Secundus Astartes

Designed as experimental soldiers, a transitional stage between standard Space Marine and Primaris marine, the Secundus Astartes served under Mad Magos Clerval and his false primarch sons during Clerval's Crusade.

## Gene-Seed

It is unclear what gene-seed was used to create the Secundus Astartes but what is clear is that it was highly irregular gene-seeds. It may have been some kind of artificial gene-seed, some chimeric blend of multiple chapters, augmented DNA from one of the loyalist legions, or even traitorous gene-seed.

## Eras of Secundus Astartes

The Secundus Astartes had 3 distinct iterations.

### Penal Marines

The first wave of Secundus Astartes were not “recruits” but “experimental subjects”. Most were simply promising specimens taken from the many prisons and penal legions of the Imperium and experimented on for the benefit of the primaris project. Clerval used many of these “penal marines” in his initial legion of Secundus Astartes, though they were under heavy hypno-indoctrination and lacked a great deal of initiative or training. They were hardly more sentient than servitors and were not terribly effective. The last of the penal marines were slaughtered at the Battle of Obascuran and by the War for Hyperion none still existed.

### Clerval’s Vanguard

Once Clerval’s Crusade started in earnest he took every opportunity to replace his penal marines with actual initiates. These Secundus Astartes were not divided into chapters but instead wore black painted armor and served Clerval slavishly. These, like their predecessors, did not benefit from the centuries of experience most marines receive when being trained by a chapter so they lacked a certain level of combat prowess found in most marines. Still, they fought with distinguished bravery and ever-growing skill. These marines, sometimes called “Clerval’s Vanguard” or “Clerval’s Marines”, were a mainstay of the crusade’s forces and were later divided into units lead by the false primarchs.

### False Sons

Sometime before the War for Hyperion many of the Secundus Astartes were assigned to “units” under the command of the various false primarchs and some units were even made in advance for their primarch, should they be found. Once a false primarch took command of a unit they would take responsibility for training and recruitment. This lead to the third wave of Secundus Astartes, those who were recruited and trained by the false primarchs themselves. These marines benefits not only from the leadership of the primarch they served under but the experience of the previous two waves of marines that came before them. Most of these came from eligible followers of the false primarch from before they were rediscovered by Clerval.

## Wargear

As the Secundus Astartes were a product of the Adeptus Mechanicus and most of the equipment Clerval had access to was from his own stockpiles many of the Secundus Astartes were equipped with weapons manufactured for other uses. Secundus Astartes sometimes used arc weapons rather than power weapons and even used things like galvanic and radiation weapons rather than traditional astartes weapons at times. What astartes wargear they did have was treasured and given to their elite troops. They had no relics to speak of and any piece of equipment of value was looted from stockpiles controlled by the enemy. Their power armor and other pieces of equipment were from stockpiles of damaged or out of date astartes armor that was required to be fixed before use. This meant most Secundus Astartes has a mixture of kinds of armor, Mechanicus weapons along with Astartes weapon, and odd experimental gear (much of which would be used or would serve as the basis for the primaris weaponry).

## Units

As there were only about 1,000-2,000 Secundus Astartes at any given point it would be improper to call their divisions “companies” or “chapters”. Irregular in size “units” were groups of Secundus Astartes who were dedicated to the service of the false primarchs.

### Red Sons

**False Primarch:** Renault Vork
**Specialty:** Berserker actions, melee combat, shock and awe tactics, spearhead operations.
**Notes:** Eventually fell to the influence of Khorne along with their false primarch. They regularly engaged in cannibalism (ritualistic and later nutritional).

### Black Cartel

**False Primarch:** Zade Hugo
**Specialty:** Machines, covert operations, sappers, biological warfare
**Notes:** Augmented by increasingly horrific bio-mechanical monsters. They marines in his unit were extensively modified both cybernetically and biologically.

### Oprichnik

**False Primarch:** Bathory Sims
**Specialty:** Security, intelligence gathering, heavy weapons, urban warfare
**Notes:** They were trained with a puppy which they raised into a dog and then had to kill upon the completion of their training.

### Doomtroopers

**False Primarch:** Bora
**Specialty:** Independent action, assassination, covert actions, special operations, special reconnaissance, terrorism
**Notes:** The Doomtroopers communicated entirely non-verbally, as Bora did, and most were rendered mute either surgically or at the hands of Bora himself.

### Starseeds

**False Primarch:** Lumen Vox
**Specialty:** Xenos weaponry, experimental equipment, R&D, defensive actions
**Notes:** Later became non-aggression and began serving primarily as a defensive force.

### Twenty

**False Primarch:** Hamish Morder
**Specialty:** Small Unit Tactics, Training, Honor Guard, Covert Operations, Special Operations
**Notes:** The crux of the unit was the 20 marines who would serve as Hamish’s guards during the final battle, when he was just a child. In turn Hamish would train them each time he jumped backwards in time.

### Ring of Magellan

**False Primarch:** Pandu Hagar
**Specialty:** Chaplains, Honor Guard
**Notes:** Though The Ring of Magellan often accompanied Pandu and served as his escort the mostly fought without him and acted as his proxy on the battlefield. They often served under the command of Dracon.

### Unit 359

**False Primarch:** Dracon Silver
**Specialty:** Mixed Fighting, Reinforcement, Support, Joint Guard Operations
**Notes:** Often augmented by a larger complement of guardsmen from the PDF of Wolf 359.