One of the many zygotes neophytes are implanted with is the Ossmodula. This small organ has a complex function within the body of a Space Marine. It monitors and secretes hormones affecting epiphiseal fusion and ossification of the skeleton while at the same time, engineered hormones encourage the forming bones to absorb ceramic based chemicals administered in the Marines diet. Two years following implantation, the long-bones will have strengthened considerably and there will have been a general increase in the size of the recipients skeleton. Extreme ossification of the chest cavity caused by growth of ribs forming a solid mass of inter-laced bone plates provides a Space Marine with an armoured layer to protect his secondary heart and lungs.

But the Ossmodula zygote of the Black Dragons functions in an abnormal way causing the growth of bony crests on the head, and blade-like protuberances from the forearm and elbow. Like the Death Company of the Blood Angels, warriors inflicted with such abnormal developments are formed into a separate fighting unit. Known as the Dragon Claws, they sharpen these additional protrusions to a killing edge, and sheath them in adamantium to turn them into deadly close combat weapons. This strains the tolerance of the Inquisition and there are many recorded instances of other Space Marines Chapters (notably the Dark Angels and Marines Malevolent) refusing to fight alongside them.

It is even rumoured that the Black Dragon Apothecaries deliberately encourage such growths, even going so far as to knowingly implant aberrant zygotes into some initiates. This is exceptionally dangerous, and the practice is forbidden by Imperial edict, but old traditions die hard as the ferocity of the Dragon Claws is much valued by the Chapter Masters.

Each Chapter is required to send 5% of its genetic material to the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars. This tithe serves two purposes: enabling the Adeptus Mechanicus to monitor the health of each Space Marine chapter, and store gene-seed with a view to founding new chapters. The Adeptus Mechanicus has on several occasions threatened the Black Dragons with military action unless it compiles with this decree and even when the Chapter has submitted genetic data, its veracity has often been considered suspect as each sample provided has passed the most stringent genetic purity checks without fail. Without being able to prove anything, many Adepts believe that the Black Dragons submit genetic material culled from other sources. How this can be possible is unknown and the Adeptus Mechanicus is eager to fully investigate the medical practices within the Black Dragons.

The Minotaurs are a chapter that operate largely within the structure of the Imperial war machine, although the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy have on numerous occasions attempted to investigate them. The Minotaurs, like all other Space Marines chapters are an autonomous organisation, and will therefore only answer a call to arms on their own terms. On many occasions, the Minotaurs have responded to a besieged world`s picas for aid faster than other forces, engaging the enemy in a massive frontal assault and then withdrawing when other chapters would consolidate their position in order to meet a counter-attack. It has been stated by several Imperial commanders that the Minotaurs are an unreliable and unpredictable force that they would prefer to avoid altogether in preference to more tactically balanced, if less assault-orientated allies.

The Minotaurs' most famous action, and the only one for which they have been officially recognised, was their assault on the Lamenters` fleet during the Badab Uprising. The Lamenters, thought also to be a 21st Founding Chapter, had sided with the rebel Astral Claws in the uprising, and the Minotaurs vented their full fury on their wayward km in a series of savage boarding actions that severely depleted the Lamenters' numbers and forced their eventual surrender.

The Legion of the Damned is a legend amongst the Adeptus Astartes. Appearing as ghostly apparitions to aid beleaguered Space Marines, this mysterious force has intervened in desperate battles on numerous occasions. The legionnaires reportedly wear power armour painted black and adorned with symbols of death, skeletons writhing in the flames of purgatory being a dominant theme. Eyewitnesses report the visible areas of the Space Marines` flesh are in a state of decay, lending the legionnaires a horrific, charnel aspect.

The examination of starship debris recovered in the Maran sub-sector suggests a link between the Legion of the Damned and the fate of the Fire Hawks Chapter. The Fire Hawks were declared Lost in the Warp in 983.M41, twenty years after the entire chapter set out for Crows World on a counter-invasion mission against the Eldar. The Inquisition are unsurprisingly keen to discover if the Legion of the Damned and the Fire Hawks are in fact one and the same chapter, and if so, how they gained their mysterious and deadly abilities.

It has been speculated by some Imperial scholars that the inception of the Lamenters was an attempt to utilise the Sanguinius strain of gene-seed, breeding out the deficiencies known to mar that otherwise superior DNA. If such an experiment did in fact take place then its primary objectives seem to have been achieved, in that the Lamenters adhere to a strictly `Codex` formation and the chapter does not field any Death Company. However, the Lamenters appear to have suffered from the most appalling twists of ill fortune and tragedy, and are undoubtedly stricken with a morose curse that is reflected in the bleeding heart and teardrop emblems adorning their power armour.

Two major incidents in the Lamenters history illustrate their continued bad luck. In the last decade of the ninth century of the 41st Millennium, the Lamenters made the mistake of siding with the renegade Astral Claws Chapter in the Badab Uprising. It was later found that it was not any notion of rebellion against the Impenum that brought about the Chapter`s involvement in the uprising. Rather, they viewed the Imperial attack on the Astral Claws, who the Lamenters had crusaded alongside during the Serpentine Straits Wars, as a challenge to the sovereignty and independence of the whole Adeptus Astartes. In short, the Lamenters allowed their pride to dictate their actions, and those actions were ill considered in the extreme.

Following the Lamenters` involvement in the Badab Uprising, they were investigated and eventually granted the Emperor s forgiveness subject to a one hundred year long penitent crusade. The chapters ill luck followed them however, as that crusade led them straight into the jaws of Hive Fleet Kraken. Today, barely three companies of the Lamenters are at large in the galaxy, and it would seem their curse of sorrow and ill fortune follows them still.

Next to nothing is known of the Flame Falcons Chapter, for they were declared Excommunicate within a century of their inception. Initial combat trials involving the chapter were a resounding success, and they were put on active service on the Southern Rim, based on their new homeworld of Lethe. Their first engagements, with Orks and Eldar pirates promised a great future for the chapter, as they were observed to be hardy and courageous, even for Space Marines.

It was at the battle of Raffenburg's World that things began to go awry for the Flame Falcons. At the height of the battle, their largest engagement at that point, the first company were observed to spontaneously immolate at the height of the fiercest fighting against the rebel forces. Fearing witchcraft, the chapter`s commander reinforced the front line and sent for an Inquisitor who was accompanying the Imperial army. When it was reported by the reinforcing Space Marines that the members of the first company were not dead, but were in fact fighting with renewed savagery covered in flames to which they themselves were immune, the commander declared it a miracle, a gift sent from the Emperor.

The Inquisitor had a different opinion. Knowing that he could not assault the Flame Falcons immediately, he bided his time, witnessing the remainder of the chapter undergo the same change as the first company.

Upon the successful completion of the campaign, the Flame Falcons returned to Lethe in celebrant mood convinced, as they were, that their unique ability was a manifestation of the Emperor`s grace. Soon after, the Grey Knights, at the Inquisition`s behest assaulted Lethe, ruthlessly destroying the cursed chapter. It is thought that a small number of Flame Falcons escaped that day, but of their fate, nothing whatsoever is known.

The Sons of Antaeus are only officially recorded in one source: the chronicles of the Third Inter-Guild War of the Inca Sector of 850.M41 to 901.M41. The chapter is listed as having answered the pleas of the Guild Fathers for aid against pirate forces sponsored by business rivals, and according to the records acquitted themselves courageously before departing.

Since that time, a force matching their grey and black livery has been sighted by a number of chapters in the Ultima Segmentum. and these accounts have always made specific mention of the size and apparent hardiness of these mysterious Adeptus Astartes. They arc reportedly capable of surviving hits from weapons that would slaughter another Space Marine.

One such eyewitness account, submitted by Captain Rakman of the Subjugators Chapter, records an incident in which his force found itself under attack by the Eldar of the Void Dragons pirate fleet. Surrounded and under heavy fire by the pirates' ultra-rapid anti-grav vehicles. Rakman states that a force bearing the livery of the Sons of Antaeus appeared unexpectedly and attacked the enemy vehicles from behind. Forced to redeploy, the Eldar suddenly found themselves faced with the prospect of having to make a breakout. The Eldar Falcons and Wave Serpents made straight for the Sons of Antaeus, judging them the lesser of the two Space Marine forces. The incredulous Captain Rakman gives an amazing account of the Sons of Antaeus' stand in the face of a storm of Eldar firepower, against which the mysterious Space Marines stood seemingly impervious. The Subjugators were able to press their attack on the enemy rear as the Sons of Antaeus held the Eldar in place, and the pirates were destroyed in short order, caught between the immovable anvil of the Sons, and the irresistible hammer of the Subjugators.