Saul Tarvitz - Last Stand: Bloodied but unbowed, the Loyalists prepared to meet their deaths. Against them the Traitors massed in vast numbers and once the last assaults began the death of the Loyalists was certain. With the balance of power in their favour, the Traitor forces prosecuted their attack with renewed vigour, moving through the ruined city in a thrust towards the Precentor's Palace, relying on overwhelming force to overcome any pockets of defence they encountered on their way. Before them they sent in pave-way strikes from Avenger strike fighter wings and Thunderhawk gunships, showering areas judged to be likely strongholds with high explosives and raking cannon fire to try to pin the Loyalists in cover and prevent them from scattering or withdrawing ahead of the attack.Thousands of the Warmaster's Space Marines, Death Guard, World Eaters and Sons of Horus, were on the move, streaming through from the landing grounds beyond the broken city walls in a vast crescent formation supported by hundreds of Rhinos, Land Raiders, and Predator tanks. Jetbike Sky Hunter squadrons and Land Speeders screamed through the air, circling the Traitors' flanks, searching for targets and wary of ambush. And looming over all came the Titans of the Legio Mortis and the Legio Audax, two full battle maniples of Warlord and Reaver Battle Titans with a dozen Warhounds in support.At their head was the Dies Irae, an Imperator-class Battle Titan looming head and shoulders above its brother war engines, striding high above the tallest ruin in the city, its footfalls shaking the ground, splitting the tortured cityscape like thawing ice underfoot. Against such firepower, nothing could stand, and no sooner was a likely point of resistance encountered than the Titans unleashed their wrath upon it, detonating whole city-blocks in clouds of dust and flame, and melting the metal hulks of industrial plants to glowing pools of slag. Such was the awesome power of the Titans' unleashed weapons as the column advanced that the vibrant flashes of their weapons fire were visible even through the cloud layer from orbit above.As they approached the high-sided curtain walls of the Precentor's Palace, the Titans were met with the Traitor Emperor's Children force already laying siege in an another attempt to storm the vast compound and being answered in turn with defiant volleys of Loyalist Lascannon and Bolter fire. The Princeps of the Legio Mortis had clear orders and cared nothing for which of the forces were Loyal or Traitor. With a single deafening blast of their war-sirens the only warning they gave to Eidolon's command, the Titans opened fire. The curtain walls of the Precentor's Palace had been constructed by the Mechanicum's siege-enginseers to withstand the fury of a world risen up in revolt, and though now pitted and mauled by firestorm, shot and shell they still stood, but would do so no longer.Volcano Cannons roared and Turbo-Laser Destructor clusters spat arcs of searing light and the battlefield was engulfed in a bellowing fog of black smoke and roaring flames. Into the darkness the gargantuan war machines, like wrathful primordial gods, armoured in sable and deep crimson, poured their combined fury and the Space Marine Legionaries around them could do nothing more than hold back from the fearful display and wait for the storm to pass. When the deafening barrage ceased at last and tumbling dust settled over the attackers like a fall of grey-black snow, the destruction the Titans' weapons had visited was revealed.The great curtain wall facing them was gone and a jagged spill of smouldering debris was left in its place. Beyond the broken walls the great dome that covered the inner precinct had crumbled and fallen, and the towers and manses within were toppled and crushed like broken toys. The Titans howled again in triumph, and this time were answered from the massing packs of the World Eaters as Angron bellowed the ordered to charge. All that remained for the Loyalist survivors trapped in the ruins was to sell their lives as dearly as they might.During the long, drawn-out war of attrition, the Loyalist Emperor's Children Captain Lucius had come to resent his friend Captain Tarvitz's role in their success against the enemy and the respect he commanded from the other Loyalist Astartes. With deceit in his heart, Lucius contacted Lord Commander Eidolon and promised to deliver Tarvitz -- and break the Loyalists' defences -- for the Warmaster in return for being accepted back into the good graces of the corrupted IIIrd Legion. Eidolon accepted the swordsman's proposal.In an act of the basest betrayal, Lucius slaughtered a group of 30 Astartes who were defending the Loyalists' lines to open the way for the Traitors' final assault against their former brethren. Lucius succeeded in this assassination with the aid of Captain Solomon Demeter of the 2nd Company of the Emperor's Children, who had also remained a Loyalist and realised too late that Lucius had tricked him into attacking a group of fellow Loyalists. Lucius slew the wounded Demeter just after he realised with horror the full extent of his mistake and Lucius' betrayal.With his place restored in the ranks of the Traitors, Lucius then challenged Tarvitz to a one-on-one duel to finally determine who was the better warrior. Tarvitz emerged the victor, but Lucius fled the battle and returned to the arms of his Traitor Legion, having fulfilled his side of the bargain. Tarvitz took some small measure of revenge on Eidolon however, leading an ambush on his exposed flanks and ruining the Traitor's plan to seize the stronghold on his own terms. True to form, Eidolon failed to recognise that he was being punished for his arrogance.