Editing Setting:Cloudburst/Blue Daggers (section)

===Command and Deployment Structure===

The Daggers generally do not actually place members of their Council of Masters in Company Captaincies, allowing each Company to have its own Captain, with the Master serving above him.  Though this lengthens the chain of command, it serves the widely-dispersed Chapter well, since the odds of an entire company being assembled in one place are quite low.  Further, the Master can always have a competent and loyal Captain assume command of the company in battle if it is divided across multiple battlefields, alleviating the difficulties through distributed command.  Thus, the Master of Scouts is not the 10th company Captain, nor is the Chapter Master the Captain of the 1st.  Other Ultramarine Primogenitors have been heard to mutter that this is a way the Chapter seeks to defy the Codex, though in reality, it is simply an unfortunate side-effect of the Chapter’s unique and unpleasant role in the galaxy.<br>

In terms of behavior and conduct, the Daggers are very much the scions of the Novamarines from which their officers’ Gene-seed came originally.  They conduct themselves amongst the commoners with distant politeness and are permissive of the Imperial Cult, but ultimately do not seek human company or interaction beyond what is needed.<br>

The Chapter theoretically allows its Vehicle Crewer Marines to not count towards the allotment of Battle Brothers in a Company, but the leadership of the Chapter knows full well that if that were allowed in any significant number, they would be well over the traditionally permissible maximum size of a Codex Chapter.  Thus, this privilege is extended solely to the crews of the Stormbird and the Land Raiders of the Chapter, as those are considered the most sanctified armaments of the Chapter.  The dedicated Motor Pool of the Chapter is also crewed exclusively by Serfs, save when they are substituted out by a Marine temporarily, for the purpose of improving performance.<br>

The Chapter interacts well with the Deathwatch, and contributes Marines when asked.  The Daggers do have one notable oddity in their interactions with the Chamber Militant, however.  When a line battle company member of the Chapter joins the Deathwatch to take their Long Vigil, they are replaced in their home unit.  Vehicle Crewers are sometimes also subject to this.  On rare occasions, Chaplains and Apothecaries are also subject to this.  If a Marine returns alive, they reintegrate into their old post alongside its new incumbent.  If said post is a command position, and therefore cannot be shared, the returning individual and the incumbent decide who shall hold the position, with the other joining one of the Honor Guards of the Council.  Chapter tradition dictates this procedure be carried out, not only because Deathwatch service is often fatal, but also because the Daggers simply cannot afford to be understrength when the Glasians arrive.  Given that those who serve the Vigil are not informed how long their service will last, it has become a necessary precaution.<br>

The Daggers also serve alongside Rogue Traders when asked to do so by a higher authority, such as the Lord Sector Cloudburst, though only as advisors, thus far.  Blue Dagger squads or demi-companies often accompany Traders and Explorators into the Cloudburst Circuit to put down alien pocket kingdoms.  No Rogue Trader has yet had the nerve to ask for a full combat deployment from the Daggers.

The Blue Daggers are generalists in training, and the relatively new armor and ships at their disposal somewhat limit their overall potency.  As the Imperium decays, the technological abilities of the Forge Worlds that equip the Space Marines decay as well.  Most Blue Dagger equipment is designed for maximum durability rather than raw power, and this affects their combat style.  Individual Daggers are just as tough and capable as any other Astartes, of course.<br>
In combat, Daggers tend not to operate in groups smaller than three at the fewest, whenever possible.  Rarely, Marines will serve singly for reconnoitering or spotting, but the Daggers avoid sending their Marines off by themselves.  Some of the Septiimi love for rapid-fire weapons has made its way into the Daggers’ preferences, which lends itself to Blue Dagger vehicles mounting as many extra weapons on their hardpoints as possible.  Relatively few Space Marine vehicles have this option, however, compared to those of the Guard.<br>
The Blue Daggers have few Librarians among them, and an abundance of Techmarines.  This can manifest in a preference for artillery and combined-forces attacks over reliance on psychic power, but the Daggers are not averse to Librarian support for their Battle Brothers.  Likewise, the large number of Chaplains and Techmarines means that the Chapter can usually rely on spiritual or technological support against its Warp-infused foes.

At the heart of the Chapter’s holdings is the ''Gargantuan'' space station.  Although the Blue Daggers have other outposts in the Septiim system, this is where the vast majority of their activities occur, and it is where the Chapter Core is located.  The Core is the official formation of logistics and dispatch for the Chapter.  At the moment, the incumbent leader is the Master of the ''Gargantuan'' itself, Jeremy Haskell.  His responsibilities include seeing to the hiring and retiring of serfs, the buying or building of servitors, and the purchase of supplies the Adeptus Mechanicus and Chapter cannot provide.  For instance, he often places orders for supplies and clothing from the Flaxweave Foundry on Thimble, or sends Astropathic messages to the Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos who need to be updated on the progress of the disposal of Glasian relics into Septiim.  He is also in charge of choosing which serfs have honored the Chapter enough to be transformed into Servo-skulls after death.  However, responsibility for the serfs who are assigned to specific roles on the Chapter’s ships falls instead to Lord Gwinnet Eiger.<br>

The Chapter Core also contains the Chapter accountants, who carefully tabulate the running costs of the Chapter’s operation.  They keep track of bolter shells fired and power packs spent, they keep track of the use of fuel in the vehicles of the motor pool, and they track diligently the rate of collection of boys to become Space Marines.  Unlike most of the servants of the Chapter, these are not serfs, nor bondsmen from Septiim Primus.  They are instead a small cadre of university-educated statisticians and moneykeepers of the Septiim Tertius Planetary Academy and Technical University, which has a contract to supply them to the Daggers.  They work closely with the Adepta Administratum and Mechanicus to meet the supply needs of the Chapter, since its own forges and those of Solstice are not yet fully up to their needed capacity.<br>
The final component of the Chapter Core is the ''Gargantuan''’s small population of assorted civilians and Officio Munitorum personnel.  These people are the operators of the tugs that carry salvaged ships to the ''Gargantuan'', liaise with the Commissariat and Astra Militarum on deployments, coordinate jurisdictional disputes over Naval assets during invasions, appraise pirate and alien ships that are captured in the course of Dagger missions, and sell whatever salvage the Chapter collects that they cannot themselves use.  As they are technically not members of the Chapter nor their serfs, they occupy an awkward position outside the Dagger hierarchy, but are also totally dependent on them and obey their every command.

Though the Daggers are used to working alongside other forces of the Imperium, they do not rely on that being so.  Having an unexpected flight of friendly Avengers swoop down on the ranks of advancing aliens may be a welcome tactical opportunity and a pleasant sight, but the Daggers would only have dispatched their troops to fight those alien ranks if they had had some confidence that they could have won without the airstrike.  Their relative lack of artillery and excess of Techmarines and Land Raiders means that the Daggers are well equipped to perform infantry advances, but not always under the best of cover fire.  The Forge Moon of Solstice is working hard to ensure the Daggers are properly equipped, but the Daggers also have the forges of the ''Gargantuan'' to use.  Eventually, the Daggers may tire of relying on the Martians to supply them, and take matters into their own hands.

Not all of the crews of the Blue Dagger ships and stations are serfs, of course, as that would necessitate hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of serfs, all of whom would become the responsibility of the Chapter Core.  Most of the starship crewers are bondsman ratings of the local Septiim population, trained and educated on Septiim Tertius and Secundus to serve as employees of the Chapter.  High Rates, Warrants, and other positions of great complexity are usually filled by serfs to oversee the lesser crew.  All officer positions, like Shipmasters and the entire Apothecarion apprentice staff, are serfs, as are all those authorized to crew the actual weapons of the ''Gargantuan''.  The recruitment facilities of the Blue Daggers are generally overseen by a Blue Dagger, but crewed by only a few bondsmen and serfs instead of having full Space Marine staff.

The size of the Chapter and its holdings ensures that outside of the Migrations, the Chapter’s command personnel may be spread a bit thinly.  It would be unthinkable for the fleet to be dispatched without a Marine on every ship larger than an Escort, and the many stations it holds throughout the Septiim Economic Zone usually have at least one Marine there at all times, sometimes from the Motor Pool or Fourth Company.  They are typically withdrawn during Migrations.  Those Marines that receive this task usually do so that they may train to command ships in the Fleet, or train to command small crews in defense of ground installations in the path of Glasian advances.