View source for Hunt for Voldorius

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{{Battle
|Name         =The Hunt for Voldorius
|Image        =Hunt-for-voldorius-cover-clean.jpg
|Image caption=The [[Raven Guard]] and the [[White Scars]] charge into battle.
|Conflict     =
|Date         =861-871.[[M41]]{{Fn|3}}
|Location     =[[Zoran]], [[Modanna]], [[Kavell]], [[Cernis IV]], and [[Quintus]]{{Fn|3}}
|Outcome      =Imperial Victory
|Combatant1   =[[File:Aquila1transparent.png|30px]] [[Imperium]]
|Combatant2   =[[File:AlphaLegion.png|30px]] [[Alpha Legion]]
|Commanders1  =[[File:RavenGuardsymbol.png|20px]] [[Shadow Captain]] [[Kayvaan Shrike]]<br>[[File:WhiteScarssymbol.png|20px]] [[Space Marine Captain|Captain]] [[Kor'sarro Khan]]
|Commanders2  =[[File:AlphaLegion.png|20px]] [[Kernax Voldorius]] (KIA)
|Strength1    =[[File:RavenGuardsymbol.png|20px]] [[3rd Company (Raven Guard)|Raven Guard 3rd Company]]<br>[[File:WhiteScarssymbol.png|20px]] [[3rd Brotherhood (White Scars)|White Scars 3rd Brotherhood]]<br>Unknown number of pro-Imperial rebels
|Strength2    =[[File:AlphaLegion.png|20px]] Approximately 600 [[Chaos Space Marines]]{{Fn|2g}}<br>[[File:Chaos.png|20px]] Entire Quintus [[PDF]] (including [[Mankarra Household Guard]]){{Fn|2h}}<br>[[File:Chaos.png|20px]] Unknown number of [[The Lost and the Damned]]{{Fn|2g}}
|Casualties1  =Unknown
|Casualties2  =Defeated; Voldorius killed
}}

The '''Hunt For Voldorius''' was a decade-long pursuit of the [[Daemon Prince]] [[Kernax Voldorius]] by the [[White Scars]]' [[Master of the Hunt]], [[Kor'sarro Khan]]. It was noteworthy for its culmination in 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 [[chapter]]s.

===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 Khan|Kyublai]], to return with Voldorius's head to [[Chogoris]], or not to return at all.{{Fn|1}}

===Early operations===
It was Kor'sarro Khan's 16th Great Hunt and lasted around a decade.{{Fn|3}} Voldorius eluded him at places such as [[Zoran]], [[Modanna]], and [[Kavell]].{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|3}}

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.{{Fn|2a}}{{Fn|2b}} Kor'sarro escaped the trap and in the process learned that Voldorius was on the planet [[Quintus]].{{Fn|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]].{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|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 (Raven Guard)|3rd Company]] under [[Kayvaan Shrike]], which was also deployed on Quintus to end its heresy.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|2e}} The fiercest fighting erupted around the planet's capital city of [[Mankarra]].{{Fn|1}}

The two [[Space Marine Captain]]s held a council on Quintus, neither fully trusting the other due to the historic rivalry between their chapters.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|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 defence 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 Squad]]s into the heart of the complex, his remaining forces entrenched themselves around its perimeter.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|2g}}

So it was that Voldorius' tide of reinforcements crashed against the Raven Guard perimeter. The Alpha Legion commanders sent waves of [[Cultist]]s, [[Traitor Guard]], and [[Mutant]]s against the Raven Guard defences 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 defence 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.{{Fn|1}}

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 defence complex, stringing out their lines in the process. Launching [[Rhino]]s and [[Space Marine Bike|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 defences.{{Fn|1}}

===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 [[manufactorum]]s and Basilicas. Beset on all sides, many of the heretic PDF soldiers pleaded for mercy, but received none.{{Fn|1}}

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 [[Raven's Talons|Talons]], Voldorius could not escape Kor'sarro's [[Moonfang|blade]] and was beheaded. A month later, Quintus fell back into the [[Emperor of Mankind|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.{{Fn|1}}

===Conflicting sources===
*On page 42 of [[Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition)]], there is a brief mention that Shrike is waging guerrilla war on Quintus against the [[Night Lords]]; since the remainder of the article refers to the Alpha Legion, this is presumably a typo.{{Fn|1}}

===Sources===
*{{Endn|1}}: [[Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition)]], pgs. 42-43
*2: [[Hunt for Voldorius (Novel)]]:
**{{Endn|2a}}: Chapter 1
**{{Endn|2b}}: Chapter 2
**{{Endn|2c}}: Chapter 3
**{{Endn|2d}}: Chapter 4
**{{Endn|2e}}: Chapter 7
**{{Endn|2f}}: Chapter 8
**{{Endn|2g}}: Chapter 9
**{{Endn|2h}}: Chapter 5
*{{Endn|3}}: [[Codex: Space Marines (6th Edition)]], pg. 38 — ''Victories of the Khans''

[[Category:Battles (Alpha Legion)]]
[[Category:Battles (Chaos)]]
[[Category:Battles (Raven Guard)]]
[[Category:Battles (White Scars)]]

[[fr:Chasse de Voldorius]]