Yelav Draykavac - Reckoning: It was perhaps by chance or by the whim of fate that in the year 009.M31 Archmagos Yelav would indirectly meet with the man that would become his most earnest and able opponent: Ireton MaSade, Protector of Agathon and leader of the Loyalist effort in the Coronid Deeps. Seeking vengeance for the death of his granddaughter at Port Maw, Ireton MaSade had taken war to the Cyclothrathine Mechanicum and the first blow was to be dealt on Numinal.Upon learning of the Loyalist attack, Draykavac acted with cold logic: his troops were scattered over the entire surface of Numinal and he would need time to assemble them. Even Draykavac was surprised by this attack, the truth that a full-scale counterinvasion was now on its way had not entered the strategic equations of the Taghmata Cyclothrathe. The orbit was already lost, his own escort craft having been defeated by deceptive-looking outdated Warp-dromons and macro-haulers, even his own flagship had had to retreat, no match for the turncoat Rogue Trader vessel, the Hammer of the Deeps.Releasing emergency command overrides, Draykavac took direct control over all Mechanicum forces on Numinal, his mind commanding thousands of bodies and automatons. In merely two solar hours, he had arrayed a force he judged sufficient to lead a counterattack. Yet the landing of some 40,000 Solar Auxilia did not seem to bother him excessively. The enemy had failed to mount an immediate attack, which indicated that they intended to liberate the planet rather than perform a simple raid. However, in the two solar hours he had needed to assemble his forces, these enemies had strongly fortified their landing zone.Draykavac would direct the attack from the shelter of his command compound, merely a hundred kilometers distant from the battlefield, his djinn-skein allowing him to look through a thousand eyes and targeting arrays and command entire divisions by himself. After the first force's hasty retreat against the unprecedented defensive fire from the Agathean cohorts, Draykavac had to act quickly as secondary incursions and insurrections now threatened his rule.Ordering his Knights to assemble, Archmagos Draykavac left his command vault and ascended onto his Abeyant, his personal bodyguard of Thallax cohorts forming up around him. Quickly reaching the battlefield, a second Mechanicum force, even larger than the first one, awaited his orders to crush the defiant Agatheans under the heavy footsteps of his Knights. A stalemate could still be achieved, which he was confident he would be able to break given reinforcements from Cyclothrathe, the Agatheans surely being unable to blockade Numinal once his own battleships could be recalled. All he needed to do was annihilate the invaders and retake the landing zones, thus securing the planet.As battle was joined, Draykavac did not realise that he had been tricked: the enemy commander, Ireton MaSade, had intimate knowledge of how Mechanicum Taghmata fight after having fought at their side during the Great Crusade. He knew that Draykavac's battle-plans would follow the prognostications or his logic-engines, which made Draykavac's tactics all too predictable.On a short command, the Agatheans' supporting Knights dropped from orbit and outflanked the Mechanicum host. Coming under direct attack from an unexpected quarter, Draykavac had to defend himself against a rampaging Knight-Castigator of House Hermetika, weakening the towering war machine with fire from his Graviton Gun enough to be brought down by swarming Vorax-class Battle-Automata. Draykavac himself tore the Knight's living pilot from his Throne Mechanicum before liquefying his flesh.Yet, when the Agathean cohorts pressed home their advantage, the facts were indisputable: Draykavac had lost the battle. Almost immediately, the Knights of House Atrax formed a hexagonal defence, protecting their lord and master from harm as they and the remaining Taghmata forces were ruthlessly sacrificed to preserve Draykavac's life. Once within his fortified command bastion, he made good his escape, a concealed salvation-rocket taking him to safety to his flagship the Sacra Astra from which he would leave the system.Despite this severe defeat, Archmagos Draykavac stayed in command of the Taghmata Cyclothrathe, a position he held for the entire duration of the Horus Heresy. Draykavac would secure many victories in the grim years of conflict and bloodshed that lay ahead and would cause countless woes to the Imperium's loyal defenders.