<em>Meanwhile, in the Mextil Cluster...</em><br/><br/>The<em>Reliquary of Alexander</em>emerged from warp at the edge of the system, towing behind it a number of shuttles, including some obviously designed by Chaos.  The ship carried a cargo of captives and scout data, along with an unknown delagation of representatives from the Tau Empire...<br/><br/>During the uneventful warp journey, interviews with captives had revealed that there were four pirate groups who formed the backbone of Chaos in the Mextil cluster.  Each of them had been dragged into the cluster via the warp storm which closed the region off, and they each worshipped a different god.  The Sons of Ragnarok were devotees of nurgle, who maintained a strict ecclesiastical hierarchy, always requiring slaves to replenish their frozen world.  The Circle of Nine worshipped Tzeench, and were archenemies of the Sons of Ragnarok.  They had lived on Ares until Commodore Aquairre captured their planet, and had been driven to the brink of extinction by the Battle of Ares.  The Esoteric Order of Kynska lived somewhere in the Ometotch system, somehow, and were mostly peaceful traders with an uncanny ability to dissapear with a ship load of prime virgins or deliver deadly weapons to one's political enemies.  Sons of Ragnarok refused to attack Kynskites, because of their peaceful ways, leaving the primary predator of the Kynskites the Ragefire Fleet.<br/><br/>The Ragefire Fleet never fully materialized from inside the warp storm, instead periodically coming into phase with the material galaxy every 10 years or so.  The Fleet worshipped Khorne, and as an act of devotion jammed their warp drives into a state of permanent activation, leaving them out of the ordinary universe, but capable of appearing wherever the Blood God wished.  The Fleet was particularly vicious in its raids for food and recruits, not knowing whether the next warp jump would feel like ten seconds or a century.  The Ragefire Fleet is rumored to include Chaos Space Marines at its core, though their numbers are unknown, as is the exact number of ships within the Ragefire Fleet.  The Fleet is generally assumed not to have a homeworld, and generally only 2-3 ships will appear at a time, though up to 20 have been reported.<br/><br/>The most recent event that shook up the sector was the emergence of the Warmaster, a powerful leader who united the forces of all four pirate factions to get vengeance on the Imperial fleet incursion in the sector.  As a show of power, he attacked an Eldar patrol and successfully wiped them out, showing the gathered alliance that they were invincible.  After the Battle of Ares, the Warmaster vanished with the rest of the Ragefire Fleet, and the alliance has broken, leaving the pirates vulnurable.<br/><br/>The pirates speak of the Eldar having a signifigant presence in the sector, as do the warp capable civilization of Ekkeko, who have several colonies across the sector.  Most of the human civilizations of the sector do not have much in the way of space technology, but have numbers and xeno protectors instead.  In total, there are 20 billion humans, an unkown number of Eldar (presumed to be something like 5 billion), 2 billion of the xeno race known as the Skrah, 8 million of the xeno race called the Hark-Zaaloth, and 3.5 million Reavers living in the sector.  The Reavers are a fringe faction, relying on their ability to raid to make up for their inability to conquer.   In addition to the Reavers, Eldar, and human civilizations of the sector, there are also the legendary Green Sun Princes, who appear when a star flashes green and take a tithe of people from whatever system they have chosen.  The Green Sun Princes are said to be unstoppable, and figure prominently in the legends of every civilization in the sector.