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I wonder, with the follow scenarios above. If Dante is the oldest Marine, I am surprised other marines stuck in the rebuilding and "sitting around at base," option are not listed.

I mean I know GW only elaborates on certain tropes/areas of the fluff but, that means there is a possibility for older marines who are simply old due to garrison duty.

Thoughts?

Not sure about chapters without links but...

When the Lion's Sable chapter was destroyed in the warp the few marines who had not gone with the main force were spread amongst the rest of the Unforgiven chapters by the Dark Angels inner circle.

I know that someone is going to say the DA are legion building, I know that the Unforgiven act differently (don't tell the Lords of Terra) but it is the only actual example I can think of.

For more details try google

I could also see a Chapter reduced to a handful of marines (<10 or so) joining the Deathwatch permanently.

 Stormwall wrote:
I wonder, with the follow scenarios above. If Dante is the oldest Marine, I am surprised other marines stuck in the rebuilding and "sitting around at base," option are not listed.

I mean I know GW only elaborates on certain tropes/areas of the fluff but, that means there is a possibility for older marines who are simply old due to garrison duty.

Thoughts?

Space Marines don't usually garrison a planet for more than a few years before another squad of Marines takes their place and they get to move on to some campaign. Or, at least, that's what Deus Encarmine said the BA did. I'm sure there are a few Chapters who pull an Iron Warriors and garrison a planet for centuries, conveniently not listing the garrisoned Marines in their censuses.

 dusara217 wrote:

 Stormwall wrote:
I wonder, with the follow scenarios above. If Dante is the oldest Marine, I am surprised other marines stuck in the rebuilding and "sitting around at base," option are not listed.

I mean I know GW only elaborates on certain tropes/areas of the fluff but, that means there is a possibility for older marines who are simply old due to garrison duty.

Thoughts?

Space Marines don't usually garrison a planet for more than a few years before another squad of Marines takes their place and they get to move on to some campaign. Or, at least, that's what Deus Encarmine said the BA did. I'm sure there are a few Chapters who pull an Iron Warriors and garrison a planet for centuries, conveniently not listing the garrisoned Marines in their censuses.

I agree with that statement for conventional and chapters under standard stresses. I however was mulling over this circumstance in particular where there are not many marines in garrison rotation due to rebuilding efforts. All of this is pretty grey area, which makes me curious.

chaos0xomega wrote:
63/1000 isn't exactly insignificant, although I'm fairly certain the actual number is much higher, I mean dont forget the Abyssal Crusade alone saw the end of what, 30 chapters? Also remember, 3rd edition wasn't quite yet the peak of Grimdark, I'm sure if GW were to revist that bit they would increase the number quite a bit.

In any case, given the scenario posited, wherein all but 2-3 marines from a chapter are destroyed, I would imagine one of the following outcomes:

-They dial back to Mars for their geneseed stores and spend a few hundred years back at base rebuilding their strength.
.

Thanks for the input guys!

On the subject of garrison duty, it's been said that the Space Marines don't stick around that long on one planet (with all those other systems to free and aliens to purge, you can't really sit back and relax for a while), but what if said planet is under constant attacks of such ferocity that it requires a more permanent Space Marine presence? Would they not create some sort of outpost, whether on the surface or on a station in orbit?

Also, there's always the possibility of a Warp Storm cutting a system or planet off from the rest of the universe (often for quite a while), which would lead to several Marines being stuck on an inescapable planet and with no means to be rotated out of service.

So there's a chance that Chapter C might have some Marines left on some backwater planet from which they can start to rebuild the Chapter again, although how the surviving Marines would get to them would pose another problem...

As most of you mentioned the surviving Marines going on a death or glory run into the Eye of Terror, I've been thinking about what happens to those guys once they get there. Now before you say, "they get insta-killed by Daemons / Chaos Space Marines / Daemon Primarchs / Abaddon's incompetence, duh", I'm talking about Loyalist Marines who by chance or the Emperor's will bump into some other Loyalists.

Let's say a Captain from Chapter E did some pretty horrible things to some semi-heretical Guardsmen with his company, and he and a portion of his men get a one-way ticket to everyone favorite murderous horrordimension. Once inside the Eye of Terror, they descend on the first Daemon world they see, deploying in full force to slay dem heretical beasties. Now while they're down there, they bump into survivors from Chapter F's chapter, who had been part of some failed crusade into the Eye. Both Chapters have different reasons to be there, but Battle-brothers are Battle-brothers (unless they hated eachother beforehand for other reasons), so they at least try to help eachother out.

At the end of the battle, both forces are rather depleted, but you can't say 'Only in Death does Duty end' if you don't get to that 'Dead' part, so both parties decide to go kick some more Daemon ass somewhere else.

Now, would these Chapters part ways to regain their honour by themselves, or would they band together to fight a common threat? I'm aware that this also depends on which Chapters we're talking about, but the idea of a Loyalist 'warband' somehow appeals to me, so I'd definitely like to hear your opinions on this

Drakeslayer wrote:Ezra, you're not thinking of creating a SM-themed remnants force are you? Regardless of the fluff I think you should go right ahead and do it.
Anyways, I digres: Remnant Space Marines, DO IT!!!!

Alright, you've got me; I admit that it has crossed my mind I already have a few ideas for something like that, but my wallet wouldn't survive it I think

Dicrel Seijin wrote:
The Soul Drinkers were declared heretical, because, let's face it, when your chapter master's lower half is a giant spider, there aren't a great many other outcomes.

That sentence alone deserves an exalt!

On the subject of garrison duty, it's been said that the Space Marines don't stick around that long on one planet (with all those other systems to free and aliens to purge, you can't really sit back and relax for a while), but what if said planet is under constant attacks of such ferocity that it requires a more permanent Space Marine presence? Would they not create some sort of outpost, whether on the surface or on a station in orbit?

There is nothing a handful of Marines can garrison that half a million Imperial Guard cannot also hold, what with their tanks and anti-air/anti-orbital weapons and so on and so forth.

The Marines might hold it long enough for the initial wave of IG to arrive, but would then hand it over so they could go back to being Space Marines, perhaps leaving an Astartes Fortress-Monastery behind for the Chapter to make use of in the future (maybe this will be a Recruiting World one day?) but, really, garrison duty is a waste of the Marine's abilities.

 Fifty wrote:
Just because a chapter might not adopt a marine, it does not mean they might not let a squad of survivors fight alongside them and even incorporate them into their command structure, formally or informally.

I can imagine that if the rest of the chapter were wiped out, a Marines Errant squad would certainly be welcome to fight alongside the Eagle Warriors, their parent chapter. IF they then performed honourably alongside their new chapter, their geneseed might even be used to create new Eagle Warriors. If they died dishonourably, or failed a mission, their geneseed would probably be abandoned.

That is my take on it.

i think that this is exactly what i was going to say.