Editing Battle of Isstvan III (section)

== Battle for the Precentor's Palace or the Three-Primarch Rumble-Derp ==
[[File:Betrayal In Istvaan III.jpg|500px|thumb|right|The destruction that took place in the battle was fucking GLORIOUS!!! The planet would have been literally on fire the whole time, too, thanks to the virus bombing and the following fire wave.]]
{{Topquote|We can really make them suffer, Garvi, we can force them into a battle and delay them. If Tarvitz got the warning out here, who's to say that there aren't others carrying a warning to Terra? Maybe the other Legions already know what happened. Someone underestimates us, they thought this would be a massacre, but we'll go one better. We'll turn Isstvan 3 into a war."<br>"Do you think we can?" said Loken.<br>"We are Luna Wolves, Garvi. We can do anything.|Tarik Torgaddon, giving the peppiest of peppy pep-talks of pep to Garviel Loken, before they linked up with the survivors from the initial bombardment.}}

When Saul Tarvitz was on the ground, he took command of all remaining loyalists alongside Garviel Loken and Tarik Torgaddon, the Captains of the Luna Wolves' 10th and 2nd Companies. Regardless of their original legions and companies, the men looked up to him as their natural, humble leader, who by showing insight and independent thinking saved them once before and could save them again. And he did, time and time again. They held out against the traitors for '''3 FUCKING MONTHS'''. 2000 Astartes with no supply lines or tanks. Not even [[METAL BOXES]]. Against 4 legions, Mortarion, and Angron.

Speaking of [[Angron|that puppet]], we probably have him to thank for this, because before Horus could bombard the loyalists into ash, he went down to the surface himself (various speculations include that he was goaded into it by the insults of the surviving loyalists, that he was too impatient to wait for a second bombardment, that he was disgusted by the idea of his sons being killed by a virus bomb and decided to give his sons an honorable death instead 'cause it reminds him too much of his fellow slaves, or that he was just being [[derp|an idiot]] that wanted to [[RIP AND TEAR]]). As bombarding the planet a second time with Angron on it was not an option lest the World Eaters turn on Horus for bombing their primarch and making an enemy of Angron if he survived, Horus had to deploy the rest of his forces alongside Angron, including Mortarion and his own Captains [[Abbadon|Ezekyle Abbadon]] and [[Horus Aximand]], resulting in an [[Not as planned|inefficient, time-consuming and bloody battle that pushed back his timetable]] even though it hardened the resolve of the traitor forces against the loyalists and blooded them to the point of no return.

{{Topquote|Emperor's Children do not run!"<br>"They do from this!|Captain Erhlen of the World Eaters, talking Saul Tarvitz out of a [[rape|double date with Gorefather and Gorechild]].}}

But really, the fact that the Loyalists survived so long speaks of some serious level of heroic badassery from Loken and Tarvitz leading the loyal forces and some serious [[derp]] on the part of the traitors. Even Mortarion himself spent three months fighting his own legion in the trenches on the northern part of the Palace. Simply put, the amount of some serious shenanigans the Loyalists had to pull off to survive for so long... it's legendary. ''Maybe, [[Imperial Cult|the Emperor was already protecting them]] [[Just As Planned|to whittle down the traitors into a manageable force.]]''

The Death Guard were kept busy besieging their own Loyalists, the Destroyer captain [[Crysos Morturg]] taking command with the Grand Company Captain who'd led them before having died in the bombardment.

One can only guess for how long the loyalists would have held out against the traitors if [[Lucius]] had not betrayed them. That double-crossing bastard was the most egoistical motherfucker in the whole 40K universe. He killed his own squadmates and let [[Eidolon]]'s Emperor's Children Terminators breach the defenses unchallenged, all because he was jealous that Tarvitz was chosen to be the leader of the loyalist Emperor's Children instead of him. It is quite odd that he did, though. There were three months of opportunities he had yet did not take, and he clearly hated the traitors otherwise he wouldn't be fighting for the loyalists. Not to mention wouldn't it be far more infuriating that your own brothers and father are trying to kill you? He definitely is not stupid, either, so dealing with the people actively trying to murder him should have come before personal issues. He could always try to murder Tarvitz when doing so wouldn't risk getting himself killed by enemy combatants. But then we wouldn't have [[Grimdark|Warhammer 40,000: Grimdark]], we'd have [[Noblebright|Warhammer 30,000: Human Utopia]] instead. On the other hand he had already unknowingly been corrupted by a remembrancer (see the novel "Fulgrim" for details) who convinced him to scar his face as Loken had destroyed his beautiful face already anyway. So, one might as well argue that it simply took 3 months for the corruption to fully take root until he was finally ready to betray his best friend Saul.

[[Kharn|That swell guy]] got his ass handed to him by Loken and later impaled on a Land Raider's dozer blade. He survived though, because he is [[Khorne|the Eightfold Path]].
Lucius got his ass handed to him by Tarvitz and later chased away like a dog with bolter fire from fellow loyalists.
The attack launched by Eidolon, thanks to Lucius, was repelled and cut down by a counter-counter attack led by Tarvitz after his duel with Lucius. 
Even [[Abaddon]] was forced to pull back after a duel with his former battle-brother Loken, although it left Loken badly wounded to the point where everyone thought he had died.

You'd really have to read the book "Galaxy in Flames" to experience the full detail of this battle. The last part of the book, '''"Brothers"''' is just a heart wrenching read that would put a ground-standard for all bad assery that would come after those that were shown by the loyalists during this battle.

It's a shame that it all ended in fire with Saul Tarvitz and his remaining 100 loyalists blasted from orbit instead of dying in a final assault. But this does underscore how awesome they were. Horus didn't want to risk getting bogged down again by just those one hundred Marines and didn't want to take the significant casualties he (rightly) expected in further combat with them.

The flight of the ''Eisenstein'' allowed Nathaniel Garro to warn the Imperium of Horus's treachery when they made contact with Rogal Dorn. The ground battle cost Horus time that he needed to consolidate his gains and steamroll towards Terra. [[Rogal Dorn]] organized a fleet of <s>seven</s> eight legions that would eventually reach the Isstvan system and challenge Horus in his fortified position on the Urgall Depression of Isstvan V.

[[Drop Site Massacre|Nothing could possibly go wrong]].