One of the things I've noticed very little on in the books is any details on getting the characters to and from their mission. If by ship for example, what are the Deathwatch's fleet assets, and what happens to it afterwards? Having a ship in orbit seems like a heck of an asset to have. Then there's getting to the site itself. How do you get the team in and out without giving them a huge asset like a Thunderhawk or Stormraven that they can exploit througout the mission? If you use drop pods, how are the characters extracted at the end of the mission?

I'm preparing to run my first DW game, and I know my players are going to try and squeeze every asset they can out of me .

I hear yer problem....sadly, there are no hard 'n fast rules for this - you hafta control this stuff on yer own and keep yer players as reigned-in as befits your game.

It sounds like you have clever players, so this won't necessarily be easy for you. If you don't want them to have a starship as a resource, then task it with another mission while the pc's are on the ground....if inserted by drop pod, extraction is via thunderhawk (for example) at a specified time/location...if inserted by thunderhawk, it goes into standby orbit until extraction (can be used to support mission, or must remain out of harm's way until pickup, depending on the adventure's needs).

Rites of Battle goes into some of this problem, forcing pc's to spend requisition to buy mission support. Alas, I am at the moment out of time, but hope this helped.

Zappiel is right- you have to come up with a reason why the transport is not available to support the Killteam when you are creating the mission (unless, of course, they have sufficient pull to Requisition it as an Asset, as per Rites of Battle ). It's fairly easy to do- most missions will be taking place in warzones, where voidships or flyers can't hang out without drawing an unacceptable ammount of enemy fire. Hence, the transpot ship has to fight its way past an enemy cordon of a planet, launch the Killteam's drop pod, and clear out before it is destroyed by enemy warships. Or the transport has another mission to complete while the Killteam is on their mission- say,transporting a battallion of Guardsmen to a beleaguered battlefront, with only enough time for a slight detour to drop off the Killteam. Or just set the mission in a location where a Thunderhawk would be completely useless, like a network of underground tunnels.

How does the Killteam clear out after completeing the mission? The mission parameters should define a rendezvous point where they hook up with an extraction vehicle- typically a Stormraven or Aquilla that has relied on either stealth or speed to reach the Landing Zone just ahead of the marines. The mission briefing should also include an alternate LZ in case the primary one is compromised. Forcing the Killteam to double-time it to a secordary LZ after watching their primary transport take a direct hit from enemy artillary, dodging enemy partols as they triangulate the Killteam's possition, can provide a fun scenario in and of itsself...

Another useful approach is to emphasise that DW operations are usually low-key and covert, so their insertion asset is off creating a large scale diversion elsewheres while they get on with business. And you could just go ahead and shoot it down...

In the first mission of my current campaign, the killteam had to decide where in a besieged system they were going to strike. They asked to be inserted as close as possible to the planet, taking a thunderhawk over to a contested Rogue Trader frigate while the Deathwatch frigate (The Black Arrow) established void superiority over the invaders. Retrieved by thunderhawk when the mission was completed.

In other missions, the Black Arrow may well leave system for a few days on "other missions". The resources of the Deathwatch are finite and stretched after all.