Expedition Fleet

An Expedition or Expeditionary Fleet was the standard Imperial exploratory spacefaring force during the Great Crusade.

Originating from Terra, the Imperial Expeditionary Fleets dispersed all over the galaxy, carrying out the Emperor's vision of uniting known space under the banner of Humanity. Expedition Fleets had a wide remit. Their primary mission was to find lost human colony worlds and bring them into the bosom of the Imperium. Secondary missions involved the exploration of space, the cataloging of everything found, the claiming of resources in the name of the Emperor and the elimination of any alien threats.

The unification of human worlds did not always proceed without incident, as not all lost worlds showed immediate interest in making themselves subservient to the Imperium. In these cases, compliance with Imperial directives was enacted with the use of military force. These situations, as well as the ever-present alien threat, resulted in Expedition Fleets having a strong armed contingent, and usually being under the command of a military officer. Each of the Primarchs was able to, and often did, command an Expeditionary Fleet, attaching to it the majority of their Legion. Most Fleets had no Astartes presence at all, although some Primarchs split their Legions into small detachments that they parceled out to various expeditionary forces.

Known Expeditionary Fleets

In the 203rd year of the Great Crusade, War Council logs indicated that there were

• 4,287 expedition fleets engaged in active exploration
• 372 expedition fleets engaged in refit and repair
• 60,000 (approx.) detached compliance groups involved in occupation and colonisation¹

4th Expedition

• Primarch Lion El'Jonson
• Dark Angels Adeptus Astartes

The Dark Angel contingent of the 4th Expedition replaced one of similar size made up of White Scars Space Marines led by an officer named Sheng Khan.²

12th Expedition

• Primarch Roboute Guilliman³

27th Expedition

• Raven Guard Adeptus Astartes⁴

28th Expedition

• Primarch Fulgrim
• Emperor's Children Adeptus Astartes
• Archite Palatines Imperial Army Regiment³

52nd Expedition

• Primarch Ferrus Manus
• Iron Hands Adeptus Astartes³

63rd Expedition

• Warmaster Horus
• Luna Wolves Adeptus Astartes
• Byzant Janizars Imperial Army Regiment
• Legio Mortis Titan Legion¹

140th Expedition

• Captain Khitas Frome
• Blood Angels Adeptus Astartes (3 Companies)
• unnamed Army Regiment (4,000 strong)¹

670th Expedition Fleet

• Lord Commander Teng Namitjira
• Geno Five-Two Chiliad Imperial Army Regiment
• Zanzibari Hort Imperal Army Regiment
• Crescent-Sind Sixth Torrent Imperial Army Regiment
• Outremar Imperial Army Regiment
• Regnault Thorns Imperal Army Regiment
• Legio Xerxes Titan Legion

Primarch Alpharius and an Alpha Legion force fought as part of the 670th Fleet during the Nurth campaign, but stood outside the order of battle. Overall command remained with Namitjira.⁵

Sources

• ¹:Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
• ²:Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon
• ³:Fulgrim by Graham McNeill
• ⁴:Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter
• ⁵:Legion by Dan Abnett