Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom (Warhammer 40,000)

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Desperate, Karthan Satrap Tanit Koenig was forced to take drastic action as her own tithes and supplications to the procurator-generals of the Adeptus Terra were long overdue. Nearly bankrupted by their sector's losses in the war, and with their fleet anchorage at Sagan III now in the hands of the Secessionists, the Karthan Imperial Commanders mounted a final attempt to harvest the resources needed to meet their own Imperial Tithes from the nearby worlds of Vyaniah and Khymara before the Secessionists could claim these worlds as their own. The Executioners Chapter in contrast were granted a measure of comparable clemency, and their twin Chapter worlds were given over in trust to the Salamanders Chapter and their own successors rather than forfeited entirely, to be returned to them should they endure their hundred year act of contrition and survive.

Beyond the difficulties posed to the Imperium by the ongoing Badab War, the safety of the Ultima Segmentum was also threatened at this time by massive Ork incursions after multiple WAAAGH!s erupted across the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy. With the Secessionists having been judged sufficiently contained after the victory at Sagan III, the Loyalists redeployed the Chapters that had suffered battlefield attrition to some degree to deal with the Greenskin threat. Before they submitted to the legate's will, the Fire Hawks had one last act of bloody vengeance to carry out, which has since been entered into the Imperial history of the war as the infamous "Firebombing of Sacristan."Exalted Sorcerer • Sorcerer • Warpsmith • Dark Apostle • Master of Possession • Master of Executions • Lord Discordant • Warsmith • Death Guard Sorcerer • Lord of Contagion • Malignant Plaguecaster • Plague Surgeon • Tallyman • Scarab Occult Sorcerer • Scarab Occult Terminators Long a fleet-based Chapter after the destruction of their former homeworld, the Star Phantoms finally brought their severely damaged Battle-Barge Memento Mori down to the surface of the Ice World of Jahga in the Archaea System to serve as their core for a new fortress-monastery and slowly began the process of rebuilding their Chapter. With the Khymara System's defence platforms and listening stations destroyed, the Executioners had achieved their primary objective. They could have pressed their advantage and utterly destroyed the Howling Griffons' outpost but instead withdrew suddenly from the system, leaving the Howling Griffons garrison with more than 70 percent casualties.

Spurred by this success, Huron had his servants deliver a formal and lengthy petition to Terra, making a detailed case for completely subduing the Maelstrom and the surrounding area, which would greatly benefit the Imperium in the long term. Angstrom continued their operations as usual, which included a long-standing agreement to render up a "bounty" of advanced weapons and refined ores to be collected by the Imperium's representatives on a 3-yearly cycle from the edge of their planetary system. The magi pointedly didn't care from which of the Imperium's servants retrieved the bounty, only that they carried out their part of the arrangement without fault. In the past this arrangement had provided the Maelstrom Warders with a vital resource and the Tyrant of Badab's servants continued to be in the perfect position to collect it.With five different Chapters of Space Marines now embroiled in open warfare, with a sixth en route, along with various naval detachments, local defence armies and the sectarian forces of various adepta now involved in what was rapidly accelerating to become the greatest conflict of its kind since the infamous Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, the Imperium's high authorities finally acted.