Battle of Phall - Retribution Fleet: When Dorn had seen the evidence of his brother's treachery in the Isstvan System, he had wanted to go and confront Horus himself, to hear the Traitor's confession and bring retribution with his own hands.But duty had held him back: duty to the Emperor and the Imperium that Horus now sought to destroy. He and his First Captain Sigismund set course and returned to Terra, but not before Dorn had sent his sons as emissaries of his anger.He had named it a "Retribution Fleet"; 30,000 Imperial Fists Legionaries comprised of 300 companies and over 500 warships had struck out towards Isstvan III, a third of the VIIth Legion, a force great enough to subdue a hundred worlds, bearing a brother's wrath.Captain Alexis Polux of the 405th Company was attached to this Retribution Fleet under the command of veteran Captain Yonnad, master of the Retribution Fleet.When the fleet had translated back into reality on the edge of the Isstvan System, the power of the Warp Storm caused Geller Fields to fail as hulls sheared into fragments and burned in the fires of their own reactors. Some ships had reached safety, but many had died, their corpses spat out of the Warp to freeze in the void.Two hundred warships were lost, their remains left spinning in the light of a forgotten star. The Imperial Fists had found Captain Polux in the remains of one of those broken wrecks. He was one of the few survivors. Nearly 10,000 Imperial Fists were gone, a staggering loss that was difficult to grasp.Now only 363 warships remained -- a force that was still one-fifth of the VIIth Legion's full strength. Yonnad had not survived, and since Polux had been designated as his successor, the right of command of the remaining Retribution Fleet fell to him.Though he felt deeply honoured he also felt completely alone. The truth was that he did not fear the responsibility of such a heavy burden for Yonnad was the Legion's finest fleet master and Captain Polux his best pupil.But the new fleet master had doubts that he was the best choice, for there were other warriors that had survived the wreck of the fleet that were more worthy: commanders with more campaign experience, higher in the rolls of honour, and more skilled at arms. But the Imperial Fists followed form and order to the letter, something not so easily set aside.The Imperial Fists' warfleet established a base of operations in the Phall System. The two habitable planets of Phall were unremarkable agrarian worlds, lightly populated and of no great strategic importance. For reasons they could not ascertain, the Warp was calm in this region and the Imperial Fists found that they could navigate to and from the system with some surety.With their astropaths blind, as time wore on, the Legion's commanders had grown increasingly frustrated. Though a few amongst the senior captains and battlegroup commanders might chafe at Polux's orders, the majority of the fleet's commanders could not fault the young fleet master. The fleet was vulnerable, and an attack was likely. In such a position one needed to create a solid defence and conserve fighting strength.Polux's deployment addressed all of these needs with a direct elegance. The Retribution Fleet formed a sphere close to the Ocean World of Phall II. Each commander in the fleet led a battlegroup of smaller vessels. Every battlegroup moved on a precise looped course. Together the whole resembled a cage spun from the tails of comets.Captain Polux quickly established a routine. While regular scouting missions were launched into the Warp, the Legion's astropaths busied themselves with trying to break through the Warp Storms and make contact with Terra and in particular the Loyalists at Isstvan III.The fleet was kept at full battle-stations and Polux relentlessly drilled his shield-equipped Breacher Squads, honing their skills at war like a blade edge made sharp only by harsh practice.They wanted to be prepared in case of any inevitable boarding actions. When an enemy came the Imperial Fists needed to be ready. The opinions of others, whether they agreed with Polux or not, were of no consequence -- strength required obedience, not thought.