Treachery at Port Maw - Conquest: The warships of the Sons of Horus cut into the Loyalist battle line at its apex, smashing into it head on, the turncoat warships of the Raven Guard being sacrificed to soak up the fury of the Loyalist guns as they closed. The Traitor spearhead of warships cut into the Loyalist fleet like a lance, piercing it bodily, splitting the Loyalists' defensive formation in two like an axe cleaving meat.At the apex of the spearhead, the Vengeful Spirit came on through the blast waves of flames and debris ahead of it like a beast of ancient myth made real, its armoured prow smashing aside Loyalist cruisers like toys, its many-decked broadside batteries smashing shields and cracking open hulls with contemptuous ease as it passed. Along its darkly armoured flanks, strange symbols writ as if by a colossal hand seemed to flicker and fade, as if pulsing to some terrible heartbeat and the void around it appeared to twist and recoil. The juggernaut-ship plunged on through the Loyalist vessels, dealing death as it went, unstoppable. The gargantuan Battle Barge of Horus had one goal, one true target; the Triumph of Reason protected at the heart of the Loyalist armada, and the focus of its command and control.Its quarry in sight, the Vengeful Spirit made as if to ram the vast double-hulled Triumph of Reason, but as it closed -- the guns of both hunter and prey blazing savagely -- the Vengeful Spirit’s engines flared and it spun suddenly on its axis -- a manoeuvre which at that velocity should have been fatal for any ship of its size -- the manic and unexpected turn smashing to dust two hapless Escorts that found themselves in its path, while a bastion frigate that caught the full blast of the Vengeful Spirit’s engines as it swung was flung burning into the void. The space between the two gargantuan warships seemed to distort and shudder as the ship of the Warmaster violently arrested its progress so that it now flew above and alongside the Triumph -- matching her course and velocity. In response to the seemingly impossible manoeuvre and the threat now looming vulture-like over the Triumph, the lumbering giant below her tried to throw herself aside to evade what was to happen next or at least try to bring her own broadside to bear, but she was too slow and it was too late. Vortex missiles, rare and deadly weapons of the Dark Age of Technology, spat from the Vengeful Spirit’s broadside launch tubes and exploded in ghostly spheres of silent nothingness that tore away the Triumph of Reason’s Void Shields like paper and cracked open the decametres-thick hull plating beneath them like splintering ice. Seconds later, the Dreadclaws and Kharybdis of the Sons of Horus followed, punching through the weakened hull in a score of places and spilling out a cargo of death within. Gunships and assault rams followed, forcing their way into flight bays and hangars, crash-landing in a storm of fire and shell.Throughout the Triumph emergency alarms sounded "repel boarders", security bulkheads slammed shut and weapons cages were flung open to arm the thousands of crew, from the lowliest galleys rating to the highest astrogator. The elite Solar Auxilia of LaBray's own Lifeguard Cohort rallied to meet an invader that was already within their iron walls, and soon corridors and gun decks were filled with the din of battle and the screams of the dying. Quickly, the Sons of Horus assault forces smashed their way into the core of the vast and labyrinthine double-hulled warship, killing with controlled savagery, viridian-hued Legion Breachers locking shields to march down on automated gun stations that turned the air in front of them into hurricanes of shellfire, heedless of their punishing losses. Elsewhere, Sons of Horus Reavers turned crew decks into blasted abattoirs, headless bodies strewn in their wake as crew, Servitor and armsmen alike were slain without mercy by Bolter and blade.At defensive chokepoints and at the gateways to vital compartments, the Solar Auxilia Lifeguard made their stand as black armoured Terminators thundered inexorably towards them, maintaining disciplined volleys of las-fire of such intensity that the sable ceramite of the Cataphractii began to glow a dull ember red and their gilded chasements ran molten as hot wax. In the bowels of the Triumph, armoured locking mechanisms were thrown open, cryo-chambers vented and at LaBray's command the last line of his gargantuan flagship's defence was set loose upon the enemy; Ogryn Charonites - hundreds of them. Mutilated, cybernetically-augmented monsters, fueled by rage and combat stimulants -- barely controllable -- the process that created these beasts of war were themselves based on techno-arcana many had thought better abandoned to the Age of Strife. But such creatures were still maintained under Imperial dispensation to the masters of the Solar Auxilia, a weapon of dire resort that was unleashed now against the Sons of Horus. The hulking, surgically-armoured Abhumans towered over a Space Marine, and their augmetic fists could crush Power Armour as easily as bulkhead plate.Even against the superhuman warriors of the Sons of Horus, in the confines of the Triumph’s passageways and engine decks, the Charonites proved deadly, smashing into their ranks and sending them flying or ripping them apart like over-cooked meat. Bolters hammered the Charonites at point-blank range, blowing out bloody chunks of their chem-infused flesh, Chainswords slashed and wheeled, but to seemingly no effect, and the insane Abhumans ploughed on, heedless of the wounds that would have killed even a Legiones Astartes many times over -- even headless they sometimes continued to murderously flail around them until life was torn from bodies smashed beyond recognition. Force was met with force, savagery with savagery, and soon the Traitors' attack began to stall as casualties mounted on both sides. For the briefest moment, a glimmer of hope came to the embattled survivors of the Triumph of Reason, only to die as the eerie screams of reality being torn open echoed all across the Loyalist flagship as the Vengeful Spirit’s second wave of attack teleported on board, and with them came Horus.Horus, the Warmaster, Primarch, God of Battle; nothing could stand before him. Into the thickest concentration of Charonites he charged, his black-pelted cloak streaming behind him, his maul, Worldbreaker, crushing the Ogryns as if they were inert figures of gore-filled porcelain rather than the nightmares of Old Night made flesh. In him his Legion found new vigour, a dark power seeping into their souls which hurled them at the enemy once more like the devils of ancient lore. Seeing that all was lost, LaBray led the last of his personal Lifeguard in an attempted break for the ship's fighter bays, hoping no doubt to escape to another Loyalist vessel, but even in sight of the launch bays they were cut off. Denied even the glory of a last stand, LaBray and his party were torn apart in a savage crossfire, his half-incinerated body only later identified long after Warmaster Horus had moved on from the war ravaged star system. As a tide of murder, Horus and his sons crashed through the Triumph of Reason, obliterating all in their path, until at last, the command decks were breached and the Strategium broken open, and all within slaughtered without deference to rank or title. Before Horus, the human crew of the Triumph of Reason simply cast down their weapons in despair, but such submission did not save them. From the corpse-strewn bridge of the Loyalist flagship, the Warmaster addressed the surviving Loyalist fleet, his voice burning across the cold void to the very depths of Port Maw where the fighting raged on still. To those who resisted him, this god of death offered mercy and praise of their valiant, if deluded, struggle: submission and service to him would spare them, only this. They would be his now and forever, or they would be exterminated utterly.Leaderless, broken, and alone the Loyalists were now confronted with the same unimaginable force that had cowed and butchered countless star systems in the name of the Emperor, and had no answer to its inhuman power. One by one, save for a handful such as the Kurga who fled into the darkness, the Loyalist ships struck their flags, dispersing their shields and cutting their targeting Auspexes and thereby surrendered. Within the myriad corridors and vaults of the great station complex itself, the din of battle died away to a dreadful silence, broken only by the cries of the wounded and the dying.Port Maw and everything in it now belonged to Horus Lupercal.