Ashen Claws in a Bitter Struggle (Please Vote)

To confront the apocalyptic crisis foretold by the Chief Librarian, Natra had brought out nearly the majority of the Chapter's assets.

This time, the Ashen Claws had deployed in full force.

At this point in 121.M31, the Ashen Claws numbered roughly 2,200 Astartes, more than half of them battle-hardened veterans.

As for warships, Natra had assigned all seven mainline vessels still in good condition, along with thirteen escort ships that could still operate, to the battle formation.

Kirin was currently aboard the Ashen Claws' flagship: the Inferno-class battleship Malicious Claw.

One had to understand that in a hellhole like the Ghoul Stars, obtaining effective supplies and repairs was harder than climbing to the heavens.

The Ashen Claws were not listed in the Imperium's secure identification archives, so they could not openly enter Imperial territory.

Moreover, ever since the Horus Heresy had failed, the Imperium had hunted traitors across the entire galaxy like madmen, leaving them nowhere to flee above or below.

Some rebels had escaped into the Eye of Terror, while others had fled toward worlds beyond the light of the Astronomican.

Some of those rebels had fled into the Ghoul Stars, where the Ashen Claws dwelled.

Unfortunately, those panicked traitors had not known what kind of nightmare world they were heading toward.

And Natra had shown no courtesy in accepting the heads delivered by those desperate traitors.

He had extracted whatever gene-seed the traitors still possessed, seized their power armor, weapons, and ammunition, and even captured their warships for his own use.

He had practically brought the principle of "no guns, no cannons—the enemy will make them for us" to perfection.

Relying on technological relics gathered from the Ghoul Stars over the past century, as well as fragments of STC templates from the Dark Age of Technology, the Ashen