Siege of Vraks - The Final Battle: Before the ultimate attack could begin, the Citadel was again subjected to a heavy and sustained artillery bombardment. The guns of the Krieg artillery companies poured shells onto the hill, overloading the remaining void shields and smashing the buildings within with concentrated fire that pummeled it day and night. Buildings were smashed into rubble and dust and towers collapsed in an inferno of destruction. Marauder bombers added to the firepower now crushing the Citadel into ruins. The bombardment aimed to reduce much of the Citadel to rubble in the hope of sparing the attacking infantry the task of clearing the buildings room-by-room. By the time the assault came, it was hoped that there would be little left of the Citadel but ragged shell-tom remains amidst pieces of masonry and shattered stones churned into dust by repeated artillery impacts. Hidden below ground, the defenders would no doubt endure the punishment and emerge to face them when the attack came. The Citadel had been their ultimate objective for so long, the heart of the enemy's resistance, and it glowered down from its peak as if with an evil eye, seeing all that moved on the battlefields below, protecting the enemy and his stores within its impenetrable walls. Now it was no more. Even the sacred Basilica of St Leonis was targeted until repeated Bombard shelling felled the great spire. Men below cheered as first the spire leaned, then it slowly tumbled, crumbling into more rums scattered across the inner ward’s plaza.As the destruction continued, playing out Lord Rex's promise not to leave any stone upon another on top of that hill, the many elements needed for the final battle were readying themselves. The Liberatorii Delictum was pinned, her bombardment cannons were already mining the barrage that was preparing the ground for the drop pod assault. It would be targeted on the great courtyard and would take careful planning and precision execution to land the first waves on target. On the ground the armoured vehicles of the relief column were in place along with their supporting squads.The remaining Red Scorpions squads were also ready. Rearmed and reinforced, Inquisitor Rex inspected the troops before sanctioning their attack plan The Chapter had taken heavy losses in winning their foothold but the war was not yet won so they must fight again. The St Leonis Gate had been heavily reinforced by guardsmen so the Red Scorpions could withdraw in preparation for their next mission.Underground the engineers were ready for the final push and breakthrough into the undercroft. Their assault would require every available engineer company for a sustained effort to clear the Citadel from below. Inquisitor Rex expected the Adeptus Astartes Terminator squads to join that mission once they were freed from operations on the surface. Lord Rex would now lead a Grey Knights strike force personally. His first objective wood be the former Priory of the Argent Shroud, followed by the inner keep with the censorium tower and the Aedificium.Lord Rex knew that what awaited them was going to be a hellish enemy - the last Warp spawned dregs, but fighting with a ferocity borne of desperation. The Citadel was now the haunt of daemons and mutants, daemonic and possessed war engines and unnamed horrors that spilled from the ether to feast upon human souls. It was the heart of darkness, a canker, a corrupted and blasphemous boil that he was about to lance. The result would be messy and bloody, but once it was done, this war would be over.The first Angels of Absolution drop pods flashed across the black skies of Vraks, small bright burning comets as they entered the atmosphere, adjusting their course as they approached, retro- engines firing to slow the descent before impact. Their inertial guidance systems brought them down directly on target, each drop pod landed, crackled open and unleashed a torrent of bullets and missiles, smothering the plaza in fire as the Deathstorms cleared the drop zone. The next wave of drop pods was already close behind, as was the third. They came crashing in, smashing into the rubble to disgorge squad after squad of bone-armoured Space Marines, weapons leveled and ready as the ordeal began. The squads divided and headed for their objectives.As the firing began, the Red Scorpion’s Lord High Commander Ortys gave the order to attack. Led by his assault squads the battle brothers moved out, using the shattered remains of the colonnade as cover as they closed in on the Cardinal's Palace.Below ground the Hades drills whirred into action, hacking the last few metres of rock away to breach the undercroft, behind them the first engineer squads scrambled through, preceded by a barrage of grenades and demolition charges, before they too began their own horrific battle in the deep darkness.The 150th siege regiment’s leading infantry companies, mounted in Gorgons, made for the Cardinal Gate, slowly climbing the hillside once again, before ramming into the rumble piles that barred their way - all that remained of the gate and its surrounding walls. Their mission was to clear the outer ward and its garrison blocks, buildings now mostly reduced to mere shells by artillery and fires. The grey-clad infantry plunged into the Citadel, bayonets fixed -- Demolisher siege tanks in close support and behind them came the heavy footfalls of the Titans.Lord Rex knew that scouring the Citadel would take days, perhaps weeks of hard fighting. The daemons soon came again, the crackling warp rifts spilling more of their hated kind into the world to shriek and chant, leaping amongst the rubble piles, hacking and lashing with glee at the Space Marines and guardsmen. For days the battle was a confused and bloody mess, but the enemy was no longer a coordinated, well-equipped and determined army, it was now just a rabble of desperados who knew their downfall had come. There were few Traitor legionnaires left now. Most had abandoned Vraks, even Zhufor had gone, his slaughter complete.Within the Cardinal’s Palace, the Red Scorpions found the remains of the Apostate Cardinal’s guards. Men no longer, they had become more like maddened beasts or psychotic animals Discipline and order had now ceased to have any meaning, they just fought because they knew nothing else, and they could not surrender. Many had become mutants, others had been given over to possession. In the shattered and scorched remains of its former ornate splendour, the Red Scorpions moved forward with well-rehearsed precision. Each squad knew its role, moving and covering, blasting a path into the heart of the palace, whilst the assault squads forayed forward at need to clear enemy resistance points in brutal hand-to-hand combat, Dreadnoughts in close support It took the Red Scorpions four days to purge the Cardinal’s Palace of the remaining heretic dregs that defended it. No prisoners were taken.