Serfs and Serf accessories

Proposal: An overhaul of the foundation of our chapter, our Serfs. Without the backbone of our serfs the chapter would be severely hampered in their efforts to organize and or simply be active as an organization. As would any, if not most chapters. In them lie our independence and efficiency. That is why I believe it warrants a closer look for several reasons and to several ends

1) The more effective our serfs our the more effective we will be. A bolter is not its design only, it is also the quality of its components. The same can be said of the Ghosts in the effectiveness of our Librarius, our forges, our chaplaincy. Our serfs are as much of the chapter as them and deserve no less care.

2) By all accounts the Ghosts are a chapter representing what the Imperium was meant to be by the decree of the Emperor. Man coming together from all walks of life aspiring to a goal. The survival and exaltment of humanity. We toil, suffer, die, and fight with humanity. Ours tested and battered but made stronger for it. That effort and will must be impressed to every facet of the Imperium we come across.

3) A common mistake everywhere in the Imperium is that suffering is what makes humanity strong, it is just the way of life. And as true as that can be we need to be able to tell the lowliest of men, when the gates of hell itself open and personally reach out to his soul, that there is something better in every way possible. Because when it reaches him and calls to him what reason would he in hell have to refuse hell?

Life
Something that I don't doubt is that serfs in our chapter are well treated. But something I've come to be surprised by I'd the instances of serfs living horrid lives with little care even amongst the pragmatic and less severe chapters. Simply the idea is that a serf should never die of a lack of need. Sickness, starvation, or thirst. There are chapters who refuse seeds access to apothecarion even. Such shouldn't be our way. The least we can offer the men and women willingly dedicating their lives to our service and pleasure is a comfortable bed, food and drink not recycled for decades, and not having to waste away or watch their loved ones die of illness easily treated by our facilities. These could also represent surplus war supplies our chapter can deploy to beleaguered worlds in the system. An expansion of facilities and function that I think the tombstone's massive size can easily accommodate as well as serving as new portion of the tombstone we can definitively mark as safe and claimed. They can also serve to house even more human soldiers and or refugees in the case of another siege. Bolstering our effective armed and strategically useful population.

Combat

Serfs on average are better than PDF, an imperial guard regiment, and debatably on par with a Storm Trooper. A claim made based upon the fact that a serf is someone who has failed our trials as gruelling as they are but are still able to keep up with demigods of war and be of assistance. They are able to man our ships, they are able to fight and die with us if need be. So why neglect it? There are many instances of humans directly fighting alongside space Marines be it troopers or sisters of battle. I say we in fact encourage the training and arming of our serfs into a new class. One used not only by Ultramarines but their successors the Helots. Serfs given even further training and education in combat and battlefield tactics to the point that they can serve as Adjutant to space Marines in battlefield operations and or diplomacy. The case for their effectiveness in this role could be made by the Mentors who a lieutenant was able to operate on par with the efficiency of a space marine squad with three helots assisting him and his armour's calculations and fire support. As well as being trusted confidants in extended missions requiring a single or handful of space Marines.

They could have application on the field as direct troops. Supplementing the strike forces as elite regiments able to operate on shadow wars hit and run, or supporting PDF or Guard forces. Line breakers, ground takers, skirmishers, saboteurs. They can serve as extensions of everything we are in theaters of importance but one that battle brothers can't take on due to numbers or complete force. Or they could be advanced engineer corps or Medicaes. They have an incredible range of potential application.

They also can operate planetside in peace establishing an even deeper means of connection to the world's we visit. Representatives of our chapter trusted, well-treated, exalted, given position respect and power. And they're human. Military officers, diplomats, surgeons, architects, etc Be it haunting the Emperor's enemies as a ghost or serving directly with us it's something even more people can hope and aspire to. Both ends that directly. Benefit the system and the Imperium. Through the effort of its goal and the direct execution. Further opening our avenues of recruitment and support as well as strengthening the Imperium. Serfs trained by the officers and the chapter from the companies to the forges to the librarius.

Our serfs have served for generations, traditions of honor, fealty, and servitude are ingrained. Entire houses, dynasties, and clans of serfs are bound to us in blood, sweat, and death. We trust them with our lives already. It would be shocking if this was a matter of a lack of trust. Of course it's one of legality and that of space Marines raising armed forces. I already offer that it is a precedence set by the ultramarines a chapter we have close ties with and is not the ultramar pdf force but something more intimate and related to the chapter. There is also the distinction that Serfs are also exempt from the structure of the Imperium. They are not a seperate entity of the ghosts and our chapter but one born of it and of it. In nature and law.

Utility

Another easily observable function of the serfs would be to integrate them into our spy networks and creating a dedicated section of it. They are objectively the perfect base for a spy. They're utterly loyal and devoted, highly trained, surrounded by a wealth of experience and knowledge in the field, and are one with the chapter itself. Even the Ultramarines had an office dedicated to the role called the Vigil Opertii. It is also the perfect place to get an heir for Xypthus in place. While a dedicated and lauded part of the chapter he is also observably independent and not of us. He is fully capable and able to stop working for us and at the same time his line of work is very dangerous and bloody as well as the result of painstainking years of effort and work.in the event of his death it must remain as strong and well gripped as it was when he lived.


Enhancement/Ramblings
We possess the Tome of the Raven. It contains vast swathes of biological information readily available to us. I would never dare to suggest we do anything to space Marines beyond repairing geneseed if possible. But I would suggest we have someone study it intensively, searching for augments applicable to humans. Better gene-therapies, culturing, better bionics, gene-expressions. Research that can lead to is creating our own gland war veterans or some such enhanced soldier. They would not only be valuable to any place we send them but the information and process itself would be immensely valuable should we choose to disseminate. Should we choose we could even begin the project with the assistance of the Magos Biologis of the local forge worlds. This also presents a opportunity to further our ties with Mormark not only training the heirs but offering them extensive surgeries and augmentations that ensure and extend their capability and function as well as better rejuvat processes if any are to be found