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At the north-east of Hive Dominar lay the Palace of Thorns. Built into a mountainous volcanic plateau that rose high above the level of the hive city, it comprised a hulking, ornate citadel surrounded by wide statue-lined plazas and minaret-capped gun towers studded with defense lasers and flak batteries. This was the heart of the Astral Claws' domain and the lair of the Tyrant of Badab. Above the Palace complex's center, an actinic-bright lightning shield rippled and clashed in the air; a vast charged power-field that disintegrated anything it touched and shrugged off even the firepower of the warships above. The plazas and weapons batteries that spread out beyond the Palace were not so impervious however, and it was into them that the Star Phantoms descended with unmatched precision and timing, their drop pods smashing down through the ornate sepulchers and toppling needle-thin auspex-masts as they descended. Despite the blizzard of fire that had greeted them, over five hundred Battle Brothers out of the seven hundred strong force survived to make landfall, and now they set about besieging the heavily protected Palace. The combat was as fierce as any the Chapter had seen and at every turn the Star Phantoms encountered death-traps and heavily defended gun positions. They fought brutal close range engagements with Astral Claws assault squads who counter-attacked them from concealed sally-ports, paying in blood for every advance. Further in, [[Land Raider]]s and [[Predator]]s spilled from underground bunkers in defense of the citadel's shield wall, their power matched by the deadly accurate fire of Star Phantoms [[Devastator squad]]s and [[Dreadnought]]s firing from the shattered towers they had already stormed. The siege soon descended into a bloody meat-grinder as the wide-open plazas that ringed the citadel became lethal killing grounds which offered scant cover to attackers or defenders alike. For every two gun-ziggurats that were taken by the Star Phantoms, another held out or was re-taken by counter-assault, and soon the siege lines became a confused anarchy where the enemy could be encountered on all sides. Slowly though, the bloody siege of the Palace's outer precincts began to tip in the Loyalists' favorfavour, as making their way up the volcanic ridges, storm trooper reinforcements joined the fray allowing the Star Phantoms to press the attack, while Loyalist [[Terminator squad]]s locked onto the Star Phantoms' [[teleport homer]]s were dispatched to the surface from strike cruisers braving the much reduced ground fire. But despite the massive force brought to bear against it, still the citadel held. The Palace of Thorns's lightning field remained un-breached, and attack after attack was hurled away from its citadel by murderous counter-attack as deadly fire rained down from the walls. The attackers' losses mounted steadily and even the [[Reaver Titan]] of the Legio Crucius alongside fresh Sons of Medusa detachments could not force the issue. Indeed the first Titan to attempt the attack was disabled as it sought to lend its firepower to the assault, its command deck gutted by a well-placed [[conversion beamer]] blast in the shadow of the citadel. The siege of the Palace of Thorns was at a lethal impasse.{{Fn|1}}