Siege of Terra (Detailed) 2

The outermost trenches around the Palace Walls were now untenable, but Sanguinius opened up the Helios Gate and led a massive counterattack by the Blood Angels and Imperial Fists as well as Titans of the Legio Solaria. Sanguinius knew victory was impossible, but had his Astartes buy enough time to allow for the Imperial Army conscripts to make it inside the walls and allow for Titans to destroy the incoming Towers of Nurgle.[9i] On top of the Eternity Wall itself, Blood Angels First Captain Raldoron bested the acting Night Lords commander Gendor Skraivok and threw him from the Walls.[9j] It was in this maelstrom of destruction that Angron himself fell from the sky, having been released from the bowels of the Nightfall. After massacring his way through friend and foe alike to the Eternity Wall Angron bellowed a challenge to Sanguinius, who saluted his fallen brother and stated that while they would battle one day, today was not that day. Angron raged, but could not proceed any further due to the lingering effects of the Emperor.[9k]

Battle for Lion's Gate Spaceport

Though the rest of Terra was in chaos or in Traitor hands, the Palace stood firm. All traitor attacks against the walls failed to achieve a breakthrough, and the Emperor's psychic shield endured strong enough to keep the Daemon Primarch's from the Palace. In order to further the weakened Emperor's barrier, both Horus and Magnus launched psychic attacks against Him. Magnus utilized the gestalt Daemon Shai-Tan in the attacks.[11] At Horus' command Mortarion attacked near the Saturnine Gate turning the previously lavish Palatine Arc into an infected quagmire nicknamed Poxville. Angron fruitlessly rampaged outside of the Helios Gate, and Fulgrim's degenerate hordes launched raids to both the west and north. The Emperor's Children were already beginning to leave the frontline, instead taking prisoners for their own perverse reasons. Of Magnus there was no sign, and not even Malcador could ascertain his true intentions. In this stalemate, Horus placed Perturabo in charge of achieving a major breakthrough. Perturabo surmised that the Lion's Gate Spaceport was both the weakest and strongest points in the Palace's defenses. Taking it would allow the traitors to land badly needed Titans and give the traitors access to both the Inner and Outer Palaces. At the same time however, it was one of the most heavily defended bastions. This did not deter Perturabo, and he shocked his First Captain Forrix by placing Kroeger in charge of the assault on the Spaceport. Perturabo hoped that Koreger's bluntness would shock Dorn, who had planned for a more sophisticated attack.[10a]

The Imperial Forces at the Lion's Gate Spaceport numbered 18,000 Imperial Fists and nearly 800,000 Imperial Army troops under the command of Fafnir Rann. To break this, the traitors amassed a massive force of their own. 25,000 Iron Warriors, thousands more World Eaters under Kharn, 2,308 Basilisks, 1,500 Manticores, 13 Bombards, 476 Deathstrike Missile Launchers, 495 Medusas, 84 Typhon Heavy Siege Tanks, 7,108 Thunderburst towed guns, 306 Siege Dreadnoughts, and tens of thousands of Astartes tanks representing 80% of the Iron Warriors Legion's Armour. Supporting this were 1.5 million traitor Imperial Army troops and untold numbers of Beastmen, Mutants, and Cultists.[10b]

Despite the apprehensions of Forrix, Kroeger chose not to launch a massive preliminary bombardment and instead launched an immediate attack on the Walls outside the Lion's Gate Spaceport. To the surprise of the traitors the Fists under Fafnir Rann forayed out of the Spaceport and formed a Shield Wall, pressing the Lost and the Damned masses together as Astartes armour moved around on their flanks. The armoured encirclement decimated the traitors, wiping out 300,000 troops in under two hours. The traitor attack stalled until the appearance of Angron himself, who managed to turn the tide. However as the Emperor's psychic shield prevented the Daemon Primarch from moving into the Palace Walls, the traitors failed to take the Spaceport.[10c] Following the failed attack, Perturabo realized that to take the Walls they must combat the immaterial might of the Emperor, Horus agreed, and gave Perturabo the support of Zardu Layak and Abaddon as well as Typhon. The four moved back down to the Palace Perimeter and enacted a ritual that would summon Cor’bax Utterblight into the minds of the mortal defenders of the Palace, forcing the Emperor's psyche to its limits.[10d] Meanwhile at the orders of Kroeger Forrix and 1,000 Iron Warriors infiltrated into the Spaceport, using the earlier attack as a smokescreen to move in and seize the bridges between the Spaceport and Lion's Gate itself. However in truth Kroeger intended to abandon Forrix behind enemy lines, or at the very least simply didn't care enough to lend him support. Shortly after Forrix's infiltration, 3,000 Sons of Horus under Abaddon alongside forces from the World Eaters under Kharn and Iron Warriors under Kroeger and Berossus attacked the upper tiers of the Spaceport.[10e]

Dorn agreed to provide Rann with reinforcements under Sigismund to prevent a total traitor victory at the Spaceport. During the defense Rann was wounded by Kroeger but saved by Sigismund, who led a vicious counterattack.[10f] It soon became apparent that the Iron Warriors attempt to seize the bridges had been simply a feint. Perturabo used Forrix's men to shield his true intentions, docking the Iron Blood with the Space Port's space elevator facilities and unloading waves of new reinforcements. The defection of the Addaba Free Corps prevented Dorn from sending reinforcements and the situation collapsed for the loyalists. In the ensuing brawl Sigismund battled Kharn, but while the First Captain was the superior warrior the World Eater's Captain was now infused with Khornate strength. Sigismund was bested, but saved by the appearance of Rogal Dorn himself who slapped away Kharn like an insect. Abaddon refused to allow Kharn to die and led a counterattack to save the World Eater, forcing Layak to intervene in order to save the future Warmaster of Chaos from the Primarch's wrath.[10g] Layak held off Dorn for a time with his sorcerous power, but was eventually slain. However, as he died he opened a portal to the Warp which allowed the first Daemon's to manifest on Terra. With the situation now hopeless, Dorn ordered a withdrawal as Perturabo himself landed in the Spaceport. The two brothers came face to face, but both refused to waste their time and resources engaging one another in a fruitless duel. Perturabo had taken the First Wall, but there were still many more left to capture before the Sanctum Imperialis. Perturabo was undeterred as he oversaw the landing of the first Traitor Titans from the Legio Fureans upon Terra.[10h]

Meanwhile inside the Inner Palace, Euphrati Keeler's Lectitio Divinitatus continued to gain influence in the throngs of refugees and desperate. However, their faith was a deception by Chaos, which allowed Utterblight to manifest inside the Sanctum Imperialis itself. Thanks to the efforts of Malcador, Sisters of Silence, and Amon Tauromachian total disaster was averted, but the incident combined with the constant immaterial assaults by Horus and Magnus forced the Emperor's psychic shield to reduce to only around the Sanctum Imperialis. With the Emperor weakened, massive amounts of Daemons were summoned on Terra for the first time. Meanwhile, Angron led a horde of World Eaters towards the Eternity Wall. Dorn was not shocked by the fall of the Spaceport, and in fact, was satisfied that he had held it longer than he thought he would. All that mattered to the Primarch was to buy enough time for Guilliman to arrive.[10i]

Defense of the Lion's Gate

Angron attacks the Imperial Palace[12]

With Horus still isolating himself aboard the Vengeful Spirit, Perturabo became the general commander of the traitor war effort, maintaining a war council alongside the Mournival, Eidolon, Typhus, Ahriman, and Krostovok. On the 19th day of Quintus, the Traitors unleashed a massive assault with weapons of mass destruction and other high-yield weaponry which utterly annihilated the Magnifican, the northeastern half of the Palace megastructure. The operation was overseen by three Iron Warriors Stor-Bezashk. In the wake of the mass explosions Gastraphetes, Gravitic Ballistas, Manuballistas, Torsion Engines, Graviton Onagers, Trebuchets, and Accelerator Mangonels unleashed a bombardment against the next line of Loyalist defenses. They fired ouslite, chemical, incendiary or tungsten ordnance while others simply recycled the destroyed masonry of the Magnifican, hurling it back at the defenders. The enormous explosions and impacts created a cloud of ash that caused perpetual night on Terra. Though the Magnifican had already largely fallen to the traitors, Perturabo destroyed this section in order to prevent remaining loyalists from using the massive urban sprawl as cover for delaying actions.[13a].