Darnath Lysander - The Planetstrike Begins: The planetary assault began in earnest even as the aftershocks ceased. Lysander had given the honour of vanguard to Vorn Hagen's 5th Company, and they struck with a precision worthy of Dorn. Drop Pods screamed downwards, their retro-thrusters pinpricks of brilliant white against an angry red sky. They tore through weakened sections in the Forgeheart’s dome, slamming into the rubble-strewn expanse below.Drop Pod hatches slammed down as one, and the battle-brothers of the 5th Company strode out into the debris-choked air, bolters blazing as they came. An instant later, the air flickered as Captain Lysander and three squads of the 1st Company's Terminators teleported into position.Lysander had ordered the rest of the 1st Company, under the command of Honoured Sergeant Julan, to capture the slave pens beneath Taladorn Sextus. Lysander was aware that splitting his already outnumbered force was something of a risk, but had few doubts about Julan’s ability, and none at all about his own.The counterattack began almost immediately. Bolt-and auto-shells streamed from amongst the rubble, every weapon aimed by a hated Iron Warrior or a zealous bond-slave hoping to earn his master's favour. Still the Imperial Fists came on. Under Lysander's terse commands, they advanced across the shattered tangle of permacrete and adamantium, disdaining all thought of cover.Heavier weapon-fire split the air, lascannons and plasma guns crewed from the balconies of smoke-blackened spires and gantry lines spitting bright death. Devastators returned fire, missiles and heavy bolter shells hammering at the defenders’ positions. A vast stone balcony all but disintegrated under the impact of two krak missiles, and screaming cultists plunged to their deaths amidst the rubble below, their bodies trampled beneath the advancing Imperial Fists.All at once, the defenders’ fire slackened as the bond-slaves retreated into the tangle of corridors, leaving their masters to fend for themselves. Not so much as a single Iron Warrior took a step backward. Planting their feet firmly amongst the wreckage, the traitors taunted their ancient enemies, daring them to come forward and die. The Imperial Fists’ response came as another volley of boltgun fire, the roar of the guns drowning out their foes’ raucous taunts.Captain Vogen’s 3rd Company did not deploy for another quarter of an hour, their launch delayed by a concerted bombing run on the Storm of Wrath. By the time their Drop Pods smashed home amongst the dead and dying, the battle had moved on. Comm-traffic told Vogen that Lysander had moved up into the fortress’ command spire, and half of the 5th Company had gone with him. The rest, under Hagan’s command, had spread out to secure the fortress’ depths. Bolter-fire still raged in the middle distance – the battle was far from over.The further into the Forgeheart the 3rd Company drove, the more twisted the environs became. Gone were the stark lines of an Imperial manufactorum. Instead, mecharoots pulsed and writhed around pillars fused from metal and flesh. Not all of Taladorn's inhabitants had survived to reach the mines. Many, infected by some machine contagion, had become the materials from which the Forgeheart had been fashioned.Their contorted faces stared out from walls, mouths open in silent screams at their horrifying fate. Veteran Sergeant Garadon -- Vogen's second in command, and the company's most decorated warrior – broke his customary silence as he looked upon these tortured dead and swore to avenge them.Under Vogen's command, the newcomers pushed on into the hellish maze of smelting pits and blazing forges. Lysander's trail of destruction was easily found, but following it was another matter. More Iron Warriors were converging on the battle, drawn to Lysander's presence as moths to a vengeful flame. They found the 3rd Company instead, and a vicious running battle broke out amongst the smelting pits. Some of the gantry lines and scaffolds were unstable, and many combatants’ battles ended not in glorious volleys of bolter fire, but in seething pits of molten metal.As the battle raged, a quadrupedal Daemon Engine charged out of the darkness. It leapt high onto a permacrete wall, then pounced down into Tactical Squad Renon. Five Battle-Brothers went down as the Maulerfiend struck, the survivors hurled away by the beast's flailing tentacles. The Daemon Engine was in motion again even before its victims had hit the ground, pistons driving it on towards Vogen.The captain had but a moment before the creature was on him, and it was not enough. Even as Vogen's crackling power fist came around, the Maulerfiend slammed into him. The beast's colossal mass bore the captain to the ground, and Vogen's gauntlet slammed into the side of its armoured skull.The blow smashed one of the monster's glittering eyes, leaving a livid scar of ruined metal in its place. The beast barely slowed. With a hiss of pistons, it punched a massive alloy fist down onto the captain’s breastplate, shattering his power armour and pulping the Space Marine's chest. Vogen died instantly.Tearing his attention from the Traitor Marines, Sergeant Garadon barked orders into his comm-link. Lascannons blazed, boring deep into the beast’s Warp metal torso. The Maulerfiend roared in pain and gathered itself for another pounce, but the lascannons flared for a second time, their devastating energies striking with precision and shearing off one of the Daemon Engine's forelegs. With a last terrible roar, the Maulerfiend slumped to its side, oily blood spilling from its wounds.With the Daemon Engine’s defeat, the Iron Warriors' determination faded. In ones and twos, they broke off into the darkened corridors. Detailing the remains of Squad Renon to carry Captain Vogen’s remains back to the drop zone, Garadon assumed command, and redoubled the company’s pace.At last, after what seemed an age, the 3rd Company emerged onto the pinnacle of the command spire – or what was left of it. What had once been the planetary governor's palace was now overcome by the coiling corruption of the Iron Warriors' technarcana. Scattered throughout alcoves, windows and gateways were vast, coil-encrusted hexagonal pods.At the apex of each, cables pulsed as they delivered vile fluids to whatever lay within. But it was the battle raging at the chamber's heart that drew Garadon's attention. There, amongst the carbon-scored tangle of ruined machinery, some thirty warriors of the 5th Company fought alongside the bulkier Terminator-armoured veterans of the 1st. Gunmetal-clad dead were piled deep around them, but there was golden armour too amongst the grey.To Garadon's eye, too many Battle-Brothers had fallen, and more would perish before this battle was done. The Imperial Fists were severely outnumbered, and the air was full of the metallic roars of Daemon Engines. In the centre of the chamber, Lysander clashed with a hulking figure, clad in what had once been Terminator armour. Now both flesh and armour were merged, a horrific melding of man and machine.This was the warlord of the Sons of the Forge, come at last to face his domain's invaders. Garadon didn't hesitate. With a single barked word of command, he threw the 3rd Company into the fray.