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I was watching The Predator today. It turns out that it's a pretty naff movie... especially in comparison to the original (and even Predator 2). But it was interesting how unprepared the humans of 21st Century Earth were for The Predator, and how they underestimated it. There was a scene where the Predator was in a government lab, strapped to a table with scientists examining it. I can imagine a Space Marine in that situation, all scarred with bionics and it's massive muscled bulk lying there, being restrained and underestimated in the same way.

This got me thinking... what would happen if a Space Marine from the 41st Millenium hurtled toward Holy Terra, when the Gellarfield fluctuated. Chaos Daemons burst into the ship, consuming most of the crew. As the ship translates into realspace again, the Space Marines, now few in numbers decide to detonate the ship in the Sol system to kill those daemons that remain, and any trace of taint. Without a way to communicate outside the ship, as their Astropath is dead and their vox are down, a few stay behind to ensure the ship never reaches Holy Terra whilst others evacuate. The ships is detonated in the shadow of the moon, eclipsing it from all but the most advanced nations on Earth.

One Space Marine survives the decent to Earth, his injuries critical. He enters a self imposed meditative coma to heal himself, only to awake sluggish, naked and in a lab. Humans in lab coats with primitive tools and computers peer down upon him. They're speaking a strange cant, but he can still make out a few words here and there. He finds he is restrained, but he estimates he could free himself with ease, but he bides his time and listens and learns where he is, and more importantly what have they done with his wargear? He determines this seems like Earth, it must but, but the warp must've send him through time somehow.

What next? What if another Marine landed too, but this one was touched by Chaos in the warp?

What would they do? Would the chapter they came from affect how they acted? Would the Space Marine and Chaos Marine find themselves in contact with the Emperor? How would humans react to them?

It could make for a quite interesting story, but what would happen would depend on the Marine.

Ultimately, a Marine's power is not infinite even by modern standards. He would be above any soldier we have today, but his ability to influence wars and the like alone would be very limited.

Most likely he would be busy sharing his knowledge of the future (however much this particular marine knows - an old Blood Angels librarian might know a lot more than a Black Templars rookie) and trying to advise Earth on how to behave with his future knowledge in mind, but in the end he'd just turn into a curiousity. He has no reason to take any side in any modern wars as they are all pointless to him, and once the novelty wears off he'd just get people visiting thinking he's Jesus etc.

The most impact I could see him making would be through the creation of a cult, albeit perhaps involuntarily. It could snowball into a huge religion once generations pass and people start realising the dude isn't dying.

What does baffles mean?

Low gothic is the same as English and AFAIK language only barely advanced in 40k with new words to describe similar things we have now.

dkoz wrote:
What does baffles mean?

I'm not sure where that is written?

Baffles means to confuse, bewilder or perplex. If you are baffled, you are confused, but in a way that you don't understand something.
"I don't understand how to do this" = "I'm baffled"
"This confuses me" = "This baffles me"

Also a baffle is a an object, like a dam to restrain the flow of something. I know I had a baffle become faulty in an exhaust pipe once!

Back on track, I suppose the language would be similar to Low Gothic, but surely in ~39,000 years it would have changed. They have voxes, not radios for example. I think it's probably for ease of reference for us people to read what they're saying, and was probably a tongue in cheek attempt by the GW creators in the 80s.

 kastelen wrote:
Low gothic is the same as English and AFAIK language only barely advanced in 40k with new words to describe similar things we have now.

Ye gods no, High Gothic is a creole of mostly Spanglish and perhaps some Japanese. Low Gothic adds Chinese and Malay into the mix with 10,000 years of linguistic drift. What you recognise as "English" might exist in some elements of "Tech" but it's no longer spoken with human tongues.
That stuff was established right at the very start in the Rogue Trader book.

Latin is used to represent High Gothic, as the closest stand in to what we have now - a root language that no one speaks, but is used by various mystery religions (including the Priesthood of the Adminstratum) to keep records clear of vernacular changes and to put a barrier between the masses and their betters. It also imparts the idea that high tech equipment "sensor auguries", "tactical cogitators" and "dataslates" etc are ancient tech that no one really is that interested in. It's nothing special, just magic, and the same magic we've used for millennia.

Start using more tech words and people want to know how they work, and assume there's some science behind it. A science officer on a federation starship will analyse data from the sensor arrays, a techpriest on an imperial vessel will try to make sense of the sensor auguries.

TarkinLarson wrote:

dkoz wrote:
What does baffles mean?

I'm not sure where that is written?

Baffles means to confuse, bewilder or perplex. If you are baffled, you are confused, but in a way that you don't understand something.
"I don't understand how to do this" = "I'm baffled"
"This confuses me" = "This baffles me"

Also a baffle is a an object, like a dam to restrain the flow of something. I know I had a baffle become faulty in an exhaust pipe once!

Back on track, I suppose the language would be similar to Low Gothic, but surely in ~39,000 years it would have changed. They have voxes, not radios for example. I think it's probably for ease of reference for us people to read what they're saying, and was probably a tongue in cheek attempt by the GW creators in the 80s.

Damn autocorrect I meant naff.

dkoz wrote:

TarkinLarson wrote:

dkoz wrote:
What does baffles mean?

I'm not sure where that is written?

Baffles means to confuse, bewilder or perplex. If you are baffled, you are confused, but in a way that you don't understand something.
"I don't understand how to do this" = "I'm baffled"
"This confuses me" = "This baffles me"

Also a baffle is a an object, like a dam to restrain the flow of something. I know I had a baffle become faulty in an exhaust pipe once!

Back on track, I suppose the language would be similar to Low Gothic, but surely in ~39,000 years it would have changed. They have voxes, not radios for example. I think it's probably for ease of reference for us people to read what they're saying, and was probably a tongue in cheek attempt by the GW creators in the 80s.

Damn autocorrect I meant naff.

Naff = bad, rubbish, a bit crap, etc.

Sorry my British English getting in the way there!

 kastelen wrote:
Low gothic is the same as English and AFAIK language only barely advanced in 40k with new words to describe similar things we have now.

High gothic and Low gothic are imaginary languages. Most languages in use today didn’t exist three or four thousand years ago - given the massive civilisations that rise and fall on earth in the 40k background, there’s little chance that the languages anyone speaks in 40k would have much resemblance to current ones.

Low Gothic isn’t English - it’s just represented by whichever language your copy of the book is printed in. High Gothic is represented by Latin, as it serves a similar role in the world.

People are speaking a different language but we see it as English for ease of narrative, eldar speak eldar to eldar but we see it as English in the novels as writing a whole new alien language is far too complicated just for the sake of a few novels, unless your tolkein... In which case crack on.

Who cares about the language?

Space Marine comes to, snaps his bonds and sticks a scalpel in one researcher's eye. Before the onlooking guards can bring their weapons to bear, he cuts the strap holding his other arm and grabs another researcher by the throat, choking him. While the guards are shouting for him to put the researcher down and the other researchers are begging the soldiers to not shoot their specimen, the marine snaps his legs free.

Free of his bonds, he throws the choking researcher into one of the guards who has a bead on him. His superhuman reflexes allow him to swing off the table before the other guards can properly shoot him. The next few moments are bloody, but quick. The space marine uses the various surgical tools to incapacitate at least two more guards before he takes one of the fallen guards weapon's and remorselessly takes the others out. At worst, our space marine has been winged, but is relatively unharmed and all the present guards are dead and the remaining surviving researcher is in the corner gakking his pants.

After the space marine rearms and reloads with the available weaponry, he seizes the lone researcher and forces the individual (by pure brute force or verbal intimidation) to release him from the surgery wing. After locating and retrieving his armor and gear (with at least one swift, lopsided encounter with a security patrol), our marine dispatches the researcher (either abandoning him or eliminating him) and boldly exits the facility, rendering the base "safe" of any hostile forces and detering pursuit with well-placed krak grenades on enemy vehicles.

Free of the base, the autosenses in his helmet start to jack into the open communications network of the outside world. After a few garbled minutes and swirls of the suit's internal system hacking the primative security systems of this world's "secure" military channels , the display clears and focuses - revealing the location of the landing zone of a chaos marine's escape pod.

The traitor's location is quickly deciphered and uploaded to the marine's internal visor. Shouldering his rifle, the marine moves at a sprint to his opponent's location, half a world away...

 Stormonu wrote:
Who cares about the language?

Space Marine comes to, snaps his bonds and sticks a scalpel in one researcher's eye. Before the onlooking guards can bring their weapons to bear, he cuts the strap holding his other arm and grabs another researcher by the throat, choking him. While the guards are shouting for him to put the researcher down and the other researchers are begging the soldiers to not shoot their specimen, the marine snaps his legs free.

Free of his bonds, he throws the choking researcher into one of the guards who has a bead on him. His superhuman reflexes allow him to swing off the table before the other guards can properly shoot him. The next few moments are bloody, but quick. The space marine uses the various surgical tools to incapacitate at least two more guards before he takes one of the fallen guards weapon's and remorselessly takes the others out. At worst, our space marine has been winged, but is relatively unharmed and all the present guards are dead and the remaining surviving researcher is in the corner gakking his pants.

After the space marine rearms and reloads with the available weaponry, he seizes the lone researcher and forces the individual (by pure brute force or verbal intimidation) to release him from the surgery wing. After locating and retrieving his armor and gear (with at least one swift, lopsided encounter with a security patrol), our marine dispatches the researcher (either abandoning him or eliminating him) and boldly exits the facility, rendering the base "safe" of any hostile forces and detering pursuit with well-placed krak grenades on enemy vehicles.

Free of the base, the autosenses in his helmet start to jack into the open communications network of the outside world. After a few garbled minutes and swirls of the suit's internal system hacking the primative security systems of this world's "secure" military channels , the display clears and focuses - revealing the location of the landing zone of a chaos marine's escape pod.

The traitor's location is quickly deciphered and uploaded to the marine's internal visor. Shouldering his rifle, the marine moves at a sprint to his opponent's location, half a world away...

Bravo!

Brothers of the Snake by Dan Abnett might be along a similar vein. Single Iron Snake space marine sent to save a low-tech planet from alien raiders.

Space Marine in the 21 century would mean one thing. All people with Chaos star tattoo would have a bad time.

P.S. Bye, Alex. It's been good knowing you.

 Stormonu wrote:
Who cares about the language?

Space Marine comes to, snaps his bonds and sticks a scalpel in one researcher's eye. Before the onlooking guards can bring their weapons to bear, he cuts the strap holding his other arm and grabs another researcher by the throat, choking him. While the guards are shouting for him to put the researcher down and the other researchers are begging the soldiers to not shoot their specimen, the marine snaps his legs free.

Free of his bonds, he throws the choking researcher into one of the guards who has a bead on him. His superhuman reflexes allow him to swing off the table before the other guards can properly shoot him. The next few moments are bloody, but quick. The space marine uses the various surgical tools to incapacitate at least two more guards before he takes one of the fallen guards weapon's and remorselessly takes the others out. At worst, our space marine has been winged, but is relatively unharmed and all the present guards are dead and the remaining surviving researcher is in the corner gakking his pants.

After the space marine rearms and reloads with the available weaponry, he seizes the lone researcher and forces the individual (by pure brute force or verbal intimidation) to release him from the surgery wing. After locating and retrieving his armor and gear (with at least one swift, lopsided encounter with a security patrol), our marine dispatches the researcher (either abandoning him or eliminating him) and boldly exits the facility, rendering the base "safe" of any hostile forces and detering pursuit with well-placed krak grenades on enemy vehicles.

Free of the base, the autosenses in his helmet start to jack into the open communications network of the outside world. After a few garbled minutes and swirls of the suit's internal system hacking the primative security systems of this world's "secure" military channels , the display clears and focuses - revealing the location of the landing zone of a chaos marine's escape pod.

The traitor's location is quickly deciphered and uploaded to the marine's internal visor. Shouldering his rifle, the marine moves at a sprint to his opponent's location, half a world away...

Shut up and take my money.

 Stormonu wrote:
Space Marine comes to, snaps his bonds and sticks a scalpel in one researcher's eye. Before the onlooking guards can bring their weapons to bear, he cuts the strap holding his other arm and grabs another researcher by the throat, choking him. While the guards are shouting for him to put the researcher down and the other researchers are begging the soldiers to not shoot their specimen, the marine snaps his legs free.

Free of his bonds, he throws the choking researcher into one of the guards who has a bead on him...

...and, having just thrown away his only insurance, is then perforated by a few dozen rounds from the remaining guards (all former special forces, who tend to put opsec above eggheads). While Beefcake may be fast, he's slower than frangible 5.56, which inflicts wound cavities the size of grapefruits.

The guards then petition to be transferred back to outside the bomb-proof, fail-deadly containment silo where this was taking place, and the researchers are posthumously demoted to GS-7 for forgoing all the teleoperated conveniences of modern interrogation. The administration, just to be on the safe side, schedules another round of loyalty tests to ensure that their personnel would rather let their fellows die than release a hostage-taking prisoner, and discharges whoever replaced the standard inch-thick steel limb restraint cuffs with something more breakable.

I mean, this is presuming we're talking about a real-world high-security facility in the US or UK, rather than a writer bailing out their protagonist by making the unnamed government organization completely incompetent, which is par for the course in this sort of fiction. Space Marines pretty much run on authorial fiat.

On the other side of the planet, a rampaging Chaos Marine, enjoying his armor's immunity to primitive small arms, catches a GBU-43/B with his face.

catbarf wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:
Space Marine comes to, snaps his bonds and sticks a scalpel in one researcher's eye. Before the onlooking guards can bring their weapons to bear, he cuts the strap holding his other arm and grabs another researcher by the throat, choking him. While the guards are shouting for him to put the researcher down and the other researchers are begging the soldiers to not shoot their specimen, the marine snaps his legs free.

Free of his bonds, he throws the choking researcher into one of the guards who has a bead on him...

...and, having just thrown away his only insurance, is then perforated by a few dozen rounds from the remaining guards (all former special forces, who tend to put opsec above eggheads). While Beefcake may be fast, he's slower than frangible 5.56, which inflicts wound cavities the size of grapefruits.

The guards then petition to be transferred back to outside the bomb-proof, fail-deadly containment silo where this was taking place, and the researchers are posthumously demoted to GS-7 for forgoing all the teleoperated conveniences of modern interrogation. The administration, just to be on the safe side, schedules another round of loyalty tests to ensure that their personnel would rather let their fellows die than release a hostage-taking prisoner, and discharges whoever replaced the standard inch-thick steel limb restraint cuffs with something more breakable.

I mean, this is presuming we're talking about a real-world high-security facility in the US or UK, rather than a writer bailing out their protagonist by making the unnamed government organization completely incompetent, which is par for the course in this sort of fiction. Space Marines pretty much run on authorial fiat.

On the other side of the planet, a rampaging Chaos Marine, enjoying his armor's immunity to primitive small arms, catches a GBU-43/B with his face.

Those 5.56 cant even penetrate his armour, again if this is real world as you say then all rules apply, thats fluff marines, not TT, auto rifle rounds even without armour barely damage a marine over its healing ability and the dense muscle/bone structure, think 5.56 vs an elephant or hippo, then armour it in space magic armour.

Depending on the background story presumably the emperir would stil be alive and around today. Depending of the SM knowledge of this, he could seek him out.

It could function as a reaction / cause chain that are common in Doctor who. The arival of the SM could give the meperor the idea to make SM.

Can I just point out how amusing it is to see this kind of misunderstanding between CURRENT English speakers in the same thread as a discussion about how language would change over 30,000 years.
The chances the any words from ANY language would be recognizable in that time span is just unrealistic, especially since there are words that come up TODAY that not everyone in the same language understands

-

 Formosa wrote:
Those 5.56 cant even penetrate his armour, again if this is real world as you say then all rules apply, thats fluff marines, not TT, auto rifle rounds even without armour barely damage a marine over its healing ability and the dense muscle/bone structure, think 5.56 vs an elephant or hippo, then armour it in space magic armour.

I thought we were talking about the Space Marine strapped to a table, unarmored, since the passage later mentions locating and retrieving his armor.

I've seen both elephants and hippos killed with significantly weaker calibers than 5.56 when I lived in East Africa. Most people don't realize just how destructive bullets are to flesh, and standard-issue M855 goes straight through quarter-inch steel plate like it's not even there. That's why I'm not giving much credit to the unarmored superman standing up to assault rifle fire, dense bones/muscles or not- my suspension of disbelief only carries so far.

catbarf wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
Those 5.56 cant even penetrate his armour, again if this is real world as you say then all rules apply, thats fluff marines, not TT, auto rifle rounds even without armour barely damage a marine over its healing ability and the dense muscle/bone structure, think 5.56 vs an elephant or hippo, then armour it in space magic armour.

I thought we were talking about the Space Marine strapped to a table, unarmored, since the passage later mentions locating and retrieving his armor.

I've seen both elephants and hippos killed with significantly weaker calibers than 5.56 when I lived in East Africa. Most people don't realize just how destructive bullets are to flesh, and standard-issue M855 goes straight through quarter-inch steel plate like it's not even there. That's why I'm not giving much credit to the unarmored superman standing up to assault rifle fire, dense bones/muscles or not- my suspension of disbelief only carries so far.

Hah, my blurb was using the same exact scenario that is mentioned in the original post (the scene fro Predator 2018).

 Stormonu wrote:
Hah, my blurb was using the same exact scenario that is mentioned in the original post (the scene fro Predator 2018).

Oh yeah, I know, it wasn't meant to be a dig at you. You gave it the quintessential Hollywood treatment and hit all the right story beats. Let's hold this incredibly dangerous, unknown thing with less security than we employ with violent criminals, interact with it directly so that the clueless scientists are put in danger, and be surprised when all it needs is a dash of contrivance to escape. Defense in depth? What's that? I've seen it in The Predator, Independence Day, 28 Weeks Later, District 9, it's always the same.

But OP was asking how we think it'd play out in our real world, and unfortunately real life is much less conducive to this sort of story. And why yes, I am fun at parties

Edit: I think the more plausible/interesting setup would be if they happen to land in remote parts of Africa, South America, or central Asia. Would they try to use a more informationally-isolated local populace to their advantage, or stay in the shadows? Seek out their enemy immediately, or try to learn more about where they are? Keeping them away from the broader population prevents Stryker BCTs and MOABs from ruining the fun of the definitely-not-Universal Soldier scenario.

Now that´s an interesting question: What will happen, if a SM lands on Earth? I went to my attic to fetch my crystal ball just to solve this riddle. This crystal ball is a little bit dusty on the surface but still does
it´s job in most cases. So I will tell you now what I saw:

SM lands on our Earth and decides he is done with fighting xenos, witches and heretics. After wandering through the U.S. for a couple of weeks, he meets Jim Cornette at the Dairy Queen fast food restaurant. Jim sees great potential in him and asks, if he would be interested in a professional wrestling career. The servo skull of the SM translates Cornette´s offer and our hero agrees. When asked about his origins, he tells Jim an outlandish story of a dude named the Emperor, the fiasco which was the Horus Heresy and warrior nuns clad in boob plate power armour. Cornette is amazed at his tale and is pretty sure that even Mr. McMahon couldn´t come up with a more ridiculous story for a gimmick while under the influence of mind altering drugs.

The SM dubbed the "Renegade from Outer Space" makes his debut at the Royal Rumble participating in the event as the 29th competitor and entering the ring via jump pack. His impressive super hero landing causes the remaining WWE Superstars to fly over the top rope making him the winner of this pay-per-view. Soon after this he competes at Wrestle Mania for the Championship Title managed by none other than Jim Cornette. The "Renegade from Outer Space" beats Brock Lesnar in less than ten seconds and is the new champion of the WWE Universe. After this success a dozen companies come knocking on his home´s door which is a drop pod in which he traveled to Earth. They offer him various endorsement deals and soon his power armour is plastered from head to toe with company logos. After a few years in the wrestling circus, he decides to become Mr. Universe and so he does.

In the meantime even the jaded SJWs of Hollywood slowly realize that they can only make a ton of money with toxic masculinity. Our SM hero therefore has to reenact all the various 80s action hero flicks because Hollywood is too stupid to come up with a single original idea. Having made a name for himself, a small unimportant toy company from Nottingham pays the "Renegade from Outer Space" a visit only to rip off his gimmick and produce toy soldiers for geeks all around the globe.

After having spent two decades on Earth, the SM is fed up with living in his drop pod. He buys a vast mansion and deploys his drop pod in the centre of his garden as a monument of his arrival to Earth. But living alone in a beautiful mansion is boring and so he marries twenty tall, buff & beautiful girls and names them according to mythical beings called "Primarchias". He sends them all to shrinks in order to develop certain behaviour patterns and with the help of psycho-conditioning he achieves this goal. After a dozen or so festivities & orgies in the "Renegade Mansion", a being called Slaanesh is created. After it´s birth it scrutinizes Earth inhabitants and decides she needs something more spicy to devour than tasteless human souls. So she heads over to the other side of the universe in a blink of an eye and destroys the Eldar civilization by devouring their souls in less than a second. The survivors are doomed to travel as nomads through space for all eternity.

Back on Earth, the SM has finally become filthy rich, a prerequisite for becoming the president of the USA. The constitution is altered in such a way that he can compete against all the various other politicians and beats them to the astonishment to all media people fair and square. After becoming president, he designates Sarah Palin as his vice president because he can and has a soft spot for milfs. Under the wise leadership of the SM, the USA prospers and the constitution is altered again to enable the "Renegade from Outer Space" to extend his presidency as long as he lives. Several assassination attempts are foiled to get rid of him as if he knew that something like this would even happen.

On a fateful night, when the stars just aligned in the right way, under a full moon and being busy repairing a mansion wall, a brick fell atop the head of the SM. After this blow to his head, his mind suddenly became aware of scientific knowledge which nobody could ever dream of. As a result of this, he ordered a vast laboratory to be built under his mansion and began to create twenty legions of warriors from genetic samples of his "Primarchias". They were clad in cheesecake power armour and presented in his monthly magazine "Playmarine" much to the delight of basement dwelling manginas who advocated the release of female space marines for decades. After he created his legions, he conquered Earth just to proclaim himself as POE "President of Earth". Under his benevolent rule, mankind travelled to distant star systems in order to increase and consolidate his dream of a galactic empire ruled by humanity.

Everything went according to plan. Resistances from alien faction were crushed under the tactical high-heels of his indoctrinated female space marines and mankind lived the dream of a golden age. Finally Slaanesh tried to turn Sarah Palin against the "Renegade from Outer Space" but Sarah was happy because the genetic modification program stopped her aging process and improved her body in various different ways making her even more powerful than a "Primarchia". And she had no shortage of eager boytoys either... Slaanesh was furious because of her rejection and as a result of this began to sulk for the rest of her existence in the warp.
The POE and the vice president of Earth are still around. When their busy schedules permit, the former makes guest appearances on wrestling shows & action movies while the latter moderates ENFSM "Earth next female space marine", a show which has a huge cult following especially in the young female population.

TarkinLarson wrote:
He determines this seems like Earth, it must but, but the warp must've send him through time somehow.

Yeah no. How he would do this seeing he already saw thousands of similar worlds and if anything, the fact nothing around looks even remotely like Imperial tech would mean coming to conclusion it's some separated, unknown human colony?

catbarf wrote:
I've seen both elephants and hippos killed with significantly weaker calibers than 5.56 when I lived in East Africa. Most people don't realize just how destructive bullets are to flesh, and standard-issue M855 goes straight through quarter-inch steel plate like it's not even there. That's why I'm not giving much credit to the unarmored superman standing up to assault rifle fire, dense bones/muscles or not- my suspension of disbelief only carries so far.

Uh, what? Mind if I ask what calibers? 5.56 is already one of the smallest and weakest bullets around, and I wouldn't count on it penetrating even pig skull, never mind seriously wounding a hippo or elephant, or a space marine for that matter...

Also, steel? You mean mild iron? Because even producer, who will brag to make his product look good, says it will maybe pierce 3 mm of good steel, less than half of what you claimed.

 Stormonu wrote:
Who cares about the language?

Space Marine comes to, snaps his bonds and sticks a scalpel in one researcher's eye. Before the onlooking guards can bring their weapons to bear, he cuts the strap holding his other arm and grabs another researcher by the throat, choking him. While the guards are shouting for him to put the researcher down and the other researchers are begging the soldiers to not shoot their specimen, the marine snaps his legs free.

Free of his bonds, he throws the choking researcher into one of the guards who has a bead on him. His superhuman reflexes allow him to swing off the table before the other guards can properly shoot him. The next few moments are bloody, but quick. The space marine uses the various surgical tools to incapacitate at least two more guards before he takes one of the fallen guards weapon's and remorselessly takes the others out. At worst, our space marine has been winged, but is relatively unharmed and all the present guards are dead and the remaining surviving researcher is in the corner gakking his pants.

After the space marine rearms and reloads with the available weaponry, he seizes the lone researcher and forces the individual (by pure brute force or verbal intimidation) to release him from the surgery wing. After locating and retrieving his armor and gear (with at least one swift, lopsided encounter with a security patrol), our marine dispatches the researcher (either abandoning him or eliminating him) and boldly exits the facility, rendering the base "safe" of any hostile forces and detering pursuit with well-placed krak grenades on enemy vehicles.

Free of the base, the autosenses in his helmet start to jack into the open communications network of the outside world. After a few garbled minutes and swirls of the suit's internal system hacking the primative security systems of this world's "secure" military channels , the display clears and focuses - revealing the location of the landing zone of a chaos marine's escape pod.

The traitor's location is quickly deciphered and uploaded to the marine's internal visor. Shouldering his rifle, the marine moves at a sprint to his opponent's location, half a world away...

And then eventually murders a bunch of police officers, then a bunch of soldiers, before eventually just being hit by an artillery salvo and dying horribly.

 Irbis wrote:
Uh, what? Mind if I ask what calibers?

Mostly low-velocity muskets and other junk improvised by poachers, but often 7.62x39 carried by askaris (you don't want a hippo loose), and sometimes 9mm or 7.62 Tokarev.

 Irbis wrote:
5.56 is already one of the smallest and weakest bullets around, and I wouldn't count on it penetrating even pig skull, never mind seriously wounding a hippo or elephant, or a space marine for that matter...

Here's a ballistic gel test of the M855 I mentioned, skip to 1 minute to see what it does to flesh. Note that M855 is a steel-core FMJ round intended to defeat armor, not a frangible, hollowpoint, or soft-nose construction better suited for use on unarmored targets, so this is the low end of performance. Here in the US, 5.56 is actually the most popular caliber for feral hog hunting, as it can reliably stop a charging 400+lb hog dead in its tracks.

 Irbis wrote:
Also, steel? You mean mild iron? Because even producer, who will brag to make his product look good, says it will maybe pierce 3 mm of good steel, less than half of what you claimed.

No, I mean a quarter-inch of hardened steel armor plating.

I don't want to completely derail this thread so I'll be happy to respond by PM if you have further questions. My point is that if we're going to put Space Marines in the real world, then you basically have to choose between either Hollywood physics and plot contrivance (and then 'what would happen?' becomes more an exercise in creative writing than analysis), or reality rendering Marines rather less omnipotent than they are in 40K.

Even if an infantry rifle can't kill him [which it probably can't], a tank, helicopter, or aircraft gun would [and his bolter cannot kill a modern tank], so a non-compliant Space Marine wouldn't last long.

They're augmented humans, not gods.


An intelligent Space Marine, should such a hypothetical creation exist, could go a very long way without firing shots period. A traveler from the future would be inherently interesting and have considerable political sway. He would be a vital resource for nations to have access to, and his own thoughts would be hung on to by literally everyone. He could be a god in name, in not in actuality, especially considering his general immortality if he stays out of the way of people who might shoot at him.

A space marines murder-rampage would be "entertaining" up to the point where the police stop trying and call in the Nat'l Guard.

And he gets bombed or artilleried to death.

 Ashiraya wrote:
The most impact I could see him making would be through the creation of a cult, albeit perhaps involuntarily. It could snowball into a huge religion once generations pass and people start realising the dude isn't dying.

Oh dear. I see talk about murderhobos, but what about a Word Bearer? Think of all the trouble certain individuals have stirred up over just the past century or two without being a superhuman backed by dark gods.

Or a plague marine. We’ve already managed to spawn a Nurglite cult on our own
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/as-measles-outbreak-spreads-one-anti--vaxxer-asks-how-to-keep-her-child-safe-2019-01-31

 Irbis wrote:

TarkinLarson wrote:
He determines this seems like Earth, it must but, but the warp must've send him through time somehow.

Yeah no. How he would do this seeing he already saw thousands of similar worlds and if anything, the fact nothing around looks even remotely like Imperial tech would mean coming to conclusion it's some separated, unknown human colony?

You're probably right with this... he probably wouldn't recognise "Earth", but he would've known that he was coming into the Sol System, and be able to identify certain planets, such as Saturn, Jupiter, and more importantly Luna, and be able to assume he's coming into Earth by all the other markers. The lack of radio or vox chatter would confuse him... or the amount of it, but on different frequencies and content.

I'm glad a few people have commented on this. I wonder how the Emperor would've reacted, or not, or if the Imperial Space Marine would seek him out, or not.

Landing a pod in different countries would lead to various outcomes which is fun to consider. How would different space marine chapters act? Would a space wolf just enjoy running around hunting the fauna? I can imagine Nurgle being completely devestating, so would probably discount that for fiction/story reasons as it'd more than likely wipe out the entire planet with a zombie plague.