The answer to my question could be any kind of unit type in the lore, but I'm not wondering about specific named regiment. I'm more wondering about what types or patterns could realistically pull off the same operational objectives as space marines, since statistically speaking, space marines are so rare they could disappear with a rounding error.

In preparation for the many users who will be returning with the YouTube release of The Last Act, the moderation team reminds you all to adhere to our rules against bigotry, hate speech, and unnecessary drama. And so, we want to take this moment to reaffirm a few things.

1. Our subreddit exists for the purpose of being an open forum where fans of all ages (13+) can engage with the wider fandom safely and positively. Discussions, debates, theory crafting, head canons, are all welcome as a part of the general spirit of free speech.

2. We will not tolerate bigotry of any kind, including but not limited to sexism, racism, xenophobia, and transphobia.

3. Debates and disagreements can, and should, be conducted without attacking/insulting another user's identity or personhood. Deliberately goading users, trolling, harassing, or escalating arguments with a provocative tone will count as unnecessary drama, even if the content of the words are not explicitly harmful speech.

4. Do not spam low-effort posts. Especially with fans being eager to share their thoughts, there will likely be a lot of activity as it is. Low effort posts would include images with no elaboration, posts that are just one or two sentences that don't offer much opportunities for engagement, or posts where everything is within the title. If it's short enough to be a comment, then it ought to remain as a comment.

5. Adhere to the artwork guidelines if you're going to share your own art or artwork from other artists. It's all in Rule 4. I don't want to deal with dozens of art posts that don't have credits. Don't make us do it, we will delete uncredited art.

6. Don't argue with people who are offending or attacking you or someone else. Report them to the mod team, block them, and continue about your day.

Finally: We created a megathread for Episode 9 discussions after the theatrical release. But, if you want to have discussions on a thread that is post-YouTube release, this post will serve as an overflow discussion board.

Thank you for your time, my wacky wonderful waiting watchers. Silence your cellphones, heat up that poppy corn, and enjoy the show.

For users who want to share the results of the TADC personality test that has recently gotten popular, please constrain it to the comments of this post. Otherwise, I will be deleting them. We don't need dozens of low-effort posts flooding the feed.

Chapter 9: https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/1sst9ct/fanfiction_sisters_of_larune_chapter_9_by_ari_wu/

Chapter 10: Further Years at the Shadow Temple

Despite being a desert mesa, the Shadow Temple’s home base is surrounded by many lakes, not just the one on our training plateau. Some are filled from underground sources, which I was told connected to the icy mountains to the west and north, through vast underground reservoirs. Other lakes are filled annually by the few weeks of torrential rain that occurs. Hundreds of years ago the ancestors of the mesa tribes took fine fish from the rivers and neighboring tribes and filled the many lakes. 

These fish gave us ample sources of food, and we did not need to return to the temple between training excursions except for rituals, or specific training on how to use power armor.

Our war games continued for several months, sometimes on that plateau, other times we took week-long excursions westward to high-reaching mountains where we trained climbing and forest fighting. In those places, where it was high enough to have snow and tall woodland trees, I far surpassed my sisters who grew up in the desert mesas. 

Thus I began to feel a little better about myself, feelings that soon went away whenever we returned to the drier climes.

“You too used to having your Vaza rune,” Many-Blessings told me, once. “You are used to being the hunter, always seeing your prey. You conceal yourself well, but choose locations that are obvious because they provide many lines of sight. It is not merely that you must be unseen, but that the enemy cannot even know you are there.”

“How am I supposed to hide from intuition?”

“One advantage is that our enemies are not as wild and free as animals. They will have their own goals and their own paths. You do not need to choose the best spot, only a spot that will allow you to counter the enemy where they are.”

I needed time to understand it instinctually. In the mesas there are few trees and many stone landmarks, and from a good spot it is easy to judge distance and have many sight lines on an enemy. To master the art of ambush and sniping was to be an artist when balancing the need for concealment and having access to a wide firing range. 

The traditional firearm of most tribes is a breach-loading rifle, with black powder made from crushed charcoal and minerals scraped from caves. But, these were useless against our enemies, and so we were instructed in some rudimentary alchemy to produce stronger weapons. We learned to use mineral vitriol in combination with nitrous minerals and potash into nitrous water, and how to impregnate the solution into wood pulp to make a fast-burning powder. 

The identification of quicksilver, distillation of liquid spirits, and the “fulmination reaction” which made the priming charges in our paper bullets, also all eventually became routine to me. It was absolutely necessary. Before they allowed us to train with live rounds, we needed to master making replacement ammunition. 

Any shot we wasted, we would need to make again ourselves. It was nowhere near the quality of secrets kept by the Rune or Forge Temples, but with the knowledge, the Shadow Temple maintained its own ammunition without outside reliance. 

Even then, most of us preferred our bows and spears. A good archer with rune-sight, when the arrow has runes of speed and flight painted on them, can reliably pin a screech-hawk to a tree from one hundred meters away. And, it was far more silent than a gun. 

The cycles of concealment, dueling, and wrestling training finally came to an end for me almost exactly two years later, when a messenger from the Rune Temple arrived with an opportunity.

Sister Swift-as-a-Viper found me on the plateau with my cohort, locked in wrestling drills with another veteran sister. I had made good use of my lessons and even managed to demonstrate a swift arm-pull and hip-toss. Sister Viper called the drills to a halt and had all the girls assemble in a line by the bank of the lake.

“The Rune Temple has detected a strong presence of spirits in one of the tribes just north of the mesa. The cause is unknown, so they want one of our teams to identify it. Many of you have waited for an opportunity to test yourselves, hoping for a real mission that will raise you to the rank of a true Sister. And many of you are indeed worthy. If you are not chosen for this mission, trust that it is not your skill that is in question, it is simply the needs of the task at hand.”

Her words were nicer than what Sister Lucky-Eagle would have said. Sister Eagle might not have said any reassurances at all. 

“The duty calls for two teams of four. The first will be Team Alpha.” Sister Viper called out four names, older girls who were all nearly twenty, practically fully fledged Sororitas except in name. No one held their breath, because it was expected that they would be picked. “Next will be Team Beta. Grace-of-Summers, go collect your equipment.”

All eyes turned towards me. In fact, I myself had so low expectations to be called that I did not even stand for a moment. Only when River-Lily nudged me in the back did I jump to my feet. “Of course, madam,” I said in the most disciplined way I knew how, and quickly went to my tent to collect my gear. The three who soon followed to join me were Plentiful-Tides, Heart-of-Peace, and Blazing-Petal.

After we had gathered our belongings and were waiting for our sand raptors, Many-Blessings found me and asked me to reconsider the mission. “I don’t know why you are needed for this mission, but I worry you are not ready,” she told me. “Many of us have been here longer. You’ve learned so much, but even you know you have many areas to improve. You should ask Sister Viper to reconsider.”

“Who do you think should go instead?” I asked.

“I have lived with the Shadow Temple for longer than most of the other trainees,” Many-Blessings said. “Don’t you think I stand a better chance of surviving this mission?”

“We hardly know what the mission is, except that it may involve sinister spirits,” I told her. “I have faith that our sisters have good reasons for their choices.” I then placed a hand on her shoulder as I consoled her. “I will remember everything you have taught me, and should I return with victory, I will have you to thank as much as our instructors.”

I wanted to say more to convince her of my convictions, but just then, Sister Viper arrived with eight sand-raptors to take us northward to our mission. 

One of my favorite things about Andor is how it portrays the complications of organizing a rebellion, a topic which I'm sure is in no way relevant to the needs and demands of the modern day. My brief academic experience with revolution is primarily with the populist movements in Russia at the tail end of the Russian Empire (and the Cathars during the Albigensian Crusade, if you want to count that as a 'revolution') and I find it remarkable how true to history the show can feel sometimes.

But more than that, the show is great at taking the events happening in the wider world of its story and consolidating their ideas into the inner conflicts of the characters. The titular character and natural rebel Cassian is the clearest example, but in my view, Wilmon Paak is an even better example of how Gilroy managed to do this with his characters.

S1 of Andor shows the difference between Wil and Cass with how they interact with people, rebellion, and where they begin in their journey. Cassian Andor is a natural rebel, born and raised on the fringes of centralized imperial society in every possible way. Without Luthen, Marva's own convictions might have pushed him to join the rebellion anyways. Cassian does not show us how a rebellion builds new members, it shows us how it recruits its key members.

Wilmon is the opposite. Wilmon's introduction to rebellion and violence comes about when he builds a bomb to take revenge for the torture and execution of his father. Wil is a mechanic and engineer, not a thief or a fighter. But those are the skills Luthen's form of rebellion needs, as it is technical skills that allow the rebels to utilize imperial infrastructure to their own goals.

The best scene where Wil synthesizes the two extremes of The Rebellion is with Saw and the Rhydonium. Saw's monologue about them symbolically being the Rhydo itself, the fuel in the air that catches fire when there's friction, represents Saw's perspective on the true spirit of a rebel. To him, Luthen's plans and spies are tools, to be used but not trusted, and not the root of who they are. Saw's intent can't be confirmed, maybe he wanted to completely bring Wilmon over to his group and make him abandon Luthen, or maybe he just wanted to spread the fires a little bit more, but it definitely pushes a marked change in Wilmon.

Wilmon doesn't leave Luthen, but we also see that he isn't completely like Cassian either, who is more willing to step away from Luthen's mission and fight his own fight. Wilmon IS inflamed by Saw and does become more like Saw when it comes to the intensity of his dedication, but that passion is applied to Luthen's methods and operations.

It's Wilmon who ultimately keeps the receiver for Kleya's radio, the last line of connection to Luthen's operations. The young man who began as a just someone angry and lashing out ended up being caught between two opposite extremes of the Rebellion, Luthen and Saw, the shadows and the fires.

He is the entire Rebellion wrapped up in one character, beginning to end. The question of "how do you build a rebellion" is inseparable from the question of "how do you build a rebel." Remember, Cassian was and always will be a rebel, but rebellions can't rely only on those who are already fighting, they need to stir up new resistance and keep the ones who join. For all of Luthen's good work, he himself cannot build a rebel. It is too dangerous for him to be in the field fighting beside his comrades. But not Saw. He is there at the frontlines of battle, prepared to live, fight, and die. Is he paranoid and short-sighted? Yes. But he needs to be.

To inspire a rebel, you need the mind who manage the threads of espionage and the voice who can speak over people's self-interests and distractions. And if you have enough ideal rebels like Wilmon Paak who can bring both sides together, Gilroy shows us that you will have yourself a rebellion.

I'm doing a shek playthrough and finally managed to kidnap and kill the Phoenix. I bring his body to Bayan and speak to Esata afterwards.

She initiates the first part of her dialogue saying I'm a warrior of Kral now, and I'm allied to the sheks at 100 positive relations. But she doesn't complete the ceremony and doesn't tell me to take Seto with me. The Invincibles and Seto all just run up to me for a second and then continue their normal routines.

What am I missing?