Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

= History of Super-Soldier Augmentations in the Imperium =

In this timeline the Astartes were developed as a continuation of the previous Super Soldier projects that the Emperor, then known as the Warlord, began. As the Unification Wars progressed he salvaged the notes and recruited the adepts (e.g., Duscht Jemanic genesmiths, Merikan gene-hippy conclaves) responsible for the super soldiers created by his rivals and incorporated them into his projects.

Early Thunder Warriors and the more refined late Thunder Warriors were designed by the Warlord's people. The early designs of Thunder Warrior were blunt instruments that required constant medical care, a strict diet and drugs. And even then they were prone to serious psychological problems, organ failure and strokes. Angron was of this generation and it was considered a miracle that he lived as long as he did even with the best doctors the Emperor, then Steward, could give him.

Later designs of TWs were still a fair bit crazy but needed nowhere near the same levels of medication and only occasionally dropped dead for no discernible reason. Perty and Morty were of this design.

Early stage (Mark I) Astartes were made with access to the expertise of conquered/allied nations. They only required drugs to undo malformation from imperfect implementation of the upgrades. Astartes without the extras like poison glands, suspended animation, learn from eating brains, instant tanning or waxy protective sweat. Mentally reasonably stable.

The Canis Helix/Dog Soldier design was made during this time as a possible alternative to Astartes project. Scrapped due to increased mutation rate and the fact that it was genetic rather than due to implants, meaning it could be passed down if someone managed to crack the gene encryption (which would be bad, as the Warlord did not want a caste of enhanced humans ruling over the rest). Of the surviving successes Russ was the most famous. Russ resurrected the project on Fenris and after some...setbacks (introducing "wolves" to Fenris) managed to ironed out some of the kinks to the point where the Canis Helix was at least militarily viable (with the caveat that he only managed to get it to reliably work on people with genetic markers specific to Fenris). Adopted by no one else.

Mark II Astartes were made with help from the Orioc exiles and Merikan gene-hippies, and incorporated improvements form Fulgrim's reverse engineered Astartes Mk1 enhancements 

Mark III S Astartes were the prototype for the modern form of Space Marine (the Mark III MP). Were made once Ducht Jemanic joined the Imperium. Outperformed the older models (as well as the Mark III MP Astartes) in almost every respect, but were more expensive, more time consuming, and potential candidates were at least an order of magnitude smaller due to compatibility issues. Only used by three institutions: Grey Knights, Custodes, and (unofficially) the Sons of Antaeus. As a result, Steward told his various geneticists he wanted limit the improvements to reasonable stuff like bug fixes, reduced rejection, and slight enhancements from the Mark II.

Sororitas augmentations came much later, when the group became an official military order following the Age of Apostasy. Recieve discrete cybernetics and limited gene-forging. Essentially an army of Halo SPARTANS or Captain Americas (that is, an absolute nightmare for a baseline human, but still not capable of taking on an Astartes in a straight fight). In terms of augmentations, lean more towards peak human than walking tanks

Because the primarchs aren't artificially engineered demi-gods with gene-seed being specifically derived from each one, aspirants are often shuffled around based on aptitude and chapters are not as constrained by gene-seed availability. The only exceptions are the Space Wolves and Iron Hands, who aren't technically Space Marines, and chapters who deliberately cultivate mutations.

Adeptus Custodes are created from the same gene-seed variation that created the Grey Knights, the only other institution that officially makes use of it.

Their job is to accompany the Emperor and Isha state visits and given the size of the Imperium they are never not on state visits or surprise inspections. It's felt that they give a certain sense of class to the proceedings in their blinged out armour and the casual ease by which they carry enough badass to fuck up a city each.

When not standing around looking fabulous they are assigned to bodyguard other people. Various Sector and Sub-sector Governors, major hiveworld and trad hub planetary governors, sometimes heads of the larger religions, High Lords of Terra and a few others. Basically people who are so important that their death would impact Imperial stability. Or possibly people who are really important but the Emperor doesn't trust completely.

Imperial Army exists, and has various contingents of augmented soldiers and officers that are not Astartes, just as Space Marine chapters have un-augmented second-line troops and logistics staff. The Army is not automatically under the command of Astartes, or vice versa. Job usually goes to who has the most impressive record for managing and winning fuck huge wars rather than who has the biggest collection of ork trigger finger necklaces. Every Astartes behind a desk is one not on the field of war, where they usually want to be and what they were built for. Usually.

Broken down old relics who can't tread the warpath any more often take administrative jobs in the Imperial war machine because it's something to do that isn't completely alien. Also some space marines are just really good at it to the point where it would be a waste not to use them in such a manner, they are rare.