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Hunt for Voldorius

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Targetdrone.gif This article is about the battle; for the novel, see Hunt for Voldorius (Novel).
The Hunt for Voldorius
Hunt-for-voldorius-cover-clean.jpg
The Raven Guard and the White Scars charge into battle.
Date 871.M41[1a]
Location Quintus
Outcome Imperial Victory
Combatants
Ravguardlogo.png Raven Guard
White Scars Symbol.png White Scars
Aquila1transparent.pngPro-Imperial rebels[2d]
Alphalegionlogo.gif Alpha Legion
Commanders
Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike
Captain Kor'sarro Khan
Kernax Voldorius (d)
Strength
Raven Guard 3rd Company
White Scars 3rd Company
Unknown number of pro-Imperial rebels
Entire Quintus PDF
Approximately 600 Chaos Space Marines[2g]
Unknown number of The Lost and the Damned[2g]
Casualties
Unknown Defeated; Voldorius killed

The Hunt For Voldorius (also known as the Liberation of Quintus[1b]) was the culmination of a decades-long pursuit of the Daemon Prince Kernax Voldorius by the White Scars' Master of the Hunt, Kor'sarro Khan. It was noteworthy for the unexpected alliance between Khan and Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike of the Raven Guard, which may have started to abolish the rivalry and distrust that traditionally existed between the two chapters.

Prelude

Voldorius was high on the list of the White Scars' enemies who, through luck or design, had managed to survive their last clash with the chapter. Kor'sarro, the chapter's fifty-first Master of the Hunt, was ordered by the Great Khan, Kyublai, to return with Voldorius's head to Chogoris, or not to return at all. It was a hunt that lasted more than a decade, Voldorius eluded him at places such as Zoran, Modanna, and Kavell.[1a]

At one point, Kor'sarro thought that he had cornered Voldorius on Cernis IV, only to be caught in another of the Daemon Prince's snares.[2a][2b] Kor'sarro escaped the trap and in the process learned that Voldorius was on the planet Quintus.[2c]

An Unexpected Alliance

On Quintus, one of the Imperium's chief bulwarks against Ork warbands in the Jagal Stars, the Daemon Prince's warband managed to corrupt the local PDF.[1a][2d] Thus the White Scars faced an entire planet in their hunt for Voldorius in a battle that soon found the White Scars in an unexpected alliance with the Raven Guard 3rd Company under Kayvaan Shrike, which was also deployed on Quintus to end its heresy.[1a][2e] The fiercest fighting erupted around the planet's capital city of Mankarra.[1a]

The two Space Marine Captains held a council on Quintus, neither fully trusting the other due to the historic rivalry between their chapters.[1a][2f] However, both Shrike and Kor'sarro knew they had no choice but to set aside their differences and unite to track down Voldorius. An alliance forged, the following morning before dawn Shrike led his company in a surprise attack against heretic lines around an orbital defense battery in an ambush formation he and his men had perfected against Waaagh! Skullkrak, throwing the traitor forces into disarray. Sensing the danger, Voldorius dispatched half of his Alpha Legion forces to retake the complex. As Shrike led Assault Squads into the heart of the complex, his remaining forces entrenched themselves around its perimeter.[1a][2g]

So it was that Voldorius' tide of reinforcements crashed against the Raven Guard perimeter. The Alpha Legion commanders sent waves of Cultists, Traitor Guard, and Mutants against the Raven Guard defenses to exhaust them before committing his own elite Chaos Space Marine troops. After the traitor Baneblade Ironsoul created a breach in one of the Raven Guard's defensive bastions, three hundred Alpha Legionnaires flung themselves forward at this single point. Shrike was forced to lead the defense against this attack personally, but little by little the Raven Guard was giving ground and the Alpha Legion advanced. It was at this point that the White Scars struck.[1a]

Having concealed themselves in caves to the south, the White Scars had waited for the Chaos forces to over-commit themselves to taking the orbital defense complex, stringing out their lines in the process. Launching Rhinos and Bikes at the Chaos lines, the White Scars first destroyed the Ironsoul and then sent the traitor forces into a retreat. Squads of White Scars bikers swept through the Chaos Space Marines that stood their ground as the Raven Guard led a vicious counter-attack. Though they had defeated the Chaos forces fielded before them, Voldorius and his remaining troops still held Mankarra and commanded its imposing defenses.[1a]

The Liberation of Quintus

Launching a combined assault by Thunderhawk, Shrike and Kor'sarro's forces landed in the heart of the city after suppressing its surface-to-air missile batteries with Hellstrike missile attacks. As the White Scars swept through the streets and alleyways, Raven Guard deployed in the upper levels of Mankarra's manufactorums and Basilicas. Beset on all sides, many of the heretic PDF soldiers pleaded for mercy, but received none.[1a]

In the end, only Voldorius and his personal bodyguards remained at the steps of the Cathedral of the Emperor's Wisdom. Many Battle-Brother's fell to Voldorius' wrath, but the Daemon and his followers were outnumbered and encircled. Voldorius soon fought viciously against Kor'sarro and Shrike simultaneously. After being pinned to a fallen statue of the Emperor by Shrike's Talons, Voldorius could not escape Kor'sarro's blade and was beheaded. A month later, Quintus fell back into the Emperor's fold and Kor'sarro and Shrike parted ways. The Khan returned a hero to his homeworld, carrying Voldorius's head as a prize.[1a]


Trivia

Conflicting sources

Sources