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Red Scorpions

The Red Scorpions Chapter of Space Marines is known to be composed of conservative Imperial purists who are famed for their complete and utter devotion to Imperial doctrine, past the point where pragmatism or even reason would seem to require otherwise. The Chapter is most renowned among other Astartes for its absolute adherence to every line of the Codex Astartes, which is unheard of in any other Chapter -- including the Ultramarines. Its recorded history extends across five Terran millennia, but there are numerous indications that it may extend further than that.

Due to their history of conflict with the Forces of Chaos, the Red Scorpions refuse to deal with any xenos species or any humans that they consider as tainted by mutation of any kind, even Imperially-sanctioned Abhumans like Ogryns or Ratlings. They will obviously not serve with Beastmen, but they also utterly refuse to serve with the few remaining Squats. Equally unique in nature is the frequency with which the Red Scorpions' Apothecaries are present in the Chapter's Tactical Squads as squad leaders in place of a Sergeant.

An uncompromising and steadfast Chapter, the Red Scorpions have, in their five thousand standard years of recorded history, always been ready to stand in the defense of the Imperium, fight those who endanger it and punish those who betray it. Unusually for a Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, the Red Scorpions are fanatically loyal to the Emperor in whose divinity they believe without question. They see their quest for mental, spiritual, and physical purity as a divine mandate. The Red Scorpions are also strict adherents to the Codex Astartes which they view as holy scripture. They are stalwart traditionalists among the Space Marines, staunch protectors of the Imperium's order and authority, and have ever been quick to answer the call of Imperial governors and Cardinals beset by treachery and heresy from within. Their endless hatred for the alien and the mutant has also become famed across the stars, as is their devotion to purity and scorn of deviation from the baseline human form.

Despite the Red Scorpions' long and unimpeachable record of service, there are still those within the Adeptus who distrust them on the simple grounds that their origins as a Chapter remain a complete mystery, as does the identity of the Founding to which they belong or the primogenitor Chapter from which their gene-seed has been taken. A gene-seed which, other than being notable for its extreme lack of any form of deterioration or corruption, bears no specific hallmarks that would allow it to be secured (even inconclusively) to one of the original Space Marine Legions. This secrecy has led to some of the Imperium's hierarchy questioning the loyalty of a Chapter that keeps its history secret. Despite this, the Chapter is willing to assist the Imperium of Man wherever it can, carrying out thousands of aid missions.

It is unclear if the mysteries concerning the Red Scorpions Chapter's origins are due to a deliberate decision within the Adeptus Administratum or if the records might have been lost due to a simple clerical error. As neither the Chapter nor any known Imperial sources make record of its Founding, the former seems far more likely than the latter. Ongoing attempts have been made to at least identify the origin of the Chapter's gene-seed -- in spite of formal complaints levelled by the Chapter's leadership -- but even these have met with universal failure. Ultimately, the story of the Chapter's creation is far less important than the glorious history that it has established by consistently protecting the Imperium against countless threats.

Indeed, some of the Chapter's most notable core beliefs are founded precisely on the purity and consistency of its gene-seed, and it will go to any lengths to preserve that purity and harvest the Chapter's due from its fallen brothers to ensure the Red Scorpions' future. To the Red Scorpions, gene-seed corruption would fundamentally weaken them or any other Chapter of the Space Marines, and thereby weaken the fabric of the Imperium itself -- something they simply will not allow. The Red Scorpions' fanatical belief in their own genetic purity, and the lengths they will go in order to preserve it, has had the consequence of giving the Chapter a strongly isolationist streak when it comes to its interactions with other parts of the Imperium on anything but a practical military level, and as such it maintains no domains and is beholden to none but its own sense of duty. As a Chapter the Red Scorpions are extremely xenophobic, and for no cause or even dire need will they ever consider serving alongside or allying with aliens. At the same time, they remain highly intolerant of any genetic deviation from the pure human form. They despise Abhumans, mutants or augmented humans of any kind, and have often refused to fight as brothers-in-arms with any such "abomination". The only exception they allow to this disdain are those few individuals they deem to have been the work of the Emperor's own divine hand (other Adeptus Astartes and Navigators, for example), and even then there are limits to what they will readily tolerate in terms of human diversity.

A Crusading Chapter, the Red Scorpions fleet is almost continuously on the move, traveling between war zones and making its forces available to those who would petition for its aid, if the Chapter deems them worthy of it. The Red Scorpions have fought in every corner of the Imperium over the course of their history and participated in many great conflicts. They are justly renowned for their role in the Conflict of Helican, the Siege of Helios and the battles against the hated Bloodtide. They have fought alone as often as they have fought alongside the ranks of the Imperium's other warriors, and although thought lost several times, they have always returned again from the abyss to draw their blades once more in the Emperor's service. One important example of this was the entire Chapter's undertaking of a Crusade into the perilous Ordon Rift region deep within the interstellar wilderness of the south-western expanses of the Segmentum Tempestus in the 39th Millennium. Filled with spatial rapids, gravitic storms and other lethal phenomena, the exact circumstances of the Red Scorpions' extended voyage into this hazardous area remain unknown, and for more than three hundred standard years the Chapter was out of contact with the Imperium and thought lost.

The timely nature of their reappearance was also viewed as a gift from the Emperor, as they played a crucial role in overcoming a Night Lords attack on Oriflame during the Battle of the Grey Sisters. What occurred during their time within the rift remains unknown, but the Red Scorpions had established their primary base of operations upon a battle station named Vigil around the Feral World of Zaebus Minoris deep within the perilous regions of the Ordon Rift surrounded by spatial rapids, gravitic storms and other lethal phenomena. Save for the Chapter itself and a handful of high-ranking members of the Administratum, the Red Scorpions have kept the exact location of the Zaebus System and the safe routes through the treacherous passages required to reach it a deadly secret, thus ensuring their Chapter's security and the safety of their gene-stock. Using Vigil and Zaebus Minoris as their fortress-monastery and base of operations, respectively, the Chapter has continued to range across the southern and western reaches of the Imperium in search of the enemies of Mankind.