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I'm not calling Space Marines cancer on the tabletop

Jokes aside, we know Space Marines can be biologically affected - some poisons affect them, hrud entropic field ages them etc. but can they suffer from radioactivity?

Specifically would an extremely radioactive event, such as being stuck in a reactor or being next to a dirty bomb give them cancer or cause them to suffer from radiation sickness etc.?

Well, they aren't immune to may 4 flavours of toughness reducing Rad weaponry, so at a guess, they can get ruined by radiation.

Having said that, I'd imagine their ceramite armour is pretty good at blocking radiation, so they probably could walk through the fallout of a nuke for a while and be fine.
And as for their superhuman stuff, their bodies would deal with any tumours pretty sharpish.

Long as there not walking into a nutron bomb there fine.
There healing would counter radiation damage and tumour growth.

They could operate in a high rad works far better than a human

Aren't the salamanders a result of radiation reacting with their gene seed?

Yup.

The high radiation count of their homeworld PLUS the interactions with their mutated melanochrome implant geneseed.

From the wiki on SM geneseed and implants (also from the old WD article on same).
Melanchromic Organ

Phase 13: This implant controls the amount of melanin in a Marine's skin. Exposure to high levels of sunlight will result in the Marine's skin darkening to compensate. It also protects the Marine from other forms of radiation.[1][2a][3]

 Otto Weston wrote:
I'm not calling Space Marines cancer on the tabletop

Jokes aside, we know Space Marines can be biologically affected - some poisons affect them, hrud entropic field ages them etc. but can they suffer from radioactivity?

Specifically would an extremely radioactive event, such as being stuck in a reactor or being next to a dirty bomb give them cancer or cause them to suffer from radiation sickness etc.?

Dump enough radiation on them, and they die like anything else.
The AdMech are experts in this field of weaponry. And they don´t care if they contaminate them selves.

Their armor would protect them.

Their armour is completely sealed and extremely dense so it would block most, if not all, radiation, plus their Melachromatic Organ would block the rest. However, the levels of radiation in rad weaponry would be high enough to be instantly lethal regardless.

 Deadshot wrote:
However, the levels of radiation in rad weaponry would be high enough to be instantly lethal regardless.

Sometimes. Rad weapons are far from gauranteed kills, especially depending on the type of armour worn.

Space Marines do possess a significantly greater resistence to radiation and poison than a normal human. They can survive what would be leathal doses of radiation to any human, Tau or Eldar for exemple. Only Orks or Tyranid can claim to have an equal or even greater resistence to radiation than them. In addition to their biology, Space Marine wear power armors. As long as they remain sealed they are virtually immune to radiation. This would be true to any person in a sealed power armor (or sealed carapace armor). The problem arises when their armor is compromised. Rad weapons are problematic, even to Space Marines, Orks or Tyranids because they are extremely radioactive and are designed to pierce, or at least breach armors. While they are far from having the armor piercing capabilities to make a mockery of power armors or carapace armors, they are capable of damaging them over time and especially in their more vulnerable parts. Yes, I think it safe to say that rad weapons are sufficently radioactive to easily kill a Space Marine who would be caught outside of his armor.

In Predator, Prey (Beast Arises book 2) a marine is rescued from an irradiated hulk, whilst recuperating he is told that he would certainly have been dead had he spent more time on the vessel, which the marine does not question.

Marines are more resistant to radiation than regular humans and can survive in levels impossible for them, but at a certain point it starts killing them too.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Their armor would protect them.

It does not. In particular against warp core breeches. Death of Integrity goes into extensive detail regarding this. The reason terminator-clad marines are almost always the first marines to board a space hulk is because the terminator armor can protect from the warp core radiation far better than normal power armor. Most Space Hulks have several, semi-functional warp cores still embedded within them and it is generally the first mission to get those cores powered down, so that marines without power armor can explore it safely.

With there armor on I would say they are pretty resistant to fallout radiation. Some sort of direct extremely lethal dose i.e. rad weaponry could still be harmful and walking into a reactor core in power armor (not termi). A radiation from a blast wouldn't matter because the heat and explosion would probably wipe them out.

Without armor i would expect them to survive radiation from fallout much longer than a normal human would but eventually they would succumb to it. Especially if they had to eat or drink irradiated food/water. Even breathing in radioactive particulates would take them down not as fast as eating/drinking but faster than skin exposure.

jareddm wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Their armor would protect them.

It does not. In particular against warp core breeches. Death of Integrity goes into extensive detail regarding this. The reason terminator-clad marines are almost always the first marines to board a space hulk is because the terminator armor can protect from the warp core radiation far better than normal power armor. Most Space Hulks have several, semi-functional warp cores still embedded within them and it is generally the first mission to get those cores powered down, so that marines without power armor can explore it safely.

Warp core radiation is no laughing matter, though.

Well.... My giant ap3 fleshbane-torrent-flamers laugh about Power Armour....
Lucifex and Iradcleanser not so much.

Casual exposure to radiation turns them black (see: Salamanders), and their bodies are equipped with genetic systems that ward of otherwise-lethal doses of radiation from environmental concerns, but they cannot, for example, withstand a direct radium attack.

The Salamanders turn black due to something in their geneseed reacting permanently with the background radiation on their homeworld but that radiation can't really be too heavy - they recruit there and there's no mention of the human population being badly affected by radiation.

The one thing I always think of with marines and radiation, however, is what it will do to the second geneseed organ they so stupidly leave in the marine even after it's mature. Space Marines do dangerous things in dangerous places. A Terminator entering a space hulk is a significant loss risk just for his experience and his battlegear, losing the geneseed too also robs the Chapter of a (second) chance to replace him. A big burly marine can survive some radiation, probably more than a normal man, but what about the geneseed?

Spetulhu wrote:
The Salamanders turn black due to something in their geneseed reacting permanently with the background radiation on their homeworld but that radiation can't really be too heavy - they recruit there and there's no mention of the human population being badly affected by radiation.

The one thing I always think of with marines and radiation, however, is what it will do to the second geneseed organ they so stupidly leave in the marine even after it's mature. Space Marines do dangerous things in dangerous places. A Terminator entering a space hulk is a significant loss risk just for his experience and his battlegear, losing the geneseed too also robs the Chapter of a (second) chance to replace him. A big burly marine can survive some radiation, probably more than a normal man, but what about the geneseed?

If a Space marine's vital organs can withstand the effects then so can the second Progenoid. Plus he's apready accounted for. IIRC one Progenoid is in the neck and the other in the chest, and the one in the chest can be removed whereas I believe having a massive lump ripped from your neck (especially given the amount of blood vessels that would be around the area) would be a recipe for bleedout even with Astartes Larraman cells.

Legion Destroyers were dying from cancerous growths in their organisms, after a prolonged service, so yes - absolutely.

Also remember Veridian Sun and the radiation on Calth, able to fry a Battle Brother in standard PA. Only Termies were semi immune, and only then for a short periods of time.

 Xathrodox86 wrote:
Legion Destroyers were dying from cancerous growths in their organisms, after a prolonged service, so yes - absolutely.

Also remember Veridian Sun and the radiation on Calth, able to fry a Battle Brother in standard PA. Only Termies were semi immune, and only then for a short periods of time.

Calth is an extremely unique circumstance though given that the sun was corrupted on purpose by the Word Bearers and subject to the Warp, its levels of radiation are probably unfeasible in terms of real physics and only at the level "because Warp stuff"

wah wah wah mu murines are immune to everything wah wah wah

A high enough dose will kill any living tissue. It's like ultra-velocity-projectiles sub-atomic size. No biological human-like organ is immune to that. It will absolutely kill or mortally wound marines if exposure is too great. It rips their cells apart, bit by bit. They will have the same levels of radiation sickness as humans do. They may have redundant organs, so could survive a little longer, but too much and it's over. Unless maybe they receive extensive treatment and maybe replacement organs (which i guess would be possible in 40k). Why would marine skin be less prone to radiation burns and blistering than humans? Makes no sense. You can't stop gamma radiation the same way you stop UV radiation (with black skin etc)...
A barrier doesn't block gamma rays. It reduced their strength. The stronger the radiation the thicker the barrier has to be. And the stronger the radiation, the shorter you can stay within that zone, even with barrier. Marines might have redundant organs, but they are much larger and "denser" than humans, so they also will receive a larger dose than a human for a given level of radiation.

Why do people always want marines to be literally superman, immune to basically everything? It just seems super boring to me.

 Keep wrote:
wah wah wah mu murines are immune to everything wah wah wah

A high enough dose will kill any living tissue. It's like ultra-velocity-projectiles sub-atomic size. No biological human-like organ is immune to that. It will absolutely kill or mortally wound marines if exposure is too great. It rips their cells apart, bit by bit. They will have the same levels of radiation sickness as humans do. They may have redundant organs, so could survive a little longer, but too much and it's over. Unless maybe they receive extensive treatment and maybe replacement organs (which i guess would be possible in 40k). Why would marine skin be less prone to radiation burns and blistering than humans? Makes no sense. You can't stop gamma radiation the same way you stop UV radiation (with black skin etc)...
A barrier doesn't block gamma rays. It reduced their strength. The stronger the radiation the thicker the barrier has to be. And the stronger the radiation, the shorter you can stay within that zone, even with barrier. Marines might have redundant organs, but they are much larger and "denser" than humans, so they also will receive a larger dose than a human for a given level of radiation.

Why do people always want marines to be literally superman, immune to basically everything? It just seems super boring to me.

Nobody denied that radiation could kill Space Marines. It was only mentionned that Marines were much more resilient to it than humans, which makes sense since they are supposed to be superior to human in almost all aspect (with possible exception of flexibility, balance and general stealth).

Back in 30k, Legion Destroyer marines played with radiation a whole lot. Messed up their looks, cut their life span, and gave them cancer all the same. In short: Yes, but it takes more of it than a normal human being.

epronovost wrote:

 Keep wrote:
wah wah wah mu murines are immune to everything wah wah wah

A high enough dose will kill any living tissue. It's like ultra-velocity-projectiles sub-atomic size. No biological human-like organ is immune to that. It will absolutely kill or mortally wound marines if exposure is too great. It rips their cells apart, bit by bit. They will have the same levels of radiation sickness as humans do. They may have redundant organs, so could survive a little longer, but too much and it's over. Unless maybe they receive extensive treatment and maybe replacement organs (which i guess would be possible in 40k). Why would marine skin be less prone to radiation burns and blistering than humans? Makes no sense. You can't stop gamma radiation the same way you stop UV radiation (with black skin etc)...
A barrier doesn't block gamma rays. It reduced their strength. The stronger the radiation the thicker the barrier has to be. And the stronger the radiation, the shorter you can stay within that zone, even with barrier. Marines might have redundant organs, but they are much larger and "denser" than humans, so they also will receive a larger dose than a human for a given level of radiation.

Why do people always want marines to be literally superman, immune to basically everything? It just seems super boring to me.

Nobody denied that radiation could kill Space Marines. It was only mentionned that Marines were much more resilient to it than humans, which makes sense since they are supposed to be superior to human in almost all aspect (with possible exception of flexibility, balance and general stealth).

Well they do have better balance, their enhanced ear makes them incredibly resistant to disorientation via dizziness. Ie, spin a human round and round they get dizzy, SM doesn't. That indicates better balance to me.

 Brennonjw wrote:
Back in 30k, Legion Destroyer marines played with radiation a whole lot. Messed up their looks, cut their life span, and gave them cancer all the same. In short: Yes, but it takes more of it than a normal human being.

Destroyers used far more than radiation, chemical, biological, all manner of destructive weaponry.
The combined chemical and rad exposure was alot higher than average marines.

 Deadshot wrote:


Well they do have better balance, their enhanced ear makes them incredibly resistant to disorientation via dizziness. Ie, spin a human round and round they get dizzy, SM doesn't. That indicates better balance to me.

Yes, but they are heavier, taller, less flexible and more top heavy than normal humans. It makes correcting your position more difficult and easier to trip while they shift their weight. Their enhance inner ear does make them more difficult to disorient or stun them though.

Space Marines are physically superior to regular humans in every conceivable way. Faster, stronger, tougher, enhanced systems, accelerated healing, able to eat anything, spit acid... the list goes on.

The reason for the Salamanders being black is because the implant that makes them black has gone haywire. That implant is present in most/all Space Marines... and it is intended to protect the Marine from radiation, by increasing the skin's resistance to it. If a Marine enters an irradiated area, his skin darkens in response, as the melatonin in the skin is a natural barrier against radiation (we mainly use it as a barrier against solar radiation IRL).

Marines are vulnerable to Radiation. Terminator armor was developed from Radiation protection suits specifically because they were suppose to be the spearhead into boarding actions, where they would be expected to punch out the enemy warship's reactor and thus need to be shielded from possible radiation leak. Vanilla Power Armor Marines would not even enter until the Terminators gave the go-ahead. It's also why they're used for Space Hulk Operations; it's very likely that millenia-old ship has a leaking reactor and the entire place is more radioactive than Chernobyl.

Otherwise they would probably go in punching out genestealers in speedos. Cuz god knows that expensive Terminator armor is worth jack when the stealers rend.

 Keep wrote:
Why do people always want marines to be literally superman, immune to basically everything? It just seems super boring to me.

I suggest you read the thread next time before you start posting embarrassing things.