The rank of Lieutenant was restored to the Adeptus Astartes during the sweeping reforms that followed the return of Roboute Guilliman. Recognising that a single captain could no longer answer every demand of a war-torn galaxy, the reborn primarch formalised the office of the Lieutenant to divide and share the weight of company command.
A Lieutenant serves as his captain's deputy and strong right arm, entrusted to lead a portion of the company in independent action or to take up its banner should the captain fall. Typically a company fields two such officers, each a veteran of long service who has proven both martial skill and the harder art of command. They coordinate squads amid the thick of battle, drive home assaults, and hold the line where the fighting is fiercest.
More than battlefield leaders, Lieutenants are officers in the making, tested and tempered against the day they might rise to a captaincy of their own. Equipped from the Chapter's armoury to suit their role, whether with bolt weapons, blades or the tools of the close assault, they embody the flexible, resilient command structure that Guilliman forged to carry the Imperium through the age of the Great Rift.
Order of battle
