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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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They wear [[power armour]]; which, due to the numerous implants the Space Marines possess, they are able to fully interact with.
During the [[Great Crusade]], twenty [[Space Marine Legion]]s under the Emperor of Mankind, unified the fragmented Humanity into a single Imperium.
Half of these legions turned against humanity the Imperium in a rebellion known the Horus Heresy. Under the Emperor's greatest general, the Primarch Horus, these Traitor Legions fought the loyal Legions in a galactic civil war, culminating in a siege of Terra. The Heresy ended only when Horus was slain by the Emperor.
After the Heresy, the vast Legions were divided into the separate Chapters the Astartes now consist of, each numbering a thousand fighting brothers. To this day the loyal Space Marines continue to protect Humanity from aggressive alien species, like the barbaric [[Ork]]s, the mysterious [[Eldar]], their renegade kin the piratical [[Dark Eldar]], the technological and idealistic [[Tau]], the voracious [[Tyranids]] and the ancient [[Necrons]], besides many other alien races. Alongside these threats to mankind's continued dominance are their former brothers, the [[Chaos Space Marines]], who survive and remain a threat to this day.
There are at any one time roughly a thousand Space Marine Chapters. As of 765.[[M41]], 13 chapters have been lost in the [[warp]], 21 destroyed through irrecoverable battle losses, nine destroyed by [[gene-seed]] failure, four by [[Inquisition|inquisitorial]] purges and 16 lost through other circumstances.<sup>1</sup>
