Red Corsairs - Red Corsairs: The Red Corsairs are a Renegade Chapter and warband of Heretic Astartes who lead a vast fleet of pirates composed of mortals and other Traitor Marines that threaten Imperial shipping and Imperial worlds near the Maelstrom Warp rift in the Ultima Segmentum, a region known as the Maelstrom Zone to Imperial astrocartographers.The Red Corsairs were once a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter called the Astral Claws who were based on the world of Badab Primaris in the Badab Sector of the Ultima Segmentum. The Astral Claws were, ironically, raised during the 10th Founding in 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. This was in protest against the Imperium's continued attempts to use the resources of the Badab Sector outside the region to fill the pockets of greedy Imperial merchants and manufactoria rather than dedicating them fully to the defeat of the Chaos and xenos threats that menaced 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. This alliance of Astartes also attempted 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 so-called "Secessionists" in the Maelstrom Zone by unleashing its full might in the terrible civil war that became known in Imperial records as the Badab War. This conflict was fought between 901.M41 and 912.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. 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 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, led his corrupt Astartes, now 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.The Red Corsairs have grown in the intervening years since their fall and retreat into the Maelstrom to encompass a force the size of a pre-Horus Heresy Space Marine Legion. They are also now in control of a Blackstone Fortress gifted to them before the 13th Black Crusade by Abaddon the Despoiler for unknown reasons.