Drop Site Massacre - The Deliverance: Caught upon a windswept mountainside, Corax's Legion remained resolute. Behind the peak stretched the great salt plains that had forced them into this last, defiant stand. Ahead of them massed the might of the World Eaters, the rage-driven Astartes Legion of Angron, who strode at their head roaring for the blood of his brother. A sea of white and blue, World Eaters Astartes spattered with the red of gore swept up from the valley, intent on the destruction of the Raven Guard.Maddened by their neural implants and driven into a battle-frenzy by inhuman cocktails of stimulants, the berserk warriors of the World Eaters pounded up the sloping mountainside while their tanks and guns provided covering fire; every warrior bellowed his eagerness to fulfill the blood oaths they had sworn to his Primarch. As Angron's savage challenge rose above the roar of his Legionaries and the first of the Traitors' bolt shells struck amongst the Raven Guard's ranks, Corax issued what all assumed would be his final orders to the last of his proud Legion.Here the Raven Guard would stand; here the Raven Guard would die. But now fresh thunder split the skies above the last battlefield of Istvaan V, and with it came black-winged charnel birds which fell in a fire-spitting flock from the tumult above, their wrath unleashed not upon the few who remained to the Raven Guard but instead upon the World Eaters whose reckless headlong charge to finally grapple with their foe left them exposed before these birds of prey.A swathe of detonations cut through the ranks of the World Eaters, ripping through their advance companies. Incendiary bombs blossomed in the heart of the approaching army, scattering white-hot Promethium over the steep slopes. Corax looked on with incredulity as blistering pulses of plasma descended from orbit, cutting great gouges into Angron's Legion. The roar of jets became deafening as drop ships descended on pillars of fire: black drop ships emblazoned with the badge of the Raven Guard.The Loyalist Legionaries scattered to give the landing craft space to make planetfall. As soon as their thick hydraulic legs touched the ground, their ramps whined down and boarding gateways opened. The Raven Guard met their rescuers in stunned disbelief. These drop ships were part of a desperate rescue mission that had been devised by Commander Nev Branne, a Raven Guard Captain who had been left in charge of the Legion's homeworld of Deliverance.Without further delay the Raven Guard survivors quickly prepared for embarkation and escaped aboard the drop ships, breaking for orbit and leaving behind the frothing berserkers of the World Eaters, their angry Primarch futilely baying for Loyalist blood. In a storm of shot and shell was Angron denied his bloody prize a final time. In fire had the Raven Guard been almost exterminated, and now in fire were the Raven Guard delivered from Istvaan V, the world the Warmaster Horus had sought to make their tomb.Corax never knew how Branne had managed to make his way to Istvaan V, but he was grateful for the rescue. Branne himself was reluctant to reveal what led him to Istvaan V, and considered the topic sensitive since he had only acted after repeated, inexplicable prophetic "dreams" seen by Marcus Valerius, Praefector of the Therion Cohort, the Imperial Army regiment originally mustered on the planet Therion, which was part of the Raven Guard's Expeditionary Fleet.Against the will of his masters, Praefector Valerius risked all to make for the Istvaan System, acting on a certain belief that the Loyalists' mission had failed and that the Raven Lord was in dire need of rescue. In order to launch his rescue attempt, Valerius had first to convince Commander Branne of its necessity, a challenge which very nearly cost the Praefector his life. Yet he prevailed, and the thousand Raven Guard Legionaries tasked with guarding Deliverance, as well as the Therion Cohort, made the impossibly arduous voyage across half the galaxy and more.The rescue force arrived at Istvaan V at the very moment the World Eaters were sweeping down on the last of the Raven Guard survivors, its drop ships snatching them away from the very teeth of death. That a voyage of over fifty thousand light years should result in such a timely rescue is beyond comprehension for many. There are some in the present age who claim that it could only have come about through the intervention of the Emperor Himself. Resigned to his fate, Corax felt that deadly absolution at the hands of Angron would have been a righteous end for the XIXth Legion, but with all things considered, the Raven Lord was glad that he would survive to fight in the Emperor's name again.