Badab War

Badab War
Date	from 901.M41 to 913.M41
Scale	Multiple planets
Theatre	Badab Sector, Segmentum Ultima
Status	Loyalist victory, renegade chapters are chased away or sentenced to penitence crusades.
Belligerents
Loyalist Astartes Chapters	The Maelstrum Wardens (composed by Renegade and misguided loyalist Astartes Chapters)
Commanders and Leaders
The Inquisition, multiple Astartes Chapter Masters	Lugft Huron, multiple Astartes Chapter Masters
Strength
Carcharodons, Exorcists, Fire Angels, Fire Hawks, Howling Griffons, Marines Errant, Minotaurs, Novamarines, Raptors, Red Scorpions, Salamanders, Sons of Medusa, Star Phantoms, Ordo Hereticuls and Inquisitorial Allies, Imperial Guard reinforcements.	Astral Claws, Lamenters, Mantis Warriors, Executioners, Human auxiliaries and PDF troops.
Losses
Considerable astartes losses	Massive astartes losses, some chapters are almost wiped out, millions of human deaths due to the major destruction of the planetary structure.
Outcome
Considerable damage to the planets. Astral Claws chapter turned to Chaos and becomes the Red Corsairs. Lugft Huron presumed slain, and later reemerges as Huron Blackheart. Multiple Loyalist chapters suffer heavy losses. Badab Primaris is sentenced to Exterminatus.

The Badab War was a major rebellion in the Imperium's history, led by Lugft Huron and the Astral Claws. He first conquered the Badab Sector and decided he should rule all of it, like the Ultramarines ruling Ultramar. Then Imperial forces demanded the tithes. He refused. And three other chapters were honour-bound to fight with him. And thus began the most bloody rebellion in the 41st Millennium. And also the most famous appearances of a shit-ton of minor chapters that most people haven't heard of, who will probably never appear again outside a few novel cameos and the Imperial Armour books. Pretty unique among wars in that almost all fights were between Space Marines, with few Guardsmen (traitor or otherwise) in sight.

The Conflict

Phase One: Huron and the Malestorm

Many years ago, there was an asshole actually quite decent fellow at first called Lugft Huron, who controlled the Astral Claws and a sector called Badab. With the aid of the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors (Collectively known as the Maelstrom Warders), he ruled the Maelstrom Zone, named because it contained the warp rift known as the Maelstrom. He had one job, namely making sure whatever came out of that hellhole got booted back into it posthaste, and he did it well. So well that at one point, Huron asked the High Lords of Terra to start a crusade into the Maelstrom. They laughed at him didn't even deign hear his request out, as attacking it would be suicidal.

So Huron got mad. Disgruntled, he decided he'd do the job all by himself and withheld his geneseed and planetary tithes, and blockaded the trade routes of other worlds. After 150 years, the High Lords had enough and set a fleet to take the Tithe, which Huron fired upon, claiming they threatened him. The local trade lords attempted to send fleets because he was fucking over the economy with his blockades, but they vanished. Due to these events, Huron (now self-proclaimed as "The Tyrant of Badab") cut off all ties between the Maelstrom Zone and the outside galaxy, further pissing off the Trade Lords. The Trade Lords then asked the Fire Hawks chapter to sort this mess out, secretly hoping that their fiery temperament would result in them clashing with Huron's forces. They agreed, seeing an opportunity to settle an old grudge with the Astral Claws.

Phase Two: The civil war begins

The Fire Hawks entered the Endymion Cluster, the home of the Mantis Warriors. Problem was, the Mantis warriors were bestest bros with the Astral Claws (kicking deviant asses for hundred of years together tends to do that), and they saw the intervention of the Fire Hawks as nothing but a crude ploy by the Adeptus Terra to bully their pals so they promptly shot them down. Thus the Badab War truly began. After some more fighting, the Marines Errant and a company of the Executioners came to help the Fire Hawks and Astral Claws respectively. Though the Executioners were loyal, they owed the Astral Claws a favor for saving their asses a few 100 years ago. The Trade Lords and Fire Hawks attemped to strike at the heart of the Separatists war effort, but it turned out to be a trap laid down by Huron and they both got their asses handed over. To make things worse, the Mantis Warrios managed to lure the Marines Errant into yet another trap and they too got their asses kicked and ran off like little bitches.

Phase Three: The conflict escalates

The High Lords noticed this and asked everyone to stop for a moment, but the Astral Claws & Co refused. Slightly miffed, the High Lords sent the Red Scorpions, Raptors and Salamanders to sort the the Secessionists out once and for all with extreme prejudice. The Marines Errant and Fire Hawks came back from their asskicking to fight again, aided by the newcomers of the Novamarines. The newly assembled loyalist force scored a few wins against the Tyrant, and gained enough of a foothold to stop the fighting for some negotiations. But the negotiations were short: some Chaos dudes jumped out of the huge warp-rift everyone forgot to defend, and exploded the Chapter Masters of the Red Scorpions and Mantis Warriors. Thus the hope for the war ending died. The Howling Griffons, Sons of Medusa and Fire Angels appeared, replacing the Marines Errant who retreated again due to losses, and the command of the Loyalist frorces was given to Carab Culln. Under Culln's command, the loyalists would sieze the momentum and strike against the rebellious Malestorm Warders. But relief would soon come the Tyrant's way, as the rest of the Executioners Chapter arrived from the Loyalist's rear and attacked the bulk of the Howling Griffons chapter which was stationed there. The resulting slaughter would leave the Griffons unable to keep fighting the war, even after the Novamarines timely arrival saved their sorry asses.

An Astral Claws Apothecary was captured and interrogated, revealing precious secrets. He was actually a part of the Tiger Claws chapter, who nearly died out and merged with the Astral Claws. The Geneseed tithes were withheld for greater reasons than defiance: Huron was expanding the Astral Claws to beyond Codex Astartes norms and dreamed of creating a force equal to the ancient Space Marine Legions. Further investigation revealed that the Astral Claws Apothecarion had also been performing conducting gene-seed experiments.

Phase Four: The Tyrant stands alone

Fresh forces from the Exorcists and Sons of Medusa arrive, while the Novamarines, Raptors and Howling Griffons were dismissed, officially to combat an Ork invasion, but the truth was that the High Lords thought they were too nice to be trusted to kill off the Secessionists. The Salamanders refused, while the Inquisition kept arguing with them, knowing they were bros with the Executioners and the nicest chapter around. Eventually they gave up trying to talk them into reassigning themselves. The loyalists then launched assault spearheaded by the Fire Angels, Red Scorpions and Exorcists that managed to size the lynchpin of the Malestorm zone's warp routes, confining the Astral Claws to the Badab Sector and isolating them from their allies.

The Minotaurs arrived in system, and using their one and only advantage of numbers boarded the Lamenters' ships. They killed all but 300 Lamenters, who surrendered (really they ran out of bullets, chainswords snapped from over use, and their combat knives dulled to the point of uselessness) like the unlucky bad-asses they are. Nothing really happened for a while, until the Carcharadons/Space Sharks showed up and defeated the Mantis Warriors. The Fire Angels withdrew, due to their heavy losses and hating having to serve with the assholes of the Space Sharks. The Executioners learnt that the Astral Claws were stealing the geneseed of the chapters they killed regardless of the source, and became a rogue element, fighting both loyalist and secessionist. Eventually, they found themselves in a standoff with the Salamanders, who convinced them to surrender and bargained a pardon from the High Lords in exchange of having the Executioners undergo a penitent crusade. Huron, having fallen deeper into madness over the years, fully seceded from the Imperium, and made the Imperial Cult illegal, as well as all Imperial iconography.

Phase Five: The fall of Badab

Now that the Astral Claws themselves were the only renegades remaining, Carab Culln decided it was time to take the fight to the Badab system. With the help of the Exorcists and his own Red Scorpions, he led an invasion into the gates of the system. But since the place was obviously a vital strategic point for the campaign, Huron was awaiting them and the ensuing battle caused heavy losses on both sides. In the end the Tyrant's forces managed to repel the Loyalists, but in doing so they lost what remained of their fleet and were left with no choice but to go on the defense and await the inevitable Loyalist attack.

The Star Phantoms appeared, presumably because the author wanted to insert as many chapters as he can into this clusterfuck (or maybe because their planet got sucked into the warp and they were looking for somewhere to crash). The loyalists tore out a part of a sun and threw it at the planet's orbital defense system known as the Ring of Steel, exploding a hole in it that exposed the space station that controlled it. The Exorcists and Sons of Medusa conquered it, turning the defenses against the Astral Claws in the system and the Siege of Badab Primaris begun. The Exorcists went out to blockade the system, ensuring that no Astral Claws shall escape. The Carcharadons decided to sabotage the planet's reactors, destroying all life on it, while the Star Phantoms, supported by Titans of the Legio Crucius assaulted the Palace of Thorns, the Fortress-Monastery of the Astral Claws and Huron's seat of power. Huron killed a captain of the Star Phantoms, but had half of his body destroyed. In the chaos as all the ships retreated from the dying planet, the Exorcists accidentally shot down a few loyalists, letting Huron escape. Oops.

Aftermath

In the aftermath, the Star Phantoms became the new rulers of the Badab Sector. The planets and goods of the Mantis Warriors, Lamenters and Executioners were given to the Fire Hawks, Minotaurs and Salamanders respectively, as the secessionists were forced into 100 year penitent crusades. The surviving Astral Claws were executed. The Fire Hawks let the Carcharadons pillage the geneseed and worlds of the Endymion Cluster. The Space Sharks forced the youth to fight to the death and recruited the winners.

Huron was dying, the shattered remains of the Astral Claws that weren't caught and executed retreating into the Maelstrom. He prayed for survival for him and his chapter, and four nice fellows heard him. Years later, a Chaos Space Marine warband known as the Red Corsairs appeared. Their leader's name was Huron Blackheart.

THE END, OR IS IT? (protip: IT'S FAR FROM OVER)

Traitor Forces

• Astral Claws (Went renegade after they lost and became the Red Corsairs)
• Tiger Claws (Technically, as they were absorbed into the Astral Claws chapter)
• Mantis Warriors
• Lamenters (Figures that they'd join the losing side. And give much better than they got)
• Executioners (Later went rogue and fucked up both sides shit)

Loyalist Forces

• Fire Hawks (Before they became the Legion of the Damned)
• Marines Errant
• Carcharodons (Lead by Tyberos the Red Wake, only known wielder of LIGHTNING CHAINCLAWS)
• Red Scorpions (Forge World's personal favorite chapter)
• Exorcists
• Salamanders (The only Chapter in the war that most people would recognise)
• Fire Angels
• Raptors (Mostly notable for their appearance in Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior.)
• Minotaurs (Personal favourites of the High Lords of Terra. One of their Captains publicly insulted Marneus Calgar and those who "slavishly fawned" over him. Thus they are awesome.)
• Sons of Medusa
• Howling Griffons
• Novamarines
• Star Phantoms
• Titan Legio Crucius (Warmongers)