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I know the average human life is worth very little in the imperium.

I am however wondering if there are people important enough to warrant an extraction mission?
How plentiful would these people be?
Would it be implausible for my homebrew chapter to specialize in this?

Call them information retrievers in my opinion. They sent teams into chaos infested worlds just to save one man in the gaunts ghosts models, because he had key info (and was a general) for the campaign. But yes it happens.

But anything happens in the imperial guard (each world being different) so just make a world that never leaves a man behind, no matter where he is from or what the cost. Every man alive leaves the planet.

Could be very cool.

Most definitely! Whether its because they've got important political connections, a lot of military clout, valuable knowledge that must be denied to the enemy (at any cost, so keep the snipers standing by in case the mission goes downhill...), or you're just feeling Saving Trooper Ryan-ish. I'm not sure they'd dedicate an entire chapter of marines to doing so, but having one that was skilled in that sort of in-and-out mission could be useful for any number of things.

You're referring to "Traitor General", right?
If that's the case I hate to break it to you but...

Ok got 2 things wrong, he said chapter not regiment and i yes you are right about it being a kill mission.

Yea..... discard my writings of illusion...

IIRC One of the books dealt with a Guard unit sent to retrieve a single person



In all I'd say it does happen. Mainly the type of people who'd have specialist knowledge that would be needed for the current battle (Inquisitors, Governors, Officers), knowledge that would be considered rather unique (Techmarines, Techpriests, Dignitaries), or those carrying something extremely valuable (Apothecaries, Couriers).

Marines are said to fight huge battles over burnt out husks of Rhino's and dreadnoughts etc from previous battles if the territory the wreckage is now held by the enemy.

If your chapter master was captured dead or alive, and had chapter relics on him at the time, you can bet hands down a mission is going to take place to get those relics and his body back.

Just make them excel at these sort of roles, and then devise some fluff where on special occasions they have been known to perform extraction missions on key individuals in war zones who are captured or stuck behind enemy lines.

There will always be VIPs needing rescue, but there will also be important technology and relics that also need retrieval, so a chapter dedicated to inserting into enemy territory and extracting valuable packages (or at least denying them to the enemy) seems like a cool idea.

I totally forgot that things as well as people could need to be extracted. I think that fits perfectly as a reason my chapter would be allied to a rogue trader. The only thing left now is divising a situation where they meet. Y'all were very helpful.

In deathwatch they send in the marines to extract an inquisitorial agent, well kind of.


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In deathwatch they send in the marines to extract an inquisitorial agent, well kind of.