View source for Breaking of the Perfect Fortress

{{Battle
|Name         ={{PAGENAME}}
|Image        =
|Image caption=
|Conflict     =[[Horus Heresy]]
|Date         =008.[[M31]]
|Location     =[[Perfect Fortress]], [[Narsis]]
|Outcome      =Imperial Victory
|Combatant1   =[[File:Aquila1transparent.png|30px]] [[Imperium]]
|Combatant2   =[[File:Chaos.png|30px]] [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitors]]
|Commanders1  =[[File:RG Icon.png|20px]] [[Primarch]] [[Corax]]<br>[[File:RG Icon.png|20px]] [[Centurion (Rank)|Centurion]] [[Beyar Kedron]]{{Fn|1}}<br>[[File:RG Icon.png|20px]] [[Nuran Tesk]] (KIA){{Fn|3}}<br>[[File:IF Icon.png|20px]] [[Space Marine Captain|Captain]] [[Noriz]]{{Fn|2}}<br>[[File:Imperial Army Symbol.jpg|20px]] [[Sub-Caesari]] [[Marcus Valerius]]{{Fn|2}}
|Commanders2  =[[File:EC Icon.png|20px]] [[Space Marine Captain|Captain]] [[Hasten Luthris Armanitan]] (KIA){{Fn|2}}
|Strength1    =[[File:RG Icon.png|20px]] [[Raven Guard]]{{Fn|2}}<br>[[File:IF Icon.png|20px]] [[Imperial Fists]]{{Fn|2}}<br>[[File:Custode Icon.png|20px]] [[Adeptus Custodes]]{{Fn|2}}<br>[[File:Imperial Army Symbol.jpg|20px]] [[Therion Cohort]]{{Fn|2}}
|Strength2    =[[File:EC Icon.png|20px]] [[Emperor's Children]]{{Fn|2}}
|Casualties1  =Heavy:<br>10,000 Therions killed{{Fn|2}}
|Casualties2  =All killed
}}

The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' was a battle of the [[Horus Heresy]].{{Fn|1}}

==Background==
After the [[Drop Site Massacre]], [[Fulgrim]], [[Primarch]] of the [[Emperor's Children]], constructed the [[Perfect Fortress]] on the world of [[Narsis]]. The Fortress would be used to secure the riches of several [[Forge World]]s and threaten the [[Imperial]] strongholds of [[Agrapha]], [[Chopix]] and [[Spartus (World)|Spartus]]. It would also serve as a key part of the Imperium’s defences, until the [[Horus Heresy]] began and the [[Emperor's Children]] seized Narsis for [[Warmaster]] [[Horus]]. Once it fell into [[Traitor]] hands, the Perfect Fortress became a lynchpin for their presence in the southern Imperium. It would remain so until sometime after the [[Dropsite Massacre]], when the vengeful Primarch [[Corax]] led his [[Raven Guard]] and their [[Therion Cohort]] allies in attacking the Fortress.{{Fn|1}} 

==Battle==
Though it was heavily fortified, Corax ordered the [[Therion Cohort|Cohort]] into the [[Perfect Fortress|Fortress]], to make the [[Emperor's Children]] overconfident and to draw them out, so the [[Raven Guard]] could strike them down. Even as the Cohort then began to suffer horrific casualties, the [[Primarch]] prepared his forces, except the ill-favored [[Deliverers]], to infiltrate the Fortress, while the Emperor's Children were distracted. Just as they were prepared to do so, the [[Scout Cruiser]] ''[[Fane of Shadow]]'' discovered an array of [[Flak Turret|Flak Batteries]], scattered across the Fortress, which had not been revealed by the Cohort's attack. They were all slaved to a control room, deep beneath one of the Fortress' central towers in '''Hab-block Delta-19'''. When the Batteries activated, the weapons would be able to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting [[Space Marine Legion]]. With Corax having ordered them to maintain [[Vox]]-silence before they attacked, no one on the ''Fane'' could warn him about this new threat.{{Fn|1}}

Acting quickly, the [[Centurion (Rank)|Centurion]] [[Beyar Kedron]], who was aboard the cruiser, decided to lead his detachment of [[Deliverers]] in invading '''Hab-block Delta-19'''. Kedron would succeed in destroying the [[Flak Turret|Flak Batteries]]' control room, at a heavy cost, allowing the Raven Guard succeeded in launching an ambush on the [[Emperor's Children]] from within the Fortress itself.{{Fn|1}} The moment for this attack arrived once the Therion Cohort began to retreat, causing the overconfident Emperor's Children led by the Perfect Fortress' commander, [[Hasten Luthris Armanitan]], to pursue them. Now vulnerable, the Traitors were butchered by the Raven Guard's surprise assault, with Hasten being killed by Corax himself.{{Fn|2}}

==Aftermath==
When the battle was over, the Raven Guard had suffered little losses overall,{{Fn|1}} though the Therion Cohort had suffered terribly with at least 10,000 soldiers killed.{{Fn|2}}

Either way, Narsis once again belonged to the [[Imperium]]. Kedron's slain Deliverers were later placed in a mausoleum within the Fortress, as the Raven Guard left Narsis behind them. However, Corax was not known to have offered a word of praise or criticism for their actions, nor would the Deliverers' [[Space Marine Legion|Legion]] honor them in anyway. In the wake of the battle, Kedron and a number of the Therion Cohort's commanders began to criticize the Primarch's plan, which had caused them to suffer such severe losses. This would reach Corax and in the months that followed the Fortress' fall, they would all be gathered into a separate battlegroup and ordered to seize the isolated world of [[Galaspar]].{{Fn|1}}

==See also==
*[[Battles of the Horus Heresy (List)]]

==Sources==
*{{Endn|1}}: [[Exemplary Battles of the Age of Darkness: The Breaking of the Perfect Fortress]], pgs. 2-5
*{{Endn|2}}: [[Deliverance Lost (Novel)]], Chapter Eighteen
*{{Endn|3}}: [[Ravenlord (Novella)]], ''VI''

{{HHBattles}}

[[Category:Battles (Emperor's Children)]]
[[Category:Battles (Horus Heresy)]]
[[Category:Battles (Imperial Army)]]
[[Category:Battles (Raven Guard)]]