Badab

The Badab system is an incredibly strategically vital system in the Maelstrom area of the Ultima Segementum on the eastern Fringe of the galaxy. At least it was before this jackass decided to rebel against the Imperium and cause one of the greatest civil wars since the Horus Heresy.

The Planets

The Badab system is composed of seven planets of which only two are actually populated as of the Badab War. These have a combined population of just over 1.1 billion.

• Badab 1 (Pyrantis) is a molten death world.
• Badab 2 was a thriving hive world with a population of 6 billion before the Badab War and was the homeworld of the Astral Claws.
• Badab 3 is a death world due to its corrosive atmosphere.
• Badab 4 is a relatively nice world, albeit toxic due to being a mining world, and houses the system resource stockpile for the Imperial Tithe.
• Badab 5 is a gas giant where helium-3 is mined.
• Badab 6 is a large far out planet, and a completely frozen a mass grave.
• Badab 7 is a small planet, comparable to Pluto and uninhabitable.

Pre-Astral Claws

Before the Astral Claws made it their homeworld, the system was already one of the most populated and defended of the Maelstrom area under Imperial control. Of the seven planets, Badab 2, 4 and 6 were industrialized with large populations. Unfortunately, disaster struck when Badab 6 suffered a massive orbital shift and was rendered completely uninhabitable. Babab 4 suffered a similar fate when a natural disaster caused its atmosphere to collapse causing what was left of its population to live in small hives. Such grimdark.

Astral Claws

After the most influential system of the Maelstrom (Cygnax) was annihilated by civil war with Chaos factions, the Adeptus Terra realised that they were very stretched in the Maelstrom now causing supply chains to collapse and communication lines to weaken. In a rare instance of the Imperium getting its shit together, they decided to bolster the Imperial hold on the Maelstrom by reinforcing existing systems and settling new ones in a massive operation involving the creation of several Space Marine Chapters. Badab was the center of this as both a forward base and a focus. The Astral Claws were assigned it as there home world and huge ring of orbital stations was established to protect the system called the Ring of Steel. Once this was completed, the Badab sector was one of the most heavily defended in the segment. Boy did that come to bite them on the butt.

The Astral Claws originally didn't reside on the surface of Badab 2, instead living in the "High Guard" orbital station and recruiting from the sector. It wasn't until shortly before the war began that they took direct control after a failed takeover of the planet was launched by a different political party.

In M41.999

During the Badab War, the Ring of Steel was destroyed by the loyalist attack and in classic Imperium fashion. The invasion of Badab 2 (the homeworld of the Astral Claws) resulted in its complete devastation and it is now completely irradiated. The rest of the system is now quite desolate with very little manufacturing output, and the system relies entirely on mining and shipping. Its only strategic value left to the Imperium are the huge orbital dockyards orbiting Badab 3. The effective loss of Badab and other damages to the sector because of the Badab War have left the Imperial hold in the sector significantly weakened.

The ice moon Jhaga is now also home to the fortress-monastery of the Star Phantoms. Aside from the inherent defensive value of such an instillation, the ships and foundries of the Star Phantoms are capable of impressive quality and output of war materials, even for space marines.

The whole of the system is entirely too close to the Maelstrom, which has only grown with the Cicatrix Maledictum, although the extra influx of warp energy has had little effect on the day-to-day. The Black Templars have also shown up to crusade against the orks in the region.