Badab War - Wrath of the Minotaurs (907.M41): The powerful fleet-based Chapter of dark renown, the Minotaurs, arrived in full strength in the Maelstrom Zone in mid-907.M41. They announced their presence in the war by launching a full Chapter-scale assault on the Secessionist-controlled mining facilities on Kyro, wiping out the 46,000 strong Tyrant's Legion garrison and rendering the mine-works unusable.Afterwards, the Minotaurs sent a starship with a representative and officially presented themselves to the Loyalist council of war. Their master, the darkly famed Asterion Moloc, remained with his Chapter to raid through the Pale Stars region in order to decimate rather than conquer a pre-planned list of resource production within the region in order to starve the Secessionist war effort.While the Minotaurs Chapter ceded overall strategic authority to the war council of the Loyalist Chapters already engaged in the conflict, they deliberately stayed largely aloof and distant from its general chain of command, distancing themselves from the other Chapters as was their wont and deferring to the Legate Inquisitor's authority more often than that of the Lord High Commander Carab Culln or his advisors.This distance was shown in their standing representative to the war council -- the gaunt, brooding and taciturn Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi, whose red-rimmed eyes observed all, although he barely spoke a word during the gatherings. The Minotaurs' Chapter Master Asterion Moloc never put in a personal appearance at these councils, and the only evidence that he served during the Badab conflict at all came from pict-footage recovered from battle scans and fearful stories spread by the few Secessionist survivors of the Minotaurs' brutal attacks.The Minotaurs had come in answer to the direct summons from the acting Legate Inquisitor for more Space Marines to join the Loyalist cause against the Secessionist Chapters. Though the arrival of this savage Chapter was cautiously welcomed by the Loyalists, they undoubtedly couldn't deny the considerable strength that would be added to the Imperium's cause. The conflict was in its fourth standard year of open warfare, and the Minotaurs committed their entire strength to the war; ten companies and eleven capital ships of various types.While the Chapter coordinated their efforts with the Loyalist command, they operated largely independent throughout the conflict, striking targets as they saw fit. The Minotaurs attacked indiscriminately, assaulting not only the thirty-plus Secessionist-controlled minor worlds and void stations, but also overlooked independent minor outposts.Operating largely independently in the southern Maelstrom Zone, the Minotaurs proceeded to strike targets amid the Pale Stars and Dene Stellar Drift border regions. The viciousness of the Chapter's reputation for leaving no survivors among those that resisted them quickly grew, and remained uncontested until the arrival of the even more savage Carcharodons Chapter.Only the warships and strike forces of the Executioners seemed able to halt the Minotaurs' progress within the region, the two Chapters seemingly relishing the battle between them as a kind of bloody sport. For the remainder of the year, the Minotaurs gained several important victories for the Loyalist cause, destroying the Tyrant's Legion force on Crows Word and Larsa, and forced the Astral Claws to withdraw or risk having their worlds isolated and ravaged one-by-one. Within one third of a standard year of the Minotaurs' arrival in the region, the direct and collateral damage caused by their forces reduced the Human population of the Pale Stars alone by more than 20 percent.The power of this Chapter quickly proved a decisive weight in the Loyalists' favour regardless of its brutal methods. By the end of 907.M41, the Secessionist forces had begun to be pushed back from several key star systems and suffered severe losses. In the northern-central Maelstrom Zone, the battle for Galen between the Astral Claws and a joint force of Salamanders and Fire Angels eventually resulted in the Loyalists successfully taking the system.To further add to the Secessionists' dreadful losses, was the loss of the world of Vyaniah, which finally fell after a massive joint assault by the Minotaurs and Red Scorpions Chapters. Lufgt Huron had all but abandoned the world and the sizable Tyrant's Legion garrison stationed there to their fate. As the Angels of Death fell amongst the beleaguered defenders, their end was swift and brutal, and by dawn Vyaniah was in Loyalist hands as the Tyrant's Legion was put to the sword.