Marines Errant - Chapter Organisation: The Marines Errant is a fleet-based Crusading Chapter, and although it follows the tenets of the Codex Astartes in its basic pattern of organisation, in practice the Chapter has modified its tenets to better suit the needs and patterns of its deployments.An example of this is that the Chapter's company captains and high officers are also assigned flag command of a particular starship in the Chapter's fleet and expected to act autonomously of a higher authority for long periods if needed.The Chapter's Veteran 1st Company and 10th Scout Company are nominally based on their flagship battle barges with the majority of their number being dispersed as needed to individual commands which can vary considerably in size and operational terms.To fulfil the mandate of aiding humanity at any time and in any place, the Marines Errant attempt to maintain as broad a reach as possible. Their companies regularly operate on independent duty dispersed throughout the galaxy. To enable such dispersion, each company commander is functionally the commander of a strike vessel. These ships are most commonly Strike Cruisers, though the Chapter has several Light Cruisers and one Battlecruiser as part of its armada.So that these companies can function independently, each of these vessels maintains a separate Armoury of vehicles, in addition to its normal complement of Space Marines. Each of the Chapter's vessels is supplemented by members of the 1st and 10th Companies.In this way, each has access to the expertise offered by the Chapter's Veteran Battle-Brothers as well as the opportunity to train Initiates and use them on infiltration missions.A side-effect of this approach is that newly recruited members often fail to grasp the full scope of their Chapter until the next major gathering. To overcome this, many Initiates are transferred to another company before their training is completed. This allows some sense of connection between the different companies to be maintained.Due to historical losses of irreplaceable advanced equipment that have never been fully replenished, the Marines Errant have learned to carefully shepherd their resources in terms of technology such as Terminator Armour. The Chapter's Techmarines have become particularly adept not only in maintaining and repairing said equipment, but in reclaiming and restoring weapons and gear they might come across in their long crusades.This has led to some concern in the past over the Marines Errant's tendency to use non-Codex approved arms, and even of the incorporation of xenos technology within their ranks, though such heretical practices have never been proven.As a fleet-based Chapter, the Marines Errant are rarely gathered en masse except at the commencement of a major crusade called by the Chapter Master. Most often the forces of the Chapter are dispersed to multiple task forces deployed to various expeditions and war zones spread over the vast distances of space.It is not unheard of for individual task forces to be out of communication with the rest of the Chapter for standard years, even solar decades at a time. Given these factors, each company and battle group has to manage its own affairs and the recruiting of new Initiates when and wherever opportunities arise.Since they have no single source of Aspirants, the Marines Errant recruit from many different worlds, returning their new brethren to the ranks of the 10th Scout Company to complete their formal training when practical.Replacing a company is an extremely difficult process. In addition to reallocating and requisitioning extremely rare weapons, vehicles, and armour, the Marines Errant must also obtain a new Strike Cruiser. The Adeptus Mechanicus may take Terran centuries to provide some of this basic wargear, while other requisitions may never be fulfilled.All other companies are expected to increase their initiation rates at such a time so that established Space Marines may be tithed to the new company. Unfortunately, on several occasions, once a company had been replaced, the original miraculously returned from an extended crusade.This has resulted in the Marines Errant having more than 10 companies and the Chapter stood well over the Codex-mandated strength of 1,000 Astartes in each of these instances. Because of this, it is virtually impossible to accurately gauge the Chapter's total assets at any given time.