Editing Conquest of Galaspar (section)

==Death Comes to Protarkos==

As the Death Guard closed on Galaspar Prime, the planet's orbital and terrestrial defence batteries opened fire, only to be stymied by the remaining shield of asteroids and fireships. As these sacrificial weapons detonated, their debris annihilated many of the orbital platforms and rained destruction upon Galaspar, accompanied by an orbital bombardment from the Legion's ships. The surviving batteries were blinded by the overlapping detonations and could not draw accurate firing solutions on the Death Guard ships. The stunned Comptrollers could only watch as the ''Fourth Horseman'' entered the atmosphere and came for them, as relentless and inexorable as the Reaper's scythe. It struck Protarkos three-quarters of the way up, devastating the outer sections of the hive. Tens of thousands were killed instantly, while others were left to die exposed to Galaspar's toxic atmosphere. 

The First and Seventh Great Companies deployed from the ''Horseman'' and began clearing Protarkos. Mortarion had calculated that it would take reinforcements a day and a night to reach Protarkos from the next closest hive and had ordered his Astartes to ensure that the hive was in their hands by then. As the Death Guard advanced into the hive, they were met by thousands of soldiers and slaves, all whipped into a berserker frenzy by near-overdoses of combat drugs. The soldiers were armed only with stubbers and lasrifles that inflicted minimal damage upon the Space Marines, the slaves with bare hands or improvised weapons that did even less. No mercy was shown to anyone who raised their hand against the Death Guard, though Mortarion ordered his sons to spare any who did not take up arms against them. Here, too, the Death Guard began to practice their new way of war. They used rad grenades and chem-flamers to clear out dug-in troops and weapon emplacements and employed phosphex bombs against enemy troop concentrations. The overflowing phosphex spilled through the hive's corridors, killing anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the creeping flood of inextinguishable green fire. Mortarion and his Deathshroud engaged a concentration of armour that he destroyed with graviton and vortex grenades, allowing none of the tank crews to escape. The First Company, under the command of First Captain Antavus Barrazin, attacked and destroyed the hive's main generatorium, plunging most of Protarkos into darkness. On their way up from the generatorium, they were caught in a counter-trap; the Order destroyed one of their refineries and funneled the molten ore into the grav-lifts, inflicting heavy casualties on the company, including Captain Barrazin. One of the few survivors was Legionary [[Typhus|Calas Typhon]].

Desperate, Lord Comptroller Avald Stevang decided to buy time by ordering the control center to be sealed into a rockcrete bunker beneath Protarkos, a measure of last resort in case of a successful slave revolt. The descent mechanism could not be used again and the only escape routes out of the center could not be quickly employed, meaning that he and his fellow Comptrollers were entombed for the duration of the conflict. He also authorized the deployment of the Wretched, mutated psykers who had been corralled and contained for such an event. Mortarion was unable to reach the control center in time to prevent its sealing, and suffered severe injuries from the Wretched's psychic attacks, both physical and mental. Further, he received word that the Order's reinforcements had arrived, a mechanized army led by the forces of Peitharchia hive. His entire battle plan was in danger of falling apart.