Red Corsairs

Red Corsairs
Founding	Possibly 10th Founding
Successors of	Unknown
Successor Chapters	Tiger Claws
Chapter Master	Huron Blackheart
Homeworld	New Badab, formerly Badab Primaris
Strength	200+
Specialty	Piracy
Allegiance	Chaos Undivided
Colours	Red and black

Space Pirate Space Marines? In my 40K? It's more likely than you'd think.

Who They Are

The Red Corsairs are renegade Marines; some following Chaos, some not - the latter are just in it for the plunder and self-aggrandizement. Attacking from the Maelstrom, which is kind of like the anus to the Eye of Terror's vagina - they raid and pillage all over the Imperium of Man, stealing vehicles, armour, weapons, ships for their fleets, and basically anything of remote value that isn't nailed down. They are well-known for their balls-out psychotic raids on Imperial Naval vessels and SPESS MEHREEN battle barges, in which they use boarding torpedoes to land and then assault the ship, taking it over to add to their makeshift navy. The Corsairs also have a number of not-marines, ranging from mercenaries and assorted scum to slaves captured by the Corsairs for the purposes of tending to their ships and equipment. They have a near-constant influx of loyalist Marines because once it becomes known that you're a fucking pirate, the ladies are all down with that shit, so it can be said that, like Tankred, they are in it for the bitches.

Leader

Whilst the Corsairs operate in smaller strike groups, the ultimate leader of the Red Corsairs is Huron Blackheart, formerly known as Lufgt Huron (a name which to this day, /tg/ is unable to pronounce), Huron used to be the chapter master of the Astral Claws. They were assigned to guard and patrol the Maelstrom, an area of warp/real space overlap in Ultima Segmentum.

While a decent leader, years of being left sidelined left him bored and pissed off, and he eventually said "fuck this" and decided to take over the planet Badab, where he and the claws conquered the world for themselves and demanded tithes in the name of the Imperium - which they then kept for themselves, getting three other Space Marine chapters to join them in holding the world and turning into their own private little vacation-spot. Huron became known as the "Tyrant of Badab" for his forceful style of leadership. The Claws (and Huron) finally rushed past the moral event horizon when the Imperial Navy sent a small strike group to Badab to kick his ass.

Huron's forces repelled it, but the Imperial Navy had finally had enough of their shit and brought in a battery of heavy-duty ships to finish the job, and sent in Stormtroopers, along with a shitton of Space Marines in the conflict that came to be known as the Badab War. Huron's forces took a major beating, and Huron himself got half of his fucking body blown off by a pissed-off Star Phantoms Captain packing a Meltagun. Barely alive, Huron's troops grabbed their master and hauled ass for the one area the Imperium wouldn't chase them through - the Maelstrom. After a few weeks and a shitload of bionics - he had to have most of his right side of his body replaced - Lord Apothecary Garreon, Apothecary Secundus Variel, and Master of the Forge Armanneus Valthex (guys who had earned the nicknames "the Corpse Master", "the Flayer", and "the Alchemancer", respectively) successfully put Huron back together and he began to rebuild his personal empire through piracy, bit by bit.

Huron himself claims to be Chaos' answer to Colonel "Vance Motherfucking Stubbs is my Poker Buddy" Straken, but everyone knows that's a load of bullshit.

Namesake

"Corsair" means pirate, technically, a Corsair is a pirate who raids and pillages for a certain kingdom, not for themselves. And they use Red paint to obliterate their former chapter livery. Ergo, Red Corsairs. Not exactly a great name but it's hard to argue that it works.

Rise of the Red Corsairs and Fifth Edition

Long before Matt Ward somehow managed to make the Smurfs more hated than they already were - something /tg/ had long since thought impossible, the Chaos Codex had gotten a reasonable update. Most of it was streamlining, pure and simple, but a lot of it was done with the intent to make Chaos forces of every stripe that much more viable and to put an end to the godless faggotry that was Emperor's Children Noise Marine spam raping entire armies in the opening salvo (for example). Players wanted more flexibility with their choices, more opportunities to play withered