Drop Site Massacre - The Sundered Legion: Records show that in the aftermath of the long contaminated rainfall, a dense, stinging fog reeking of chemical-rich blood rose from the broken ground to blanket hundreds of square kilometres. This all-pervading taint of death, which can perhaps be said, in retrospect, to have some Warp taint infecting it thanks to the Word Bearers Legion's dark ministrations, took its toll on many of the Raven Guard, stretching the sanity of many even further towards the breaking point.As Astartes, not a single Space Marine would surrender to cowardice or weakness of will, yet the apocalyptic slaughter and the cumulative effect of solar weeks of fighting, combined with little or no rest or sustenance and the need to wreak bloody vengeance upon the heads of Traitors caused many to descend into a twilight existence somewhere between exhaustion and rage, denial and defection. Under such relentless pressure, even a Space Marine takes on a haggard caste, the already pale, hollow-eyed Raven Guard coming to appear as armoured vagabonds, their battle plate a haphazard amalgamation of replacement parts scavenged from the dead of any and all the Legions present on Istvaan V.At some point around the fortieth solar day after the Drop Site Massacre, a large force of Word Bearers, under the command of the war-leader Elexis, penetrated the ravines to the north of the Raven Guard Legion's sanctuary. Elexis had discerned that the Raven Guard forces he had encountered earlier were a part of a far larger force, and he was determined to claim their heads for himself.It is noteworthy that Elexis appears to have withheld his suspicions from the other Traitor factions, in particular the World Eaters, whose Primarch Angron still scoured the far wastes in search of one or both of his lost brothers. Had he done so, there is little doubt the Traitors' assault would have been a direct and brutal one, far from the cunning infiltration from an unanticipated quarter that was in the event launched.On this occasion, the Raven Guard did not launch an all-out attack to repel the infiltration. Instead, the Word Bearers were allowed to penetrate many kilometres into the ravines and the twisting gullies while the Raven Guard watched on from the shadows, allowing the Word Bearers to pass by as other units feigned retreat in the face of the Traitors' advance. Eventually, the trap was set and the Raven Guard launched their ambush.At a stroke, dozens of separate Word Bearers units were engaged, none of them able to lend aid to their brothers. The aim of the ambush was twofold: in addition to cutting down hundreds of the hated foe, the Raven Guard were able to capture several of the Traitors, though all but one were able to take their own lives before they could be subdued.The sole remaining Traitor was brought before Corax, a circle of Raven Guard forming about the base of the ancient crater where the Traitor was cast as the skies of unnatural lightning and the black rains came down once more. None would dare speak of the manner in which the Primarch and his officers questioned the Traitor, nor of the nature of the death he was afforded at the last.Soon after though, a stream of orders were disseminated through the XIXth Legion and from these certain facts have been pieced together. It was confirmed that Angron was the only Traitor Primarch who had remained on Istvaan V and that his World Eaters represented the only Traitor Legion still deployed in full strength, the remainder having left behind only limited contingents to hunt down the last remaining Loyalists.Perhaps the most vital information extracted from the Traitor was that Angron was aware that Corax yet lived, and was intent upon scouring the entire Illium Rift in order to bring him to battle. A massive assault was being prepared, one that the Word Bearers commander Elexis had attempted to preempt for his own glory, and failed. Forewarned of the imminent attack, the Raven Guard made immediate preparations to relocate once more.Some amongst their ranks spoke out against retreating in the face of the enemy, advocating to make a defiant last stand. The line officers quelled such opinions the instant they were voiced, but it was inevitable that the XIXth Legion's upper echelon officers and the Primarch himself should hear of them. When this happened, the reaction was curt and uncompromising. The Raven Guard would live and die at the word of the Primarch alone. If the end was to come, it would be at a time and place of his choosing, and none other.The evacuation of the sanctuary could not have been timed more fortuitously, for even as the Raven Guard's rearguard units cast a final glance westwards over their shoulders, they spied its demise. A cohort of Blind-Hunters was closing in on the hidden main entrance, the baleful dirge of their harrowing-horns blasting out across the wastes. In the wake of the fell war machines came a great mass of Legiones Astartes, the filthy, blood-encrusted white-and-blue livery of the World Eaters easily visible against the grey sky and black ground. At the last, Corax himself joined the rearguard and watched silently as the land was swallowed in a mass of explosions, the savage sons of Angron setting the region aflame in their anger at having discovered their prey had escaped them yet again.