Fourth Quadrant Rebellion

The 'Fourth Quadrant Rebellion was a series of wars, revolts and Secessionist outbreaks which set ablaze to nearly a full quarter of the Segmentum Solar and outlaying systems from 775.M41 through 780.M41. These brushfire conflicts proved difficult to stamp out not least because there was no single enemy or common cause behind them, but rather countless long-born grudges and the fruits of many centuries of misrule and savage oppression by a series of corrupt Imperial commanders. These civil conflicts were quickly made all the worse by the opportunist attacks of Chaos Cults, renegades and Xenos forces taking advantage of the widespread anarchy the rebellion engendered.

More than a dozen Space Marine Chapters were caught up in the fighting, either aiding one faction or another or simply defending their own territories, while others were brought in by the Imperium to pacify the quadrant and finally put an end to the fighting. In this latter category there were four Chapters: the Dark Angels, the Raptors, the Red Wolves and the Skull Bearers who played the greatest part in ending the rebellion. Each of these Chapters fought at full-Chapter strength, which for the Raptors represented a break from their normal order of battle.

Notable Campaigns

 * Storm Marches Campaign (Unknown.M41 - The Raptors Chapter contested the domination of the infamous blood-god worshiping drift pirates of the Fourth Quadrants' Storm Marches Region in a three year campaign with the elite squadrons of Battlefleet Solar.
 * Fortress of Kaligar (Unknown.M41) - The Dark Angels Chapter played a significant role in helping to quell the uprisings during this tumultuous period in Imperial history, deploying in full Chapter strength. As the Master of the Ravenwing, Master Sammael led the Dark Angels' assault upon the fortress of the pretender Kaligar, one of the Fallen, whose presence Sammael personally ferreted out. He ran the Traitor to ground after a mighty duel that is said to have lasted nearly a day and a night.
 * Egammonon Revolt (Unknown.M41) - This little known campaign was fought by the Dark Angels who fielded Rhino armoured personnel carriers with a Codex-approved tundra pattern camouflage. The Raptors Chapter were also involved in this campaign, fielding Land Raider Proteus armoured personnel carriers with Codex-approved temperate winter pattern camouflage.
 * Sulsalid Campaign (775.M41-777.M41) - The Raptors Chapter and Battlefleet Solar fell to the task of toppling traitors of the Sulsalid Sub-sector. As the wider rebellion had raged, the powers and principalities of Sulsalid had cast off their tithe lords and cardinals in favour of the twin-abominations of 'progress' and 'democracy.' Given time the Imperium knew such seditious corruption could quickly spread, and the Adeptus Terra tasked the Raptors to stamp out the heresy as swiftly as possible. In order to accomplish their aims, the Raptors took direct strategic command of several failing Imperial taskforces who had been thrown back by the traitor forces at the sub-sector capital of Auranar. Here they reinforced and redirected the Imperial Guard assaults, using them as deliberate cover for their own series of lethal strikes at the enemy control and supply structure. In short order the Traitor forces were thrown into disarray and Auranar's power-distribution network was severed in a dozen vital locations, cutting off enemy supplies and communications. The Traitors buckled before the mass assault of the Imperial Guard, but it was the assault squads and Thunderhawks of the Raptors that smashed their way into the sky-palaces of the Sulasalid Ordinators in the final battles of the campaign and put them to the sword, ending this one revolt among many with ruthless efficiency.
 * Lycanthos Drift Campaign (780.M41) - The Astral Claws Space Marine Chapter moved to intervene in the closing stages of of the long-running and infamous Fourth Quadrant Rebellion in 780.M41, answering a general call to arms among the Astartes of the region and despatched a powerful force under the direct personal command of the Astral Claws Chapter Master Lufgt Huron, undertaking the campaign against one of the last major stronghold systems of the revolt located to the galactic south of the Maelstrom Zone. At the gathering of Imperial forces Lufgt Huron was elected battle leader of a number of Astartes contingents by common consent of a mixed taskforce comprising companies from the Astral Claws, Fire Hawks, White Scars and Celestian Guard Chapters, backed by Death Korps of Krieg and Cal-Sec Imperial Guard Regiments and the Titans of Legio Venator. The Fire Hawks' Chapter Master Stibor Lazaerek was bitter that he was not given command of the campaign, and is known to have born a grudge against the Astral Claws from this time forward. Under Huron's inspired command the taskforce ruthlessly purged the heavily fortified system of traitor and Chaos forces in under a year, with Huron himself gaining fame for leading a successful forlorn hope attack against the so-called 'widowmaker' bastion gate on Lycanthos Secundus; an almost indestructible redoubt garrisoned by the noisome forces of the Bleak Brotherhood. The conflict, undertaken while elsewhere the political discord of the Badab Schism was still building, confirmed Lufgt Huron's reputation as a masterful strategist among Space Marine commanders.