Badab War - Loyalist Domination (909.M41): By 909.M41, the Imperial Loyalists had effective command of the Maelstrom Zone's major Warp-routes, enabling them to rapidly move their forces across the region and subjugate many rebel worlds and outposts. The Angstrom Incident's aftermath effectively cut the Tyrant of Badab's sphere of influence in half and contained the secession, dividing the Secessionists between the Endymion Cluster and the Badab Sector itself. Only the unpredictable forces of the Executioners Chapter offered a significant threat to the Loyalists' control outside the Secessionist enclaves.From this point onwards, the Secessionists (greatly reduced in fighting strength and warships), were effectively hemmed in around a handful of heavily defended star clusters, and relegated to conducting scattered raiding operations and fighting a series of close defensive sieges. By the end of 909.M41, whispers had reached Imperial intelligence operatives of the Tyrant's increasing violence and paranoia, and of the further tightening of his murderous stranglehold on those worlds he still controlled.The Mantis Warriors were reduced to fighting a guerrilla resistance against an ongoing Loyalist suppression campaign comprising combined elements from the Fire Angels and Sons of Medusa Chapters. Sporadic and oft times bloody engagements were also fought in the Tranquility, Iblis and Sigard Systems. The Loyalist forces suffered a severe defeat when the Fire Angels strike cruiser Polaris Rising was raided by the Mantis Warriors under the leadership of their prophetic Master Librarian Ahazra Redth. They succeeded in damaging their main plasma reactors and weapons bays before withdrawing their forces, leaving them at the mercy of two Ork Kill Kroozers.The Fire Angels fought a resolute last stand against the vile Greenskins, disabling one of the Kill-Kroozers before they were boarded by the remaining Ork vessel. As the Orks swarmed the decks of the Fire Angels' vessel, the Mantis Warriors fell in ambush upon the badly mauled Ork forces from their flank and annihilated them. The remaining 37 surviving Fire Angels were marooned on Sigard VI under the care of their surviving Apothecary and his med-servitors, while their battered vessel was taken by the Mantis Warriors as their prize.The barbarous Executioners Chapter continued to prove to be the scourge of Loyalist patrols and supply convoys, as well as destroying numerous outposts and listening stations. Some 43 merchantmen and 11 warships had been either seized or destroyed. They also committed themselves to several heavy raids as far as Bellerophon's Fall and Kyro. Their heaviest actions fell against the savage Minotaurs Chapter in the southern Maelstrom Zone, such as the bloody tank duel fought on the airless moon of Uzeal in the Crow's World System.The location of the Executioners' base of operations continued to elude the Loyalists, allowing the Executioners to raid almost at will, giving battle against the Red Scorpions and Minotaurs Chapters, harrying Loyalist shipping and stymieing attempts to consolidate Loyalist gains. At the close of 909.M41, the Maelstrom Secession had largely been contained, but the war itself was far from over.The Loyalists knew that the next phase of the campaign would be particularly brutal. It would be a time of ruthless planetary purges, scorched earth campaigns and apocalyptic sieges. The Loyalists needed time to prepare for such a campaign and fresh reinforcements if a victory was to be swiftly achieved, but Lord High Commander Carab Culln, the magister militum of the Adeptus Astartes forces and his advisors knew they could not afford to wait too long before they went on the offensive, for every day gave the Secessionists further opportunity to entrench and perhaps make good their own losses. Culln knew he simply could not afford to allow a general of Lufgt Huron's calibre too long to rebuild, plan and prepare.