Legio Mordaxis - Notable Campaigns: Shadow Crusade (007-008.M31) - In the wake of the disastrous Battle of Calth, the Word Bearers and the World Eaters Legions, along with the Legio Mordaxis, Legio Infernus (Fire Masters) and Legio Audax (Ember Wolves), launched the Shadow Crusade against the Realm of Ultramar, bringing ruin and despair to the Five Hundred Worlds. Loyalist forces fought back fiercely, but were often outnumbered or outgunned, and often taken by surprise by those they once counted as allies.Crusade of Iron (ca. 008-010.M31) - In response to the Traitor Legions' assault across the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar during the Battle of Calth and the Shadow Crusade, the Loyalists within the region declared the Crusade of Iron. Spearheaded by the Titans of the Legio Praesagius, they led their allies from the Legio Oberon, Legio Lysanda and dozens of Imperial Knight households to isolate the Traitor forces and slaughter them piecemeal. The Legio Mordaxis would take part in a number of notable campaigns against the Loyalists during this particular crusade.Defence of Tyros (ca. 008.M31) - During the Defence of Tyros, a new and terrible ally of the Legio Praesagius entered the fray. Unheralded, black armoured Psi-Titans of the Ordo Sinister appeared on the battlefield. Like a giant apparition of death, the Warlord-Sinsiter Titan Occedentalis-Eurytus spread dismay and ruin among the Titans of the Legio Mordaxis and the Knights of House Ærthegn. Supported by only a handful of Loyalist Knights and Titans, the Warlord-Sinister infected Knight Nobles and Titan princeps with visions of despair and defeat. Their vox-net crippled, and their commanders imprisoned by their own doubts, the Traitor forces became easy prey for the Loyalists, who drove them from the cities of Tyros and hunted them across the world's vast Alkaline Badlands.Purging of Haverlund (ca. 008.M31) - During the Purging of Haverlund, the Sons of Konor made their re-appearance during the ongoing conflict. This was an alliance of Blackshield Knight houses comprised of minor Knight households from the Eastern Marches that had been turned away by lords who pledged their strength to neither Emperor nor Warmaster. Some did not even give reason for their disobedience, or observe even the smallest measure of respect for the Forge World of Gantz, the homeworld of the Legio Praesagius, when summoned. Fighting under the command of the Blackshield Knight known as the Crownless King, these Knights sought independence from both Horus and the Imperium. After Haverlund's fall into rebellion, the Crownless King and his households began a long campaign to free it from its traitorous masters. This culminated in the Battle for Victory Plaza, which saw scores of Knights fight to bring down the Legio Mordaxis Warlord Titan Noctis Sanguinia and its Axiom maniple.Dark Waters (ca. 009.M31) - Despite their defeat on Espandor, the Loyalist Titan Legions eroded the strength of their enemies across the Five Hundred Worlds. The Legio Mordaxis, the Traitor Titan Legion that had been transformed by the machinations of the Word Bearers Legion, were charged by their Legio Infernus allies to hunt down and destroy Mechanicum forces across the western regions of the Realm of Ultramar. Here, their spies came to the fore and, following reports from Traitors among the Loyalist ranks, the Legio Mordaxis fleet sailed for the remote water world of Zarathusa Secundus. The people of this isolated world existed on floating cities, whose ancient technologies farmed the planet's geothermal wealth. The Loyalists had recently pacified an uprising sparked by Dark Mechanicum cells on the planet, and the aftermath of that war was still evident throughout its shallow seas. The Traitors commenced their attack as the Loyalist forces, commanded by Princeps Tesarius Solomere Krane of the Legio Lysanda, aboard his Reaver-class Titan, Purantum Bellos, awaited extraction upon the principal landmass of Zarathusa, known as the Aquila Atoll. The Traitors seized control of both the planet's orbit and the Loyalist vox-net, masquerading as loyal servants of the Imperium until the trap was sprung. As landers approached the surface of Zarathusa, they revealed themselves not as the intended extraction ships but rather transports carrying the Titans of the Legio Mordaxis. Desperate to deny the atoll to the invaders, the Legio Lysanda and the Imperial Knights of House Vornherr scrambled to form an effective defence, aware that retreat was not an option without abandoning those ground forces unable to wade through the seas of Zarathusa; seas that turned black as the battle raged and toxins that had ravaged the Legio Mordaxis polluted the ground they walked upon. Despite their valiant efforts, the Loyalist forces were led into a cunningly laid trap by the Dark Mechanium allies of the Legio Mordaxis. Much later, the Loyalists would learn the fate of Zarathusa Secundus and its defenders, though not before the corrupted remains of the Purantum Bellos was encountered on Drooth II, along with the blackened Knight armours of dozens of House Vornherr scions, now enslaved to the Legio Mordaxis machine curse. As the war raged on, the devastation it left in its wake increased the intensity of the storms and the frequency of the tidal waves that tore across the land, even as techno-toxins flowing from wounded Legio Mordaxis Titans left a permanent stain upon the world's ecosystem.Battle of Drooth II (009.M31) - Known for its burning sand-like mineral deserts, Drooth II was originally populated solely by a research station and listening outpost, placed there by the Ultramarines Legion to watch over the eastern edge of Ultramar. This outpost was quickly overrun by the Dark Mechanicum as war engulfed Ultramar and turned into a profane manufactorum capable of churning out debased weapons infused with powers pulled from the Warp. It was here that the Traitors commanded by Horgoth Nyr chose to make their stand against the Loyalist forces, aware that the veil lay thin and the entities within the Warp were easily called upon should the Traitors lose the advantage. In preparation for the Loyalists' arrival, the defences of the outpost were strengthened, denying approach from orbit and forcing any invader to land far from the Traitors. With both sides drawn to the world, the stage was set for a battle of cataclysmic proportions. Gathering what remained of those forces committed to the Crusade of Iron, the Loyalists set sail for Drooth II and the battle that awaited. Titans of Legio Mordaxis, Legio Infernus and Legio Audax assailed the Loyalist Titans of Legio Praesagius, Legio Lysanda, Legio Oberon and Psi-Titans of the Chamber Occedentalis, as they advanced upon the Dark Mechanicum's factorums and reactors. On all sides of the outpost, dozens of Titans fully engaged in brutal exchanges of fire. From amongst the ranks of the Loyalist Titan Legions the Psi-Titans let their might be felt. The darkly majestic Warlords of the Ordo Sinister unleashed torrents of psychic energy into the Traitor forces rising against them, invisible beams and blades of power carving through plasteel and ceramite plating as if they weren't there. As the battle continued to rage, a Psi-Titan was pulled down by a pair of Traitor Titans that ripped its reactor open. Crashing down to the planet's surface, the rift between realspace and the Immaterium tore wide once more, and hell came with it. Finally Princeps Ultima Dae Vergos of the Legio Praesagius confronted her hated rival Horgoth Nyr from the Legio Infernus within the heart of the Dark Mechanicum outpost. The two sworn enemies tore into one another with all the malice and spite they could muster. Despite landing a significant blow which felled the enemy Warlord Titan, it rose once again like a revenant from the dead. Instead of turning on the revenant Titan that marched towards her position, the princeps ultima turned her Titan's weapons upon the forge-fane, and with a mighty barrage of cannon fire, obliterated the base's magnetic locks holding the gravity elevator that extended into orbit. The resulting destruction caused secondary explosions to erupt across the outpost. From orbit, the Loyalist fleet witnessed the destruction of Drooth II, the space elevator collapsing in on itself like a headless serpent, its coils crashing down to envelop huge swathes of the planet below -- and the Titans still fighting there. Though the Horus Heresy would drag on for years yet to come, the Crusade of Iron ended that day on Drooth II.