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After the battle is won, do they bother to retrieve the pods or do they leave them to be recycled on planet?

I think they reuse them

Not sure.... come to think of it, the imperium always seem to have a billion of them...

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Drop_Pod wrote:Although the Pods become immobile after having landed they can be recovered by the Chapter's Techmarines and reused.

Thanks for that Phloop, I figured they did re-use them but have never read anything official.

what do they use to pick them up?

Logical choice would be the Thunderhawk gunships or varients

THIS IS HOW ITS DONE!

Man can you imagine being the "marine" who has to fly around on a Thunderhawk all day and pick up "eggs" with a mechanical claw?



I bet that job beats out dentists for the highest scuicide rate....

Marines have support staff, I doubt any marine would do that. Sounds like a job for some IG lacky.

jabbakahut wrote:Marines have support staff, I doubt any marine would do that. Sounds like a job for some IG lacky.

Oh by the Golden Throne.

Firstly, I introduce Igor Marnason, Scribe and Mystic to Inqustior Bjorn Erikson:
"Your assertion that an "IG lacky" would be responsible for the recovery of "Drop Pods" as they are known is somewhat misguided. Equipment of any kind used by the Adeptus Astrates is considered by the majority of chapters of this most benevolent organisation to hold great spiritual value, from the mightest warships to the lowlest Bolt Pistol. I belive that anyone telling an Angel of the Emperor (to use low gothic slang, a dalliance on my part) that his sacred vehicle of deliverance was to be picked up by an "IG lacky", well, I don't think they would be saying much again. Furthermore, you seem to be unaware that since the time of the Great Heresy by the Arch heretic Horus, the Imperial Guard and Adeptus Astrates have been separate Organisations, and as such an Imperial Guardsman would not be part of a Space Marine Chapters Support staff. Perhaps you were refering to Servitors?"

Secondly, I present to you the Honourable Techmarine... Hey wait what are yo..

"HowdareyouspeeksuchblasphemyagainsttheOmnissiahIshalltearyouasunderandrejoiceasyourremainsburnonthefuneralpyresoftheheretic!!!!!!!!!!"

Thought for the Day: Don't piss off Techmarines.

Gwar! wrote:"Your assertion that an "IG lacky" would be responsible for the recovery of "Drop Pods" as they are known is somewhat misguided. Equipment of any kind used by the Adeptus Astrates is considered by the majority of chapters of this most benevolent organisation to hold great spiritual value, from the mightest warships to the lowlest Bolt Pistol. I belive that anyone telling an Angel of the Emperor (to use low gothic slang, a dalliance on my part) that his sacred vehicle of deliverance was to be picked up by an "IG lacky", well, I don't think they would be saying much again. Furthermore, you seem to be unaware that since the time of the Great Heresy by the Arch heretic Horus, the Imperial Guard and Adeptus Astrates have been separate Organisations, and as such an Imperial Guardsman would not be part of a Space Marine Chapters Support staff. Perhaps you were refering to Servitors?"

My BA have a IG Commissionaire, as appointed by the index astartes. This is some very old fluff, but valid. But I would admit that it probably isn't a guardsman doing this job, but there are support staff of humans in every chapter. Either failed initiates or otherwise.

I thought when initiates failed they died...

Don't chapters have serfs and slaves for this kind of work?

There wouldn't be that many to pick up anyway. Marines of a given chapter don't tend to get deployed in numbers greater than a single company (and it's normally less) so that's only a dozen or so drop pods with the rest arriving by thunderhawks or teleporting in.

There's probably a specialist retrieval ship that picks them up. I'd think a thunderhawk though could probably carry two and a landing ship could carry eight or more.
There would also need to be some kind of machine that closes the pod doors back up and re-engages the locks so that they're easier to move.

One possibility.

The retrieval ship locates a drop pod through the pods homing beacon.
It lands nearby and the retrieval team made up of servitors and a tracked pod retrieval unit (PRU) move out under the command of a techmarine.

If the pod has fallen over the PRU uses its crane arm to stand it up. The servitors then close the pod doors while the techmarine intones various crap to the omnissiah and the pod’s machine spirit. The pod is plugged into the PRU so that the PRU can give it enough power to re-engage the door locks. Once this is done the pod is then picked up by the crane and carefully lowered onto the deck of the PRU and clamped into place.

The PRU then transports the pod into the cargo bay of the retrieval ship where the load master transfers it to one of the clamp platforms where it stays until delivered back to whatever cruiser or barge it came from.

Clthomps wrote:I thought when initiates failed they died...

Depends on the chapter.

cadbren wrote:There wouldn't be that many to pick up anyway. Marines of a given chapter don't tend to get deployed in numbers greater than a single company (and it's normally less) so that's only a dozen or so drop pods with the rest arriving by thunderhawks or teleporting in.

Good point, and if you consider that marines don't just sit around, I don't know that it would even make sense for them to retrieve them at all. Mission completed, on to the next. Maybe their fleets have ships dedicated to support with no marines on them. They come along post mission and pick them up.

Perhaps they do, the official fluff we get tends to be about the combat side of things (obviously) but the admin, logistical side is ignored. I think the point about the pod being considered sacred though is valid and I can't see them willingly leaving them behind.

There must be salvage ships though that scour battlefields for shell casings, bullet heads and anything else that can be recycled. There's probably a thriving market for xeno skulls in the imperium, probably any story you can think of can exist in the 40K universe.

Somewhere out there is a utopian planet full of pacifists just waiting to be found.

Doesn't the screaming bald guy with the power fist just throw it back into space himself?

cadbren wrote:Somewhere out there is a utopian planet full of pacifists just waiting to be found.

And then harvested, enslaved, sacrificed, conscripted or just plain eaten.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Doesn't the screaming bald guy with the power fist just throw it back into space himself?

ha ha

Gwar! wrote:

Thought for the Day: Don't piss off Techmarines.

Yea it would suck to find out the holes in your armor was just duck taped over and repainted

I really doubt drop pods are a highly valuable commodity, so while they're recovered when possible, it's not a high priority. If the battlefield is still hot, I'd presume they've just be left where they fell, rather than risk Thunderhawks and personnel on their recovery.

Nice description cadbren! Although I don't think the techmarine would call it "various crap" but rather sacred prayers of guidance and liturgies of mending ;-)

Different chapters would likely have access to different resources. The UMs, for example, are actively involved in PDF operations in their system, and I wouldn't be surprised to see close Imperial support with them for a number of reasons. For a chapter like many of the BA successors, not so much. Codex chapters likely put their ninth companies on a lot of such tasks, since they are combat capable but not frontline required. Templars probably make extensive use of initiates for such tasks. Iron hands probably have extensive automation.

Almost certainly though, any maintenance and oversight of such sacred equipment is overseen by a chapter techmarine.

I don't know, all this importance being placed on a drop pod doesn't make much sense. I mean, I wouldn't even think they have a machine spirit. Sure you could mount weapons in them, but it's not like a Land Raider, it's a glorified parachute.

IA2 in the fluff bit on them states that specially modified thunderhawk transporters (for recovery work) pick them up and return them to the ships for refurbishment and reuse.

I don't suppose it mentions how many can be carried at once?

Hmmm, I wonder if they salvage the drop pods and use them for terminator armour?

jackinthetank wrote:Hmmm, I wonder if they salvage the drop pods and use them for terminator armour?

You mean for repairs? I don't think they can craft new Tac Armour, whatever a chapter has, that's it. From the Dark Age of technology. Otherwise you could just put every marine into one of those.

jabbakahut wrote:

jackinthetank wrote:Hmmm, I wonder if they salvage the drop pods and use them for terminator armour?

You mean for repairs? I don't think they can craft new Tac Armour, whatever a chapter has, that's it. From the Dark Age of technology. Otherwise you could just put every marine into one of those.

Yes because there were enough back then for all the new chapters made after the Dark Age of Technology?

They can make new TDA, it just takes a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy long time in a world where even the simplest armiments have to go through many many rituals before even being put together. Can you imagine how long it would take to bless a new suite of Terminator Armour?

cadbren wrote:One possibility.

The retrieval ship locates a drop pod through the pods homing beacon.
It lands nearby and the retrieval team made up of servitors and a tracked pod retrieval unit (PRU) move out under the command of a techmarine.

If the pod has fallen over the PRU uses its crane arm to stand it up. The servitors then close the pod doors while the techmarine intones various crap to the omnissiah and the pod’s machine spirit. The pod is plugged into the PRU so that the PRU can give it enough power to re-engage the door locks. Once this is done the pod is then picked up by the crane and carefully lowered onto the deck of the PRU and clamped into place.

The PRU then transports the pod into the cargo bay of the retrieval ship where the load master transfers it to one of the clamp platforms where it stays until delivered back to whatever cruiser or barge it came from.

I could agree with that. Sounds about right.