Astral Claws - Notable Campaigns: 5th Black Crusade (723.M36) - When Abaddon the Despoiler led a large Chaos incursion into Imperial space as the 5th Black Crusade, the Astral Claws were there to help defend Cadia. For their valiant efforts, the Chapter was awarded one of the greatest accolades a Space Marine Chapter could receive by having their Chapter standard taken for display in the Hallway of Heroes before the Eternity Gate of the Imperial Palace on Terra.Taninim Crusade (678.M37-714.M37) - Following the aftermath of the Occlusiad War, the Taninim Crusade was a Crusade undertaken by the Imperium of Man to regain control of several regions lost along the northwestern fringe of the Segmentum Obscurus. No fewer than 11 Crusading Space Marine Chapters were sent into the forbidding region known as the Taninim Expanse that extends past the outer edge of known space. They were sent into the vast, alien-haunted realm of the Taninim Expanse in order to identify, target and destroy any emerging threats that might be found there. Some of the Chapters sent into the Expanse never returned, while one, the Storm Callers, infamously became corrupted by Chaos and fell into civil war within its own ranks. Over time, some of the Chapters that were sent to fight in the Taninim Crusade never returned. The Astral Claws, however, was one of the few Chapters able to Crusade throughout the Expanse for more than four solar decades and return relatively unscathed by the experience. Upon returning to the Imperium, the Astral Claws were awarded a Sceptre of Victory at the Segmentum capital world of Cypra Mundi in recognition of their deeds and a temple to the Emperor in their honour (now deconsecrated following the Chapter's corruption by Chaos during the Badab War) was raised on the Shrine World of Pycentos to commemorate their actions.Siege of Darkenvault (Unknown Date.M39) - In what is now a largely forgotten episode of the Imperium's history, the southern fringe of the Segmentum Tempestus was assailed by wave after wave of Ork nomad fleets, xenoform migrations and strange psychic phenomenon which themselves caused a near epidemic of Witch Cults, alien infestations and daemonic incursions. Seen now by some sources within the Ordo Xenos as a precursor to the coming of the Tyranids, these events were largely unrecognised at the time as forming a pattern, as the eyes of the Imperium were focused on threats elsewhere. Suffering severe attrition in a series of campaigns defending the Imperium's borders against invading Orks, Enslaver outbreaks and worse, the Executioners Chapter had been reduced to less than 300 Battle-Brothers when their own twin Chapter worlds of Stygia-Aquilon came under siege. The attackers were a nightmarish xenos species of worm-ridden, writhing charnel-feasters never before encountered by Mankind. Again and again they struck without warning, their strange disk-like ships all but undetectable to the defences of the Executioners' fortress-monastery, Darkenvault, until the last moment of their attack when their ghostly energy rays seared through tens of metres of ferrous asteroid mass in an instant to spill a tide of horror into the fortress' lower levels. The resulting battles in the catacombs at the heart of the Executioners' fortress-monastery were unceasing and terrible, and in a short span of time few Space Marines remained to defend the inner sanctum and the Chapter stood on the brink of extinction. It was the Astral Claws, supported by the Cruisers of Battlefleet Tempestus, that broke the siege of Darkenvault; their arrival came just as the last of the Executioners were gathering for a final stand. Many Astral Claws died in breaking the siege, and among their losses they counted their Chapter Master, Acas Seneca. The handful of Executioners that endured owed a blood debt to the Astral Claws for the salvation of their Chapter, and swore that should the Astral Claws ever be so threatened they would respond in kind. It would be almost a century and a half before the Executioners returned again to full strength as a Chapter, and they would never forget their oath. When the time came over two thousand standard years later, they would heed Lufgt Huron's call, siding with the Tyrant of Badab and the Secessionists during the infamous Badab War.Scourge Campaign (640.M41-651.M41) - The Scourge Campaign was the greatest operation of its time conducted within the Maelstrom Zone. The Astral Claws and their Astartes allies from the Maelstrom Warders conducted a series of major combat operations, striking deep into the heart of the Maelstrom itself to take the battle to the foe, the first Imperial forces in centuries to do so. The Warders' strike force managed to pinpoint and destroy dozens of enemy strongholds and root out the hiding places of many infamous Renegades during the campaign. Despite the Warders' successes, their efforts were curtailed when the Charnel Guard Chapter was abruptly withdrawn from the Maelstrom Zone entirely and their ties severed with the Warders in order to campaign elsewhere. This sudden loss, which cut the Warders' forces by a quarter, effectively ended the campaign.Lycanthos Drift Campaign (780.M41) - In the aftermath of the long-running and infamous Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, the Astral Claws answered a general call to arms among the Astartes of the region and despatched a powerful force under the direct personal command of Lufgt Huron in 780.M41, undertaking the Lycanthos Drift Campaign against one of the last major stronghold systems of the revolt located to the galactic south of the Maelstrom Zone. Lufgt Huron was elected battle leader of a number of Astartes contingents by common consent, comprising companies from the Astral Claws, Fire Hawks, White Scars and Celestian Guard Chapters, backed by Krieg and Cal-Sec Astra Militarum regiments and the Titans of Legio Venator. The Fire Hawks' Chapter Master Stibor Lazaerek was bitter that he was not given command of the campaign, and is known to have born a grudge against the Astral Claws from this time forward. Under Huron's inspired command the taskforce ruthlessly purged the heavily fortified system of Traitor and Chaos forces in under a standard year. This conflict confirmed Lufgt Huron's reputation as a masterful strategist among Space Marine commanders.Crusade of Wrath (869.M41) - At the instigation of Chapter Master Lufgt Huron, the Black Templars Chapter declared a Crusade of Wrath into the Maelstrom, assaulting it from its eastward marches. Meanwhile the Astral Claws, Lamenters and Mantis Warriors launched their own assaults into the pathways of the great storm from its southern and northeastern approaches. Due to Huron's strategic planning as well as the mettle of the Chapters involved, no fewer than 23 alien or Heretic stronghold worlds were purged, including several on the Maelstrom's fringes that had fallen into the hands of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion and their apostate followers. At the height of the campaign, having made inroads deeper yet than any recorded Imperial fleet had attempted, the Astral Claws and Mantis Warriors directed their massed assault to smash the subhuman flesh-haunters of the Howling Gyre. At the culmination of the battle against the flesh-haunters, the Astral Claws' 1st Company led by Lufgt Huron fought their way deep within the foul creatures' carcass vaults before unleashing the Life-eater virus upon the abominations in a rain of Virus Bombs. By this single act, they had ended a threat that had plagued the Imperium since before the Age of Apostasy, affording a great and lauded victory. But once again, wider events intervened, putting a premature end to the Astral Claws plans, as the Black Templars were suddenly called away to aid the beleaguered realm of Ultramar in the wake of the Tyrannic War. Having sustained substantial losses, and with readings from the Emperor's Tarot portending oncoming doom, the Warder Chapters were forced to withdraw from the Maelstrom unable to complete their objectives much to Huron's fury.Badab War (901.M41 - 912.M41) - The Astral Claws were, ironically, founded during the 35th Millennium to guard against the numerous daemonic and alien threats emerging from the Maelstrom. Under the leadership of their Chapter Master, Lufgt Huron, the "Tyrant of Badab," in the late 41st Millennium, the Astral Claws sought to have the Badab Sector secede from the Imperium of Man in protest against the Imperium's continued attempts to use the resources of the Badab Sector outside the region rather than dedicating them fully to the defeat of the Chaos and xenos threats that emerged constantly from the Maelstrom Zone. The Astral Claws and the Tyrant of Badab were able to convince several other Astartes Chapters also dedicated to the protection of the Maelstrom Zone, including the Executioners, Lamenters, and the Mantis Warriors to stand with them against the Imperium in what they believed to be a just cause and an attempt to maintain the traditional autonomy of the Adeptus Astartes in the face of unwarranted interference from the Imperial nobility, economic interests and the often hated Inquisition. Unfortunately, Lufgt Huron had slowly been corrupted by his desire for power into the service of Chaos, and eventually the Imperium was forced to respond to the Secessionists in the Maelstrom Zone by unleashing the full might of the Imperium in the terrible civil conflict that became known in the Imperial record as the Badab War. This conflict was fought between 901.M41 and 913.M41 and ended in the complete destruction of the Astral Claws' defences and the devastation of their Chapter homeworld of Badab Primaris. Only 200 Astral Claws survived the final Imperial assault, and these Astartes, all corrupted by Chaos, fled with the maimed body of their leader into the Maelstrom, where they founded a new Chaos empire. In the aftermath of the death of Badab Primaris, the remaining Secessionists from the Astral Claws, Executioners, Mantis Warriors and Lamenters were put on trial before a specially convened Consistorial Court of their peers with their very existence at stake. The Consistorial Court found all of those Chapters who had taken part in the Badab Secession guilty in breaking with both the Codex Astartes and the ancient covenant it represented. In punishment, all the Astral Claws in custody were blindfolded and shackled in dishonour and then put to the sword. The other Astartes Chapters who had served the Secessionist cause were eventually forgiven by the Imperium since they had only been misguided and not corrupted, in return for launching themselves upon a series of penitent Imperial Crusades. But Lufgt Huron swore his soul and the souls of his remaining Astral Claws to the eternal service of the Ruinous Powers in return for the restoration of his health and the power needed to make war upon the Imperium that he believed had betrayed him and his fellow Astral Claws. Replacing the ravaged portions of his body with bionic augmetics, Lufgt Huron, now calling himself Huron Blackheart, ironically led his corrupt Astartes, now calling themselves the Red Corsairs, back into the Maelstrom Zone to become the piratical raiders that he had so long fought against. In time, the Red Corsairs became the leaders of a vast Chaos pirate force of Renegades and Traitors that represents a major continuing threat to the Imperium in the Ultima Segmentum.