Celestial Lions

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Celestial Lions
Battle Cry	"We are the Emperor's pride. Hear us roar!"
Founding	Sometime in the 38th Millennium
Successors of	Imperial Fists
Chapter Master	Ekene Dubaku
Primarch	Rogal Dorn
Homeworld	Elysium IX
Strength	Less than 95, rebuilding
Specialty	Messing with the Inquisition, flanking tactics
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Gold, with blue helmet and pauldrons

The Celestial Lions (calling them "Celestial Loins" would be a joke in poor taste, given their tremendous losses of late) are a chapter of Space Marines in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are an object lesson of what happens to people who try and mess with the Inquisition without serious backup (like being a First Founding chapter). It is unknown if the Inquisition is going to survive the return object lesson of what happens to those who fuck with the Space Marines. Especially Space Marines who are now best-buds with the Black Templars.

The Celestial Lions came into conflict with the Inquisition over a planet they were pacifying. After the Lions took out the corrupt leadership and were preparing to head home, the Inquisitor in charge of the mission decided that, if the leadership had been corrupt, the entire planet was probably in league with Chaos, and that Exterminatus was the only option. The Celestial Lions were horrified, and when they could not stop the bombing, they decided to file a complaint with the High Lords of Terra. The ship bearing the delegation "mysteriously" got lost and found itself in Ork-controlled space; only the wreckage was recovered later. The Lions still didn't get the hint that they should stay quiet, and the Inquisition decided to silence their complaints for good.

Fast-forward to the Third War for Armageddon. The entire chapter was deployed to a single hive, and thanks to spectacularly bad intelligence they ended up outnumbered, unsupported, and taking heavy losses at every battle. Matters came to a head when "Ork snipers" managed to take out most of the survivors (especially the Apothecaries), and their last Apothecary was found dead next to his Rhino (having been shot through the head at point-blank range with a lasgun), leaving them without any means to recover the gene-seed from their fallen. The remaining 95 Lions realized that they had been marked for death and decided that they would fight off all the Orks on Armageddon or die trying, and contacted Chaplain Grimaldus of the Black Templars to administer the last rites for them, but he insisted that the remainder of the Chapter could still restore its honor (and thus be allowed to leave) by slaying the warlord leading the Ork forces in the area. While much of the remaining forces of the Celestial Lions were wiped out in the attack, they were successful in redeeming themselves in the eyes of the Emperor. Their only surviving Pride Leader (i.e. Squad Sergeant) was then named the new Chapter Master and given a couple of parting gifts by High Marshal Helbrecht himself: a suit of relic Imperial Fists power armor dating back to the Great Crusade and the Strike Cruiser Blade of the Seventh Son.

Now they're trying to rebuild with the help of a temporary detachment of Black Templars (probably including some apothecaries), although it'll be hard considering there's less than ninety-five of them left. Then again, the Invaders, another Imperial Fists Successor Chapter, recovered from losses in less than a century after being reduced to 12 Marines in total. Plus, while the Inquisition may get away with bullying later-founded chapters, it would be tantamount to suicide for anyone to mess with a second founding chapter (The largest one, in fact), since these chapters directly descended from the original Astartes legions and is commonly close to their parent chapter (Who are pretty much one of the few organizations in the Imperium who can openly flip the bird on the Inquisition without severe reprisal.).

"Ork snipers" has since become slang for Vindicare assassins, or more generally for any implausible cover story for an Inquisition action.

Incidentally, they're the only black Marines who aren't descended from Vulkan.

Gallery

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  Black Templars Grimaldus and Pride Leader Ekene Dubaku kickin' Ork assess
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  Check out Ekene Dubaku's bolter... Totally awesome.
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  Artworks for these guys are about as few as what's left of them.
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  So True.
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  We present to you, the celestial lions!