Editing Corsairs Gallant (section)

==Legion Equipment==

===Power Armor===
[[File:CorsairsGallant.png|200px|frame|left|A Corsairs Gallant Tactical Marine in Mark III Ultra/Manden pattern armor and wielding a Mark IV Ultra Pattern bolter.]][[File:CorsairsAssault.png|200px|frame|right|A Corsairs Gallant Assault Marine wearing Crusade-era assault-grade armor]]
Designed based on their standard Mark III armor, the Mark III Ultra/Manden resembles exterior pattern of Mark III plate closely, though its shoulders tended to be more akin to that of the older Mark II plate. Notable for its use of exposed riveting as much for decorating as construction purposes. It also utilized a wide, flaring belt, as well as usually a loincloth woven of armormesh which actually could deflect or reduce the power of las weapons, though it was largely stylistic in usage. The true modifications were largely internal; the pattern was constantly updated to incorporate later advances in internal technology, while retaining the front-focused defensive capabilities of the original Mark III armor favored by the Corsairs for its usefulness aboard vessels and in other narrow confines, such as urban terrain. Additionally, they integrated improved targetter systems and autosenses above that of standard power armor, with even the basic tactical marine incorporating improved optics and other technology as a force and power multiplier. Each suit also incorporated a grav-chute into the backpack design, allowing all marines to operate as paratroopers. The design is also intended to be able to easily host extra pouches, ammo or grenade racks, or other equipment as necessary, and also an optional wrist mounted vid-screen with integrated vox uplink to the overall network, often coordinated via command Rhinos that are deployed in theater.

Further, the Corsairs Gallant produced what was known as assault-grade armor, designed for use by their rare but elite assault and other jump troops. Though its torso design was taken more from later patterns, its internals and other parts were mostly linked to that of the original Mark III plate, abet with a much higher gorget and a full cowling around the head. Later models would included reinforced leg-mountings that had greater armor and impact absorbing properties for jump-use.

The Corsairs Gallant would continue to use Mark III Ultra/Manden pattern armor well past the Brother's War, abet integrating later developments in certain areas into it. The use of the consistent style was an intentional choice; associating a specific pattern with the legion helped to set apart the Blackshields and Fillibuster forces who, in contrast, nearly never were seen in Mark III armor, let alone the Manden pattern of it. Though seemingly simple, this small choice proved effective.

====Terminator Armor====
Though it may seem surprising for such a fast raiding force, the Corsairs Gallant not only make heavy use of Terminators, the possess a significant amount of the armor, notable of the Tartaros pattern, and employ it widely in void and zone mortalis combat. The Corsairs Gallant were some of the first to receive the relatively late Tartaros pattern, having heavily subsidized the production for several key Forge Worlds that allowed them to claim a lion share of the initial production. While the Corsairs Gallant possess enough suits of Terminator armor to equip several formations, most astartes granted rights to a suit also have a suit of finely wrought artificer armor they make use of in many cases, deploying in Terminator armor only in specific circumstances. When deploying, they are done so via Storm Eagle transport more often than not, teleportation being disfavored by the Corsairs for its somewhat dangerous nature and unpredictability.

===Small Arms and Infantry Equipment===

The standard bolter pattern utilized by the Corsairs Gallant was the Mark IV Ultra Pattern, notable for its capability for both single-shot and three-bolt burst fire as well as automatic, loaded from a standard 25-round sickle magazine and firing the same .75 caliber explosive tipped mass-reactive bolt of most other patterns. However, the Mark IV Ultra Pattern also integrated a built-in ammunition counter, an Auto-senses targeting uplink, and a biometric handgrip sensor for genetic identification of its user as standard features, and was usually constructed to a significantly higher grade by both the Forges that the Corsairs patronized and by their own legion smiths. Capable of accepting a number of other attachments, the legion tended to equip many of its forces with additional optical sights, drum magazines, barrel extensions or suppressors, and with foregrips, among other attachments, all of which improved its versatility and capabilities. It could also mount a grenade launcher under-barrel. 

The focus on the bolter is not entirely odd; it is, after all, the standard small-arm of the legions. However, the focus on quality and versatility the Corsairs Gallant put into it exceeded that of other legions by several levels. The Corsairs Gallant culture shunned the use of the common plasma and melta weaponry, and the rare and hard to maintain volkite gear was also disliked. Flamers, while useful, were niche and lacked versatility. For plasma and melta weaponry, it was a mix of issues; plasma tended to have stability issues, a major concern for smaller forces like the Corsairs, and also was dangerous for use in shipboard environments. Melta weaponry was even more so, and its range limitations was seen as almost precluding use. As a result, the Corsairs preferred to utilize mix of dedicated and underbarrel grenade launchers and combi-bolters equipped with drums and specialized ammunition as support weapons, and notable integrated these weapons at a tactical level, in contrast to the dedicated support squads used by other forces. 

One exception was graviton weapons, due to both the legion’s contacts with certain forge worlds and their use in shipboard operatons. This also led them to throw weight behind the development of other forms of the weapon, even when the Mechanicum objected.  

The legion also made heavy use of shotguns, even equipping whole squads with them during shipboard actions, themselves utilizing a variety of specialized rounds as well. Favored by their assault troops, the Corsairs were at ease with the shotgun as they were with the bolter. 

====Heavy Weapons====
Much like their attitudes to small arms, the heavy weapons utilized by Corsairs infantry were limited largely to heavy bolters and missile launchers, once against linked to their focus on versatility. The heavy bolter could utilize various ammunition types, and often was equipped with suspensor harnesses to assist in mobility and use aboard ships and other close quarters areas. Missile launchers were used both in dedicated heavy launchers as well as single-shot disposable tubes, thus giving individual squads capabilities that they otherwise would lack. There was one heavy weapon the legion did use that was unique to them: the frag cannon. A heavy, shotgun-like weapon that fired either in slug or fragmentation modes, it could decimate entire corridors or punch through the armored bulkheads when needed. 

====Bolter Ammunition====

One of the primary ways the legion achieved versatility in the use of its bolters was in its focus on specialized bolt rounds for them. Stalker-pattern bolts designed for stealth use and other rounds like Metal Storm frag shells were not invented by the Corsairs, but were extensively utilized by them. However, the legion did go out of its way to gain the ability to produce certain rounds for itself, such as Tempest Bolts, which were largely the province of Mars before the Corsairs gained the ability to produce them through a mix of covert acquisition and reverse engineering. The discovery of this fact nearly led to a small crisis between the Mars priesthood and the legion, with the Corsairs Gallant promising to limit their production and the spread.

Other strange rounds included toxin-infused Metal Storm rounds, known as Viper Storm rounds, as well as Webber Binding rounds, Hellfire bolts, and the odd Bombard round, which was designed to be fired at an arc as a sort of impromptu light mortar, containing greater explosive filler due to the lower propellant, and less focus on penetrative power over blast force. Combined with the targeting systems used, this meant squads could form small urban fire support platforms. These were just some of many other types that the forces were often deployed with, giving even a normal tactical squad greater flexibility than nearly any other legion.

The truest danger, though, was the Torsion bolt, which used gravitic technology to create a rending gravitic burst on target. Though often no more dangerous than a normal bolt, the rounds could often cause internal damage, allowing them to bypass armor completely.

====Astartes Grenade Launchers====
The preferred special weapon of the Corsairs Gallant, grenade launchers were more usually associated with the Imperial Army or Solar Auxilia, though some legions did make use of ones integrated into bolters ala a combi-weapon in limited numbers. The Corsairs Gallant made use of these latter designs extensively, but also utilized rapid-firing drum-fed versions as well, firing a variety of munitions. Their adaptability and reliably was their primary selling point for the legion, even if they lacked the flash of certain other arms.

===Armored Vehicles===
[[File:corsairsgravrhinoprofile.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|right|A Pythagori III-made Rhino hull, using anti-grav technology]]

Though wealthy and well-equipped, the Corsairs Gallant made a point of avoiding many of the larger, rarer and more complicated vehicle systems used by the legions. This even included the relatively common, comparatively speaking, Land Raider platform, let alone vehicles like the Spartan or Sicaran-series of tanks. Instead, they made extensive use Rhino-patterned vehicles, including the base Rhino Armored Personnel Carrier, the Predator Battle Tank, the Vindicator Siege Tank, and the Whirlwind Mobile Artillery Tank, as well as variants of those. However, they also made use of several other vehicles, most not entirely unique to them but either discovered by them or merely used more extensively.

However, there is one aspect of the Corsair Gallant that set them apart. Though the Grav-Rhino, as it was often called, was not unknown, it was a rare vehicle indeed. The Corsairs Gallant, however, secured the services of a Forge World in the Eastern Fringes, Pythagori III, whose talent with gravity technology was comparable in scope to the plasma expertise of the renowned Forge World Ryza. The pattern of Grav-Rhino hull produced there, using both their expertise and fragments of data recovered by the Corsairs Gallant and their Rogue Trader allies, came to be used by the Corsairs Gallant as the primary hull for nearly all their other vehicles. They produced and used versions of the multitude of other vehicles that were based on the Rhino chassis, all using the same anti-grav skimmer technology that gave them extremely effective mobility. Though they would pass on data to other Legions on most other discoveries, the Corsairs Gallant stubbornly controlled the export of the Grav-Rhinos of Pythagori III, using the fact that it was a Forge World as a shield against charges of tech-hoarding, though their actions and clear manipulation of the Forge World hierarchy was one of a number of things that caused rifts between the core of the Priesthood of Mars and the XXI Legion.

====Stegodon Armored Personnel Carrier====
Actually discovered by Ashur of Banipal's Loxodontii, the Stegodon never-the-less became a favorite of the Corsairs for its extended hull and weaponry potential. Functioning essentially as a Rhino hull with an extended crew compartment, with firing ports for passengers and a cupola turret in the front, the Stegodon would become the basis for many other Corsairs Gallant vehicles, replacing the Rhino in some regards as the base hull, the extended section allowing for the mounting of more substantial equipment internally. It recieved the same grav-propulsion upgrades as the other Corsairs vehicles as well, and eventually would all but replace the Rhino in their use.

====Cyclone Armored Mortar Carrier====
Discovered in the eastern fringe, the STC for the Cyclone is based on relatively common parts. Based on the Rhino hull abet with the top doors removed and parts of its hull left open, the Cyclone was intended as a mobile mortar platform. However, its weapons system was not found, and thus the Corsairs Gallant integrated the quad-launcher into it as a result. When put into service it was found to be an extremely effective mobile artillery platform. Less destructive than the Whirlwind, the Cyclone never-the-less was also faster and easier to transport, and thus became a standby for the Corsairs Gallant in their highly mobile attacks. The data was passed on to the other legions, but the fact that the Corsairs Gallant put it into production prior to getting approval from the Mechnaicum was one of several slights that soured relations between central Mars and the legion, exacerbated when they did pass the data on not to Mars, but local Forge Worlds that were closely aligned to the Corsairs.

====Predator Punisher Combat Tank====
A modified form of the standard Predator that utilizes a turret-mounted Avenger mega bolter taken from the same STC data that led to the creation of the Stormcrow Fighter, and the hull of actually the Stegodon armored personnel carrier. The cupola-mounted combi-bolter was retained, while the sponson mounts usually used heavy bolters. The expanded hull was used to hold the large quantities of ammo necessary to feed the weapons systems on board. The platform was utilized in urban terrain where the massive firepower was useful against infantry and other soft targets, but utterly lacking against anything harder. The design would be later spread to other Legions, particularly those with relative closeness or at least operational connections to the Corsairs.

===Aircraft===

====Storm Vulture Transport====

====Stormcrow Fighter====
[[File:Stormcrow2.jpg|200px|frame|left|A Blackshield-aligned Stormcrow with its nose weapons shown]]A twin-engine fighter based on data discovered by a Corsairs Gallant-associated Rogue Trader and explorator fleet, the Stormcrow Fighter would be passed on in full to the other legions, but was heavily used by the Corsairs themselves perhaps to a greater degree. With its nose-mounted avenger mega bolter, as well as heavy bolters, and wing weapons in the form of missile launchers or hurricane bolters, and also bombs, it served as a fast air to air interceptor as well as light ground support craft that fit perfectly with Corsairs Gallant doctrine. Though the nose weapons could be swapped with two lascannons, this was rarely done by the Corsairs themselves, their ever-present ''Cult of the Bolter'' mentality seeming to take hold.

====Storm Eagle Transport====

A modified version of the Storm Eagle, the Storm Eagle Transport removed the passenger compartment entirely and replaced it with a more open space with a transport system derived from that of the Thunderhawk Transport, designed to grip a Rhino-pattern vehicle and allow it to be rapidly transported and deployed. The Storm Eagle Transport usually mounts the twin-linked Avenger Bolt Cannons from the Fire Raptor in the nose, while retaining the wing-mounted lascannons, allowing to support the advance of forces after it has deployed them. The Storm Eagle Transport could haul most Rhino-hulled vehicles, sparing the Whirlwind due to the size of its launcher. This was part of the reason the Corsairs came to prefer the less destructive but easier to transport Cyclone in many cases.

===The Gallant Dominion and Corsair Secessions===

The manner in which the Corsairs Gallant cement their power in worlds is innately tied to the unique circumstances affecting both their primarch's 'homeworld' as well as the flaw, of sorts, present in their geneseed. It is also how they maintain a network of de jure independent worlds that that de facto under either their direct or nearly so control, the so called Gallant Dominions, contrasted to the worlds they hold via economic means, often themselves technically outside the Union, a few even officially belonging to the Imperium; the so called Corsair Successions. These worlds range from settled planets and even great hive worlds to frontier lands and settlements claimed largely for control over rare resources. These are also the worlds where conflict between Imperial forces, often seeking to reaffirm their control, run afoul of the Corsairs, though far more often control is held covertly, via mercantile means.

The Corsairs maintain a strong aristocratic system of patronage and nobility, tied into the legal protections granted by the Warrant of Trade held by the Keita'mansa dynasty, under the authority of the Emperor himself and thus held in a strange state even in the post-Separatist era; no Imperial authority can countermand that of the Emperor himself, and thus while technically (and, in truth, actually) outside the light of the Imperium, the Keita'mansa dynasty technically hold authority through the Warrant, one granted under such specific terms by the Emperor that mark it as utterly unique. This factor is why agents of the Corsairs can occasionally be found even inside the Imperium, abet only when enough power can be exerted to cause the Warrant to be enforced. The Corsairs are not so foolish as to attempt to invoke it to stave off battles where forces are already in place, but it can be used in other, more tactful, manners. Its protections are directly tied to the house of Keita'mansa, and this has shaped much of the legion culture.

As a result, each member of the Legion is adopted, legally, into the Keita'mansa family, or a cadet branch there-of. This, at least technically, would extend the protection of the Warrant of Trade to them. Further, as they achieve higher ranks, they are eventually set up in an arranged marriage with a noblewoman from one of the many other houses that dot and hold power in the worlds of the Gallant Dominion. These arrangements are more than merely formal; Astartes are encouraged to actually meet and interact with their wives, though the production of children is done entirely via in-vitro methodologies, using samples taken prior to ascension into full Astartes and/or methods of seed generation via techno-alchemical methods. However, marines are more often than not away engaging in the business of war and trade, and as such consorts are often not merely tolerated, but actively provided, often failed aspirants to the legion, a fact that is not seen as dishonorable due to the nature of the gene-seed and difficulty, and instead these individuals are often integrated as chosen servants inside the noble families. Gene-therapies and other methods are utilized to avoid negative effects, and outside blood from noble houses is regularly brought in, thus causing noble marriages to serve a double purpose.

The relationship between an Astartes and his children is complicated. Female children rarely interact with their fathers and are, like many of their kind, used for political and noble marriages, as well as to spread the key genetic markers of the Keita'mansa dynasty that are necessary for gene-seed implantation to succeed. Sons are often, by contrast, more directly tutored, taught the key skills of a Corsair Gallant long before the trials of ascension are held and they are tested as being fit for the implantation process. Failures to these trials are married into other families, serve aboard vessels as lower officers or deck crew, or, occasionally, chosen as consorts. Those that do pass and enter the implantation process undergo deep checks for gene-seed compatibility long before it is ever attempted, and even then often fail to accept the implant process. These usually die, but those that survive almost universally become ship crew, and are generally not allowed to pass on genes, at least not into the noble houses. 

Through these methods, the Keita'mansa family becomes entrenched on worlds, linked by marriage and blood to other noble houses, and supported by the military and economic might of the Legion, is able to maintain power and control. Often, other houses nominally are higher in authority, directly administering worlds, yet few are foolish enough to think they do not do so at the sufferance of the house of Keita'mansa.