Maelstrom's Hundred Years Wars

The **Maelstrom's Hundred Years Wars** was a series of conflicts that resulted in a major clash of Imperial forces with the Carcharodons warband in the Badab Sector, the Segmentum Ultima in 450-550.M38.

### Dangers of the Maelstrom (approx. 720. M36 - 580. M38)

At the end of the 40th and the beginning of the 41st Millennium, attacks by the dark forces on the Imperium's possessions became more frequent, the source of which was the Maelstrom — a huge and ancient star / warp vortex located near the galactic core. In the course of these attacks, hundreds of nearby planets and star systems were devastated and looted, thousands of people were slaughtered, and vital supplies of resources from nearby dense star clusters were threatened.

The pernicious effect of such attacks grew stronger and eventually led to the fall of the border worlds of the Gibraxis nebula before the orc Waaagh! In the late 700s of M40, and the capture of the important mining colonies of Larsa and Kiro by hordes of chaos-worshipping mutants in the early years of M41. In particular, the Imperium began to lose control of the remote but economically important border region known as the Maelstrom Zone. This in itself meant a massive decline in the output of the military industries of the nearby, more populous imperial sectors, and threatened to destroy the already precarious balance on the borders of the region, which could put relatively safe worlds in danger of direct attack.

The "Contiguous Malstream Autonomous Imperial Resource Extraction Network Zone 004-357", as its full and somewhat cumbersome Administratum designation sounds (more commonly known among the common people simply as the Maelstrom Zone), was and remains a vast expanse of undeveloped space, located by measurement standards to the galactic west/southwest/south of the Maelstrom itself. This vast region of the desolate abyss is larger than many imperial sectors, and there are about a thousand star systems discovered in it, but in truth, it has always been only a contour on the map and a unit of administrative division, but not something unified and integral in practice. Although there were several major imperial worlds and colonies in the Maelstrom zone, the Imperium never had centralized or even visible control over the entire territory, and this is not surprising, given how dangerous, difficult to reach and little explored it was. In fact, the Maelstrom Zone has been outside the borders of the Imperium itself ever since it was first surveyed during the Great Crusade. Located between the dense stellar masses of the rotating galactic arm and the deadly turbulence of the Maelstrom itself, most of the zone is a black void-an abyss where the light of stars does not penetrate, in which a few stellar bodies are scattered here and there. The entire region is plagued by deadly and unpredictable phenomena — Ionian reefs, zero zones, and wandering black holes-while the deleterious effects of the expanding and contracting Maelstrom give equal danger and unpredictability to any attempt to overcome the warp in these places. Perhaps it is the latter factor that is most responsible for the fact that over the past millennia the Maelstrom zone has not been mastered. Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that there are few inhabited worlds in this area — after all, the percentage of star systems with a habitable biosphere here is much smaller than in more habitable regions.

During the 38th and 39th millennia, several important imperial outposts in the Maelstrom zone managed to gain significant influence, and they became flickering beacons of power and strength in the region. A handful of these vital worlds became links in a long chain that allowed resources to be diverted from the dangerous depths of the Maelstrom zone to the vaults of more affluent sectors outside the galactic arm. Its three most important links were the star systems of Cygnax, Sagan, and Badab, which were islands of imperial civilization in the midst of a sea of anarchy. It was this trade route that was most at risk when the situation in the Maelstrom became even more tense.

### The Death of Jericho (577. M37)

The hive world of military industry Jericho, located in the star system of the same name, in the middle of M41 was the most populous planet in the north of the Maelstrom zone. Jericho has long been a key world, the foundation of Imperial control over the region, a bulwark against aggressors, and a safe port for Imperial ships. In 557. M37, when a sudden storm struck, he fell victim to internal decomposition and external attack. Unable to fend off an invasion by a band of nightmarish Chaos space Marines known as the Reborn, the planet plunged rapidly into a bloody civil war between the Imperial garrison and tens of thousands of Death Cult renegades who emerged from their burrows in the depths of the hive to sow death and destroy the city. Despite the intervention of the Lunar Wolf Legion, which was based in the nearby Endymion cluster, the death toll quickly reached the millions mark. The Death cultists managed to gain access to part of the planetary defense system's missile silos, and in a suicidal rage, they unleashed a shower of atomic and plasma missiles that destroyed the hive cities and pushed the planet out of orbit for several years. Eventually, the nuclear winter, fallout, and tectonic shifts wiped out all life on Jericho.

The consequences of this event were disastrous, for just as the removal of a single keystone can bring down a large house, so the fall of Jericho immediately caused the Imperium to lose control of the northern zone of the Maelstrom. Many trade routes were closed, and communication with dozens of remote outposts and mining stations was quickly lost. It became a wasteland of radioactive storms and rain, where looters and renegades of human and alien origin prowled through the ruins of cities. The worlds that were cut off from the rest of the Imperium as a result were faced with the choice of either bolstering their defenses or drowning in silent darkness. Within one year, a region of outer space equal to a month and a half of warp travel had completely slipped out of the hands of the Imperium.

With all the other losses over the previous few centuries, these events had run out of patience, and with the vital military supply chains that stretched all the way to Bacca and Sacred Terra itself under threat, the Adeptus Terra had to act. In response to the threat, the High Lords of Terra announced the "Edict of Imperialis" and created the Guardians of the Maelstrom, the honor of leading them was granted to the Order of the Astral Claws.

### Carcharodon Invasion (450. M38)

By the middle of the 38th millennium, countless warp storms had once again engulfed the sectors bordering the Maelstrom. On several worlds in this region, cultist uprisings periodically began to break out. The master of the Order of Astral Claws Lufgt Huron called for the help of another order of Black Shields - Ashen Hawks, which caused outrage among his entourage (at the time of the beginning of the Maelstrom Wars, the order's membership exceeded 15 thousand and posed a huge danger to poorly trained and poorly equipped planetary Chaos cultists). Huron explained his action by the fact that in the neighboring segmentum Tempestus, the largest Orc Waagh! in 5 thousand years began, threatening to spread to other regions of the Southern Galaxy. Of course, Huron deliberately exaggerated the danger of Waagh!, which had already been destroyed by the Iron Warriors. The real danger came from the Maelstrom.

450. M38 millennia, all the planets from the Maelstrom within a radius of 8 thousand light-years were covered by a psychic war. Almost all of the astropaths in the nearby sectors were killed by the psychic shock, cutting off the region's connection to the rest of the Imperium. The most deplorable situation was on the world of Badab, which is under the jurisdiction of the Astral Claws. Against the background of new warp storms, a monstrous famine broke out on the planet, because of which the locals began to complain to the Astartes, considering the "half-gods" the main cause of their troubles. A planetary revolt was brewing. Factory workers carried out sabotage, because of which almost the entire industry of the planet was suspended.

Despite the fact that the Planetary Defense Force troops were effectively suppressing the rebellions in their infancy, there was still a sense of the future coming of something terrible and catastrophically destructive. And so it happened. Soon, a squadron of the Chaos Warband, the Carcharodons, sailed out of the Maelstrom. The Karhadons attacked unexpectedly, at the most inopportune moment, in a sudden march destroying the vast majority of the planetary fleet of the planet Badab. In a short time, the planet was captured, and the contingent of Astral Claws managed to arrive at the planet's orbit only when all resistance was swept away by the Carcharodons, and the local population was massacred. Badab was covered in clouds of smoke, and only a few small flares in the atmosphere indicated the fading remnants of resistance. The Astral Claws were never able to dislodge the Carcharodons from Badab. Soon, 200 more Chaotic ships arrived from the Maelstrom, and so the primary task of the Astartes Order was to maintain positions in outer space. It was clear that the Astral Claws would not be able to cope with this task. Therefore, Lufgt Huron ordered that the signal for help be transmitted to another order of Gray Shields , the Ashen Hawks.

A few months after the outbreak of the war, the Ashen hawks were able to receive a signal from the Astral Claws and traveled from the neighboring sector to the Badab sector to help the loyal forces. By the time the Hawk fleet arrived at the flaming system, the situation was not the best: the planet Badab was more like a demonic world, its entire surface covered with unholy runes, and the continents were ablaze in bloody demonic flames. In orbit, the battles continued. There was little left of the Astral Claw fleet, and the Carcharodons were actively using boarding techniques. All the worlds adjacent to the Maelstrom were destroyed, or were turned into staging areas for numerous Chaos cultists.

Immediately entering the radar range of the ships in orbit, the Ashen Hawks fleet was attacked. In the first attempt to break through, the Order lost a quarter of its ships.  Despite this, the Hawks managed to make a landing on the surface of Badab.