Abaddon - Attack on Canticle City: After being reunited with former Justaerin Commander Falkus Kibre aboard the Tlaloch, the Legionaries returned to the dormant flagship. They gathered on the Vengeful Spirit 's command deck, where Horus and his Primarch brothers had once stood with the lord-captains of the Space Marine Legions, first presiding over the fate of the Great Crusade, then deciding the fate of the rebellion. Now these few Legionaries, with Abaddon at their head, the genesis of the Ezekarion and the future Black Legion, had gathered around the central hololithic table to plan their assault upon the Emperor's Children's Canticle City. Falkus Kibre, the "Widowmaker," last chieftain of the broken Justaerin and lord of the Duraga kal Esmejhak warband stood with them. With Kibre were almost thirty of his brothers, clad in the heavy war plate of their murderous clan. Telemachon Lyras, Sword-Captain of the Emperor's Children. Ashur-Kai, the "White Seer," sorcerer and sage of the Thousand Sons. He stood with a phalanx of Rubricae, numbering one hundred and four of his ashen brothers. Lheorvine Ukris, known to all as Lheor, and much to his gall, as "Firefist," gunner-captain of the World Eaters and commander of the Fifteen Fangs warband. He stood with former Sergeant Ugrivian and their four surviving brothers, each one holding a massive Heavy Bolter. Sargon Eregesh, Abaddon's oracle, a former warrior-priest of the Word Bearers' Brazenhead Chapter. And finally, Iskandar Khayon, sorcerer and sage of the Thousand Sons and warleader of the Kha'Sherhan warband. There was no formal order beneath the dusty banners of the past, only warriors speaking of their intent. Each of the gathered Legionaries spoke of Legions they no longer believed in, of Primarch fathers they no longer idolised, of daemonic Legion homeworlds they refused to claim as havens. These were soldiers citing their histories, laying out how their hatreds and talents alike bound them together to a greater whole.These were mere formalities before Abaddon spoke the reason they were gathered together. These warriors had not been brought together to talk of the past, but by living through battle in the present. For Abaddon's ambitions to bear any weight, he would have to give them victory. He spoke of the Canticle City and how they would plunge a spear tip through the fortress's heart. He spoke of how the Vengeful Spirit would be able to sail with a skeleton crew of the damned, guided by the powerful Machine Spirit of Khayon's ship, known as the Anamnesis. Abaddon spoke of the threat posed by Horus Reborn. Distant as the threat seemed to be, for surely the Emperor's Children had decades of failed alchemical experimentation ahead of them, they would hit it before it became a threat, striking to prevent the Emperor's Children winning the Legion Wars. Abaddon cared nothing for extinguishing the XVI Legion's shame -- he cared only for casting aside those last shackles from the past. The Primarchs were dead or ascended past mortal concerns in the tides of the Great Game of the Gods. As he finished speaking, Abaddon promised them a place aboard the Vengeful Spirit if they desired it -- if they would stand with him for this one brutal assault. They would form a new Legion -- forged as they desired, not as slaves to the Emperor's will and cast in the image of His flawed Primarchs. Bound together by loyalty and ambition, not nostalgia and desperation. Untainted by the past they would no longer be the sons of failed fathers.The first time any of the gathered warriors had seen the Canticle City was the night they darkened the skies of the Daemon World of Harmony. Despite the breaking of Emperor's Children at Skalathrax, the Canticle City served as a haven to many IIIrd Legion warbands and their allies. It was a populated world with ore-rich moons claimed in turn by feuding Dark Mechanicum city-states. yet, for all of the Vengeful Spirit 's size and strength, only a handful of warriors populated the Battleship's halls. Even in orbit, their enemies outnumbered them twenty to one. Though the odds were heavily stacked against them, Abaddon and his fellow Legionaries would carry the day through the assault's audacity and through loyalty to one another. They would win by going for the throat. The sorcerer Khayon was burdened with a heavy duty at Abaddon's request. A monumental task that did not allow for Khayon to spare his attention for anything else. As the Vengeful Spirit sailed towards Harmony, the Thousand Sons sorcerer used all his psychic abilities to pull a monumental weight in their wake.After several months' passage, the Vengeful Spirit arrived at their intended target. Waking Khayon from his meditative state, Abaddon asked the sorcerer if he was ready to do his duty. As the Vengeful Spirit moved closer to their intended target they were beset by an unrelenting barrage from the Emperor's Children fleet which ringed the massive flagship. Weapons-fire hammered uselessly against the Vengeful Spirit's inviolate shields. The moment of truth came at last. Abaddon ordered Khayon to launch the spear. Mustering his strength one last time on the immense weight out there in the void, Khayon first raked back the concealing shroud of Aetheria hiding the spear from sight. The enemy fleet immediateley turned their guns upon it. Abaddon screamed at Khayon to launch the spear. The sorcerer rose to his feet, hands curled into claws as he screamed at the city he was about to kill. With every iota of concentration he possessed, Khayon hurled the spear at the world called Harmony.The Canticle City was prepared to repel assaults, with its skyline's armoured bastions aiming defence turrets and flak cannons towards the heavens. But while fighting back an invasion was one thing, resisting a cataclysm was another. A black shape swallowed the sun, burning as it fell. The Tlaloc was almost two kilometres and eight megatonnes of ancient, ironclad anger. Once it had sailed the stars in the name of the XVth Legion, crewed by twenty-five thousand loyal souls. Khayon had telekinetically dragged its empty corpse across the Eye of Terror, just as Abaddon had asked of him. And then he hurled it right into the heart of the IIIrd Legion's fortress. Less than a solar minute passed from the moment the derelict vessel entered Harmony's atmosphere to the second it struck the ground. Long enough to let the population see death falling towards them. Not long enough to do anything about it. The Vengeful Spirit 's sensors recorded tectonic unrest grave enough to send tremors rippling across the other side of the world. Harmony itself heaved with torment. In the aftermath of the devastating attack, Canticle City was no more. A screaming maelstrom of liquid fire and violence had torn out in all directions from the Tlaloc ' impact site. Everywhere was dust, ashes and flame. Satisfied that rightful vengeance had been served upon the IIIrd Legion, Abaddon ordered his flagship to be taken back up into high orbit.