Adeptus Astartes

> *"Space Marines. Some of the toughest guys the Empire has. Covered head to toe in tough armor, they carry badass weapons that make ours look like peashooters. Their purpose: punch through the enemy lines, killing anything that stands in their way. They're tough to kill and they are relentless in battle. You see them heading towards you? Run."* - Anonymous Republic Regular
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The **Adeptus Astartes**, more commonly called the **Space Marines** are the elite shock troops of the Imperium. Made to be the ultimate fighters, they, in large part, served as the Imperium's answer to the Jedi Knights in service to the Republic. Modified with cybernetics, genes, and fitted with thick armor and powerful weapons, the Space Marines are the bane of the Republic military and rightly feared by its soldiers, for many have fallen before the bolters of any of the numerous chapters that make up the Space Marine Legions.

The Adeptus Astartes is the ultimate culmination of numerous Terran supersoldier projects, creating what can be considered the perfect supersoldier through the use of various cybernetics and gene manipulations. These processes have in turn created soldiers that are far stronger and far more resilient than the average being, even species known for their immense strength oftentimes do not compare to the Imperial Space Marine, with a single Space Marine known to be able to physically rip a Wookiee's arm off.

As to how the Space Marines came to be, and the research that went into its creation has and will always be shrouded in mystery and classified by Imperial records but what is known is that the methods meant to create a Space Marine are extreme enough that scientists have sense classified the supersoldiers as an entirely separate offshoot species of Terran even though they are made from recruited Terrans. Which has only made the question of how they are made all the more puzzling by many across the galaxy, be it the Imperium's rival superpower or the numerous minor states found in the galaxy.

Unfortunately, Space Marines are not immune to the draws of the Chaos Cult, as a number of chapters have since defected and joined the monstrous cult, through the reasons for their defections is not the same as many others who became seduced by the powers of Chaos and its' gods. No, the reason why these former defenders of the Imperium join chaos was entirely due to the ramifications of the Horus Rebellion. The chapters that would join their ranks were chapters that sided with Horus during the revolt and once Horus died and his rebellion ended, these chapters saw no other choice but to join the Chaos Cultists and the rest is history.

## Space Marine Chapters

Officially called Adeptus Astartes Legions, Space Marine Chapters are the groups that make up the wider Space Marine force, with each legion or chapter unique to the other. Not only in terms of colors or symbols but also chapter culture and specialization as well. Simply put no one Space Marine Chapter are the same as the other, with some being a jack-of-all-traits like the Ultramarines, to defense specialists like the Imperial Fist. But all of these chapters work together to defend the Imperium. It should be noted that the Space Marines are some of the lowest amount of soldiers found in either superpower. In fact, the total number of Space Marines has been anyway between 60 to 65 million marines, a far cry from the untold trillions that make up the ranks of the Imperial Guard and Imperial Droid Armies or even the Republic's Clone Legions, which was created to serve as a counter to the Space Marines. But the numbers are still enough to warrant a splitting of legions so that each legion can be better managed. In effect, what started as being 18 separate legions have grown to be thousands of legions all unique and different from the other making the Space Marines some of the most extensive cultural groups within the Imperium as a whole.

Officially, the Adeptus Astartes number around six thousand legions or chapters, with each one numbering over ten thousand Space Marines in total. However, there do exist notable outliers, one of which is the Black Templars, a fanatically anti-chaos space marine chapter that's rumored to number well into the tens of thousands of marines but is effectively viewed as a renegade chapter as they have essentially left Imperial space for the region of space near the Eye of Terror, intending to fight the Chaos Cultists and the daemons they worship directly, or as directly as possible, although humors of their vessels within Imperial space continues regardless as well as the rumors of a empire created by this legion that exist deep in the unknown regions close to Warped Space.

There are also unofficial Legions or chapters of Space Marines, often cases they are unique among their brothers and sisters in the marines, two of the most famous (or infamous) example of this being the Grey Knights and the Death Watch, both of which are heavily associated with the Imperium's Inquisition.

## Organization

### Ranks and Setup

* Polemarchos: equivalent of a Grand General, however, only 19 Polemarchos ever existed, one for each legion, although the Alpha Legion, currently a Chaos Legion, had two Polemarchos, and following the Horus Rebellion it had reduced to 9 Polemarchos, they being Lion El'Jonson of the Dark Angels, Jaghatai Khan of the White Scars, Leman Russ of the Space Wolves, Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists, Sanguinius of Blood Angels, Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands, Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines, Vulkan of the Salamanders, and Corvus Corax of the Raven Guard.
* Stratigos: equivalent of the four Generals
* Syntagmatarkhis: equivalent of a Colonel
* Tagmatarkhis: equivalent of both Lieutenant ranks
* Lokhagos: equivalent of a Captain
* Hoplite: effectively a combination of all enlisted ranks,