Okay, so I'm wondering about loot, just to start. There's a maybe short list of things that even a Rogue Trader would either find it very hard to acquire, despite having a planet's worth of money, and a sector's worth of connections, and a few things they just can't get. They can requisition a Baneblade, and the unit of Guardsman infantry attached to it. They can acquire some of the most powerful weapons such vessels can carry. In one instance, they can even claim a Titan, sort of. One of those categories of things out of their league is "Astartes Stuff". Even Calligos Winterscale, as far as I know the richest, most powerful NPC RT in Koronus, could not likely acquire a Land Raider, or a Thunderhawk, without just stealing it from the Space Marines, with all that plan entails, partly because they are rare, partly because they are in the hands of Space Marines, and he has no known ties to any Chapters, and mostly because, if I understand things right, the Emperor actually decreed that only Astartes could use the two above mentioned things; the Imperial Army once had Land Raiders (Guard had a powerful transport, at one time), and the Big E ordered all of them to be seconded to the Legiones Astartes, and only made for them.

So, I get that, even in their height of power, a Rogue Trader would find it difficult to obtain a Land Raider, or a Thunderhawk, but what about the Traitor models? I've played 40K, but I've never fielded Chaos before, and when I was playing, the Thunderhawk wasn't even a model (now, I think it's mostly a FW model, and mostly for Apocalypse games, but it DOES exist), though I know my friend had two Land Raiders for his Noise Marines. Certainly, any such vehicle, in the hands of the Chaos Space Marines for so long, will be tainted, but if they can pull a ship out of a corrupted Space Hulk, I'd think it would be possible to "purify" one of these, too. If your party happened to battle CSMs, which is mean, but certainly doable, and, after besting them, took their ride (pick one), if they got it cleaned up, what would happen to it? Most of the Traitor Legions don't have too much for Loyalist elements, and it would seem weird to take an Iron Warriors Land Raider, and hand it off to the Blood Angels. If we ignore that silly (not saying untrue; just convenient and silly) "lesser hands unworthy" element of Astartes gear (some of the machine spirits will be lost, with the warp taint), and a Rogue Trader happened to claim a Traitor Legion Thunderhawk, and put his amazing Explorator, and Missionary, to work, cleaning it up, would the Imperium step in, and just take it, or would the Rogue Trader, having the right to claim spoils, get a new, awesome ride, albeit maybe a little less awesome, as some bits might not make it through the exorcism? Yes, this is snowflakery, but the entire point, sometimes, of being a Rogue Trader, is to have the ambition, and arrogance, to claim what no one else can, and if they can be trusted with a ship it took a century to build, and can end continents, or worlds, what's a Thunderhawk, one of the most easily fabricated aircraft in the Imperium, if the Internet is to be believed? At a few points in the TT, Inquisitors could field a Land Raider as a Dedicated Transport, and that was written by Games Workshop (Thunderhawks just weren't a model, yet), so I'm wondering if, after footing the bill themselves, a Rogue Trader could have another "look what you'll never own " trophy, or if some element of the Imperium would say "no one can defy the Emperor, and He said only His sons could have these!", and take it, and then, not being Astartes, give it to some Chapter, however they'd pick? Just curious, and thought I'd ask, before the boards went poof.

if your party found one, how would you explain to them they can't have it, and what would you have them do with it, instead, or would you let them have it, on their own bill, as Peers of the Imperium? (A Rogue Trader CAN have equal authority to an Astartes Chapter Master.)

Are you asking why they can't have a horrifically corrupted piece of advanced technology that is just as likely to be demonically possessed and try to kill them or take over their ship should they really want to take it?

Possible sure, but the purification process takes decades if not centuries and even then isn't always used because they may just see it as not salvageable.

It's not just a day long tuneup, the Dark Mechanicum have changed the vehicle and it's been corrupted by the warp anyways. It'd require almost a complete rebuild for the most part.

Then why can a city-sized spacecraft be saved? It's been smashed like a beer can, into several other beer cans, flung through the Warp for however long, and used by Orks as a ride, while Genestealers use it as a toilet, waiting for Space Marines. It doesn't seem like anything that might be wrong with the Thunderhawk/Land Raider couldn't/wouldn't ALSO be wrong with the Retaliator-class Grand Cruiser, mashed into the Cosmic Nightmare Space Hulk, but if a Rogue Trader thought they had the time, and resources, they'd certainly try to cut it out of the Hulk, or tow it out of the Processional, and rebuild it, if not for themselves, then for a future Warrant bearer to use. If they can do that to a ship that could touch my house, AND the town two towns away from my house, at the same time, something smaller than my house (I think) shouldn't be any harder.

In my head, fixing it up wouldn't actually be SO hard; there would certainly be a time element, like you said, and spending resources to find people, get parts, and try to conceal it from other people, or fend them off from pirating it from you. I just wondered if some element of the Imperium, being the fun- and bling-police, would step in, and say "you are not a Space Marine, so you can't have it", and then return it to the Astartes, like the agencies of the Imperium actually work that cohesively? It would be nice if the Space Marines weren't so much better than everyone else that, when they actually DID get help, they might think to reward their "partner", rather than just shrug and say "it was their responsibility", and give them nothing. I'm not sure of a better way to get the above stuff, though, beyond "of course you can't. It's special , even if it's not really that special." You want a Grand Cruiser? Okay, I guess we'll fork one over. You want a heavily-armored, weapon-loaded, mobile command post, for you, your team, and some armsmen? No, only Space Marines have that, even as their fighting doctrine usually doesn't favor it." Yes, I'm whining, and yes, I'm a bit sorry. Thanks, of course, and hope you're having a good one.

If you feel like it, if your party said they wanted something like a Land Raider, or a Thunderhawk, superior to, and more flexible than the types of things the Guard have access to, what other options I might not be thinking of are there?

I never said they can't be saved, I said that it's incredibly dangerous to attempt to and takes a long time. Most of the time they are supposed to destroy hulks after looting them, not save ships, anyways.

It doesn't seem that way, but if the gellar field glitched even once it's likely the machine spirit was corrupted. However you spoke of a chaos marine's vehicle, that's going to be inherintly different than a normal marines vehicle. Not just one they found randomly on some hulk.

A rogue trader wouldn't be in charge of that, they'd give it to the mechanicus to rebuild and purify and if the Mechanicus even took the thing they'd go from there.

That's fine, you asked for opinions, think what you please.

Agencies that might take issue: The space marine chapter in question, space marine chapters aligned with said chapter, allies of said chapter that may include planetary/sector governors and possible inquisitorial contacts, the mechanicus, and not to mention the most terrifying adeptus of all the adeptus administratum more specifically the munitorum because it's a valuable piece of wargear that needs to be reaccounted for.

They do work cohesively, but just not that quickly. You'd be found out eventually and then it would be confiscated and if you're lucky you won't be killed for what might be seen as looting materials that you are not allowed to loot and keep for yourself.

I think you underestimate just what space marines think about other people. Depending on the chapter you're sometimes little better than the thing between them and the enemy worth killing.

Well even on the face of it you have to recognize that astartes pattern machines are not made for human sized characters. They're made for marine sized characters. So that affects the usability of it.

However if you want something like that why not see if a chapter needs some stuff done for them and ask a boon of them in return.

Apologies, I wasn't trying to be standoffish, and will readily admit my own knowledge of 40K fluff/lore isn't always top-notch. It's often fun, to me, though, to imagine what things the most powerful of Mankind can obtain, and that's often what Rogue Traders are meant to be, so I sometimes imagine what would be some of those things, and Astartes vehicles popped in. When I used to play 40K, and didn't like the answer of "not their theme", I couldn't understand why the Astartes had a tank (the Land Raider, the Predator) that seemed so much better than the Guard, who are often defined by their tanks, as their troops are somewhat expendable, while the Space Marines usually "drop in", murder something, and are out. Later, I realized it was partly Guard BS (only 3, and before Tank Commanders, with BS 4), making many of the weapons on a Predator, or even a Land Raider, less optimal, while a heavy transport wasn't needed for light inafantry, and more besides, but it would still feel like something cool for a Rogue Trader, analogous to an Inquisitor, in standing, and with a similar capacity to field higher-quality forces, to have this "better than a Chimera", and Inquisitors have, in the past, been able to field Land Raiders, without a Space Marine in sight. Oh well.

As for the Space Marines, themselves, I do get that some of them are very cool. I imagine that, were I to run into a Blood Angel, a Salamander, or an Ultramarine, they'd actually care about my own fate, to differing degrees, compared to, say, Minotaurs, or a few others, who can't be bothered, but I've never had a great idea of how Astartes demonstrate gratitude, on the rare occasion their saved by "lesser beings". They don't stay with you (they can't, I totally accept that), they don't usually give you a present (their stuff is special ), and sometimes, I'm not even sure they would think to need to, as you were just doing your job. (Yes, I have a job, and they pay me, but I do still enjoy the occasional "you did good, so here's a little something extra".) There was a Talent in Ascension I always liked, Oathbound to the Angels of Death, but even it didn't necessarily do a great job of explaining how to use it, saying "you have a rare connection of brotherhood to one of the Astartes Chapters, and this is how you can use it", other than "oh, and if they may need help again, you'll probably be whom they look to". Something like Ear of the Lord Sector made sense, but this one...what are you supposed to even ask Space Marines for, and that warrants spending on a very top-end Talent, over say Peer/Good Rep (specific Chapter)?

I did come up with one, before, as my RTs coat of dragon hide does come from the Salamanders, after his grandfather protected one of their ships, at his own expense, but it's tricky to come up with other nods.

That's fine, you aren't coming off that way.

Rogue Traders are privateers, meaning licensed pirates. They have their limits. Large limits, but limits still.

You don't get why superhumans crafted specifically for war and given the best wargear possible have better things than what amounts to tissue paper for the greater threats of the galaxy? Troops are entirely expendable, but they do engage in larger scale conflict of a crusade calls for it.

Yes, Inquisitors also work closely with space marines for their job and space marines reward them with such things when they've rooted out heresy for them. Inquisitors don't just go, "I'll take one" even though it says on paper they theoretically can they'd still gain the ire of the chapter, which doesn't bode will for the web of alliances that a space marine chapter lies in.

Angel and Salamander sure, not so certain on the Ultramarine. They care because the codex tells them to, but I've always felt it's lip service from them.

Space Marines can be contacted in the same ways anyone else high ranking can. They have astropaths. You ask them to come and help you kill something you aren't sure you can on your own with enough marines to feasibly kill it.

Just as a side note: The guard's Leman Russ tank is actually quite a bit superior to the predator. Most Astartes tanks would more correctly be termed "tank destroyers" or "Light Tanks" as opposed to true "Main battle tanks" Like the Russ. Even the mighty Land raider is really a super heavy APC rather than a tank at all!

As to the op: There was a module in OW that suggested a RT that owned a regiment of Land raiders iirc. Of course considering that said machines are rare enough that even the SM chapters typically only have a few each; this is a bit much to swallow!

Beyond that, I agree with thendoctor that it would be the admech and possibly the ecclesiarchy that would have to purify the Chaos counterpart to said vehicle. (Getting them to work together could be fun!) Once the work was done, they would probably be the ones that decided the fate of the vehicle.

One point of digression though: The Space Marines are notoriously feudal in their Outlook and as such do not forget favors easily. That said, doing something that actually makes them feel indebted would be an impressively dangerous feat in and of itself! Returning a piece of wargear that rightly belongs to them will likely not earn more than a polite thank you unless it's truly a chapter relic! Rescuing a stranded battle company from being overrun by orcs during the battle WILL get their attention!

Also keep in mind there are more restrictions in place than merely pragmatic opportunities of acquisition and keeping everything running. Even if you get some Space Marine tech, almost all of it requires either conversion or Astartes sized warriors to make use of it; and dovetailing on the feudal nature involved there are some decrees no one can override or ignore, with a Warrant or Rosette. Land Raiders are decreed by the Emperor to be specifically restricted to use by the Astartes and a couple of Mechanicus organizations that swore binding oaths with them dating back to the Great Crusade, like the Ordo Reductor. That aforementioned Rogue Trader, if or more likely when they are found out; will be faced with the choice of turning over his entire arsenal while suffering crippling censures, swearing binding oaths that subsume his dynasty into the Mechanicus, or being declared Excommunicate Traitoris and his holdings Perdita-delivered at the hands of severely hacked off Astartes and Mechanicus forces.

Just as a side note: The guard's Leman Russ tank is actually quite a bit superior to the predator. Most Astartes tanks would more correctly be termed "tank destroyers" or "Light Tanks" as opposed to true "Main battle tanks" Like the Russ. Even the mighty Land raider is really a super heavy APC rather than a tank at all!

As to the op: There was a module in OW that suggested a RT that owned a regiment of Land raiders iirc. Of course considering that said machines are rare enough that even the SM chapters typically only have a few each; this is a bit much to swallow!

Beyond that, I agree with thendoctor that it would be the admech and possibly the ecclesiarchy that would have to purify the Chaos counterpart to said vehicle. (Getting them to work together could be fun!) Once the work was done, they would probably be the ones that decided the fate of the vehicle.

One point of digression though: The Space Marines are notoriously feudal in their Outlook and as such do not forget favors easily. That said, doing something that actually makes them feel indebted would be an impressively dangerous feat in and of itself! Returning a piece of wargear that rightly belongs to them will likely not earn more than a polite thank you unless it's truly a chapter relic! Rescuing a stranded battle company from being overrun by orcs during the battle WILL get their attention!

Well, in the ridiculous story for my ridiculous RT, his grandfather did stumble upon a lost Salamanders Strike Cruiser (some ancient warp-shenanigan), and he informed the Astartes, but they didn't arrive quickly enough, and CSM arrived, to capture the vessel (how did they know? The warp only knows!) Actian, being a good Imperial, through the strength of his not-warship into holding the Word Bearers, and their Raider bands, off, until the Salamanders did arrive, but they were lacking the strength to recapture a ship, as Word Bearers did get aboard, before their own ship succumbed, so Actian assisted the Space Marines, at some cost. They won, and Captain Havarae said Actian Qel-Drake could take a prize. There was some good stuff, and, of course, Havarae was watching, judging, a bit, but Qel-Drake chose only a bolt (if you will) of Fire Salamander hide. Certainly precious, as they usually use it for Hero Mantles, but Actian, and his crew, had been pretty heroic, and I do like to think of the Salamanders as the nicest Space Marines, so Havarae agreed, and it's where Aedan's Wyrm's Hide came from. It also earned his Warrant the notation of said above Talent (Oathbound to the Angels of Death), but has never been used, since; I like to imagine it's where he gets his Kraken rounds, for his fancy bolt pistol, since even Deathwatch TT (Imperial Agents) lists them as special ammo. Beyond that, I've never thought of a great use for the Astartes friendship angle; some people would probably even call me out on the veracity of this one.

As for the usefulness, like I said, I admit that BS 3 makes for crap, with single-shot weapons, like lascannons, compared to heavy bolters, with three shots, but I remember wanting, at the time, to know where the Guards' tank-cracking tanks were. Drifting ordnance, like the earthshaker cannon, or the LRBT's battle cannon, work on infantry, when they land right, but not so much on vehicles. I also wanted a transport with better armor; a Rogue Trader, once committed to going into the battle, has a much better reason to be defended than expendable Guardsmen, and Chimeras/Rhinos are often very tissue-papery, when holding valuable cargo. Oh well, it's at least as much my snowflakeyness, as anything else, so there's that.

Also keep in mind there are more restrictions in place than merely pragmatic opportunities of acquisition and keeping everything running. Even if you get some Space Marine tech, almost all of it requires either conversion or Astartes sized warriors to make use of it; and dovetailing on the feudal nature involved there are some decrees no one can override or ignore, with a Warrant or Rosette. Land Raiders are decreed by the Emperor to be specifically restricted to use by the Astartes and a couple of Mechanicus organizations that swore binding oaths with them dating back to the Great Crusade, like the Ordo Reductor. That aforementioned Rogue Trader, if or more likely when they are found out; will be faced with the choice of turning over his entire arsenal while suffering crippling censures, swearing binding oaths that subsume his dynasty into the Mechanicus, or being declared Excommunicate Traitoris and his holdings Perdita-delivered at the hands of severely hacked off Astartes and Mechanicus forces.

I've never really seen that as real. Yes, I know Space Marines are "bigger" than men, but how much bigger is questionable, and humans wearing power armor should probably be about the same scale; they just have slightly thicker plating, to make up for the absence of girth, and natural resilience. It's a standing thing, though, so I don't argue it. That's partly why I liked their vehicles more; "a little bigger" is exactly what a show off RT wants, and can fit his men, minions, and toys easily. I don't want to **** on the Valkyrie, but they get shot down kind of easily, and people still don't entirely seem to agree on whether they can go ship-to-surface, while other lighter-like craft, that it makes sense Rogue Traders and Co. would use are often vaguely defined, sometimes unarmed, and sometimes poor atmospheric craft, while what they get around in, on the ground, is often even more vague. Chimeras? Rhinos? (I think Abrites can use Rhinos, so maybe the Imperium isn't as limiting on these?) Lastly, when a Rogue Trader can go to a Forge World, and order a custom starship part be manufactured, or any of a number of other things, it seems weird they can't, with enough money, and connections, order something similar to a Land Raider, or a Thunderhawk. How many Baneblade variants were just "Forge World X couldn't make this cannon, but Guard Regiment Y barely knows what that cannon is, so we'll make a knock off, and tell them it's what they ordered"? It can resemble, but be legally distinct from the lol...um, aforementioned transports. That's sort of what limitless money, and the ear of a Magos, is for.

There are also plenty of other things the Big E said, that most everyone has forgotten, so it's annoying that this thing, mostly because it's a "you can't..." decree, IS remembered, where so much else was lost, or changed, to support the needed religion He didn't want.

Rhinos are in common use with numerous forces including Sisters of Battle and Arbites. Valkyries and their variants can deploy from orbit, and are stated to be able to make orbit for retrieval in their technical specs. As others have said above, it really is a difference of expertise and resources on the supply side-you can build a small fleet of valkyries for the price of 1 thunderhawk, and do so with a much lower base of knowledge, skill, and manufacturing capacity. On the demand side, the sad fact is most humans cannot take advantage of the advanced systems-inferior pilots delivering carapace armored veterans who fall in a hail of small arms fire that Astartes would shrug off, while units with power armor get outflanked and butchered by heavy weapons wielded by better trained or more experienced troops. There is simply no reason to take already expensive vehicles and equipment and replace them with vastly more expensive improvements that are more difficult to manufacture and maintain, for generally marginal gains in performance. Same reason you don't have Tempest Scions and Guard Grenadiers wielding power armor and refractor fields, even though the production runs are large enough to make it possible-even the best regular soldiers provide inferior return on substantial investment. Equipping one unit for the cost of 5 or 10 becomes a serious problem when their combat performance fails to match; that is before accounting for enhancing the problems with smaller units-losses from mishap or poor planning are magnified and leave less room for error. Also the role intended-Valkyries are general purpose, Thunderhawks are slow, heavy transports designed to punch directly through AA fire and expect to take numerous hits on the way in. The Chimera is an APC designed to protect a squad and provide support fire; a stock rhino is an APC to get Marines from point A to point B faster than hoofing it when other transport is impractical, with the armament and armor protection almost an afterthought. When Marines expect to come under concentrated fire, they use Land Raiders. The Predator is a light tank, designed for a handful of precision strikes before redeploying-not sitting there slugging it out in a pitched battle. Every piece of tech they use has a specific purpose, fulfilling it and either advancing or withdrawing; Astartes use almost nothing besides bolters, grenades and missile launchers that could be accurately described as general purpose, while most of what the Guard and Navy uses is general purpose to a fault.

TL;DR-Logistics wins wars, life is cheap, and in 40k where handheld/man-portable weapons can reliably bring down anything smaller than a titan, it is rarely worth the expenditure for best of the best equipment, especially when it may be corrupted or captured and used against you. Thus, Astartes and specialists like the Inquisition get the best toys; they know where and when to use them, and take good care of them.

Also, most mature Marines seem to be between 7.5 and 8 feet tall barefoot, with only the scouts still growing at 7 foot. Combined with the altered body type-barrel chest and limbs, wrists almost as big around as the waist on a bog standard human, and basically being a generally rectangular block of muscle; even a large human in the range of 6'6'', 300 pounds and built like a professional athlete will look like a scrawny adolescent in comparison. Add in the power armour, with Astartes armour being larger in relative size to account for the additional systems and torso reinforcement; even with that same huge human in appropriate sized power armour, that size gap widens. When you wonder why you cannot just use Astartes tech, think about just how massive that size gap is, between an average human-5'9'' to 6'0'', trying to use something meant to be comfortable for someone in the 8'2''-8'6'' range, more than twice as broad and deep, and keyed to relatively clumsy gauntlets that can crush plate steel like tinfoil. Adaptations can be done, but not easily.

As for a Rogue Trader, the sky is the limit, and how much you are willing to invest determines your kit. The Land Raider is one of a comparative handful of things permanently out of reach; add to that list Titans, Ordinatus, Cybernetica robots, a few pieces of Mechanicus war tech that is probably more trouble than it is worth to keep functional, and the specific equipment used by the Grey Knights and Adeptus Custodes. Pretty much anything else that is not tech heresy is negotiable, though the cost varies widely; remember that designs are sequestered both as security measures and to preserve the power of those who hold them. If you want, only time and resources will restrict you from fielding entire armies clad in power armor and force fields, wielding plasma guns as standard weapons with special and heavy weapons rarely seen outside Astartes; deploying from thunderhawks, drop pods and stormbirds; entire companies teleported directly to the battle field, alongside StormLords for APCs and regiments of superheavies deployed as general purpose armour; to match or exceed almost any force fielded outside the Sol System.

Now, how much are you willing to spend?

It's actually not questionable. We know pretty specifically how much bigger a marine is than a normal human. You don't get to deny that because you don't think it's real. There are Astartes pattern things and other patterns, Astartes patterns are almost always larger than a normal human can use easily. And no one goes around in power armor all the time.

And are you denying the decrees of the God Emperor?...sounds like someone needs to be playing Black Crusade.

I mean, really, anyone can hold any interpretation of the fluff, but I think the general opinion you will find is that marines are somewhere around 8' in armour, and a great deal more bulky than a human.

The decrees of the Emperor (in terms of what had been lost) are all up to interpretation as well. Personally, since the land raider isn't used by IG and so on, I'd assume they remembered the bit about "Thou shalt not Land Raider, unless you're a Space Marine (or an Inquisitor aparently)"

It's actually not questionable. We know pretty specifically how much bigger a marine is than a normal human. You don't get to deny that because you don't think it's real. There are Astartes pattern things and other patterns, Astartes patterns are almost always larger than a normal human can use easily. And no one goes around in power armor all the time.

And are you denying the decrees of the God Emperor?...sounds like someone needs to be playing Black Crusade.

I'm sure part of it is me, part of it is that the Internet says everything, even things blatantly contradict, or disprove each other, as fact, and part of it is who's writing this week, but I can find places that say Primarchs are only around 8'-9' tall, with wrists as wide as my torso, and their Space Marines are more Human-scale, but it blew up as various GW authors, and others, wrote differing accounts, mistaking some characters for others (once Primarchs weren't as big, or important, and once Alpha Legion Astartes impersonated Alpharius, as he was, apparently, no bigger than them?), and, as they do, didn't check with each other to see what's "canon".

Anyway, I can go on to accept the rulings. Like I said, having either Astartes transport would be as much snow-flaking, as anything else, and there's been enough of that. Said group can use Valks, and Chimeras, or some other stuff from the RT books, to get around, when not on the ship. Thanks everyone, for your ideas, and please have a good one!

I have had RTs go looking for Crusade-era battlefields just to pull true Sol-system manufactured Legion equipment out of the sand and see what still works. Assuming the machine spirit isn't cursed or otherwise warp-tainted, the rest is just part replacement, and any ship equipped with a Labratory should be able to manufacture the small parts needed to get equipment up and running again, though probably not to the same quality as the original part as the replacement is most likely an inferior material. If the RT is running around in a ship equipped with a Lab, Manufactorum, and Small Craft Repair Bay, and converts all of them to refurbishing Astartes equipment, and has a way of aquiring the rare and difficult to process ores that make up most Astartes equipment, and the local tech priests are cool with bringing the equipment back into the fold of the Omnissiah without notifying their superiors, I would say go for it. Just remember to hide the goods when Astartes, Inquisitors, or well-studied RTs are in view.

Half the fun of the 40k universe is the backwardness with which technology is viewed, but it can also be a huge pain when trying to do some simple reverse engineering. It would make one guilty of meta-gaming, but aquiring a Heretek to help get around this problem, and conveniently purify the machine spirits without sending a report back to mars, would go a long way towards that Astartes gear everybody wants.

So, it would seem that finding or fixing the gear isn't that much of a problem, but using and keeping it that makes the issues. A keypad positioned at a marine's solar plexus would be head hight or more on an unmodified human, and likely the buttons would take many dozens of pounds of pressure to activate. This brings the image of a character hammering at the panel with the butt of their pistol trying to punch in the correct key sequence. Weapons would be similarly difficult, with frames much too long and thick for normal arms. A true scale SM blade weighs roughly 60 lbs... a normal human would find it impossible to do anything more than drop it on a target. The recoil of Astartes bolt weapons is stated many times to be capable of breaking an arm or wrist even if care is taken firing the weapon. Power armor of your own will mitigate these factors, but not eliminate them... Astartes weaponry is simply built an order of magnitude beyond regular human stuff. That is the whole point of the Astartes in the first place...

Which brings us to the Space Marine Equivalent. Ten guardsmen have an even bet against one marine, all other things equal & constant. I hold 6 stormtroopers (roughly) to be equal to the marine. Put those troopers in power armor, and give them (standard) bolters and chain weapons, it is about 4.5. Bionic/cybernetic/genemod light on the base stats, it becomes 3. Heavy mods and it becomes about 1.75, but you are spending a horrendous amount of time and Thrones, probably setting up breeding programs or sourcing candidates from fitting planets, similar to the Astartes (I have always thought new Custodes are grown for the purpose, not born, and this is why they are able to perform better than an industrially produced Astartes) and this is just to get the troop quality that even approaches what a Space Marine can apparently do. Losing a single dropship would be a tragedy, with billions of Thrones worth of soldiers, equipment, training, and mods going up in smoke... So as inevitably as every RT goes on a quest for SME troops, they go for equipment as well.

Recovery of anything possessed is obviously not allowed, as the machine is basically a daemon now. Kill it with fire, move on. Tainted machine spirits can be scrubbed and replaced, but it is a long process and the new spirit is going to be quirky for an amount of time proportionate to the size and complexity of the machine. Starships take centuries, vehicles decades, weapons and armor a few years or a decade and change with something like power armor. Astartes power armor, other than scout armor, may not be worn by regular humans, ever, unless they take genemods that make them have hulking(?) size, like the people the armor is designed for. Even then, it must be modified to be used by someone not blessed by the Emperor with nearly unbreakable bones and muscle as dense as steel. Melee weapons are unusable by humans unless the human is in power armor, and has a strength value over 50 (after the armor bonus is added), or has unnatural strength x2 or (2), depending on which unnatural system you use, and under either system the wielder still gets both a -10 to WS and the weapon is unwieldy unless strength is above 60, and has unnatural strength x2 or (4), like the Astartes that are supposed to be swinging it. Firing an Astartes bolter without power armor or unnatural toughness or blackbone bracing and the user must test toughness +15 or suffer a broken arm from the recoil. Grenade throw distance is quartered out of armor, and plasma overheat is twice as lethal unless the user is in power armor and has unnatural toughness. No special rules for vehicle use, unless you wish to occasionally check toughness or take fatigue due to the vehicles being designed or occupants that are literally impossible to injure or fatigue with a rough ride.

From this standpoint, Land Raider Battlettaxi is definitely a possibility, as long as you don't drive it around in front of anyone that knows, explicitly, that you are not allowed to have it. Given the feudal nature of the Imperium, and the flamboyant reputation of RTs, I would think the Planetary Governor or IG General would still not do more than raise an eyebrow at the vehicle for fear of levelling a false accusation at an individual capable of razing their entire world. Just don't let Astartes or Inquisition see it... or a Throne agent... and you should be safe from the whole "The Emperor decreed thusly: only Space Marines can have Sweet Rides" issue