Scourging of the Meratis Cluster

The Scourging of the Meratis Cluster was a massive join-Imperial punitive campaign that occurred sometime in mid-M38 and was carried out by three whole Space Marine Chapters, including, the Crimson Raptors, Imperius Ravagers and the Murdering Sons - bellicose and unforgiving Chapters who were infamous for their bloody-handed and dark deeds - as well as support from the notable Forge World of Agripinaa and a demi-Legio of Battle Titans from the Legio Oberon. This Imperial campaign of retribution was carried out against the Meratech void clans that inhabited the Meratis Cluster, located between the Eye of Terror and the Ixaniad Sector. Over a dozen enemy-held Imperial worlds were liberated by the Crusading task force.

History
Sometime in mid-M38, isolationist voider families fleeing persecution in the dynastic wars of the Ixaniad Sector settled the Meratis Cluster in the stellar dead zone between the abyss and their former home. In time their numbers are swollen by human Renegades, outlaws and worse, forming the Meratech Clans. Over the next millennia, this lawless region of the galaxy becomes caught beyond the light of the Imperium, as the outlaw Meratech Clans continuously launched raids upon Imperial worlds with impunity. Entire populations were slaughtered and stockpiles plundered, as any Imperial claim to the region was effectively severed. Though the wheels of Imperial bureaucracy turned slowly, they eventually did turn, as the eyes of the Imperium inevitably fell upon several Imperial worlds who had fallen behind on decades worth of quotas owed to the Administratum, primarily due to the constant raiding and destruction of vital infrastructures.

The High Lords of Terra immediately ordered the launch of an Imperial punitive expedition comprised of three bellicose and bloody-handed Adeptus Astartes Chapters, including - the Imperius Ravagers, Murdering Sons and the Crimson Raptors. Each Chapter was darkly famed in their own right, infamous for their similar savage mien and brutal, heavy-handed tactics. Sent to enact the High Lords' judgement, these three Chapters were unleashed upon the unsuspecting worlds of the Meratis Cluster. The Astartes battlegroup launched a ruinous campaign of vengeance against the upstart heretic and renegade forces that inhabited this long-benighted region of space. As they fell upon world after world, they continued their relentless assault, which was both devastating and indiscriminate, as the ruthless Astartes were heedless of the loss of innocent lives.

Though many Astartes fell in glory, the renegade warlords were slain and their forces fractured into hundreds of smaller, more manageable factions which were soon put down by supporting Astra Militarum regiments and Imperial Naval forces. In the wake of the conquest of nearly a dozen enemy-held worlds, the cluster of remaining worlds quickly capitulated with terrified speed, all willing to submit to Imperial rule under any terms as long as they were spared the wrath of the Emperor's Angels of Death.