Torchbearers - Formation: The creation of the first Primaris Space Marines by Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl was nothing short of a miracle in the eyes of many among Terra's halls of power. In an age when Mankind stood closer to the precipice of extinction than perhaps at any other time in ten thousand standard years, Cawl's technological genius provided an opportunity for the Imperium not only to survive but also to strike back againstthe numberless legions of Heretics and xenos that assailedthe Emperor's realm.The archmagos' design and manufacture of the advanced weapons, armour and war engines with which the Adeptus Astartes would wage war in this dark epoch were visionary. Yet such strength meant nothing if those in most need of it were beyond reach. What use is a newly crafted blade hung above a smith's forge when the questing knight fights empty handed?The task of deploying tens of thousands of Primaris Space Marines, fully matured with all of Cawl's genetic bio-science, fell for the most part to many of the initial task forces and battle groups of the Indomitus Crusade. But such a burden was never their primary objective. Where the fleets' scheduledmission to throw back the onslaught of invaders and usurpers took them into contact with established Chapters, their armadas would deliver intakes of Primaris Space Marines, already blooded on the dangerous journey.Thus did Roboute Guilliman's own vast forces from Fleet Primus supply what became known as the "Primarch's Gift" to the Space Wolves and the Blood Angels, amongst many notable others. So too did elements of Fleet Tertius reinforce the Verydian Hawks and the Hammers of Dhrex, while Fleet Secundus delivered to the Selenarchs the strength with which to retake the Garredes Cluster.From the very inception of the Indomitus Crusade, Guilliman understood that many successors to his and his primarch brothers' genetic legacy would never be reached with such coincidental logistics. So the primarch formed specialised fleets that would seek out those Chapters that might not be contacted by the Indomitus Crusade for many standard years, if at all.These smaller naval formations were initially identified only through ciphers and cryptological ident runes. In time, these and their successors who followed their lead became known -- at least among those few aware of their presence -- as the "Torchbearers."The Torchbearer fleets are tasked with searching the war and Warp-ravaged Imperium for specific brotherhoods of the Adeptus Astartes. It was intended that each Torchbearer fleet would be assigned a single, definitive target, though there are authorised exceptions and mission improvisations that cause some to contact more than one in a single expedition.Torchbearer fleets are designed to seek out many of those Chapters whose home world lies beyond the Cicatrix Maledictum, those who are known to be stretched most thinly and in danger of being ground into extinction, those whose home world no recent record can even locate and those whose crusading, isolationist or nomadic modus operandi mean their current location is uncertain.A Torchbearer fleet would take on its infinitely precious cargo at one of a number of shadowy operations hubs in the Sol System or in certain neighbouring sub-sectors. The majority of these fleets embark strike forces of fully matured Primaris Space Marines bearing the specialist organs andgenetic markers devised by Cawl, alongside armoured containers of weaponry and carefully laden squadrons of battle tanks.Differing fleets carry varying amounts of these physical specimens and materiel, but all Torchbearer fleets carry sealed canisters shrouded in wards and wreathed in anti-empyric stasis loops. Inside are cryogenically preserved genetic material and tissue samples, along with thrice-blessed crystalline wafers.These encrypted data wafers store the arcane methods by which to use these biological specimens. This is the most precious knowledge, the means by which the target Chapter would create Primaris Space Marines for themselves.Depending on where a particular Torchbearer fleet is laden and which specific Chapter it has been assigned to locate, the nature and complexity of the technological and arcane wards around these canisters could vary widely. Embedded also in a shrine-tended cogitator core, utterly divorced from any ship systems, are the encrypted engrams that would enable the Chapter's Techmarines, vehicle crew and battle-brothers to maintain and operateadditional marks and patterns of new wargear and armoured vehicles.A senior Apothecary from the recipient Chapter would often co-monitor the transfer of this data closely, as it would form a key component of future hypnoindoctrination procedures.The safe delivery of this genetic and technological knowledge is the primary overriding imperative for the Torchbearer fleets, and the majority of their duties are inextricably linked to this goal. As a secondary imperative, many are also tasked with gaining an understanding of what lies beyond the Great Rift (if anything) and with finding a way through.The smaller size of Torchbearer fleets enables them to more easily gather intelligence without drawing attention either from local authorities or roving fleets of enemies. The stability of Warp channels, the integrity of a system and its society, the presence (or lack) of enemy and allied assets, the alteration of established stellar phenomena -- all of these and more fill the databanks of the Torchbearer ships.When it comes time to call an end to their mission, whether successful or not, the fleet's commander would return to a designated star system. There, in addition to a rigorous debriefing and a thorough purification of the ships and crews in body and spirit, any intelligence gathered is passed through a series of psycho-osmotic screenings before being passed on to Guilliman's logistical priesthood known as the Officio Logisticarum.