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Gurloch

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Gurloch was a Lord of Contagion of the Death Guard's Third Plague Company[1a] and had fought in the Horus Heresy.[1b]

History

Sometime after the Great Rift's creation, Gurloch was under the command of the Plaguelord Morbidius[1a], who sought to conduct a Chaos ritual that would allow the Death Guard to use the machinery of an Astropathic Choir to spread a plague to other Choirs throughout the Imperium.[1c] Morbidus then chose to begin the ritual on the Imperial world Kalides Prime[1a] and used his fleet to destroy the Imperial Navy warships defending it. The fleet then bombarded the world's capital Dustrious, with ordnance laced with diseases that spread across the world[1d] and began the Chaos ritual.[1c] Afterwards Morbidius led his fleet out of the System, but charged Gurloch and his Warband with claiming Dustrious' Astropathic Choir.[1a] In order for the ritual to be successful though, Gurloch needed to draw out the suffering and misery of the Imperials on Dustrious, who had survived the Death Guard's bombardment.[1c] This was mainly the Cadian 44th Heavy Infantry Regiment, which had been charged with defending Dustrious and the survivors made ready to attack the Death Guard. However the diseases the Death Guard had unleashed, caused the dead to rise as Poxwalkers, which fell upon the Cadians and wiped out their high command. The scattered survivors fell under the command of Captain Dzansk and retreated. With that Gurloch began bombarding the fortress holding the Astropathic Choir, which was protected by a force field, and also staved off further attacks by the Cadians.[1d]

With the capital firmly in his control, Gurloch intended to simply wait for the ritual to be completed before he then seized the fortress and spread the plague to other Imperial worlds.[1c] However the sudden appearance of an Ultramarines strike force, led by Lieutenant Cassian, drastically changed his plans. The Ultramarines were part of the Indomitus Crusade, but their damaged Strike Cruiser had been left stranded in Kalides Prime's System due to a Warpstorm. Now the only way for them to contact the Crusade, was with the very Astropathic Choir Gurloch needed for his ritual. Soon the Ultramarines made contact with the Cadians[1d] and Cassian created a plan to seize the fortress, before the Death Guard could destroy its force field. This required the Cadians to make a diversionary attack, that would draw the Death Guard to them, so that the Ultramarines could reach the fortress.[1c] As the attack began though, Gurloch saw through it, but the Contagion Lord knew he could use the Cadians' attack to draw more misery from them to empower the ongoing ritual. With that in mind, he personally led the attack against the Cadians, which saw them wiped out. However during the battle he and his bodyguards came across, the Cadian's mortally wounded commander, Captain Dzansk. Instead of killing the Captain however, Gurloch lifted Dzansk up to face him and began to gloat about his victory. This proved to be a deadly mistake, as Dzansk used the last of his strength to pull a pin from one of the Krak Grenades, he had on his belt, before the Captain passed away.[1e] Though one of Gurloch's bodyguards saw what happened and threw Dzansk's body away from Gurloch, the subsequent explosion gravely wounded the Contagion Lord and killed three of his bodyguards. An enraged Gurloch now sought to quickly end the battle and led his forces against the Ultramarines, which had been able to open the fortress' gates.[1f]

Even as they sought safety inside its walls however, Gurloch used sorcery to emerge in front of Lieutenant Cassian, who had been leading the Ultramarines' rearguard. When they spotted each both knew, they were the commanders of their respective forces and in order to claim victory Cassian led a charge directly at Gurloch. While their forces fought each other, Cassian and the Librarian Keritraeus attacked the Contagion Lord, who advanced upon the Librarian. Cassian intervened, but Gurloch repeated head butted the Lieutenant, which forced him to his knees. As the Contagion Lord raised his Plaguereaper to kill Cassian though, Keritraeus struck him with psychic lightning causing him to drop Lieutenant. With a bellow Gurloch charged the Librarian even as Keritraeus continually hit him with lighting. Due to his worship of Nurgle however, Gurloch easily weathered the attacks and beheaded the Librarian. This enraged Cassian and the two flung themselves at each other in a whirlwind of blade strikes. However Gurloch's poisoned blade began to weaken Cassian and in desperation he threw his bolter at the Contagion Lord. Gurloch reflexively blocked it, but this left him open to Cassian's death blow that split his head in two, even as the Contagion Lord carved his Plaguereaper through the Lieutenant's chest. With Gurloch's death[1h] not only did the ritual fail, but the spirit of his Warband died as well, as they were unable to seize the fortress after the Ultramarines entered it. With that the Death Guard's invasion neared its end, as the Ultramarines made contact with the Indomitus Crusade, which soon arrived in large numbers, that easily wiped out Gurloch's Warband. The Crusade's forces then destroyed the Choir and when Morbidius' fleet returned, they would find that Kalides Prime's atmosphere, was now laced with explosive mines.[1i]

Sources