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I was coming up with lore background for my dark angels company 5th company and had two ideas how to approach it. I was wondering what you all thought of them or had a better idea.

#1 After the losses fighting the Crimson Slaughter, Captain Balthazar took it upon to retrain his his company to never be caught in a situation they couldn't react to with prejudice again. Due to this outlook making him known as one of the most tactically flexible Captains among the Chapter he was chosen along with his company to be a test bes for if Primaries could fit into Dark Angel combat tactics. For comraderie with his new brothers he went through the Primaris upgrade process himself. (Thinking of kitbashing the dark vengeance captain ornaments and possibly that sword or the DA upgrade sword and a cowled head on the gravis captain.

The other concept is similar, but instead of integrating directly with the 5th they would be the 12 company and were told to were directly in concert with the 5th as a test bed for co operation with the primaries without bringing them completely into the core. The 12th captain could be an upgrades veteran who worked under Balthazar to make sure the head of the new company would be completely loyal.

I like your primary idea, though I think you need to have more defining reasons the company and its characters end up how you like. Maybe the new bolt rifle is seen as an advantage having more range(Seems like your shoot vanilla DA so it fits). Maybe you have an apothecary that is well liked or zealous about Primaris ideals. Maybe Captain Balthazar is bitter and ashamed of said defeat and sees Primaris as a way to assure it doesn't happen again. Your base idea is great, I think it just needs to be developed a bit more as a story with characters defining the companies move toward Primaris.

Dark Angels would be absolutely the least accommodating chapter to take on Primaris marines. They're too secretive and untrusting. Any Primaris forced on them would surely be segregated into their own companies and kept far away from the Deathwing activities.
Can't have them running across any Fallen and learning that the DA betrayed the big E

 Brotherjulian wrote:
Dark Angels would be absolutely the least accommodating chapter to take on Primaris marines. They're too secretive and untrusting. Any Primaris forced on them would surely be segregated into their own companies and kept far away from the Deathwing activities.
Can't have them running across any Fallen and learning that the DA betrayed the big E

I know what you're saying Brotherjulian, but we do have things now like Primaris Chapter Masters being part of the Inner Circle by the stated rules. My thought process is that if they're going to have a Primaris in the inner circle it would be an upgraded one. Remember that the vast majority of the Dark Angels themselves know very little about the Inner Circle. Lots of soldiers that are good marines, but they don't think can handle the secrets get left as lower company veterans or sergeants.

If they're willing to leave people like that in mid level positions I don't think they would turn down Primaris for base level positions. First is the fact that turning down the Primaris would be more suspicious, and second would be that Azrael is mentioned in the lore as being more progressive than previous Dark Angel Chapter Masters.

@ Viridian

Thanks, the bitter/ ashamed from the losses to the Crimson Slaughter was kind of the angle I was aiming at with the restructuring being his attempt to redeem himself. Seeing the firepower of formations like Hellblasters (I've never met a Dark Angel that didn't like plasma.) along with the increased tactical usage given by longer range weaponry. However, he wants, along with the Dark Angels wanting to see how it works out, having Primaris Marines fight next to originals and see how they compare in similar combat scenarios. He was also open to the concept of Lieutenants helping to streamline his command of the Company. I'm thinking possibly of having story wise 2 Lieutenants with 1 being Primaris and the other Standard. One leading 50 Primaris and the other leading 50 standards. I do have to say I'm a fan of you're Apothecary concept. Another one that sounded interesting to me is the Company Champion wanting the upgrade as he never wants to be viewed as the most physically strong and dexterous fighter in the company.

Any other ideas you have would be greatly appreciated.