A question about Ultramar (40k)

[Cykeisme]

they visit worlds only for recruits when needed they don't even have a homeworld (their Chapter Keep is mounted on a Battlebarge)

Don't the Black Templars operate in the same way?

Not quite. The Templars build new chapter keeps when it suits them, uses them for a period of time as they're still viable, and when the crusades move on they gut the places and bring the stuff over to the new crop of keeps.

They still consider the abandoned keeps their territory, and anyone setting foot on it is trespassing.. particularly if it's foul xenos or blasphemous heretics.
Indeed, one of the scenario missions on the Black Templars page on the GW site is about just this: the Black Templars come back to a keep abandoned centuries ago, only to find hostile squatters. "Purge!" and all that ensues.

[Tasoth]

I think it should be important to note that, for every battle brother, there's quite a number of recruits who never make it up the full progression of organ implants. I highly doubt the chapter just lets these folks go or turns them into servitors, most likely putting them somewhere in the administration of the chapter. I wouldn't be surprised if civilians of a similar aptitude as that of a not-battle brother got passed over so these individuals could be moved up the ladder.

Also, someone who isn't a full space marine because of a organ's failure to implant doing something heroic would make for one helluva story. If someone feels like using that seed, go right ahead.

[fgalkin]

I think that those who do not make battle brother because their body rejects the implants tend to be very very dead.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Tasoth]

I think that those who do not make battle brother because their body rejects the implants tend to be very very dead.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

IIRC, there's at least one story where a initiate who didn't take to the second heart implant is consigned to work in the tech department with a very old piece of technology that's kinda like a giant VR simulator. That the Chaos Marine who was generated in there used him as a portal right into the heart of a fortress is something else.

[Hawkwings]

Wasn't a chaos marine, was a chaos sorceror. Creepy story, it's in the "Let the Galaxy Burn" collection.

[Imperial Overlord]

The guys who can't accept some of the implants but survive usually become chapter serfs.

[Teebs]

I remember reading a Space Wolfs book where they seemed to essentially run the spaceships in the chapter fleet, so they do play an important role.

[Imperial Overlord]

I remember reading a Space Wolfs book where they seemed to essentially run the spaceships in the chapter fleet, so they do play an important role.

Not quite. Chapter serfs form the crews of most chapter's ships, but the Space Wolves don't hold their washouts as serfs. Everyone on their ships is free warrior, in keeping with their Viking motif.

[Cykeisme]

So what do Space Wolves do with their washouts? Do they still serve as unaugmented human warriors?

[Karza]

So what do Space Wolves do with their washouts? Do they still serve as unaugmented human warriors?

Going by the novel Space Wolf, failing some test or another generally means dying. During the entire ordeal of Ragnar's initiation, there isn't a single case who washes out but survives. The third edition Space Wolves codex however does have a short story about a Space Wolf initiate who reminisces about past tests:

There had been other tests. Many of the other initiates had failed those and Haakon was one of the few left. Haakon's blood brother Asal had been killed in the trial of the Thunderwolf, Egil and Torsul had been reduced to mere bondsmen after their injuries in the trial of the Iron Wolf. Haakon grimaced when he recalled the contempt he had felt for the Space Wolves' machine-slaves when he first saw them, little realising that the Iron Priests would change him into one if he failed any of the trials yet had the temerity to survive his failure.

Emphasis mine. I suppose you could interpret the last sentence as meaning that all failed but living recruits get turned into servitors, but I find that a bit doubtful because the Ragnar novels never mention such a practice, and at least one of the novels (Grey Hunter IIRC) did mention chapter bondsmen but they weren't stated to be servitors.

My guess is the really badly mauled cases are turned to servitors, more intact ones become bondsmen/chapter serfs. Grey Hunter makes it quite clear though that at least the majority of bondsmen serving as starship crew aren't failed recruits, but normal Fenrisian warriors.