Adeptus Astartes

The **Space Marines** or **Adeptus Astartes** are foremost amongst the defenders of humanity, some of the greatest of the Emperor of Mankind's warriors. They are barely human at all, but superhuman; having been made superior in all respects to a normal man by a harsh regime of genetic modification, psycho-conditioning and rigorous training.

Space Marines are untouched by plague or any natural disease and can suffer wounds that would kill a lesser being several times over, and live to fight again. Clad in ancient Power Armour and wielding the most potent weapons known to man, the Space Marines are terrifying foes and their devotion to the Emperor and the Imperium of Man is unyielding. They are the God-Emperor's Angels of Death, and they know no fear.

The Astartes are physically stronger, far more resilient and often mentally far removed from the lot of most normal human beings. In the presence of the Astartes, most people feel a combination of awe and fear, and many cultures on the more primitive worlds simply worship them outright as demigods or angels of the God-Emperor made flesh. They should feel so, for many Space Marines feel little compassion for those they have sometimes termed "mortals" in comparison to themselves, seeing the very people they were created to protect as little more than obstacles to a more efficient eradication of the Imperium's enemies.

## Profile

**Key: Regular Marines** **| Terminators | Heavy Weaponry**

Destructive Power: **Building Level** (Bolt rounds are capable of blowing apart human bodies with ease, flying at hypersonic speeds and punching through the armour of lighter vehicles) **| Large Building Level** (Terminators are far stronger than regular marines, capable of casually killing them with the use of power and plasma weaponry) **| Small Town Level** (With weaponry such as conversion beamers, Spacemarines can destroy entire tanks)

Striking Power: **Building Level** (Spacemarines are physically strong enough to punch through lightly armoured vehicles, as well as tear apart humans with ease.) **| Large Building Level** (Terminators are far stronger than ordinary Spacemarines, capable of harming each other with physical strikes.)

Speed: **Superhuman** (Spacemarines are faster than any human) **| Superhuman** (Terminator armour is much heavier than regular power armour, but they should not be far slower)

Lifting Strength: **Class 10** (Spacemarines are capable of being able to push large vehicles, tear metal and lift huge sections of rubble off themselves.) **| Class 100** (One Terminator survived an impact from a multi-thousand ton Titan's leg, though the building they were on softened the impact by caving in.)

Durability: **Building Level** (Spacemarines can survival many shots from Lasguns, which are powerful enough to melt metal and flash-boil the fluid inside humans fast enough to destroy entire limbs) **| Large Building Level** (Terminators can survive shots from plasma weaponry, which can do this)

Stamina: Extremely high. (Spacemarines only need 4 hours of sleep per day, however they can fight for weeks on end with little or no sleep. In addition to this they are capable of turning off only a single hemisphere of their brain in order to "sleep" while still fighting.)

Range: Melee range physically, several kilometres with weaponry. (Bolt rounds have shown range of 2km on multiple occasions.)

Equipment:

* The **Bolter**, also called a **Boltgun**, and its variants are some of the most powerful hand-held ballistic anti-personnel weaponry in use by the military forces of the Imperium of Man. It is a powerful assault weapon that fires explosive kinetic rounds colloquially referred to as bolts.
* **Power Armour** is an advanced form of powered combat armour, worn primarily by the Space Marines and the Chaos Space Marines, though suits have been created to be worn by mere mortals. It is a completely enclosed suit of combat armour composed of shaped Adamantium and Plasteel plates, encased in a Ceramite ablative layer.
* The **Conversion Beamer**, also called a **Conversion Beam Projector**, is an incredibly rare and deadly antimatter-based pre-Heresy archeotech weapon most likely developed during the Dark Age of Technology. In the 41st Millennium, a Conversion Beamer is usually only wielded by a Space Marine Chapter's Master of the Forge or, in rare cases, agents of the Inquisition.
* **Power Weapons** are rare and greatly coveted personal close combat weapons that are used on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium by many different intelligent, starfaring species including the Imperium of Man, the servants of Chaos, the Orks, and various factions of the Aeldari. Among the humans of the Imperium, few members of the Adeptus Mechanicus retain the knowledge necessary to make these deadly weapons, and those that are in existence are often hundreds or even thousands of standard years old.

Intelligence: High. Spacemarines are taught extensively about many forms of strategy and warfare.

Notable Techniques: None.