Badab is a system of worlds close to the galactic core, almost at the border between the Imperium and the areas claimed by the Squat Legions. While Badab is well positioned to protect the Imperium from the unlikely event of a Squat invasion it is actually occupied by Imperial Space Marines because of its proximity to a giant permanent warp storm called the Maelstrom. The Maelstrom is marked in the material universe by a huge nebula of gas and dust and it has long been supposed that an area of warp/real space overlap causes the two features to coexist in this way. The insurmountable difficulties of patrolling or even navigating the Maelstrom mean it has become a refuge for deviants and heretics of all kinds. It is estimated that over 20 Ork empires and pirate kingdoms lurk within its sickly pall. The Astral Claws Space Marine Chapter had been stationed at Badab for over three centuries keeping the south and western fringes of the Maelstrom secure. In 901.M41, the Master of the Astral Claws and Lord of Badab, Lufgt Huron, ordered the destruction of an Imperial investigation fleet as it entered orbit around Badab. Over 23,000 loyal servants of the Imperium were killed in the one-sided battle which followed. Gripped by an apparent fit of insanity Huron went on to declare himself Tyrant of Badab and announced the system's secession from the Imperium. Inquisitors quickly uncovered plentiful evidence of why Huron had attacked the fleet sent to Badab. Teh Adeptus Mechanicus had filed numerous complaints about the tardiness of the Astral Claws in submitting gene-seed for routine purity checks, the Chapter had amassed a huge debt of planetary tithes stretching over a century and a half, Huron's own evaluation reports betrayed ambition and a lust for power singularly inappropriate in the Master of a Space Marine Chapter. Worst of all he illustrated a lack of absolute devotion to mankind necessary in a lord of the Imperium. The Tyrant of Badab, as Huron became known in Imperial history, staved off two punitive expiditionary forces in 902 and 903. After the second attack three other Chapters, the Mantis Warriors, Executioners and Lamenters, pledged their support to the Astral Claws and the rebellion escalated drastically. Imperial shipping, always at risk in the pirate-infested systems around the Maelstrom, came under attack and communication was lost with Squat worlds of the Kapellan League. In 904 a ship belonging to the Fire Hawks was attacked and captured by the Mantis Warriors. The Fire Hawks retaliated immediately and soon five whole Chapters were involved in the fighting. The Marines Errant were recalled from the Eastern Fringes but they quickly found themselves fully occupied protecting Imperial ships in transit. By 906 more loyal Space Marine Chapters had been brought in to stabilize the situation and the threat to Imperial shipping was more or less squashed. Ork incursions in the Ultima Segmentum in 907 necessitated the recall of several of the loyalist Chapters but these were replaced by additional naval squadrons from Segmentum Solar which continued to protect the shipping routes. Imperial forces began the task of besieging the heavily fortified worlds of Badab while additional Space Marine Chapters were brought in to investigate worlds occupied by the Executioners and the Mantis Warriors. The bulk of the Lamenters Chapter was caught in an ambush in 908 and surrendered after bloody ship to ship fighting. The loss of the Lamenters was a great blow to the Tyrant and the rest of the war devolved into a succession of close sieges as one renegade stronghold after another was battered into submission. The uprising came to an end in 912 with the fall of Badab and the final defeat of the Astral Claws. With the rebellion over the Inquisition made an extensive investigation into the renegade Space Marine Chapters. They found slight evidence of heresy in the Chapter cults but these were not considered irredeemable. The Lamenters, the Mantis Legion and the Executioners were granted the Emperor's forgiveness subject to undertaking a hundred year crusade. The home worlds of the Executioners and the Mantis Legion were forfeited to the victorious loyalist Chapters, along with the salvage rights to spacecraft damaged in the conflict and a proportion of the stolen cargoes which were recovered. The Astral Claws were reported to be all but destroyed. A contingent of around two hundred fought their way through the Imperial blockade and escaped into the Maelstrom. The most corrupt elements from the other Chapters which had joined forces with the Tyrant of Badab soon followed after them. Nothing more was heard of these renegade Space Marines for many years afterwards. Of the fate of Imperial commander Lufgt Huron, Master of the Astral Claws and Tyrant of Badab, nothing is known.
