Maelstrom

The Maelstrom, commonly referred to as the Maelstrom Zone (also known by its ponderous Administratum designation Maelstrom Adjacent Autonomous Imperial Resource Extraction Zone Grid 004-357) is a massive and ancient Warp Rift near the galactic core. This area of space is riven with Warp Storms so intense that stellar travel in the region is virtually impossible. Unlike the Eye of Terror which was created by the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Maelstrom is, as far as Imperial scholars can ascertain, a naturally occurring phenomenon. With the difficulty of traveling through the region, soon this area of space became a haven to pirates, criminals and renegades. Within the Maelstrom is a region of lawless wilderness containing an estimated twenty plus Ork empires, numerous Hrud infestations, and countless human pirate strongholds. It is also said to be home to the infamous Huron Blackheart and his Renegade Space Marine warband known as the Red Corsairs as well as a large contingent of Word Bearers Chaos Space Marines who fled there in the wake of the Horus Heresy. Swirling with warp-energies that permeates its worlds, this region is permeated with the evil of Warp space which slowly poisons those mad enough, or desperate enough, to reside within.

History
Second only to the great storm of the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom is a vast Warp Storm/Spatial Vortex that scars both the physical universe and the fabric of the aether beyond. It is a dark, twisting light in the Warp, and a fell beacon for those that would find solace in hell, a place where the material universe and the beyond interpenetrate each other and it is frighteningly easy to slip from reality to unreality and back again. It is salvation for the damned and a shifting sea of storms to trouble the righteous.

Located near the dense stellar masses of the galactic core in a near linear path between the core and Holy Terra, the Maelstrom covers an area many hundreds of light years across, and its presence in space is marked by a vast, slowly turning gyre comprised of nebulae, dust and stellar material in which countless stars and worlds have long been lost. Although turbulent and unpredictable enough to make any true chart worthless and any hopes of conquering or even patrolling it an insurmountable task, it remains considerably more stable than most other Warp Storms on record, and evidence indicates that it has been in existence since before the evolution of man.

Because of its relative stability the Maelstrom has long served as a haven for all manner or corsairs, renegades, outcasts, exiles and forgotten horrors, from the Traitor Legions to the Eldar's debased kin. At any one time it is estimated by the Deathwatch that at least twenty major Ork infestations or petty pirate kingdoms make their home in the Maelstrom, warring against each other and venturing forth to raid and pillage. Worse things still stalk its radiant darkness. As a Majoris Grade Warp Anomaly, it is a point of constant interface between the real and the unreal, realspace and the warp overlapping each other like a blurred image. Daemonic incursions and the predations of spectral entities such as Psychenevein and Hull Ghasts are common at the points within the Maelstrom where these realities overlap, while the flotsam of unknown aeons is cast up within its shadowed vortex. Many worlds found whirling within the Maelstrom's depths have been tainted by Chaos in some way, while others have been touched by the lapping of stranger tides yet.

Although considered 'stable' - for a Warp Storm at least, the Maelstrom is not static, and it is known that it periodically waxes and wanes in size and turbulence over time. Nor can any location within it be entirely relied upon to remain where it was last encountered. Over the centuries a number of savants and explorators have sought to define some pattern, reason or rhyme to the chaotic fluctuations of the Maelstrom, drawn to its dark mysteries. Most have gone mad or become lost themselves; although those that left decipherable records have often compared its patterns to the breath of gods fitfully slumbering or the encephalographic patterns of a nightmare-riven mind.

Early History
During the Great Crusade, the armies of the Emperor of Mankind attempted to penetrate the Maelstrom and cleanse it of the evils that lurked within. The wealth of the Maelstrom has drawn Mankind to the Zone time and again despite its manifold hazards and difficulties, and indeed there is ready evidence of humanity's presence in the region as far back as the Dark Age of Technology. The Maelstrom Zone has also drawn humanity's enemies as well in their countless number and diverse loathsome forms. Hundreds of warships and thousands of troops were lost in the early campaigns during the Great Crusade era, and with the rest of the galaxy to reconquer, the Emperor declared the region Purgatus. In the years following the Horus Heresy, Primarch Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines Space Marine Legion decided that the inhabitants of the Maelstrom were too great a threat to the stability of the fledgling Imperium to ignore, and ordered the surrounding regions reinforced in an effort to contain any attacks that may originate from within.

Over time, the Imperium slowly established several important Imperial outposts within the Maelstrom Zone during the 38th and 39th millennia. These outposts rose to prominence as flickering beacons of influence and strength within the region. The three vital systems that formed the links in a distant chain that allowed the resources of the Maelstrom Zone to flow into the coffers of the more established sectors beyond were the star systems of Cygnax, Sagan and Badab. As the situation in the Maelstrom became ever more volatile, this path of commerce came increasingly under threat.

The Death of Cygnax
By mid-M41, the heavy militarised Hive World of Cygnax located in the star system that bore its name was the most populated sphere in the northern Maelstrom Zone. Having long been a lynchpin of Imperial control of the region, Cygnax was a key world, forming a bulwark against aggressors and serving as a safe port for Imperial vessels. In the year 557.M41 disaster struck, with the suddenness of an onrushing storm, it succumbed to corruption from within and attack from without. The planet rapidly fell into blood civil war between its Imperial garrison and death cult nihilists, backed by the intervention of the dread Chaos Space Marine warband known as the Reborn. Despite the intervention of the Mantis Warriors Space Marine Chapter, which itself had made a home in the nearby Endymion Cluster, the death toll rose exponentially into the millions. The death cultists managed to gain access to part of the missile defence network, and in a suicidal rage unleashed a rain of atomic and plasma warheads upon the doomed world, shattering its hive cities and disrupting the planet's orbit for several years. The resulting permanent winter, radioactive fallout and tectonic upheavals annihilated all life on Cygnax. With the fall of this key world, Imperial control of the northern Maelstrom Zone swiftly crumbled. Without this key world, taken with other losses over the previous few centuries, vital military supply chains stretching as far as Bakka and Holy Terra itself were threatened, forcing the Adeptus Terra to act.

The Maelstrom Warders
In 587.M41, the High Lords of Terra pronounced an Edict Imperialis in response to these dire predations, ordering several Space Marine Chapters to permanently base themselves in the Maelstrom Zone in order to protect the Imperium's interests and pacify the region. In recognition of their past glorious service to the Imperium, the Astral Claws Chapter was given the high honour of the senior role in commanding the newly formed Maelstrom Warders. This force was to include the fleet-based Lamenters and Charnel Guard Chapters to patrol the outer regions, and also incorporated the Mantis Warriors from the nearby Endymion Cluster. Once this force was put in place the Astral Claws Chapter took over an orbital battle station in the strategically vital Badab System, which became their Fortress-Monastery and base of operations. After their establishment, a detachment of a Imperial Navy squadron were permanently assigned to the region to conduct search and destroy and convoy protection duties. This naval detachment quickly stabilised the surrounding areas and purged the inner zone of heretical and xenos elements that had plagued them. Soon the wealth of the Maelstrom Zone once again began to flow into the coffers of the Imperium.

The greatest operation during these times occurred during the Scourge Campaign from 640.M41-651.M41, in which the Astral Claws and their allies conducted a series of major combat operations, striking deep into the heart of the Maelstrom in an attempt to take the battle to the foe. Initially the Space Marines were successful, until the abrupt withdrawal of the Charnel Guard Chapter. The Adeptus Terra severed the Chapter's ties to the Warders, dispatching them to the Thanatos Crusade into the Veiled Region. This sudden loss effectively ended the campaign. The Astral Claws subsequently petitioned for a replacement Chapter to be reassigned, but were denied. Less then two decades later, the Warders suffered a series of setbacks and a high number of casualties amongst some of their allies, causing a rift in relations between the wider Imperium and the Maelstrom Warders during this period. Soon the Warders became hard pressed by an upsurge of daemonic incursions and corsair attacks, pushing them into an increasingly defensive posture and suspending all operations near the Maelstrom itself.

The Tyrant of Badab
Once again, disaster struck, as a series of Ork raids originating within the Maelstrom struck deep into the Badab Sector. The Astral Claws' Chapter Master Rovik Blake, went against his own doctrine, and pursued the Orks back into the Maelstrom itself. Having led the Astral Claws for the last two centuries, he fell in single combat with the Ork Warboss Vorg Manburna and forcing the Astral Claws to retreat. On return to the Badab System, the Captain of the Astral Claws 3rd Company, Lufgt Huron, was appointed as Chapter Master by popular acclaim of his peers in 715.M41. He became the youngest warrior in the Chapter's history to attain this esteemed rank. Imperial historians now point out that such a man of flawed character should never have been allowed to rise to the command of a Space Marine Chapter. But Lufgt Huron had already proven to be an exceptional warrior as well as a skilled tactician and charismatic leader. He quickly reorganised the Chapter's strategic deployments and established a policy of expanding his Chapter's fleet which had been badly depleted, including within its ranks captured corsair vessels in aggressive raids. He also established the questionable scorched-planet policy against their enemies and increased his Chapter's stockpile of Exterminatus-class weapons. This resulted in several fringe worlds that harboured renegade ships in the past being turned into lifeless husks.

During the mid 700s.M41, the Astral Claws submission of required Gene-Seed tithes to the Magos Inviglia of the Adeptus Mechanicus became infrequent and incomplete. Although initially a cause for concern, such matters were not uncommon, particularly those Space Marine Chapters deployed to border areas or on crusade, simply because the Chapter itself might have a temporary need to retain the gene-seed itself to sustain battlefield losses. But as the omission persisted, this signaled to the Mechanicus that there was some darker motive at work. This would later prove to be true with the Astral Claws, as evidence later indicated that this first great sin against the traditions of the Astartes would arguably result in the Chapter's fall into heresy. Repeatedly denied the reinforcements he had requested to aid him and the Maelstrom Warders in carrying out their tasks, in his arrogance and pride, the Tyrant sought to expand his forces into a force equal to a Space Marine Legion or old. Further covert investigation would later uncover that the Astral Claws Apothecarion were conducting heretical experiments in rapid zygote cultivation. Though largely unsuccessful, the Astral Claws eventually stood at around an estimated 3,500 battle-brothers strong.

The Badab War
But things soon took a turn for the worst, when conditions in the Maesltrom Zone worsened and matters turned again the self-proclaimed 'Tyrant of Badab', and his plans became thwarted by causes beyond his control. Huron became increasingly paranoid and dictatorial, and soon embarked upon a dark course that would eventually lead to the lamentable conflict known as the Badab War from 901.M41-912.M41. Not only his own Chapter, but those blinded by their past relationships and allied to the Astral Claws, also followed Lufgt Huron into heresy. In the face of wanton heresy and deceit, the Inquisitor-Legate charged with prosecuting the crusade against the Secessionist forces of the Badab Sector condemned the entire Astral Claws Chapter as Excommunicate Traitoris, and placed their allies under official suspicion of heresy and treason. Lufgt Huron eventually fell during the final assault for the Palace of Thorns, Huron's seat of power on the world of Badab Primaris, although whether he survived or was truly slain remains shrouded in mystery, as his body was borne away by his closest followers. Though the Badab War had finally been concluded, best estimates suggested that more two hundred of the traitors escaped their fate and fled into the Maelstrom.

The Red Corsairs
Within the hellish realm of the Maelstrom Zone, the surviving Astral Claws and rogue elements of several other Chapters fled to this region's heart, carving themselves an empire. From their new homeworld, dubbed New Badab, these cruel reavers have plagued every Imperial shipping route within 5,000 light years of the Maelstrom. Lufgt Huron renamed himself Huron Blackheart and his rogue Chapter he renamed the Red Corsairs, selling his soul to the powers of Chaos Undivided. To this day, many of those few Space Marines who have tragically fallen to the lure of Chaos are inevitably found within the ranks of the Red Corsairs, embittered and twisted by the evil power of Chaos that reigns supreme within this hellish realm.