Editing Conservators (section)

==Scavenger Marines==
The Conservators have been living with their crippling lack of supplies for centuries. While they now have enough arms and armor to supply their force for the foreseeable future, they are always short of needed materiel regardless. Spare parts for power armor, bolter rounds, plasma flasks, grenades, fuel, and that is not even to mention the vehicle pool. The vehicles they were initially issued with only rarely see service. While minor repairs can be completed, anything major is simply beyond the capacity of the Conservators to create themselves, they simply cannot build the needed parts, nor afford regular replacements. As such, the Conservators have adopted a policy of radical reclamation in terms of useful gear. If it can be used to equip a battle brother, they'll try to get their hands on it.

===Looting the battlefield===
Following combat with some factions, the Conservators will thoroughly loot their fallen enemies for any useful gear. Orks are a frequent target of this as they often use captured Imperial gear, such as bolters if they can get their green hands on them. Reclaiming these weapons is often simply a matter of sending them to a techpriest to bless and soothe the enslaved machine spirit, properly cleaning and refurbishing them after their rough treatment at the hands of the greenskins, before being given to a battle brother to wield. More difficult, and controversial, is taking gear from fallen traitor marines. While they are loath to put such gear back into Imperial service, the traitor legions suits can be a source of desperately needed spare components. The reconsecration and use of any part or weapon taken from the hands of fallen chaos servants is a painstaking and careful process undertaken with the utmost security and care.

Perhaps just as controversial and upsetting is their tendency to take gear from fallen allies. While they are not often blatant about it, Imperial Guard regiments recovering a damaged Chimera might find its bolter emptied of rounds, or dropped lasgun power packs disappearing after a battle. Even more touchy is the recovery of material from fallen Astartes. In general, if it is possible to return the fallen body of a marine to his chapter, the Conservators will do so, sending along his armor and weapon, taking only his easily replaced ammunition. However if it is not reasonably possible to return the body, the marine will be given an honorable burial as if he was a member of the Conservators own battle brothers, before his armor and weapons are reclaimed for use. 

The chapter even goes so far as to harvest his gene seed for later implantation into a new aspirant of their chapter, though as this may well outrage some other chapters it is something they usually do not speak of to outsiders, seeing it as the sad necessity they must perform if they are to grow their chapter to sufficient size to defend their homeland. One of the few events which will cause a force of Conservators to venture far from their homeland is to aid a chapter which has 'donated' gene seeds in this way, seeking to repay their debt of honor for utilizing that chapter's valuable progenoid glands to aid in their own growth, even if there was no way to return the harvested organs to their rightful owners.

===Scav Runs===
Officially known as 'Reclamation Operations' scav runs are one of the more common high stakes missions a Conservator will likely undertake within the March. Carefully planned in advance, these missions usually deploy at least four squads of Conservators to the surface of the ruined forge world Chiron IV, where they act as guards for workers and tech priests who move to salvage any useful materiel from the planet's ruined manufactorums. Working day and night to strip production lines of machinery, or load weapons and ammunition from ruined armories, the scav runs are an integral part of retrieving supplies for the chapter. While they often turn up vitally important tools, industrial servitors or weapons and ammo stores, sometimes an expedition is lucky enough to discover intact military vehicles. The discovery of several tanks or APC's would be important enough to justify expanding the time frame of the run, or even sending more marines to secure the site.

These missions are dangerous, as the ruins of Chiron IV are still crawling with greenskins left over from the Waaagh which left it the ruined shell of a world it is today. While the greenskins in other parts of the March are the feral Orks who have but clubs and crude axes to wield, these orks have been looting and building in the ruins of the forge world and have all the usual firearms and armor one would expect from their starfaring kin. It is a constant concern of the chapter that the orks are secretly constructing space vessels to escape the planet, and keep what ships they can spare constantly stationed over the forge world, watching for anything trying to escape.