Editing Star Krakens (legacy) (section)

==Chapter History==
Spawned from the Raven Guard late in the 39th millennium, this young chapter was originally tasked by the Administratum to cleanse several small worlds in a distant, fringe territory of an increasingly brazen alien race designated the 'Grendel,' whom had been raiding nearby Imperial worlds and taking human slaves, as well as stealing stores of weapons and food. Despite the apparent technological sophistication, and newfound aggression, of the species, the Administratum had never updated their classification of from the original ''xenos minoris'' designation. As such, the Star Kraken found themselves allocated only a dozen strike cruisers, and a small support escort including minimal Imperial Guard support, a force deemed more than adequate for dealing with the expected threat.
===The Heorot Crusade===
The first Chapter-Master of the Star Kraken was an especially pious - and naive - young man named Achab, and it was he who lead the newly formed astartes on their crusade. Making planetfall on Caprice, a lightly industrialized mining world bordering on the Deep, and the subject of many Grendel raids, the Star Kraken had their first taste of combat, and they found it tasted like victory. With minimal losses the lightly entrenched enemy were driven from the planet, however the marines were confounded in their pursuit of the fleeing aliens as they skimmed through the dark nebula, distorting all auger readings to the point of uselessness. The Star Kraken assaulted Dreshara some weeks later with the same result, a total route of the enemy, many of whom were already withdrawing, with barely a loss suffered by man. By the time they had reached Ruenor, the Grendel had already withdrawn, fearing the advance of the mighty heroes of the Imperium. Only a single enemy vessel appeared still in range, and as it plunged into the dark clouds, Achab ordered a full pursuit. In the murky clouds of the shallows the Star Kraken uncovered the first of the Grendel Bastion Worlds, and without hesitation, Achab ordered a full assault.
===Assault on the Bastion Worlds===
Within hours it was clear the Marines had overplayed their hand. The Grendel, whom had been so flighty and reluctant to engage on previous battlefields, now assaulted Imperial positions with ferocity. Before the first day was over nearly a third of Achab's chapter lay dead, despite having dealt a crushing blow to the planetary infrastructure. Were it not for the Strike Cruiser's in orbit and their complete space dominance, the first Bastion world would surely have been the Star Kraken's tomb. By the end of the first month, and with decorous valour from both the astartes and the Imperial Guard, all the major warrens on the world had fallen. Although the back of the alien war machine was broken, on this world, at least, it was still the work of a year to root out and quash all alien resistance. An effort which cost Achab many marines. With the world conquered Achab still could not luxuriate, for the fleet had seen alien vessels retreating into the nebula, and so he knew more worlds like this one lay just out of sight.

Withdrawing from the nebula Achab consulted with the Administratum, requesting aid in the face of such overwhelming defence. Checking their records on the sector and approximated strength of the aliens the reply came back: "You have sufficient forces, cleanse these aliens via any means necessary." Being a holy man, and taking the words of the Holy Administratum based on Holy Terra to heart, Achab did just that.

He ordered his apothecaries to begin raising new marines. Many new marines. As many as they could, as fast as they could, without caution, haphazardly. With his new plan underway, Achab traced and found the second of the Grendel Bastion worlds, and launched an assault. The Star Kraken captured and fortified a small continent at the northern pole, and from there assaulted outwards, taking the Grendel down island by island, replacing their losses with raw neophytes from the liberated, shipped down to their beachhead from orbit. The losses mounted, and as he saw his brothers fall one after another, he began to hate the Grendel with a passion that went beyond holy.
===The Grendel Purged===
A decade was spent leapfrogging between the small continents and islands of the second Bastion world, carefully cleansing each one of alien taint before moving onto the next. Finally cornered on the opposite pole, the aliens put up a final stand, there claiming many human lives in a futile fight. As the last of the aliens died, repeatedly stabbed in the chest by Achab himself, human attention turned onto approximate position of the next world. The assumed position of the Grendel Homeworld. The Star Kraken withdrew from the nebula and rearmed, Achab chomping at the bit, unable to stand this slow but necessary build-up before the final battle. More frustrating still were the constant assaults on their supply lines, by opportunistic Eldar corsair, Ork Freebooters, unscrupulous human renegades and craven elements of the Guard whom had wearied of fighting. Unable to stand these delays Achab issued the fatal orders, for his apothecaries to raise yet more marines, and to dispatch these new recruits to hunt down and exterminate any who would harry the flanks. Ignoring warnings from his advisers that this would push the Chapter beyond Codex regulated strength, Achab personally banished the first apothecary who refused his order.

As their numbers neared twelve-hundred the fleet set off, and Achab was personally aboard the first drop pod to smash through the roof of the Grendel capital warren. They scoured the world, expanding outwards from this drop point, winning each meter with the lives of dozens of guardsmen, or more galling to the Chapter-Master, the life of a marine. As new battlefronts opened Achab threw himself into them, diving into the thickest portion of the fighting, throwing himself at the enemy with a zeal unmatched by his brothers. His friends, those who had known him the longest, those few who had survived the campaigns across both worlds, speculated that perhaps Achab wanted to die, wanted to end his life amongst his brothers out of some misplaced feeling of guilt, guilt for losing so many on that first assault, or perhaps guilt for failing the ordained word of the God-Emperor. Yet no matter how hard he fought, slugs and claws and explosive shells always found his brethren, and left him untouched. Achab himself began to feel he might be cursed, doomed to outlive them all.
===End of the Heorot Crusade===
Finally, after two decades, and at great cost to his Chapter - not to mention the uncountable expense of human lives - the Grendel Homeworld was cleansed. Achab returned to his orbiting vessel, his Captain's were relieved, expecting their leader to turn them out of the dread nebula, the last of the Grendel worlds now laying deceased below them. Instead he roared onto the bridge of his cruiser, demanding the serf he had left in charge tell him the trajectory of escaping alien vessels. There had to be some, they had always escaped before, deeper into the cursed nebula, into the darker parts their auger arrays just couldn't penetrate. The vessel's commander threw himself on Achab's mercy: the alien ships had outnumbered them significantly, and although their weapons were no match for Imperial might, the vile xenos had begun using their vessels as weapons, seeking to ram their cruisers, forcing them to focus on maneuvering nimbly to avoid being sunk. In all that confusion, and with the auger arrays difficulty, they had no way to track every vessel...

Achab had the man flogged, publicly. He prepared to turn his vessels on the depths of the nebula, to plunge into it like the dagger he had used so often to tear open the thick burlap chests of the aliens on the world below, but other troubles drew his attention, and with frustration so hot no other man could have born it, Achab turned away from the nebula. For the marines he had left to eradicate the corsairs, freebooters and renegades had failed in their task: they had done nothing more than stir up a hornets nest.

And those hornets were heading straight for the Star Kraken's homeworld.
===The Alliance of Three Fleets===
By the time Achab had managed to withdraw his weakened forces from the nebula they were already many weeks behind the reported gathering of their enemies. Vastergo, Captain of his Scouts, had witnessed the amassing fleet first hand: dozens of vessels of many varieties; the delicate, swan-like frigates of Eldar corsair; the molten lumps of metal and rock the Ork called voidships; and many Imperial vessels of varied design, all of whom brazenly identified as renegade. All on a single vector, heading straight for the marines ancestral homeworld: Aoilis.

They made haste as best they could, staggered and strung out as they were, but in the end succeeded in nothing more than arriving in time to witness the end of their world. A powerful blow, struck right to heart of their fortress monastery, penetrated the crust of Aoilis, causing magma to spout from the planet like blood from an arterial wound, and rendering life on its surface impossible for millennia. With their hearts bowed by a great sadness, the Captains prepared to withdraw their vessels, knowing it was impossible to mount an effective assault as disarrayed as they were. Eleven vessels withdrew, but the twelfth plunged onwards, and the call to arms came: Achab, ordering the fleet to engage. Loyal still to their Chapter-Master the fleet followed their Captain, and became entangled in a brutal battle. No side managed to draw blood, both fleets being caught out of place and unable to organize, but the damage was severe, and finally bowing to the will of his Captains Achab ordered a withdrawal, cursing over the auspex the whole time.
===The Fall of Achab===
Yet Achab would not let up. Even as the Administratum ordered them to retreat, to await reinforcement from an Imperial fleet even now inbound, Achab drew up plans to launch a devastating ground assault. For the Alliance had moored their ships in the gravity well of a small moon, well in sight of the wounded Star Kraken, and had fortified a position in an abandoned facility there. Twelve men looked at the holographic overlay on the enemy positions, so artfully acquired by their scouts, and eleven of them saw a trap, clearly baited. Only Achab saw opportunity, and even without the support of his Captains, he would launch the assault on the next day.

That night his Captains met in secret, and they voted unanimously to end their Master's life. He would be given one last chance to repent, and if he refused - when he refused - his fate would be sealed. The men clasped hands on this, and with a great weariness in their chests, they awaited the final confrontation.

The Kraken fleet screamed in on the moon, and as Achab had predicted the enemy fleet scattered and withdrew. Now open to a ground assault, Achab ordered marines to pods, and he himself strode down the launch corridor of his great vessel, clad in the armour that had seen him through the Heorot Crusade unscathed. One last time his Captain's begged him to change his course, to withdraw in compliance with the Imperium's wishes, to await reinforcement so that they might truly vanquish this unholy collaboration of aliens and men. Without a word he climbed into his drop pod, the first which would crash down on the world, and looked expectantly at his men.

With regret, no other man climbed into the pod. They launched it with Achab aboard. Alone.

It is said that during the descent to the world below he never stopped cursing. At first his brothers for their betrayal, and then the Imperium at large for forsaking him, and finally the universe itself, for failing to recognize the glory of the mighty Star Kraken. When the pod finally impacted the Captains stood silent, and with heavy hearts listened as Achab fought the grand alliance of aliens alone, slaying many before he finally fell. Then, even as the silken voice of an Eldar insulted their honour, trying in vain to tempt them into following their Chapter-Master. It might have worked, if the Captains of the Star Kraken felt they had any honour remaining to them. Instead they retreated from the system.
===Seclusion in The Deep===
Their vessels wounded, their men numbering barely half strength, and now without a homeworld, the Star Kraken withdrew completely. They wandered, and eventually found themselves once more in the sector which had claimed so many of their brothers, as well as Achab's sanity. Seeking simply to withdraw and heal their wounds, both physical and psychological, the Star Kraken dove into the black nebula, and therein found a great prize.

Known now as the Lighthouse, but then as the dual devices of Huginn and Muginn, they came to possess two great articles of ancient technology, along with a cache of breaching shields abandoned during the Heresies. After years of study the Chapter's tech-marines managed to activate the ancient devices, and they found a small portion of the previously unreadable nebula revealed to them. Able to observe other vessels moving in the Deep, the Star Kraken fell upon a corsair, identified as the alien whom had so taunted them as they had withdrawn from their world so long ago. Taking revenge upon this craven xeno was the first of many boarding actions the Star Kraken would carry out in years to come.