Mezoan Campaign - The Gift of Mezoa: High above Mezoa, their path now unimpeded, the Bombardment Cruisers and troop transports carrying the Traitors' moved into position, while on the ground Battlegroup Revenant, comprised of the recently disembarked Shattered Legionaries from the Ebon Drake, gathered around their leader, Cassian Vaughn, former Legion Commander of the Salamanders' Legion in the days before its reunification with its Primarch Vulkan. Believed slain during the Drop Site Massacre, Vaughn had been unearthed by his brothers of the XVIII Legion and his armoured body had slowly but steadily self-repaired thanks to the techno-arcana crafted by Vulkan and his internment within the Dracos Revenant sarcophagus of this uniquely powerful Dreadnought. The Venerable Dreadnought, now known as Cassian Dracos, had led his Disciples of the Flames to Mezoa's central forge-fane. There, the twice-dead former master of the XVIII Legion had met with the Norn-regents of Mezoa, a triad of truly ancient Mechanicum Archmagi-sisters so interlinked by complex neural interface technology that for all intents and purposes they formed a single entity which directed the vast domains of Mezoa. This historic meeting was immortalised by Mezoa's scribe-adepts and still remains in the data-archives of Mezoa ten thousand standard years later. The fire-blackened and battered armoured sarcophagus of Cassian Dracos, the The Avatar of the Sacred Flame, confronted the deadly thin forms of the Norn-regents, each one of the three Magi suspended like spiders in the complex web of arcane cybernetic technology that allowed them to communicate and direct their thralls all across Mezoa. None could deny that the changed Cassian Dracos exerted some strange influence on every automata in his vicinity, for when he penetrated the Norn-regents throne-room, even the regents' personal bodyguard, towering and powerful Domitar-class Battle-Automata, fell back in halting steps, and who can say if the Norn-regents themselves were not somehow influenced by Dracos' new aura?Before the Norn-regents, Cassian Dracos spoke of his visions and of the trials he had endured as he lay buried under the black sands of Istvaan V. He told them of his search for Vulkan and his conviction that the Primarch of the XVIII Legion had yet cheated death. Cassian's tale of woe and sacrifice doubtlessly moved the Norn-regents, as the Salamanders' legendary tenacity somewhat echoed the Path of the Flame Eternal, the strange schismatic creed of the Cult Mechanicus honoured by both the Magi of Mezoa and the Hierarchs of House Hermetika. However, these similarities in belief and common loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind seemed a rather slim basis for the accord that would be signed by Dracos and the Norn-queens of Mezoa. In this agreement, Cassian Dracos was formally recognised as a living avatar of the Machine God and given command over Mezoa's sizeable Taghmata and its allies. For the dour Tech-adepts of the Mezoan forge-fanes, the unexpected arrival of a prophet of the Omnissiah was marked as a sign of their impending victory. Imperial scholars in later millennia have often wondered at the sudden acceptance with which Dracos was met by the different groups and factions he encountered. Some even suggested that this outcome might in some way be related to an ability bestowed by the Warp, as Istvaan V's position at the time of Cassian Dracos' near-death had it located at the heart of one of the fiercest Warp Storms in human record. Given the immense amount of blood shed during the Drop Site Massacre and its effects on the powers of the Warp, who can say for sure that the baleful powers of the Warp had not had a more serious effect on the entombed Dreadnought?Whatever the truth, this alliance would prove beneficial for both parties. Unable to deliver the products of its forges to those Imperial units prosecuting the Great Crusade as they were intended to, Mezoa's storage vaults harboured a true fortune in suits of Power Armour, weapons, ammunition and armoured vehicles to which the Disciple of the Flames and other Loyalist survivors were now given access. In defiance of the ancient treaties negotiated with distant Mars and Terra which regulated who and in what quantity someone might receive the labour of Mezoa's forges, Battlegroup Revenant was entirely reequipped with the very finest of Mezoa's creations. Where previously most of the Shattered Legionaries could only rely on their own personal Bolters and those few man-portable heavy weapons they had brought with them, the Disciple of the Flames and their allies now had access to large stockpiles of armoured vehicles and personnel carriers, including the advanced command version of the venerable Rhino STC, the Damocles Command Rhino, which had only recently been approved for construction and had as yet not been delivered to any of the Space Marine Legions.The greatest gift of all was perhaps a handful of newly-completed Glaive Super-Heavy Special Weapon Tanks initially intended for the IX Legion. Most notoriously, one of their number, the Dragon Eternal -- crewed by Xiaphas Jurr's Disciple of the Flames -- would defend the Septurn Gateway of Mezoa's principal forge-fane for more than four solar hours after an Alpha Legion diversionary attack had drawn away the gate's other defenders. Attended by the most skilled of Mezoa's forge-wright, the Iron Dragon withdrew to the deepest and most sacred fanes of Mezoa in order to receive the benedictions of the Machine God that would mark his ascension at the head of the Mezoan Taghmata.The Archmagi were also confident that they would be able to restore Cassian Dracos to his former glory, allowing the newly appointed Avatar of the Sacred Flame to walk again upon the battlefield. While outside the Traitors' dropships blackened the sky, it fell to Lieutenant-Chaplain Xiaphas Jurr to lead the Disciples of the Flames in battle against the attackers. However, they would not face the enemy alone. With them stood those members of the Iron Hands and Raven Guard Legions who had already travelled with them aboard the Ebon Drake, as well as forty-eight Astartes of the Imperial Fists, the survivors of the VII Legion's garrison on Manachea Lux whose flight had ended at Mezoa. Similarly, the 891st Lethe Cohort of the Solar Auxilia had also been drawn to the still-resisting Forge World and now stood ready to defend it against the closing Alpha Legion and Iron Warriors. Finally, Mezoa mustered its own defence forces in the figure of the Mezoan Taghmata, battle-automata of diverse classes and models, all veterans of centuries of xenos raids before the eradication of the Mitu Conglomerate. In total, it has been estimated that the defenders of Mezoa numbered close to 12,000 men-under-arms, including the cybernetic monsters, towering Battle-Automata and soul-shorn Adsecularis Auxilia of the Taghmata Mezoa and several dozen Knights of House Hermetika.