Editing Hektor Heresy (section)

===The Lion's Cordon===
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<center>'''THE BATTLE OF TROUPO III'''</center>
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During Hektor's first march on Terra, the Lions Rampant had functioned as a spearhead both on planets and across the stars. Cromwald Walgrun's genius for conducting a swift-moving offensive was on full display, but also carried a heavy cost in Promethium. Both sides had known that the fuel-rich world of Troupo III would be a key battlefield and when the Lions Rampant began their combat drops they found a force of Silver Cataphracts opposing them. Though the armoured clashes here would be dwarfed by the gargantuan tank battles of the later Heresy, they were at the time unprecedented. For all the blood shed on Troupo III's sands, neither side could claim a real victory. After the Silver Cataphracts demolished the planetary Promethium dumps and refineries, Traitor and Loyalist alike left Troupo III to burn.
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The Steel Marshals' long delay in coming to Terra's aid was partly a result of their valour. When the civil war began to brew, Roman Albrecht's Legion was engaged in a multi-sector war against the great Domain of Hathor.  Although this vast trans-stellar realm was far from the Imperium's centre, it stretched across strategic warp currents at the joint of the Segmentum Pacificus and Segmentum Tempestus. For decades the War Council had put off an invasion of Hathor's empire, but as the Great Crusade neared its end the Steel Marshals were dispatched to eliminate one last hold-out against Terra. The Steel Marshals had made considerable gains before the news coming from the Segmentum Solar became too serious to ignore, but that left Roman Albrecht with a dilemma. If he simply abandoned his campaign against Hathor, the counterattack would surely take hostile troops far across the Imperial border. Yet he also needed to free up his Legion to confront Hektor.  

The Lord Knight decided to launch one more great offensive to bring Hathor to the table, leading his best men in person to the doorstep of Hathor's throneworld. Roman Albrecht then conducted a hasty peace that would guarantee the Domain of Hathor being annexed into the Imperium on his return. With their last conquests of the Great Crusade secure, the Steel Marshals set out towards Terra.  Their road to the Segmentum Solar would be a long one. Without the light of the Astronomican, Roman Albrecht assembled Astropathic choirs to provide short-range beacons for his fleet's Navigators. By leapfrogging the signalling choirs forward, the Marshals could travel the Warp with relative safety.

As much as he inspired Loyalist hopes, Roman Albrecht haunted the Traitors. None believed that the Lord Knight could be swayed to Hektor's side, even though several Chapters of Steel Marshals had defected. Nor were any of the Traitor Primarchs particularly confident about attempting to slay Albrecht in battle. Eventually it fell to [[Cromwald Walgrun]] and his [[Lions Rampant]] to contain and wear down the Steel Marshals. The Ninth Legion had already taken significant losses, both at the hands of the Loyalists at Troupo III and through Cromwald's own vicious purges, but their morale was high. Furthermore, it was believed that the fast-moving Lions would be able to secure local superiorities against the more static Steel Marshals.

Roman Albrecht's use of Astropathic Choirs to guide his fleet was a necessity, but it made his position conspicuous. The Lions Rampant, aided by Aubrey's Hezeyar allies, swiftly closed in on the Steel Marshals. However, Cromwald Walgrun did not launch an attack on the Loyalist positions. Instead, he borrowed from the tactics that had thwarted his Legion at Troupo III and set his men to ravaging the systems in Albrecht's path. Astropathic pleas detailing the Lions' atrocities reached the Steel Marshals and the Legion's commanders were eager to intervene, but rushing the fleet forward to help would be gambling with the survival of the Imperium. For several months, the Steel Marshals pushed into the "scorched earth" Walgrun had created. With each advance, the Lions Rampant fell back to keep devastating the systems on Roman Albrecht's line of march. The Loyalist fleet's supplies began to run low. Under normal circumstances, the Steel Marshals could have simply bypassed the area by making a longer trip through the Warp, but without the light of the Astronomican such feats of navigation were tremendously risky.