InquisitorGray said:

I would say...YES. On the black market, I'm sure you could find a viable, intact, cryo-stasis preserved Geneseed. It would be priceless to the right buyer.

Would you be able to implant it and use it? Probably not.

Is there a bio-engineer Mechanicus out there who would put entire worlds to the Virus to experiment on it? Oh yeah....baby! Would the Space Marine Chapter it came from kill baby kittens to retrieve it? Litters and litters of them. Would it attract unwanted attention from the Inquisition? You betcha! Especially that faction that is trying to bio-engineer a flesh vessel to house the Emperor's soul....

This would make an excellent plot device for an adventure or three. Thank you!

Dalnor Surloc said:

Perhaps the PC's are infiltrating a heretic faction and need to be involved in order to gain their trust?

Besides, we're talking Rogue Traders here. They don't stop at much if there's enouh profit to gain. Always remember: PROFIT!

Varnias Tybalt said:

Yea, but Astartes are powerful and prone outright insanity where honor is involved. I love the idea and hope that the newbies in my group manage to convince my regulars to do something that stupid. I'm Imagining the rest of the campaign being the PCs trying to find some place to repair and refuel before the Astartes strike cruiser arrives.....

Dalnor Surloc said:

Of course.

But if the PC's are hiding outside Imperial Space, there's really not much stopping them from engaging the Astartes strike cruiser. A rather suicidal tactic, but it would be kind of epic if they managed to cripple a space marine vessel.

Perhaps using some sort of stellar phenomena to their advantage? (like a nebula or a star emitting strange radiation which messes with the ship sensors, but the PC's have gotten a hold of a version of xenos manufacture rendering their vessel immune to such phenomena)

Varnias Tybalt said:

A strike cruiser isn't that bad. Yes it's a heavily armored cruiser with lots of space marines. In BFG strike cruiser vs any lance based cruiser is generally a net loss for the Astartes. (Of couse the cannon will cause the other side a lot of damage.) If you don't have enough turrets or fighter cover they'll be forced to deal with thunderhawk based boarding parties. Of course strike cruisers generally have escorts as well. Against the average RT vessel, that isn't a cruiser with a full lance load out, the strike cruiser is certainly going to win. Certainly a big part of such a campaign would be finding weapons able to hurt the cruiser. Then staging a battle where the PC had a tactical advantage. Then dealing with the survivors who made it on board, and are continuing hit and run attacks inside the ship.

Dagda said:

You wouldn't have to be anything other than human to be a genetic match...so homeworlds would not matter in the grand scheme of "hey I'm stealing me a gene seed". Chapters usually have a few worlds they pull recruits from simply for the ease of finding genetic matches from constrained gene supplies...but they could look harder elsewhere. Gene seeds, just like any other genetic implant you're going to have to have the right biological numbers to make it work. This doesn't mean you have to be a genetic clone or even in the same family. You can't get a liver transplant from just any old hobo off the street, even with state of the art anti-rejection meds. So you will have to have a candidate that has the right stuff genetically to make a space marine even if you find him on Carnivorous Howling Stomp Monster Planet IX in the middle of no-where.

A gene seed isn't like a magical chocolate coated pill that you give to someone and have them magically morph into a blue power ranger. It simply contains the genetic data required to synthesize a specific chapter's organ implants and other sundry. I would hope to freaking heck that after all the trouble I went through to conjure up a gene seed that my candidate was a match. Although that could be a funny way to end a sector spanning campaign against tech heresy. In the end the villains' plans were going to fail anyway because they didn't do enough homework...bwhahahha.

Varnias Tybalt said:

PROFIT!

the gene-seed cannot be salvage from dead SM if to many time have pass (and this i a short period not a long one (half an hours to 1 hours max) apothicary take gene-seed on dead before healing injury to avoid loosing it and they need to have the correct holding devise to preserved it)) is seem to me very hard to take one in that condition

so from dead SM is no execp if you are on place, survive the battle when all SM are dead, survive whit no one that can see you salvage one, you also need the skill to do it and the devise to store it ..............seem very very hard to do

gene-seed are also place in reserve by all chapters and by the omnissiah, .......if someone can steal one from what is be the most securised area of a chapter citadel or a tech-priest citadel..you can be sure he have lot of trouble comming after him (adn you if you purchase it from him)

the iron warrior traitorous legion need 3 or 4 compagnie and more of 100k heretics slaves troops to succeed in storm of iron novel...whit heavy war engines (demons hvy artillery, titans, ship, tanks)

welll in the imperium nothing is totaly impossible but the chance to find one (and only one) are probaably neer 1 chance on 100 000 000.......exept for the emperor and the tdc nothing is more protected in the empire

the simple possession of one of them if you manage to find one is certainly a crime with a dead sentance link to it....i m pretty sure if you are capture whit one you be torture to obtaing all info of how you manage to have it, you gonna be executed, you crew too, probably your family too, your ship may be confiscated (or destroy) your family rogue trader chart annulated and all of your possessions confiscated too

Marcus Galva said:

But what if the astartes carcasses belonged to a combat group sent to investigate a space hulk and they encountered "something" and the resulting combat made sure that the entire area within the hulk was opened to the void?

Let's say that this "something" managed to wipe out all the space marines in that combat group. Then you'd have a space hulk with several dead and unrecovered astartes carcasses, and they would most certainly be frozen due to the open rift to the void, meaning that their implanted gene-seed would be preserved until someone tries to claim it.

Most bio-matter can be preserved by freezing it. I have a hard time seeing why gene-seed would be an exception to that fact.

Varnias Tybalt said:

As an aside, the bodies would have to have been there for a few hundred years to have frozen but that's not necessary to preserve their flesh and organs. If they are in the void then there'd be no air to support the life of the microbes needed to break down the flesh of the body so there'd be little to no decomposition to begin with. There might be a bit of cellular breakdown due to good old fashioned entropy, but damage to the body from exterior forces (radiation if unshielded etc) would be more worrisome in such a situation.

I went to Wal-mart last night, and I can assure you that Space Marine Enhacements and Geneseed can't be bought there, so its not possible to buy them anywhere.

HOWEVER, if you are running RT and you need it for a plot device, then do whatever you want.

Your best chance on an old battlefield would be a space battle where the SM were active, but weren't able to . SM are often involved in boarding actions via thunderhawks, torps or teleporting. Remember that SM are able to hibernate. So what you want to look for would be salvation pods, damaged ships, and even a drifting suited SM.