Editing Hektor Heresy (section)

===The Fall of Destoona===

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<center>'''THE PARTHORUM STREAM'''</center>
[[File:Parthorumstream.jpg|160px|right]]
The Parthorum Stream is a vast Warp phenomena, the convergence of two currents that permit rapid and reliable Warp travel along an area of space 250 light years in length.  Although there were other roads to Sol, this was the most easily navigated and significant.  During the first decades of the Great Crusade, Hektor Cincinnatus and his young First Legion had led the Imperium into this critical region and the lessons they had learned fighting the Xenos-led Osroene Empire had shaped much of the First's Compliance policy.  Throughout the fight for humanity's domination of the Galaxy, the Parthorum Stream had been a critical artery for supplies to the Expedition Fleets.  During the Heresy, it was fought over in a long series of battle starting with Onyx's raid at Kuniat and culminating in the horrifying demise of Destoona.
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''"He wills it!"''

- battle cry of the Justiciars

Loyalist tenacity on the edges of the Galaxy meant little to Hektor's drive on Terra.  Spoiling attacks by the Iron Rangers and Black Augurs had diverted Loyalist reserves before the full strength of the Lifebringers was committed to capture the worlds of the Pathorum Stream and open the road to Sol.  Alexandri of Rosskar was careful to preserve his own Silver Cataphracts through the early engagements.  The Regent let the multi-millioned garrisons of the Parthorum Sector fight and die without the support of Space Marines.  Despite their importance, most of the worlds in the Sector were ill-fortified.  Alexandri gave them up to the depredations of the Traitor Legions without regret, but he could not let the enemy take Destoona, so close to Sol, without paying a steep price.  As Johannes Vrach steadily advanced, tens of millions of Rosskan Strelky - Auxilia recruited on Alexandri's pitiless homeworld and hardened by campaigning alongside the stern Silver Cataphracts - were shipped to Destoona to prepare for a climactic battle.  As they awaited the coming assault, the Strelky worked tirelessly to build chains of fortified bunkers around massive anti-ship laser batteries.  Though the works were a pale shadow of the defences at Terra, Alexandri was confident that Johannes Vrach would have to call on the Traitors' reserves in order to take Destoona.

This confidence was well-placed.  After receiving reports from Warp Runners scouting ahead of his Legion, the Lifebringers Primarch contacted Hektor to advise the Warmaster of the changing situation and request support.  The Warmaster selected Uriel Salazar's Justiciars to assist in the battle for Destoona.  This Legion was hardly bloodied in the conflict to date and had been reinforced by militia caught up from the wake of the Entombed's rampage.  Salazar and Johannes Vrach met at Udoya to discuss strategy, and jointly decided that they would try to limit the losses among their Space Marines and keep these elite troops for the terrible fight to come at Sol.  Vrach's Lifebringers would secure a landing zone near Destoona's south pole and silence the defence lasers covering the approaches, but the bulk of the campaign would be carried out by mortal forces under the command of the Justiciars.

The Traitor plan had hardly begun when an unexpected complication emerged.  While Johannes Vrach's heavy ships engaged Destoona's ground-based defences in support of drop-pod landings, the warfleet of the Entombed broke Warp and, joined by a small force of Strelky warships monitoring the system, started moving in to attack Traitor shipping.  Golgothos' sons had suffered terrible losses at Caria, but they still possessed a considerable number of powerful warships.  Although the Justiciars' cruisers were on hand to repond, being tied down to slow-moving transports negated their speed advantage and left them in a slugging match with Entombed batle barges.  Deft handling under the direct command of Uriel Salazar prevented massive losses, but the Lifebringers ships were pulled off station early, leaving the just-landed Space Marines to carry out their mission without the support of naval firepower.  Surprisingly, Golgothos did not continue the fight to the death.  The Strelky ships sacrificed themselves to cover the Entombed retreat, and soon the Traitors had complete dominance of the space in the Destoona system.

On the surface of Destoona, Johannes Vrach directed his Space Marines in a hard-fought campaign to secure their objective.  The Strelky showed no fear of Space Marines and their heavy fortifications were costly to reduce, but they could not bring their overwhelming numerical advantage to bear without deserting fortified positions elsewhere on the planet.  By the time the Traitor fleet returned to Destoona, the Lifebringers had, at no small cost, won a landing zone and the vast ranks of macro-transporters began disgorging Salazar's horde.  Even in the face of certain defeat, the Strelky fought coolly, making their foes pay for each inch of Destoona's soil.  Finally, as the defeat of the Loyalist Auxilia loomed, the garrison launched a virus-bomb attack and seeded Destoona with tailored pathogens.  Of the great horde of mortal warriors brought to Destoona by the Traitors, scarcely one in ten thousand survived.

Yet the gene-sons of Johannes Vrach were immune to such attacks and, led by their Primarch, scoured the acrid wastes for surviving Strelky carrying out irregular attacks.  Many point to this period as the time in which Vrach fully embraced his destiny as Nurgle's champion, for he had now felt the touch of devastating disease-weapons and seen the misery of a world stripped bare of its bacteria.  Regardless, by the time that Destoona was declared ready to serve as a sterile supply bay for the final assault on Terra, the surviving Lifebringers were changed, grossly swollen with pestilence and revelling in the service of their new god.