Battle of Isstvan III

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The Battle of Isstvan III was the first official battle of the Horus Heresy, carried out by the Sons of Horus, the Death Guard, the Emperor's Children and the World Eaters, to purge any remaining loyalists from their ranks.

As the final step before declaring war on his father, Horus needed to get his brothers on his side and purge their legions of those who could not be swayed to betray the Emperor or whose loyalties were unclear. Horus wanted only soldiers utterly committed to his cause at his side. He used the compliance campaign of the Isstvan system as a cover for this activity. Everyone that died at Isstvan III, would be said to have died to a a biological weapon deployed by the natives. He, Angron, Mortarion and Lord Commander Eidolon (Horus had sent Fulgrim to try and sway Ferrus Manus to their cause), hand-picked the squads that would form the first wave of the invasion, rather than committing entire companies as was the standard operating procedure.

The destruction that took place in the battle was fucking GLORIOUS!!!

Once the initial wave landed, the Primarchs set about deploying virus bombs to the fleet. This was where things didn't go according to plan. Saul Tarvitz, Captain of the Emperor's Children 10th Company was the type of fellow that questioned everything around him, the type of guy that had a pretty logical mind, compared to most other Astartes. When he considered the fact that Eidolon, his commander would not be leading the speartip against the Isstvaninas and the fact that all the attackers were made up of random, hand-picked squads that had nothing to do with each other normally during a deployment, he became paranoid and sounded his way into staying aboard the space ship Andronius. Saul smelled fish and he would find out why it smelled fish on the ship.

And what he found out is that the ship was arming the soon-to-deploy virus bombs. This was in the middle of the battle down on the planet, where Saul knew his battle brothers were still fighting.

So he stole a Thunderhawk and warned Nathaniel Garro aboard the Eisenstein of the Warmaster's plan. Garro's company took control of the ship, killing the traitors under the command of Ignatius Grulgor who had begun to prepare to turn on the Loyalist crew so they could join the bombardment themselves, and escaped the system after accepting refugees Iacton Qruze of the Luna Wolves, remembrancers Euphrati Keeler and Mersadie Oliton, and iterator Kyril Sindermann, who had witnessed Horus's massacre of the remembrancers and iterators in his fleet. The virus bombing exterminated all life on the surface of Isstvan III, but some Astartes found sealed bunkers and dug in.

Battle for the Choral City or the Three-Primarch Derp

"Emperor's Children do not run!"

"They do from this!"

- Captain Erhlen of the World Eaters, talking Saul Tarvitz out of a double date with Gorefather and Gorechild.

Before Horus could order a second bombing wave, Angron went down to kill them personally (various speculations are 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, or that he was just being 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, resulting in an inefficient, bloody battle that pushed back his timetable even though it blooded the forces loyal to him, ensuring they would fight the war to their ends. But really, the fact that the Loyalists survived so long speaks to some serious derp on the Traitors' parts. Mortarion spent three months bombing the surviving Death Guard when he could've called on another Legion (or two- the other Loyalists had no way of reaching the Death Guard) to pulverize them, allowing all three Legions to be unleashed at once. At the same time Horus kept Abaddon and Little Horus back until the very end to effect a trap that only worked because of something he couldn't have foreseen... Just As Planned?

But all the same, the Loyalists pulled off some serious shenanigans in surviving for so long.

The flight of the Eisenstein allowed Nathaniel Garro to warn the Imperium of Horus's treachery. The ground battle cost Horus time that he needed to consolidate his gains and push toward Terra. Rogal Dorn organized a fleet of seven legions that would eventually reach the Isstvan system and challenge Horus in his fortified position on the Urgall Depression of Isstvan V.

Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Tabletop

Forge World's first Horus Heresy rulebook, Betrayal, is focused on this battle. In addition to the generic rules for Space Marine Legions and a Mechanicum detachment, it includes special rules for the specific Legions and characters involved, including Horus, Mortarion, Angron, Abaddon, and Garviel Loken.

Vidya

The Battle of Isstvan III was also adapted into a video game called Horus Heresy: Drop Assault. It's a Clash Of Clans clone, serviceable but little else.