The Meritech Clans were an infamous rabble of Voidborn stargypsies, wanderers and scavengers, who came to reside in the border zone worlds of the Merates Cluster during the final years of the 40th Millennium. Initially content to forage for parts for their ramshackle fleets from ruined Space Hulks drifting into their territory, within a century they had embarked upon a lifestyle of piracy, and routinely attacked vessels passing between the Calixis and Ixaniad Sectors. In 211.M41 mere banditry gave way to the all-out conflict known as the Meritech Wars when Meritech raiders ambushed a trio of Battlefleet Calixis Sword-class frigates. Only one Sword-class vessel escaped. This plunged the entire region into a seventeen-year-long war between 211 and 226.M41 which only concluded when Battleflee