Speaking of Salamanders and the Codex, there's something I wanted to get out of the way so it doesn't confuse people going forward.
Namely, the Company organization of the Salamanders. Games Workshop, being their usual selves, have been incredibly inconsistent about it over the years, leaving me with quite the headache.
The issue is this: each of the Salamanders Companies is said to correspond to and recruit exclusively from one of the seven Sanctuary-Cities of Nocturne: Themis, Epimethus, Heliosa, Aethonian, Clymene, Hesiod and Skarokk. Each city houses a Chapter Bastion in which the corresponding Company spends their time mingling among the mortals and even their former families. The Veteran 1st Company dwells on the moon of Prometheus and the Scout Company has no permanent base, roaming the deserts and mountains of Nocturne. All well and good.
Except, if you've been keeping up, that would give us nine Companies. But every detailed depiction of the Salamanders organization shows they have seven. Not seven line Companies plus Veterans and Scouts, but seven total. So how the hell does that work? Does one city only produce Scouts, and one city is so awesome they instantly become Veterans? Or are there just two cities that aren't allowed to become Salamanders? No, that's ridiculous. The 8th edition codex supplement tries to fix this by saying the ties between city and Company are "just ceremonial" but frankly that's rubbish. Close ties with their mortal roots are the cornerstone of Salamander lore.
There is another matter as well, which is that the Salamanders Companies are overstrength at twelve Squads except for the Scouts. So if we take the approach of them having nine Companies, twelve Squads per Company ends with them being overstrength compared to a Codex Chapter, even though they're consistently described as understrength and few in number.
Personally, I suspect that what happened was that the original intent was for nine Companies of normal size, with each Line Company corresponding to a Sanctuary-City. But then GW writers in their infinite wisdom saw the line "Each of the Salamanders' seven line Companies is recruited exclusively from one of the seven settlements of Nocturne" and what they took away from that was that they only have seven Companies. And then they decided to buff them up to 120 per Company to make up for it.
I could just say that the Salamanders have nine normal-sized Companies, but I actually quite like the Salamander Company organization of seven Tactical Squads, two Assault Squads and three Devastator Squads, which reflects how they don't like using Jump Packs and prefer focusing on firepower. Gives them unique flavor.
But that leaves us with a bit of a problem as to how to resolve this inconsistency of the Salamanders being over- and understrength at the same time.
And, for the purposes of this Quest, the solution is this:
Salamanders have nine Companies, 1st being the Veteran Company, 2nd-8th being Line Companies with the Scout Company as the 9th.
All recruits regardless of birth start in the Scout Company, which is usually smaller than most other Chapters due to stringent aspirant standards and Nocturne's low population, but as with other Chapters doesn't have a set size due to the random fluctuations of recruitment numbers from year to year. From there, once they ascend to become a fully-fledged Marine instead of progressing through the Reserve Companies they are placed with the Line Company that corresponds to the Sanctuary-City from which they hail. Typically Marines remain within their Company unless ascending to the First Company or one of the specialist branches, though transfers are possible if rare should a particular Marine be better suited to another Company.
2nd-6th are Battle Companies consisting of seven Tactical Squads, two Assault Squads and three Devastator Squads, while the 7th and 8th are the Tactical and Devastator Companies, consisting of eight Tactical Squads and four Devastator Squads as well as eight Devastator Squads and four Tactical Squads, respectively. Though called Reserve Companies as a nod to the Codex and to easier explain them to those outside of the Chapter, the 7th and 8th Companies function as equals to the Battle Companies rather than support elements, their specialized compositions reflecting the culture of their home city and their role within the Chapter's battle line, these being vehicles pilots and heavy firepower.
Notably, despite their nominal strength of 120 Astartes, the Line and Veteran Companies rarely if ever reach full strength due to both the Salamanders' low recruitment rate and how active they are in the Imperium's defence, eschewing tactics that would reduce Astartes casualties at the expense of civilian lives. As such, the Chapter is perpetually understrength, squads seldom reaching full ten members.
The above may not be quite canon, or rather it's pieced together from multiple differing sources and welded together with bits of headcanon, but in my opinion it's the best way to resolve it in a way that's both internally consistent while preserving what's unique about the Salamanders, and so that's the way it will be in Bulwark Against the Terror.
