Editing Celestial Lions

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{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Celestial Lions
|Heraldry = 
|Battle Cry = 
|Number = 
|Founding = 
|Successors of = 
|Successor Chapters = 
|Chapter Master = 
|Primarch = 
|Homeworld = Elysium IX
|Specialty = Messing with the [[Inquisition]]
|Strength = 95, probably 0
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Blue on Gold
}}

The '''Celestial Lions''' (calling them "Celestial ''Loins''" would be a joke in poor taste, given their tremendous losses of late) are a chapter of [[Space Marines]] in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe.  They are an object lesson of what happens to people who try and mess with the [[Inquisition]] without serious backup (like being a [[First Founding]] chapter).

The Celestial Lions came into conflict with the Inquisition over a planet they were pacifying.  After the Lions took out the corrupt leadership and were preparing to head home, the Inquisitor in charge of the mission decided that, if the leadership had been corrupt, the entire planet was probably in league with [[Chaos]], and that [[Exterminatus]] was the only option.  The Celestial Lions were horrified, and when they could not stop the bombing, they decided to file a complaint with the [[High Lords of Terra]].  The ship bearing the delegation "mysteriously" got lost and found itself in [[Ork]]-controlled space; only the wreckage was recovered later.

The Lions didn't let up, and kept pressing for an investigation, right up to the Third War for [[Armageddon]].  The entire chapter got deployed to a single hive, and thanks to spectacularly bad intelligence they ended up outnumbered, unsupported, and taking heavy losses at every battle.  Matters came to a head when "[[Ork]] snipers" managed to take out every [[Apothecary]] remaining in the Chapter, leaving them without any means to recover the [[gene-seed]] from their fallen.  The remaining 95 Lions decided that they would fight off all the Orks on Armageddon or die trying, and presumably died trying.

"[[Ork]] snipers" has since become slang for [[Vindicare]] assassins, or more generally for any implausible cover story for an [[Inquisition]] action.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Space Marines]]