor, who unknown to all sides remained hidden on the planet for millennia after.{{Fn|7}}
