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I've been wondering this for a while.

Given the risk of Space Marines falling to Chaos in great numbers such as that occurred during the HH, is there a measure in place to to eliminate and/or subdue all Space Marines?

I know some people will argue that no such thing would not be possible or would not be carried out at such a scale but, I would imagine the Lords of Terra and Imperial command would have surely considered such a measure if it were necessary.

Hell, even the Emperor had the same foresight when it came to his Thunder Warriors for which he subsequently massacred to prevent revolt.

Of course I'm not arguing if a measure like this would ultimately effective or even work, I just want to know if such a plan exists.

So Is there a measure already in place?

Also, how would a measure like this be carried out?

The way I think it would be carried out would be to utilize the Imperial Navy to wipe out all Space Marine home worlds and to use Imperial guard and Inquisition forces to mop up resistance.

All Space Marines at once? No.

But you also have special chapters like the Minotaurs who are seemingly made to hunt other Space Marines.

It would be difficult, near impossible, to mount a coordinated assault on all Space Marine Chapters. Too many of them are scattered, crusading, fleet based, or had their records swept under the rug in a routine cleaning 500 years ago. Communications would be intercepted in their journey across the galaxy and the IG would need too much time to build up troops before they could launch a surprise assault.

The number of entire chapters that fall to chaos is very rare, but there are chapters that do seem to be adapted at taking them down. This would work for using one chapter to kill another, but not for an Imperium wide execution.

It is also worth noting that Order 66 failed to kill many jedi. What it did do was force them into hiding long enough for Palpatine to seize control of the Senate and capture the temple, ensuring that they have no place to gather. This is all old canon now though. CURSE YOU DISNEY! At least the trailer looked good.

I could see a plan like this in place to deal with a particularly troubling chapter like the Space Wolves or the Dark Angels, attack on the homeworld and any scattered fleets. All space marines? Would not work.

 the Signless wrote:
It would be difficult, near impossible, to mount a coordinated assault on all Space Marine Chapters. Too many of them are scattered, crusading, fleet based, or had their records swept under the rug in a routine cleaning 500 years ago. Communications would be intercepted in their journey across the galaxy and the IG would need too much time to build up troops before they could launch a surprise assault.

The number of entire chapters that fall to chaos is very rare, but there are chapters that do seem to be adapted at taking them down. This would work for using one chapter to kill another, but not for an Imperium wide execution.

It is also worth noting that Order 66 failed to kill many jedi. What it did do was force them into hiding long enough for Palpatine to seize control of the Senate and capture the temple, ensuring that they have no place to gather. This is all old canon now though. CURSE YOU DISNEY! At least the trailer looked good.

I could see a plan like this in place to deal with a particularly troubling chapter like the Space Wolves or the Dark Angels, attack on the homeworld and any scattered fleets. All space marines? Would not work.

I'm not arguing whether it would actually be successful. I do however imagine it being attempted if it was felt to be necessary.

Could there perhaps be a more subtle way of orchestrating a execution order on all Space Marines? Such as a gradual elimination of SM chapters that would go unnoticed or with little notice?

There's probably some kind of contingency in place- the Imperium, with all the experience it's had over the years, probably has a contingency for everything- but in practice it's probably impossible.

The plan would probably be to throw as many potentially-going-rogue chapters against <insert supremely dire threat here> and hope that they remove the threat and themselves at the same time. Sure, there's a risk that they may join said threat but it's better to try and deal with the problems separately. Everyone in the Imperium is expendable it's that guardsmen are orders of magnitude more expendable than a space marine.

 Yak9UT wrote:
I've been wondering this for a while.

Given the risk of Space Marines falling to Chaos in great numbers such as that occurred during the HH, is there a measure in place to to eliminate and/or subdue all Space Marines?

Possibly, but the Codex Astartes that has been imposed on them is also designed to ensure that this cannot really happen in the same way. The SM's are broken up into small chapters rather than massive Legions. They no longer directly command gargantuan numbers of conventional troops & fleet assets or auxiliary units like Titans. The Space Marines also no longer have direct control over large numbers of star systems to supply them in most cases either.

During the HH, had it *just* been the Space Marines, Horus would have been crushed in short order. It's the fact that Horus brought trillions of human soldiers, Titan Legions, tens of thousands of worlds, and vast fleets of warships with him that allowed him to do what he did.

However, even with all that, it's possible, probably even likely, that something like that exists, but nothing concrete in the background that I've ever heard of. I'm sure there are some Inquisitors that have thought about it.

Considering that several Chapters have been removed via exterminatus over the past 10,000 years means that there is a process for doing so, if only on a Chapter by Chapter basis. The Badab War is a great example of such a campaign (and how it can go wrong).

SJ

The breaking down of the Legions into Chapters was pretty much the equivalent. It doesn't destroy this who fall, but it limits the number who are likely to turn at once.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
There's probably some kind of contingency in place- the Imperium, with all the experience it's had over the years, probably has a contingency for everything- but in practice it's probably impossible.

Contingency 66: Exterminatus the Ultramarines.

everyone sees them as their spiritual liege (including the BA, DA, SW, IF and their successors), and wil be utterly demoralised.

The Codex Astartes is how it's dealt with. A few thousand is manageable, 9 Legions can be tricky.

No. There's no dedicated force or protocol. Like all things when a Chapter decides to pull a Huron, either a crusade is mounted (which almost never goes well) or an elite force such as the Minotaurs hunts down the offender and brings them to Imperial justice. Which is far more effective, especially given that it's a lot easier for a hitman Chapter like the Minotaurs to martial their forces and quickly be dispatched to attack another Chapter. Meanwhile it'll take months to assemble Guardsmen regiments, a couple Chapters, and some SOB/Inquisitorial forces thrown in to boot to kill a renegade Chapter.

Closest thing the Imperium can do at any time to cripple a Chapter is have the Admech pull support, but even that doesn't actually kill them considering the Marines Malevolent are still kicking (and murdering).

Well, or they just shove a bunch of Battle Sisters in drop pods and hope for the best, heh.