Badab Bloggers
Here follows the Badab timeline......
720.M40-580.M41: [The Predation of the Maelstrom]
Throughout the later M40 and early M41, the Imperium suffers an upsurge in attacks by malignant forces originating from within Maelstrom, a massive and ancient stellar/warp vortex near the galactic core. Imperial control over the economically important frontier region, known as the Maelstrom Zone, begins to dangerously slip.
577.M41: [The Death of Cygnax]
The heavily militarised Hive World of Cygnax, long a lynchpin of Imperial control in the Northern Maelstrom Zone, succumbs to corruption from within and attack from without. Despite the intervention of the Mantis Warriors Space Marine Chapter, the death cults gained access to part of the planet's defence missile silo network. The resulting atomic winter, radioactive fallout and tectonic upheavels annihilated all life on Cygnax, effectively collapsing Imperial control of the Northern Maelstrom Zone.
587.M41: [The Warder Chapters are Assigned]
In response to an Edict Imperialis pronounced by the High Lords of Terra, the order is given to permanently base several Space Marine Chapters in the region in order to protect the Imperium's borders and pacify the Maelstrom Zone. The Astral Claws Chapter are given the high honour of commanding the newly constituted Maelstrom Warders, a deployment which also include the fleet-based Lamenters and Charnel Guard Chapters and is also to incorporate the Mantis Warriors. Once established, the Warders quickly stabilize the surrounding area and purge the inner zone of heretical and xenos elements. The wealth of the Maelstrom Zone flows into the coffers of the Imperium.
640-651.M41 [The Scourge Campaign]
The Astral Claws and their allies conduct a series of major combat operations designated the Scourge Campaign, striking deep into the heart of the Maelstrom and taking the battle to the foe. Despite their successes, their efforts are curtailed when the Charnel Guard Chapter is abruptly withdrawn from the Maelstrom Zone entirely. The Astral Claws petition for a replacement Chapter to be assigned to the Warders in due course, but are denied.
681.M41: [The Unhallowed Heart]
A previously unknown space hulk, designated Unhallowed Heart appears at the edge of the Maelstrom. It draws into orbit around the world of Eshunna and fully a quarter of the population die in a single long night, falling victim to a wave of mass suicides, murderous rampages and wanton hysteria. The Lamenters succeed in destroying it but subsequent Ordo Malleus investigation is critical of the Chapter for not destroying the hulk as soon as possible at the planet's expense. A judgement that is greeted with fury by the Lamenters.
715.M41 [The Battle of Hellsris]
The Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, Rovik Blake, who has led the chapter for the last two centuries, falls in single combat with the Ork Warboss Vorg Manburna at the Battle of Hellsris deep within the Maelstrom. On their return to Badab, Lugft Huron, captain of the Astral Claws 3rd Company is appointed Chapter Master by popular acclaim of his peers, becoming by far the youngest warrior in the Chapter's history to attain this rank.
718.M41 [The Tyrant of Badab]
After a failed palace-coup on Badab Primaris leads to an abortive civil war on the hive-world, the Astral Claws step in and brutally crush the conflict. The Space Marines swiftly impose order executing much of the planet's ruling class, in the aftermath Lugft Huron takes on the mantle of planetary ruler as well for the better protection of the Badab sector, styling himself the Tyrant of Badab. Huron's power is further cemented by the creation of what becomes known as 'The Tyrant's Legion' in a massive re-organisation of the uneven and often isolationist native planetary defence forces in the Badab Sector and nearby worlds.
723-900.M41: [The Astral Claws Gene-seed Tithe Falters]
The regular Astral Claws Gene-seed submission to the Magos Invigila of the Adeptus Mechanicus becomes infrequent and incomplete, although cause for concern, such matters are not uncommon involving Space Marine Chapters particularly deployed to border areas or on crusade.
729.M41: [The Astral Claws Petition Holy Terra]
Lufgt Huron's servants deliver formal document of petition to the High Lords making a detailed case for completely purging and subduing the Maelstrom and surrounding area. In order to achieve this, the document sets out the case for a massively augmented deployment of Space Marines to the Maelstrom Warders. Huron's petition is dismissed without full hearing on the grounds that the Imperium's needs are better met elsewhere.
748.M41 [The Badab Schism]
After further requests to redistribute resources from the Maelstrom Zone are denied and met with increased quota demands from the Administratum, Huron withholds Badab Primaris's planetary tithe in protest over the failure to provide him and his allies sufficient resources to police the Maelstrom. This situation is cause for political controversy and bitter argument. The furore becomes known as the Badab Schism and lasts for more than a century and a half, during which the military operations of the Astral Claws and the Maelstrom Warders carry on as usual against a back drop of worsening civil tension with the Administratum.
780.M41 [The Lycanthos Drift Campaign]
The Astral Claws move to intervene in the closing stages of the long running Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, undertaking the Lycanthos Campaign against one of the last major stronghold systems of the revolt on the southern borders of the Maelstrom Zone. Lazaerek, the Chapter Master of the Fire Hawks, bitter that he was not given command of the campaign rather than Huron is known to have born a grudge against the Astral Claws fromthis time.
821.M41: [The Defence of Khirab]
A heavy Ork raiding force from the Maelstrom is intercepted and destroyed in a series of battles in the Khirab system in the Endymion Cluster by a combined force of Maelstrom Warders. During the battle, Lugft Huron slays Overdog Rakka, the Ork Warboss, in single combat and is hailed as a hero of the people of Endymion.
901.M41: [Destruction of Tithe Fleet VX542/11]
With preliminary judgements into the Badab Schism in the Segmentum Courts Temporal weighing in the Administratum's favour, an Imperial investigation fleet including representatives of the Adeptus Mechanicus Biologis Invigila and the Administratum Lords of the Karthargo Sector, is sent to Badab to demand the delivery of the Badab tithe and chapter's Gene-seed requirements. The investigation fleet is fired on and destroyed as it attempts to force its way through the Badab system's 'ring of steel' and press its demands. Claim and counter-claim ensues in the aftermath as to how this tragic destruction has occurred. Karthan Sector Governor Tanit Koenig calls for the arrest and trial of Huron for treachery against the Imperium.
902-903.M41: [The Karthan Retaliation]
The Karthan Imperial Commanders take it on themselves to send two further punitive expeditions into the Maelstrom Zone under the auspices of Imperial Authority, both fleets are lost in unknown circumstances with intervention by the Astral Claws and their allies gravely suspected.
903.M41: [The Maelstrom Secession]
Huron produces his Articles of Secession which are also signed and ratified by the masters of the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors Chapters which they deliver to the Segmentum authorities. Around this time Imperial shipping passing through the Maelstrom Zone is attacked and contact with several still loyalist worlds within the inner zone ends with garbled communications warning of attack and siege by Space Marine forces. The Karthans threaten all out war in response, sending direct appeals to several Space Marine Chapters to aid them. The Fire Hawks are the first to respond to their cause.
904.M41: [The Badab War Begins]
A vessel belonging to the Fire Hawks Space Marine Chapter is attacked and captured by the Mantis Warriors. Matters swiftly escalate and the Fire Hawks, aided by the Karthan fleet then launch a series of probing attacks towards Badab and the Endymion Cluster. The Fire Hawks are brought to battle against the Mantis Warriors on the Feudal agri-world of Iblis, and while they are so occupied, the Administratum-controlled system of Sagan and it's orbital fleet anchorage (regarded as the gateway to the Maelstrom Zone) is invaded and captured by the Astral Claws and Lamenters amid a great slaughter.
904.M41: [The Coming of the Executioners]
In payment for an ancient blood oath given to the Astral Claws, the Executioners Chapter also announces their armed support for the Secessionists, sending the warship Night Hag containing a full augmented battle company of space marines to back up their words. The rest of this notoriously grim and independent Chapter's forces assemble on their distant twin-home worlds of Stygia-Aqulion in preparation for war.
904.M41: [The Widening Storm]
The Marines Errant answer the call of the Fire Hawks for reinforcement, diverting a sizeable force of five companies and a fleet of support vessels from the undertaking of an extra-galactic crusade in order to aid them. Matters steadily worsen throughout the year as more and more systems are drawn into the rapidly escalating war, and the Fire Hawks and their Karthan allies suffer heavy loses in battle.
905.M41: [The Eye of the High Lords]
With five different Chapters of Space Marines now embroiled in open warfare, along with various naval detachments, local defence armies and the sectarian forces of various Adeptus now involved in what is rapidly accelerating to become the greatest conflict of it's kind since the infamous Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, the Imperium's high authorities finally act. A triumvirate of Imperial Legates are dispatched under the Seal of the High Lords to pronounce judgement over the ongoing strife in the Maelstrom Zone under orders to leave to stone unturned.
905.M41: [The Castigation of Sidon Ultra]
Legatine investigations carried out at Sidon Ultra, capital of the Karthago Sector finds Imperial Commander and Karthan Sector Governor, Satrap Tanit Koenig culpable of provoking the war, and she and the worlds she commanded are bitterly punished. The armed cross-sector conflict and it's causes however remain unresolved and the war continues unabated.
905.M41: [The Firebombing of Sacristan]
In what is widely regarded as a strategically wasteful and vainglorious assault, Lazaerek of the Fire Hawks uses his surviving Chapter fleet led by the Star Fortress Raptorus Rex to conduct a retaliatory orbital assault on the frontier planet of Sacristan, systematically laying waste to it's few cities and slaughtering their inhabitants before retreating from the star system.
905.M41: [The Judgement of the High Lords]
The resolution of the Badab secession crisis is pronounced by the Terran Lagates to be a matter of the Imperium's security rather than a civil conflict between local factions. They issuse a demand for the unconditional ceasefire of all parties and the surrender of the Secessionists which is immediately rejected by Huron. As a result, orders are issued by the Terran Legates for the arrest pending trial of the Chapter Masters of all Secessionist chapters and the seixure pending judgement of their worlds, goods and chattels.
905.M41: [The Loyalists Gather for War]
A major deployment of Space Marine forces is now brought into the war at the Legate's request to enforce their authority. The Red Scorpions Chapter form the largest part of this loyalist force, back by battle companies drawn from the Salamanders, Raptors and Fire Angels Chapters, and the surviving Fire Hawks and Marines Errant are ordered to stand down from independent operations and submit to the High Lords' authority. While Inquisitor Frain now has theoretical command of the forces prosecuting the Legatine Mission's orders on behalf of the High Lords, it is instead Verant Ortys, High Commander of the Red Scorpions who is given overall tactical command of the unified 'Loyalist' Space Marine forces as Magister Militum; a 'first among equals', by the commanders of the other Space Marine contingents.
906.M41: [The Woe of Bellerophon's Fall]
The Mantis Warriors successfully draw a sizeable portion of the Marine Errant contingent into a trap on the industrial moon of Bellerophon's Fall, and destroy much of the chapter's command structure in a series of murderous surgical strikes.
906.M41: [The Vyaniah Raids]
Red Scorpions and Salamanders Strike forces conduct a three pronged raid on the Vyaniah system, with the target of damaging its production capacity and orbital transhipping platforms.
906-907.M41: [Redeployment and Reinforcement]
With the arrival of contingents from the Novamarines and Howling Griffons Chapters to replace them in order of battle, the Marine Errant withdraw entirely from the Badab War, while the few surviving Fire Hawks are forcibly retired to the rearguard by the newly appointed Magister Miltum Commander Carab Culln of the Red Scorpions.
907..M41: [The Betrayal at Grief]
Lufgt Huron offers a honourable parlay with the Loyalist Commander Ortys in order to avoid further bloodshed in the outer reaches of the Grief system. The conference is attacked by unknown forces and confusion surrounds the events that followed. Chapter Master Verant Ortys of the Red Scorpions is killed along with Chapter Master Sartaq of the Mantis Warriors. Claim and counter claim ensued in the aftermath, with many on the loyalist side blaming Huron for the attack, claiming it as a rank betrayal, while the secessionists themselves lay blame at the Inquisition as a plot to assassinate the Tyrant. With any possibility of rapprochement between the sides now effectively destroyed, the war swiftly worsens.
907.M41: [The Axe Falls at Khymara]
A surprise attack by the Executioners Chapter arriving in force in the Maelstrom Zone succeeds in destroying a series of Howling Griffon's garrisoned listening stations and the vital Astropathic relay complex on the night moons of the Khymara system. Outnumed as well as overwhelmed by the force and speed of the assault, the Howling Griffons suffer huge casualties as the station's defence bastions fall one after another despite their tenacious defence.
907.M41: [Huron's Sins Uncovered]
Inquisitorial interrogation of a Secessionist Apothecary captured during the battle for Vyaniah VII revels the prisoner to be a former member of the Tiger Claws, a chapter long thought lost. Further information gleaned from his interrogation gains the Loyalist knowledge of Huron's secret goal of transforming the Astral Claws into a force equal to a Space Marine Legion of old. Further covert investigations uncovers that the Astral Claws Apotthecarion has been conducting heretical experiments in rapid zygote cultivation and while largely unsuccessful, thanks to the use of its un-tithed Gene-seed, the Astral Claws Chapter now stands at around an estimated three and a half thousand battle brothers.
907.M41: [The Wrath of the Minotaurs]
The Minotaurs, a fleet based Chapter of dark renown and uncertain ties to the Inquisition, arrives in full force in the Maelstrom zone mid 907.M41, announcing their presence in the war by launching a full chapter-scale attack on Secessionist dominated mining facilities on Kyro, wiping out the Tyrant's Legion garrison and destroying the mine-works before moving on. The power of this Chapter quickly proved a decisive weight in the Loyalists favour as Vyaniah and other worlds are taken by them after a series of bloody assaults.
907.M41: [The Green Tide]
Beyond the Badab War, massive Ork incursions and multiple Waaaghs! erupt, threatening the safety of the Ultima Segmentum. The Loyalist forces of the Novamarines, Raptors and Howling Griffons, all of which suffered heavy battle attrition, are withdrawn. Fresh forces from the Exorcists and Sons of Medusa chapters arrive to execute the final destruction of the Secessionists.
908.M41: [Condemnation]
In the face of this wanton heresy and deceit, and invoking full emergency authority, Inquisitor Legate Jarndyce Frain condemns the entire Astral Claws as Excommunicate Traitoris under sentence of death, and also places their allies as under official suspicion of heresy and treasonous contravention of Imperial High Law, although no immediate evidence exists that they too hvave strayed so far from the path. This fact fundamentally alters the nature of the conflict itself, and a pall of secrecy descends over the true conduct of the war.
908.M41: [Inquest of the Renegade Chapters]
Inquisitorial missions are despatched by the Holy Ordos to the homes of the Mantis Warriors and Executioners to examine them for evidence of heresy, genetic tampering and moral deviance.
908-910.M41: [The Scourging of Cygnax]
Evidence acquired by Inquisitorial agents reveals an Astral Claws mission has been undertaken in concert with renegade human elements from the Golgothan Wastes to recover buried weapon stores from Cygnax, the Loyalists order a scourging of the world. The Atropos Clan company of the Sons of Medusa is given the chief role in this task, backed by a taskforce from the Exorcists Chapter they first blockade the planet before conducting a sector by sector sweep of the world.
912.M41: Purged from Imperial records
Something was obviously found on Cygnax and expunged from the records.....
908.M41: [The Second Battle of Sagan]
In a major planetary assault, the Secessionists are driven from their fortresses on Sagan by the largest combined Loyalist force so far fielded in the War, combining the massed strength of the Fire Angels, Red Scorpions and Exorcists supported by assault-specialised forces drawn from the Salamanders, Raptors and Sons of Medusa. The fighting proved particularly bloody and without quarter given by either side, with the Astral Claws resorting to use of viral weapons that slew tens of thousands of the world's population. Rather than give up the strategically vital system, the Secessionists chose to mount a defence at any cost which ultimately destroyed a sizeable component of their battle line and resulted in the highest death toll of any engagement of the war thus far and the loss of several key warships in a vain counter attack on the system.
908.M41: [The Destruction of the Lamenters]
In the closing days of the year, the Lamenters Chapter are brought to battle and hammered into surrender in bloody ship to ship fighting with the Minotaurs, effectively taking them out of the war and dealing a second severe blow to the Secessionsits. Having suffered serious losses in defeating the Lamenters, the Minotaurs claim salvage rights to the crippled remnants of much of the Lamenters fleet and the wargear of the fallen, while surviving Lamenters, baring a few that remained at Huron's side during the battle, are incarcerated on a prison hulk orbiting the night side of Sagan II amid rumours of their growing insanity in confinement.
908.M41: [The Angstrom Incident]
The Red Scorpions and Salamanders jointly conduct a secret plan of attack and sabotage to prevent the Secessionists from claiming the 'Bounty' of the independent forge world of Angstrom, which until had maintain neutrality in the conflict. In the confusion and destruction that follows the Angstrom Mechanicus incensed by the outbreak of hostilities within their domain, assault both sides and drives them from the system, granting the loyalists a major strategic victory.
909.M41: [Loyalists Dominate the Maelstrom Zone]
The Imperium Loyalists now have effective command of the Maelstrom Zone's major warp routes, enabling them to rapidly move their forces across the region and subject many rebel worlds and outposts. From this point onwards, the Secessionists greatly reduced in fighting strength and ships, are hemmed in a round a handful of heavily defended star clusters, and relegated to conducting scattered raiding operations and fighting a series of close defensive sieges.
910.M41: [Blood in the Dark Waters]
The mysterious and sinister Carcharodons Space Marine Chapter appear on the edge of the Golgothan Wastes and offer their services to the Loyalist cause against the heretics, claiming to have come in answer to a summons from Holy Terra. Cullen, wary of his new allies, but taking council from Inquisitor Legate Frain dispatches them to the Endymion Cluster to prove their worth. Here the Mantis Warriors, guided by the potent divinatory powers of their Chief Librarian, Ahazra Redth, have been holding out by conducting a protracted and highly effective guerrilla war. The Carcharodons descend on the worlds of Endymion with shocking fury, destroying the Mantis Warriors' ability to affect the war and soon forcing their final surrender. Appalled by the actions of their allies, the Fire Angels withdraw their remaining contingents from the war and return to their homeworld.
911.M41: [The Red Hour]
Following a successful Loyalist attack against the hidden secessionist base on Shaprias, a combined battle group of Executioners and Astral Claws ships disable the Salamanders Battle Barge Pyre of Glory after a surprise attack at the warp transfer point near Calah, and forces the mighty Space Marine Ships surrender. The Astral Claws set about attempting to massacre their prisoners and harvest their Gene-seed, but this the Executioners will not countenance. The blood oath binding them to Huron's cause violated, the Executioners free the captives and turn on the Astral Claws, taking more than two hundred heads from their former allies in a single hour's furious conflict. From this point onward, the Executioners Chapter becomes a rogue element in war.
911.M41: [The Tyrant Stands alone]
Following what he regards as the treachery of his former allies, Lugft Huron announces in a recorded message that is relayed throughout the warzone that the Astral Claws and their subjects are no longer part of the Imperium of Man. Within Huron's remaining domains, all signs and symbols of Imperial authority, culture and creed are cast down in a firestorm of iconoclasm, and the mass executions on Badab Primaris of clerics and functionaries (most of whom have remained largely ignorant of the true cause and nature of the war), are said to last for weeks without pause.
911.M41: [The Battle of Piraeus]
A massive Loyalist offensive at Piraeus ends in near disaster as the Tyrant's forces trap and counter attack the assault force, inflicting heavy casualties on the Red Scorpions and Exorcists and slaughtering tens of thousands of Imperial Guard and Inquisition forces in their transport ships as part of a mutually destructive space battle in the system which sees the fleets of both sides ravaged. Carab Culln is terribly wounded in personal combat with the Tyrant and only survives thanks to the desperate intervention of the Exorcists' battle barge Redeemer. The Loyalist assault blunted, they must now settle for a blockade of the Badab system whilst they rebuild their forces.
912.M41: [The Debt of Honour]
Salamanders Captain Pellas Mir'san takes it upon himself to seek out the leader of the Executioner, Thulsa Kane and parley a negotiated end to their part in the war. After a tense standoff in which the Loyalist forces come to the brink of warring among themselves, Mir'san is successful and the bulk of the Executioners leave the Maelstrom zone to return to their home system under oath to stay there until judgement is passed, while their leader Kane, his honour guard and the Night Hag voluntarily give themselves over to the Salamanders' custody and are interned at the Salamanders Chapter world of Nocturne until the end of the war.
913.M41: [The Siege of Badab]
With the remaining Astral Claws forced back at to the hugely fortified Badab system and their allied chapters surrendered or battered into submission, the war enters its final stage. A concerted attack by the fleet, elements of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Red Scorpions, Star Phantoms, Carcharodons, Exorcists and Sons of Medusa breaks through the Badab systems 'Ring of Steel' assaulting its star forts and outer bastions in order to silence the legendary 'Big Guns' of the Badab System. Once the system is cracked opened, a blockade on the outer system is mounted to prevent any attempts at escape, and further assault units including battle titans of the Legio Crucius (The Warmongers) and the forces of the Ordo Hereticus are brought up in preparation for the attack on Badab Primaris itself.
913.M41 [The Final Assault]
With Badab surrounded and under heavy bombardment from orbit, the final assault begins. The Star Phantoms and Carcharodons lead the attack. Facing bitter and determined resistance from the remaining Astral Claws, the Star Phantoms are soon caught in a bloody battle of attrition at the walls of the Palace of Thorns. Elsewhere on Badab the forces of the Carcharodons conduct massed drop attack against the planet's hive cities and infrastructure. Titan reinforcements from Legio Crucius succeed in crushing all resistance before them. As the battle enters its second day, the vast plasma reactors that power the hive cities are overloaded by the Carcharodon strike teams as part of a merciless series of massacres and running battles with the tattered remains of the Tyrant's Legion. As the reactors begin to detonate, they rip apart Badab's landmasses, triggering massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and collapse its hive spires, hurling millions of tonnes of radioactive fallout and debris into the atmosphere. At the height of the desperate battle at the palace, much of which is now little more than a rubble-strewn charnel house, Lufgt Huron is mortally wounded by the dying Star Phantoms Captain Zhrukal Androcles as he and his bodyguard attempt to make their escape as the citadel's lighting shield finally fails.
913.M41: [The Death of Badab Primaris]
In the anarchy and ruin that follows the fall of the hive cities, the majority of the planet's population are exterminated within a few standard days, while surviving Loyalist and Secessionist forces a like scramble to flee the dying world. Several Loyalist transports are also shot down by the blockade ships in the confusion. A single small warp capable privateer manages to escape the Badab system and into the warp. Later intel suggest that less than two hundred Secessionist survivors were on board, carrying with them their leader's broken body.
*******Hope you enjoyed the read and that it will be of help to you.******