Badab War - Final Assault on Badab Primaris (913.M41): With the star system now under Loyalist control, deployments of the Exorcists Chapter along with the Imperial Navy detachments were put into place to blockade the star system to ensure none would escape what was to come. Meanwhile surviving defence ships were quickly put into place to surround and besiege Badab Primaris.Initially, the mobile star fortress Raptorous Rex was to spearhead the assault, but that was no longer possible due to the strain of the stellar core fragment attack which caused significant structural damage which destabilised the engines of the vast craft making close-orbital operations impossible. Though the guns of Badab Primaris were still greatly feared, the Star Phantoms asked for and had been granted the glory of leading the first assault wave. It was their ancient battle barge Memento Mori which would be the spearhead of the attack, braving the guns of Badab Primaris.A hastily revised plan of attack called for a three-pronged offensive, for further hazard to the Loyalist assault was presented in the form of the High Guard orbital station which had been initially used as the Astral Claws' fortress-monastery before Lufgt Huron had descended to take over the Palace of Thorns on the surface of Badab Primaris below. Two companies of Star Phantoms Space Marines would form the first axis of attack, assaulting the High Guard orbital fortress in concert with the smaller Fire Hawks and Sons of Medusa contingents.The second would be led by the Carcharodons as they would descend in full force to the surface of Badab Primaris' hive cities to crush any opposition. The third and most vital attack force would be formed by the bulwark of the Star Phantoms, consisting of seven full companies and assisted by heavy assault elements drawn from across the Loyalist Chapters and Inquisitorial Storm Troopers companies. This would enable the Loyalists to take the battle to the heart of the foe and besiege the Palace of Thorns itself.Heralding the attack was a wave of orbital bombardment and hurled debris from orbit sent to sow havoc below as weapons fire split the sky above Badab Primaris. The sable-coloured Memento Mori led the attack as it breached the upper atmosphere, rocked by explosions from the planet's surface weapon emplacements. The Star Phantoms' battle barge answered in kind with its roaring cannons and Vortex Missiles, ripping great craters in the planet's surface.Behind the dauntless battle barge dozens of other warships swept low, releasing their deadly payloads. The skies darkened as wave after wave of midnight black and cold-grey-painted Drop Pods rained down in precisely executed assaults. Blazing bright lances of energy pierced upwards, futilely trying to stave off the attackers.The Carcharodons' relic-flagship Nicor unleashed a devastating blast from its vast Plasma Destructor weapon concealed in its belly, burning a great trench in Badab Primaris' surface and sundering the bastion wall of Badab Primaris' main city, Hive Dominar. Soon after, Thunderhawk gunships and Caestus Assault Rams spiraled down to exploit the breach. The burning pall of smoke, swirling cinder ash and choking dust blackened the sky, causing night to fall over Badab's northern continent as the siege assault raged.A full solar hour had passed since the opening of the Loyalists' assault, and though the defence batteries had not yet been fully silenced, many were now choked off or destroyed. Descending perilously through the storm of smoke and fire were troop ships and Thunderhawks, ferrying their reinforcements and heavy armour down to the chaos of the ground assault.As the approach was deemed safe, the colossal landing craft of the Legio Crucius fell to earth outside Hive Dominar, the tremor-shock of their impact shaking the ground, bringing even more of the breached bastion wall tumbling down. Titans now walked on Badab, immediately setting out to do the Emperor's work. Vast armoured doors opened and slammed buildings flat as the Titans' sirens echoed across the battlefield, bellowing their clarion call of doom for the beleaguered world.Hive Dominar soon became a city of death as the assault moved into its second and then third solar hour without any sign of relenting. The mortals of the Tyrant's Legion fought an insane and desperate battle against the grey, transhuman giants of the Carcharodons that walked amongst them. There were no means of escaping their gruesome fate as transit junctions became clogged with burning vehicles and shattered rubble, trapping the wretched civilians within the doomed hive city. There was nothing but terror and death.The soldiers of the auxilia bitterly fought on as best as they could, faced with the choice of surrender or survival. But the unstoppable grey-red tide of the Carcharodons fell upon them with nightmarish fury, savagely hacking through their defence lines, leaving nothing but torn bodies and shattered war machines in their wake.Command and control quickly broke down within the ranks of the Tyrant's Legion as their vox-sets uttered nothing but screams and unanswered pleas for mercy. Soon the carnage only worsened as fire began to spread and rage out of control. Those auxilia that had managed to survive began shelling indiscriminately into the shadows of buildings in a vain hope of stopping the savage assault of Carcharodons. But their efforts were for naught.