So, this is a question that's been on my mind for a while, and I'd love to poll the community's collective knowledge about it. What do we actually know about the sort of operations conducted by the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas?
We know a fair amount about the way space marines prefer to fight, and what they can and can't do. Rapid response and short, hard-hitting operations seem to be the space marine specialty. Their equipment has some glaring holes in it - no heavy artillery (except for orbital bombardment, which has its limitations), no heavy armor*, a low vehicle count per chapter**, no air superiority fighters***. What space marines do have are a lot of mobility options - jump packs, bikes, drop pods, Thunderhawks, teleporters, and very fast vehicles - and superior infantry. They are equipped for, and described as preferring, commando operations - hard-hitting direct assault against high-value targets using their superior mobility to dictate the terms of engagement, after which the marines withdraw**** or turn over operations to forces better equipped to hold ground or fight large-scale conventional battles, such as the Imperial Guard.
What about the Sororitas? What examples do we have of actual battles they've fought that describe the role they play in a battle? What can we say about how they are and are not equipped to fight? What can we say about how often they are seconded to Imperial Guard or marine forces, how often Imperial Guard or marine forces are seconded to them, and how often they fight alone - and under what circumstances?
I'd love to have actual examples to discuss, although in the absence of actual examples, generalized statements in the fluff will do too.
So how about it, Loungers? I'd love to know what you know.
* Yes, they have Land Raiders, but Land Raiders aren't really tanks per se. They're more like glorified infantry fighting vehicles - rock hard, yes, but they function as transports as much as tanks.
** For instance, we know that your typical space marine chapter maintains between 20 and 30 Predators for the entire chapter - a drop in the bucket compared to the number of tanks an Imperial Guard tank regiment fields, and even a small number compared to the number of tanks some infantry regiments field.
*** Yes, Thunderhawk gunships are tough enough to serve as air (and space) superiority fighters. But given the few numbers of Thunderhawks a space marine strike force fields, and their importance to maintaining the strike force's mobility, a force commander will often refuse to contest the skies rather than put his Thunderhawks at risk, as the Avenging Sons' experience on Taros demonstrates. Of course, the Imperial Guard doesn't have any air superiority fighters either, but I think it's fair to say that the independent nature of space marine operations means that space marines operate without air cover more often than do guardsmen.
**** Even during extended operations during which they are operating alone, as Imperial Armour 2 tells us, space marines will typically withdraw to their starship(s) after each individual engagement to rearm and refit. Space marines are not the types to hold ground, and don't even seem to have any logistical support vehicles except for Thunderhawk transporters.