Ryza - A Road Less Travelled: Thanks to the treachery of House Ioeden, who had masqueraded as allies to Ryza for three standard years, Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega had fallen, allowing the Traitors to bring the full weight of their forces down upon the planet. The Loyalists made attempts to retake the captured land but such efforts were in vain, for the defenders lay scattered across Ryza and fear of further betrayal lent caution to their actions, unwilling to amass in force lest the Traitors secure another landing zone.Faced with no organised resistance, the Traitors were able to consolidate their conquests, seizing ever more territory in their quest to dominate all of Ryza. Their first goal was to secure passage to the northern continent, forcing the Loyalists to fight a war on two fronts.To achieve such a goal, a significant proportion of strength from both the Legio Vulturum ("Gore Crows") and Legio Magna ("Flaming Skulls") was assembled, placed under the command of Princeps Ultima Scrindus Tepfra. While their allies gathered at Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega to secure their ill-gotten gains, the combined battlegroup marched for Salvation Isthmus, an artificial stretch of land that spanned the oceans of refuse between the northern and southern continents.One of many isthmuses to connect the two continents, Salvation Isthmus was the most important, not only due to its proximity to Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega but also because it played host to a string of manufactoria that worked to recycle discarded products extracted from the Sea of Reclamation, a vast ocean of industrial run-off and effluent that spanned much of the world.The loss of Salvation Isthmus, combined with the fall of Ryza Secundus, would be a potential fatal blow to the Loyalists for it would then only be a matter of time before a war of attrition would drain the Forge World's reserves, leading to the fall of its defenders.Tepfra was not the only one to recognise the importance of Salvation Isthmus and even in times of peace the Titans of Legio Crucius ("Warmongers") had garrisoned the isthmus, a Titan Legion fortress constructed along the northern coast line. This fortress proved vital to the Loyalist defence, for it possessed numerous repair cradles that allowed the Warmongers to withdraw engines from the front line for repair, replacing them with reinforcements already tended to by the ministrations of the Titan Legion's tech-priests.Combined with the narrowness of Salvation Isthmus, the superior numbers of the Traitors mattered little, grinding the conflict to a halt with neither side able to claim victory. Seeking to break the stalemate, Tepfra devised a new plan, sending the Flaming Skulls forwards to tie up the Warmongers upon Salvation Isthmus.Meanwhile, the Gore Crows submerged themselves beneath the Sea of Reclamation, their Titans resistant to the heat and caustic nature of its contents. Though several engines of the Legio Vulturum were lost to the sea's hazards, enough emerged on the northern shore to present a viable threat to the Legio Crucius fortress.If the fortress were to fall it all but guaranteed the conquest of Salvation Isthmus, with the Traitors able to descend upon its defenders from both sides. Though battered by days of war and unprepared for the sudden assault, the Warmongers engaged their foe, hoping to drive them back into the sea they had emerged from.