Astral Claws

'"There are but two answers to the question of Humanity's survival in the face of hostile cosmos; overwhelming force and the will to use it." - Lufgt Huron'

The Astral Claws were an Imperial Space Marine Chapter created in the 35th Millennium specifically to defend the Eastern Fringes of the Imperium from any Chaos threats spawned by the Warp rift called the Maelstrom. They eventually turned renegade against the Imperium and initiated the major rebellion called the Badab War in the 41st Millennium. Upon losing this conflict to Loyalist Imperial forces, including several other Space Marine Chapters, the surviving Astral Claws were corrupted by Chaos and fled into the Maelstrom. They are currently the leaders of a powerful band of Chaos pirates called the Red Corsairs who present a major threat to Imperial commerce in the region.

Chapter History
The Astral Claws is a name that is vilified within the Imperium, synonymous now with infamy and treachery, and in time perhaps a name that will eventually be wiped from history altogether, but it was no always so. For more than five thousand years, the Astral Claws Space Marine Chapter stood shoulder to shoulder with the finest of the Imperium's warriors, their deeds were legendary and their honour unquestioned. It was their glorious record of exemplary service that won them the singular honor of the overall command of the Maelstrom Warder force when they were assigned to the Badab Sector in 587.M41. Lufgt Huron rose to prominence and the leadership of his Chapter in 697.M41. It is remarkable to Imperial scholars today that one man, even one as extraordinary as Lufgt Huron could bring so mighty and loyal a force over to the brink of heresy and rebellion, yet he managed to do so. Some argue that Huron was no more than the result of the Chapter's overweening arrogance and self-importance, and that a man like Lufgt Huron would never have been allowed to rise to command, nor would have the the Chapter so carelessly and knowingly followed him to damnation.

The Astral Claws is believed to have been part of the 10th Founding although some sources differ on this. Created amid dark times of the Nova Terra Interregnum. Few records remain surrounding this Founding, which was believed to be created to try to counteract the rapid erosion and contradiction of the Imperium's borders during this period. The few such records that survive relating to the Astral Claws in this period paint them as a Crusading Chapter, dispatched from warzone to warzone in order to battle Mankind's enemies. Evidence of their presence can be found in Departmento Munitorum records relating to the Perfidian Wars and anti-Ork purges of Lord Solar Jurastis Macro, while further traces of their exploits can also be found on battle shrines relating to the later battles against Nova Terran forces during the Cataclysm of Souls. One of their most acclaimed victories occurred during the defense of Cadia from the 5th Black Crusade, for which their Chapter's standard was taken for display in the halls of the Eternity Gate in the Palace of Holy Terra itself.

Chapter Organisation
While still a crusading Chapter, and during the opening centuries of their Chapter's deployment to the Maelstrom Zone, the Astral Claws maintained an organisational structure very close to that of the Codex Astartes with its standard division of ten companies, Chapter command, Apothecarion and forge armouries.

Lugft Huron, as newly appointed Chapter Master, started a significant re-organisation and shift of focus for the Chapter that would eventually lead to outright heresy. First, he fully exploited the economic power of the Badab Sector to his Chapter's advantage, massively increasing the Astral Claws' stockpiles of arms and equipment far beyond the possible operational needs of a single Space Marine Chapter. Badab's advanced manufacturing capacity to fabricate enabled the Astral Claws to easily fabricate less exotic materials such as Rhino STC pattern vehicles and bolt weapons. As a result, such things became almost disposable to the Chapter, and were distributed to the other Warder Chapters, further binding them to Huron's debt. Though thankfully, they were unable to readily produce some items of wargear such as Terminator Armour or Land Raiders because of the meticulous requirements of certain rare resources and lost techno-arcane arts.

Combat Doctrines
When the Astral Claws were still a crusading Chapter, they maintained a strong fleet and favored rapid strike missions and boarding actions, and as such fielded strong additional auxiliary contingents of assault bikers and Dreadnoughts in its armouries. The Chapter maintained a strong fleet and favored rapid strike missions and boarding actions, and as such fielded strong additional auxiliary contingents of assault bikers and Dreadnoughts in its armouries. Rapid sped and relentless attack were the cornerstones of the Astral Claws' combat tactics, although their pride in their prowess occasionally led them into overconfidence, and to assaulting superior forces or failing to retreat when a more rationally governed Space Marine Chapter might have otherwise regrouped or withdrawn. The Astral Claws themselves saw no folly in this - there was no foe they would not challenge, and they were proud to fight and proud to die if needs be in the Imperium's great cause, and the graver the odds the greater the chance for glory.

Chapter Beliefs
When Lufgt Huron took over mastery of the Chapter, the Astral Claws' grip on the Badab Sector grew measurably and rapidly tighter. As the sector's direct rulers and defenders, this very much fed into the existing psychology of the Chapter, who had always been proud and imperious, much enamoured of martial glory and the veneration of the heroes of the past. They saw themselves as the inheritors of the Emperor's will and sworn to his task of reuniting all of Humanity under the Space Marines' protection. While it cannot be doubted that in the past they saw themselves as first and foremost as Mankind's defenders, they also believed Space Marines to be set above those they ruled and worthy of subservience, even reverence by the common citizenry. Under Huron's command, the fervour and degree in which this belief was held strengthened greatly, as did their Chapter's conviction in their own superiority over other agencies of power within the Imperium, along with a growing resentment of what they saw as outside interference in the Chapter's holy mission.

To Huron and the Astral Claws, Humanity was to be preserved at all costs, believing that individual human lives mattered little. As far as the daily lives of those that toiled in the Maelstrom Zone was concerned, the authority of sacrificing millions, even billions of lives was not invested in the Tyrant's hands but in the hands of the High Lords of Terra - a fact he soon came to resent. It was such presumptions as these, embraced by the Astral Claws Chapter as they were, that lay at the heart of the secession and the Badab War.

Chapter Colours
The Astral Claws were originally referred to as the "Tiger Claws" and their armour was patterned with tiger stripes. As the Red Corsairs, they now wear red and black Power Armour with gold trim.

Chapter Badge
The original Chapter iconography for the Astral/Tiger Claws was an orange, black and white, tiger-striped colour scheme with a tiger's head centered on the shoulder pad inside a yellow coloured circle. The new iconography is a contemporary tiger's head coloured gold and black on a dark blue background.

Notable Astral Claws and Red Corsairs

 * Chapter Master Lufgt Huron (known as Huron Blackheart following the Badab War)