Kayvaan Shrike - The Prefectia Campaign: Captain Kayvaan Shrike and the rest of the Raven Guard Chapter led a defensive campaign on Perfectia against the relentless Third Sphere Expansion which was carried by the armed forces of the T'au Empire. Though the initial clash upon Prefectia had grown intense, the battle for control of the surrounding worlds had barely begun.Bypassing Voltoris as they forged on through the Imperium, the T'au fleets took battle to Doth, Delinquence and Carradon, making inroads into Imperial territory so quickly that the Imperial Navy and the Astra Militarum found them nigh impossible to stop.As for Prefectia itself, reinforcements were already inbound. No fewer than eight Space Marine Chapters engaged in simultaneous planetstrikes that struck every major landmass within the same terrifying hour. The Raven Guard were foremost amongst them. In a remote briefing with the Raven Guard's Chapter Master Corvin Severax, Kayvaan Shrike was ordered to follow up the initial strikes of Shadow Force Solaq, hunting down Tau Commanders amongst Prefectia's electromine complexes.Using the fissure known as Ventur Scar to anchor their operation, Shrike's plan was to assess the T'au, wait for them to commit in force, then dive in to capitalise on the enemy's position. However, the Raven Guard, watching carefully, found not a single vulnerability to exploit -- their stealthcraft was matched step for step by that of Supreme Commander O'Shaserra, also known as Commander Shadowsun.It was Kayvaan Shrike of the 3rd Company who had been entrusted with finding and exploiting the weaknesses of the T'au that had claimed Prefectia. The heavily-defended shield zones of the Fortress World burned with the fires of conquest. Eight Chapters of Space Marines launched assaults against the forces of a dozen T'au Septs across the planet. Shrike had instead chosen to confine his efforts to the electromine complexes of the Southern Scars.He felt sure that a Tau Commander would value the raw energy resource they represented. He was equally confident that Commander Shadowsun would not lead from the front line, but instead coordinate the war effort from the least likely of locations in order to escape a confrontation with Kor'sarro Khan's White Scars, who were also participating in the campaign. The Khan had sworn to hunt down and take the head of Commander Shadowsun at all costs.As the Raven Guard's commanding officer on Prefectia, Captain Shrike had not only the entire 3rd Company under his command, but elements of the 2nd, several Scout Squads of the 10th, the finest Vanguard Veterans of the 1st Company and a Raptor Wing of gunships from the Armoury, as well as various specialist elements.He split the 3rd Company in two, assigning the Scouts to each Pinion Battle Demi-company and keeping his most mobile forces in reserve at Aquillon Hive. Shrike took his own force west into the gullies of Ventur Scar, and deployed 2nd Company Chaplain, Laefin Torovac, to the north.High above the sparse clouds of ash that girdled Aquillon Hive, unblinking eyes stared at the explosions lighting the sprawl. Massed squads of Raven Guard were perched in a nest of decommissioned gun clusters, Jump Packs like stubby wings behind their broad shoulders. A Vox-crackle, a series of tight snapping sounds, and the Assault Marines vaulted from their gargoyle-studded roosts into free fall, angling their arms to correct their headlong dive into a steep swoop.The Bladewing Assault Brotherhood of the 8th Company headed west, seeking to reinforce Shadow Captain Shrike as he led a new assault north of Atlassi Hive. The Veterans of the 1st flipped in mid-flight and touched down half a Terran mile below, leaping from broken pillar to shattered statue before blasting towards the carnage at Ventur Scar.Long days of war passed, each bringing a hundred new acts of heroism and tragedy. Bellowing commanders and scholarly strategists alike were drowned by the tides of violence that washed across the Fortress World. The ancient wisdom of the Codex Astartes was repeatedly tested against the Code of Fire's teachings.Several Space Marine forces distinguished themselves above the others, amongst their ranks those of Captain Shrike and Kor'sarro Khan, but it was becoming obvious that the fortress of Prefectia would not fall to a lightning-fast blitz. Keen to secure victory over the xenos, Chapter Master Corvin Severax made planetfall in person. He intended to oversee the T'au's defeat -- or engineer it himself if necessary.The strife-filled days leading up to Corvin Severax's death had been a tapestry of cause and effect that sent ripples across Prefectia from pole to pole. The Chapter Master's successor would be chosen from the Shadow Captains of the Raven Guard Chapter, but there was little time for lengthy counsel and debate. Most of the warrior-lords were already embroiled in fierce conflicts against the T'au, some fighting for their lives as the Fire Caste pressed home their advantage.Whilst Corvin Severax had been orchestrating his masterful search-and-destroy patterns, Shadow Captain Shrike had been leading the men of the 3rd Company on a series of punitive strikes. Over the course of three solar days, Strike Force Shrike had harried an entire contingent to the point of extinction -- and in doing so, laid the bait for a trap of its own.Shrike had worked in tandem with an artillery regiment of the Astra Militarum. He had ordered them to bombard enemy armour that sought to intervene as his warriors launched a ground assault on the remnants of the harried cadre. Seeing easy prey, Shadowsun had attacked the Astra Militarum artillery and the infantry assigned to defend them. Shrike had been waiting for such a move, and when he turned back to counterattack Shadowsun's armies, he spotted the distinctive Tau Battlesuit of the enemy commander standing triumphant over the bodies of his Astra Militarum allies.Shrike's Veterans had voxed confirmation of Shadowsun's whereabouts to Corvin Severax, and the Chapter Master had made haste to join the fight, seeking to claim Shadowsun's head for his own. It was that single decision that had cost the Raven Guard its Chapter Master and the majority of its 3rd Company.With Corvin Severax slain, Shrike and his surviving Veterans were forced to improvise, for in terms of firepower they were massively outclassed. By staying to the rear of the nearest XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit, they used the strengths of the giant Tau Battlesuits against them -- a stray shot from one XV95 was not recognised as a threat by the countermeasures suite of another, and caused crippling damage to its Stealth Drones.The Raven Guard then concentrated their attacks on the most skilled of the remaining Ghostkeels -- that of Shadowsun herself -- and through sheer tenacity, forced her to withdraw.That night, Captain Shrike and his Command Squad returned to the site of the battle, there to harvest the Progenoid Glands of the fallen. They did so at great risk, but they survived, and much of the 3rd Company's gene-seed survived with them.Although Shrike's reasons for launching his attack were wholly selfless -- for he sought not promotion, but to safeguard his company's future -- the action cemented his ascent as the Chapter's next Master of Shadows.A series of astropathic communiqués had already been established, counting amongst their recipients the other Shadow Captains of the Raven Guard and even Marneus Calgar from neighbouring Ultramar. The Raven Guard needed a new leader, one so widely respected he could unite the Imperium's armies instead of simply fighting alongside them.In the end, the decision was unanimous. Kayvaan Shrike, saviour of Targus VIII, Donaka and Yahkee, bane of WAAAGH! Skullkrak, bearer of the Laurel Imperialis and patron saint to worlds considered lost or abandoned, would become the new Chapter Master of the Raven Guard.The military doctrines of the Raven Guard and White Scars could not have been more different. Where the Khan's warriors preferred to deliver decisive blows upon open ground, Shrike's kin operated best in dense terrain where their meticulous strikes could wear down even the largest armies. Shadowsun had seen patterns emerge upon Prefectia, Agrellan and even Voltoris, and had begun to organise each Sept's Kauyon traps accordingly.Where the White Scars had charged in, they often found themselves fighting only holographic mirages, the true strike coming from concealed fortifications nearby. Where the Raven Guard had lain in wait for their foe, they found themselves ambushed in their turn, or brought out into the open where long-range support cadres could scythe them down.However, when the forces of Vior'la and T'au found themselves fighting both Chapters at once, even the best-laid Kauyon traps were found wanting. Again and again the Raven Guard, allowing themselves to be drawn out into the open, provided the anvil; the White Scars, charging from artful concealment, acted as the hammer.Outside the Rhosputen bunker complex, the Raven Guard, engaged in a running battle with an Armoured Interdiction Cadre, steered their foes into a cross-quadrant strafing blitz that saw White Scars air support tear apart the fast-moving skimmers. When the Khan led a headlong charge across the Hectorid Greatspan, the Vior'lans quickly blocked both ends of the bridge, only to be cut to ribbons by the Raven Guard's assault demi-companies hiding mag-locked beneath its suspension arches.Scout patrols lured Shadowsun's XV104 Riptide Battlesuits into committing to Kauyon strikes, only for well-placed Teleport Homers to summon Terminators from orbit, the Veterans ambushing the giant Battlesuits in their turn.The other Space Marine companies present upon Prefectia were also united by Shrike's plans. When the White Scars' Hunting Forces were pursued across the Gnarled Wastes by cadres of Air Caste fighters, the anti-aircraft fire of Stalkers and Hunters from six Chapters sowed the skies with such a massive barrage of flakk that not a single T'au pilot made it out alive.The Space Marines would not leave without first combining their strengths, preventing the Fire Caste from cementing their hold upon Prefectia. Every victory was but another link in the chain that led to the most significant blow of all, a strategy hinging around the electrodam complex known as Brutec Nexus.Combined, the Fire Caste's most advanced war machines became an unstoppable force. A hurricane of munitions was thrown into the oncoming Imperial attack, tearing apart Space Marine transports, gun tanks and even those Imperial Knights that found themselves caught in the teeth of the new offensive.Kayvaan Shrike, quickly adjusting to the magnitude of this new development, commanded a triple-pronged assault from Raven Guard, White Scar and Imperial Knight alike. As the Raven Guard pressed their assault from the ruins, Kor'sarro Khan's own hunting force hurtled from Ventur Scar to strike hard at the T'au flank.The dual assault hit the barely-recovered Fire Caste battle line just as its warriors were rallying around an Ethereal ordering them back into the fight. The White Scars had brought more than guns, and blades to the fight; with them came the psychic storm their Stormseers had conjured from the geo-electric power stations.The tempest of energies raged so fierce it caught up spear-like lengths of rebar and even rusted girders from the battleground, hurling them out to impale T'au infantry and Battlesuits alike. One of the giant KV128 Stormsurge Ballistic Suits was caught in a vortex of crackling force, its crew electrocuted in a single hideous moment.The Knights of House Terryn cried out in despair at the demise of the Freeblade known as the Obsidian Knight, and rightly so, for the hero's loss was the tipping point that turned a losing battle into disaster. Their strength spent, the Imperial invaders had no option but to dig their claws as deep as possible, gouging a few last wounds into the Fire Caste before withdrawing altogether.Kayvaan Shrike had lost a powerful asset indeed, but he still refused to give up. Abandoning the cataclysmic battle at the edge of the shattered cityscape, the Raven Guard and White Scars alike sought the safety of dense terrain where their raw physical power could not be neutralised by the guns of the T'au.A series of brutal, blood-spattered skirmishes followed as the Space Marines made their way to Shrike's designated extraction point, each driven as much by bitterness and hatred as by the expediency of an ordered withdrawal. Amongst the smoke-shrouded destruction of the abandoned hive districts, the tactical genius of Chapter Master Shrike came to the fore.Shielded from the T'au's long-ranged firepower, the Raven Guard turned the fight to their own terms, and by using a complex series of feints and shadow tactics, they withdrew with minimal casualties. With the fighting withdrawal of the Space Marines and the evacuation of House Terryn, the remainder of the Imperial forces upon Prefectia soon followed suit.