Chapter 3:

Absent Warlords

"We should have been with him."

The assembled remaining officers of the Red Corsairs stood in a circle in the hold of the Strike Cruiser Reign of Spite with Armanneus Valthex, Master of the Forge, standing in the center. The Red Corsairs had been wounded by the death of Huron Blackheart at the hands of Leman Russ. Their strength and hold on the Maelstrom had been lessened by the Space Wolves, their vassal worlds having been destroyed, Hell's Iris having been destroyed, and most of their fleet either destroyed or absorbed into the Night Lords. Now they all but existed in name only.

The Red Corsairs had been a proud Warband once. One they had been an Astartes Chapter known Astral Claws and they had ruled the Badab Worlds under Lufgt Huron. Huron had done what had been needed to do in order to protect the Imperium from the horrors of the Warp in the Maelstrom. However, the Imperium felt they had overstepped their bounds as a Chapter and decided to put them down, sending multiple Chapters to eliminate them. Despite having other Chapters at their backs, the Astral Claws had been broken and driven into the Maelstrom where they were reborn as the Red Corsairs and Lufgt Huron had been reborn as Huron Blackheart. Now he was dead and the Red Corsairs had been humbled.

"We should have died with Lord Huron when the Wolf killed him. We failed him after all he did for us," Valthex declared.

"Don't pretend he was anything more than a bastard, Valthex," Oneius Prayd sneered. Prayd was a former enemy turned reluctant brother. A former Astartes of the Red Scorpions, he had abandoned his former brotherhood after being passed over for the position of Chapter Master. Prayd had proven himself as a Warlord of the Red Corsairs, but now that Blackheart was dead, he was one of many jockeying for control, his dreams of leadership now seemingly within his grasp.

"He would have turned on any of us at a moment's notice. I heard he died begging for his life at the end."

The whirring sound of a narthecium's carnifex attachment was heard as Garreon the Corpsemaster moved behind Prayd, pressing his tool to the back of Prayd's neck. "I would be careful of speaking ill of the dead, Captain," Garreon said with a calm tone of voice. "You are not popular enough to get away with that."

Valthex rubbed his temple as Katar Garrix, the Headsman, stood next to Garreon, his massive battleaxe poised to strike the Corpsemaster.

"Enough, brothers," Garlon Souleater commanded. The Sorcerer Lord slammed his staff upon the floor to emphasize his point. "There are too few of us left to start fighting for the position of power left by our Lord's loss. True, Lord Blackheart would have sold any one of us out, but only if he was certain we would have done the same to him. And still he was our Lord. Our leader. Valthex is right. We obtained freedom thanks to him. Freedom from the Imperium and its hypocrisy. The Wolf King lives and Huron is dead. That is an error that needs to be rectified. Put up your weapons, brothers. Save them for the real enemy."

Valthex was relieved for Garlon's intervention. Besides him and Garreon, Garlon was one of the few remaining officers of the Red Corsairs that had been part of the Astral Claws before the Imperium's betrayal. It had been he and Valthex that had helped repair the mortal wounds done to Huron after the end of the Badab War left him mortally wounded with Garlon helping to bring back his soul from the brink. Valthex had repaired Huron's body with cybernetics that transformed Lufgt Huron into Huron Blackheart, but he had not been there when Russ had killed him. And he would regret that until the end of his days.

"We must make the Wolves bleed," Valthex declared. "We must take our revenge against Russ!"

"And how will we do that, brother," asked Garreon. "We don't exactly have an army of our own and we are slave to the whims of the Night Haunter."

"There are ways," Garlon answered. "We have allies in the shadows. Allies that hate the Imperium as much as we do. Allies that have been waiting for an opportunity as we have."

"And how will these allies help us," Prayd asked.

"I have received instructions for a ritual that will bring Lord Huron back to life in the body of a willing sacrifice. It will require the sacrifice to carry the same gene-seed as that of the Astral Claws, so sadly that will exclude you as a candidate."

"Ha-ha," Prayd said with a glare.

"The Captain's inability to carry Lord Huron's soul aside," Garreon interrupted. "Who is the one to be sacrificed?"

"I will," Garrix declared. "I will take his soul. I am the most expendable one here and I will bring Lord Huron back to life!"

This surprised Valthex as he had considered Garrix's loyalty to Huron to be the most flexible. Garrix had only been the Red Corsair's Headsman due to the fact that he only felt loyalty to whomever was in-charge. He only wanted to shed blood so for him to give his life for Huron was a shock. Even during the days of the Astral Claws, his loyalty was always in question. But now he was willing to give his life for one who would not have done the same.

"Very well, Brother," Garlon said. "I will reach out to my contact and tell him to prepare the ritual. We will just need to find the remnants of Lord Huron's weapons and armor at the site of his last battle. Then we can prepare for our revenge on the Wolves of Fenris."

Valthex was surprised by the level of devotion that his fellow Red Corsairs were showing to Lord Huron. Of all of the officers in charge, he thought that he was the only one besides Garlon who had any level of loyalty to Huron. Brotherhood was something else that had been lost after the Badab War in the Astral Claws. "Revenge is a prime motivator," Valthex thought to himself. "We will bring you back, Lord Huron. We will bring you back and we will kill the Wolf King."

Author's Note:

I'm back with a shorty this time. I originally meant to do a longer chapter but I realized that it's not about the length, but the impact. (Giggity) In this case, I wanted to do a story to bring the Red Corsairs back into the game. If the Iron Warriors are my favorite Traitor Legion then the Red Corsairs are my favorite Warband. My dream is to write a series based on the Badab War and for it to one day be the next big thing since the Horus Heresy. Hubris, I know, but it's my dream.

If you haven't read it, read Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom by Mike Brooks. It's a great Chaos Marine story from the POV of Huron Blackheart. I may not agree with Huron's motivations and he may be a bastard, but Mike Brooks made Huron into a very compelling bastard that earned his victories. When I killed off Huron in the previous stories, I gave him a death that made him go out like... well, a pansy, begging for his life. With him coming back, I can redeem him and give him and Russ a second round fight.

As for the Red Corsairs, I did not originally plan to give them a big role, but that's what happens when you write as you go. Things change and hardly stay the same. All that matters is trying to make sure the end result is the same.