Versus Match A Space Marine Legion vs The Coalition Military from Rifts

[Sailor.X]

In this scenario ships carrying a 40K Space Marine Legion crash land in what use to be the State of Arizona on Rifts Earth. After getting their bearings. The Space Marines realize they are stranded and none of their starships will ever fly again. After some time they encounter a Squad of Coalition Special Forces that were sent to investigate the crash. They start out civil but after some unfortunate events things go south. The Coalition now seeing the 40K Troops as another threat prepare for war. The Space Marines seeing that they have war on the horizon prepare to combat the new threat. What happens when the Space Marines and the Coalition clashes.

Special Note: This event takes place on month before the events in the Coaliton War Campaign.

Coalition War Campaign

Rifts® World Book Eleven Emperor Prosek is ready to launch a surprise military campaign of conquest and genocide! Rumors of the Coalition States' plans to invade Tolkeen and other plots to strengthen and expand the CS holdings have existed for years. But even the best spies have not known that...

rifts.fandom.com

Free Quebec

Rifts® World Book Twenty Two The line is drawn and the Coalition Army faces off against the Glitter Boy legions and warriors of Free Quebec. The war starts here! Emphasis on the Quebec Military. New Glitter Boys, V-SAM and other power armor. Combat vehicles and weapons exclusive to Free Quebec...

rifts.fandom.com

 

[The Whispering Monk]

Shoot, the real scary part here is if the Legion and Coalition end up deciding they're better off as allies. I doubt that will happen if they start shooting each other, but it's possible once the Legion starts to see what else is out there on RIFTS Earth.

One thing that needs clearing up, as always with 40K, is what is the Warp like in the midst of RIFTS? Are the Psykers free from constant perils? Is the Warp close enough to Rift magic that's the psykers will be able to access all the that power too?

 

[Sailor.X]

Shoot, the real scary part here is if the Legion and Coalition end up deciding they're better off as allies. I doubt that will happen if they start shooting each other, but it's possible once the Legion starts to see what else is out there on RIFTS Earth.

One thing that needs clearing up, as always with 40K, is what is the Warp like in the midst of RIFTS? Are the Psykers free from constant perils? Is the Warp close enough to Rift magic that's the psykers will be able to access all the that power too?

Given all the stuff going on in Rifts Earth. I think entities of the Warp might say...........

They are powerful but on Rift's Earth they would gain the attention of some beings from other universes they would not want gain the attention of.

 

[Agent23]

A Full blown legion had enough military assets to glass earth with ease, and I doubt they will be happy with all of the xenos and mutants on Earth, or those weird psycher tricks called magic.

40k stomps.

Rifts is basically the same shit as Shadowrun, right?

 

[The Whispering Monk]

Rifts is basically the same shit as Shadowrun, right?

No.

Rifts is an Earth where portals to other dimensions have opened up and let their denizens in. Elves, Elder Gods, Demons, Hard SciFi realms, and LOTS more have made portions of Earth home. They are all in conflict with one another to get control of the Rift Nexus that Earth has become. In the middle of all this are the natives of Earth such as the Coalition States...which have grown extremly xenophobic as a result and have a dictatorial government where literacy is not championed.

 

[Agent23]

No.

Rifts is an Earth where portals to other dimensions have opened up and let their denizens in. Elves, Elder Gods, Demons, Hard SciFi realms, and LOTS more have made portions of Earth home.

The end product sounds a lot like Shadowrun.

They are all in conflict with one another to get control of the Rift Nexus that Earth has become. In the middle of all this are the natives of Earth such as the Coalition States...which have grown extremly xenophobic as a result and have a dictatorial government where literacy is not championed.

Sounds like a good place to spread the Imperial Truth.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

@Agent23
One other piece of info regarding Rifts Earth: No Earthbound force may exit the atmosphere without being destroyed. Earth is surrounded by a dense defensive satellite array that destroys EVERYTHING trying to enter orbit & approach the Earth from space. Soooo....there's that too.

 

[Agent23]

@Agent23
One other piece of info regarding Rifts Earth: No Earthbound force may exit the atmosphere without being destroyed. Earth is surrounded by a dense defensive satellite array that destroys EVERYTHING trying to enter orbit & approach the Earth from space. Soooo....there's that too.

As if the Imperium hasn't dealt with such sriff before...

 

[Husky_Khan]

In this scenario ships carrying a 40K Space Marine Legion crash land in what use to be the State of Arizona on Rifts Earth. After getting their bearings. The Space Marines realize they are stranded and none of their starships will ever fly again.

A Full blown legion had enough military assets to glass earth with ease,

That's a bold strategy Cotton. Let's see how it works out for them.

 

[Sailor.X]

A Full blown legion had enough military assets to glass earth with ease, and I doubt they will be happy with all of the xenos and mutants on Earth, or those weird psycher tricks called magic.

40k stomps.

Rifts is basically the same shit as Shadowrun, right?

You haven't read a single Rifts Source book have you. You think 1 Space Marine Legion and a handful of ships that will never fly again can take on the beings that are now viaing for control of Rifts Earth. They would be lucky if they don't piss off some random being that can crack a mountain with it's left nut that is passing near their crash site.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

You haven't read a single Rifts Source book have you. You think 1 Space Marine Legion and a handful of ships that will never fly again can take on the beings that are now viaing for control of Rifts Earth. They would be lucky if they don't piss off some random being that can crack a mountain with it's left nut that is passing near their crash site.

@Sailor.X You're not wrong, but not completely right either.

Those entities aren't screwing directly with Rifts Earth b/c they don't want to screw up the landscape and point of power that Earth-Nexus is by throwing that kind of power around.

So the Space Marines aren't going to get that kind of response. However, the amount of crap and harassment those beings are willing to do will not be easy for the SM Legion to overcome without further complications.

As if the Imperium hasn't dealt with such sriff before...

The point is that it's NOT the Imperium. We're looking at a planet bound legion without access to the readily available resources the Imperium grants. They can't enter space again, and they can't easily access the natural resources they need to upkeep their equipment and arsenal.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

I honestly think the Coalition and Legion will go at each other a bit until they realize they are better off as allies. A humano-centric force like the SM Legion will happily deal with the humano-centric Coalition in opposition to everything else that surrounds them.

 

[Sailor.X]

I honestly think the Coalition and Legion will go at each other a bit until they realize they are better off as allies. A humano-centric force like the SM Legion will happily deal with the humano-centric Coalition in opposition to everything else that surrounds them.

You mean like the Vampires down in Mexico that would like nothing better than to full on invade the Coalition States,

 

[S'task]

The Coalition States is severely hampered in this fight due to their refusal to use supernatural powers. While Space Marines are not complete outside context problems for the Coalition, they're similar to some Mutants and Juicers, the full package that individual Space Marines have puts them into a category above just about everything. Space Marines likely count as MD creatures on their own, before we get into their armor. Add in their reaction times and heightened senses and they're exceptionally hard to beat.

That said, unlike a lot of settings, the Imperials don't necessarily have the edge when it comes to weapons. Lasers that can harm them are stupid common in the Coalition states, and I'm not sure if 40k even HAS something equivalent to the Glitterboys, which will definitely cause some problems for the 40k assets.

All that said, the Imperial Legion's biggest issue is they have no way to replace losses, every Marine and man killed represents a permanent loss. Meanwhile the Coalition States has people to spare in a grinding fight, armor that can tanks hits from anything short of heavy anti-vehicle weapons (the infamous Imperial Bolter is little more than a pop gun to these people... no I'm not kidding the firepower levels in Rifts are ridiculous). My personal take is that the conflict would start out in favor of the 40k Legion, but as time goes on the Coalition grinds them down to a stalemate where negotiations then get underway. As others have said, once the Imperial Legion realizes just how fucked Earth is, they likely would agree to align with the Coalition States, who while an explicitly Evil faction are hardly the worst force on Rifts Earth and are still very much in line with Imperial governments from the 40k universe.

 

[Marduk]

The Coalition States is severely hampered in this fight due to their refusal to use supernatural powers. While Space Marines are not complete outside context problems for the Coalition, they're similar to some Mutants and Juicers, the full package that individual Space Marines have puts them into a category above just about everything. Space Marines likely count as MD creatures on their own, before we get into their armor. Add in their reaction times and heightened senses and they're exceptionally hard to beat.

That said, unlike a lot of settings, the Imperials don't necessarily have the edge when it comes to weapons. Lasers that can harm them are stupid common in the Coalition states, and I'm not sure if 40k even HAS something equivalent to the Glitterboys, which will definitely cause some problems for the 40k assets.

All that said, the Imperial Legion's biggest issue is they have no way to replace losses, every Marine and man killed represents a permanent loss. Meanwhile the Coalition States has people to spare in a grinding fight, armor that can tanks hits from anything short of heavy anti-vehicle weapons (the infamous Imperial Bolter is little more than a pop gun to these people... no I'm not kidding the firepower levels in Rifts are ridiculous). My personal take is that the conflict would start out in favor of the 40k Legion, but as time goes on the Coalition grinds them down to a stalemate where negotiations then get underway. As others have said, once the Imperial Legion realizes just how fucked Earth is, they likely would agree to align with the Coalition States, who while an explicitly Evil faction are hardly the worst force on Rifts Earth and are still very much in line with Imperial governments from the 40k universe.

While Rifts has a lot of options for good hand held weaponry, with power armor (and conversely tools to deal with it) being relatively more common on battlefields, i would not exaggerate the general firepower levels, as they still use some rather modernish weapons alongside all their lasers and railguns too, which implies that it's not so useless either.

Glitterboys seem like something a lot like a variation on Tau railgun armed Broadside battlesuits, so absolutely they can give them problems. The difference being that it's a bit smaller (calcs, controversies around SDC and MDC aside, may be more appropriate for fighting Astartes themselves, not so much their heaviest vehicles), while the less anti-armor specialized variants may be more easily compared to Dreadnoughts and other battlesuits.

Overall, Astartes could absolutely slug it out in this environment, however it wouldn't be the easy fighting they would get in many lower tech sci-fi universes, it would look a lot like fighting Tau and Dark Mechanicus forces rather than IG analogues or something like that.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

You mean like the Vampires down in Mexico that would like nothing better than to full on invade the Coalition States,

Legion be like, "Oh look, Daemons of Slaanesh. We can make them go away too."

 

[S'task]

as they still use some rather modernish weapons alongside all their lasers and railguns too, which implies that it's not so useless either.

It's been a long while since I looked at the original Rifts sourcebooks, but I don't recall any "modernish" weapons that did MDC damage that were man-portable (i just did a cursory look through a pdf of the current Rifts main book and didn't even find anything like a .50 BMG rifle listed to give a comparison point). Meanwhile IIRC man-portable laser rifles like used by the Coalition were throwing around 3d6 MD with 20 some charge battery clips.

Materials technology and weapons tech of Rifts Earth is way beyond out modern stuff. Standard infantry weapons are straight up anti-armor level firepower to modern Earth.

 

[Marduk]

It's been a long while since I looked at the original Rifts sourcebooks, but I don't recall any "modernish" weapons that did MDC damage that were man-portable (i just did a cursory look through a pdf of the current Rifts main book and didn't even find anything like a .50 BMG rifle listed to give a comparison point). Meanwhile IIRC man-portable laser rifles like used by the Coalition were throwing around 3d6 MD with 20 some charge battery clips.

Various grenades, 40mm grenade launchers and the like would probably fit the bill, speaking of so would bolters.

Materials technology and weapons tech of Rifts Earth is way beyond out modern stuff. Standard infantry weapons are straight up anti-armor level firepower to modern Earth.

Going by the popularity of low caliber railguns, something like .50 cal SLAP (which fires a .30 cal dart at about 1500 m/s which is way faster than any reasonable rifle can get) might be a low tech comparison.

 

[Sailor.X]

It's been a long while since I looked at the original Rifts sourcebooks, but I don't recall any "modernish" weapons that did MDC damage that were man-portable (i just did a cursory look through a pdf of the current Rifts main book and didn't even find anything like a .50 BMG rifle listed to give a comparison point). Meanwhile IIRC man-portable laser rifles like used by the Coalition were throwing around 3d6 MD with 20 some charge battery clips.

Materials technology and weapons tech of Rifts Earth is way beyond out modern stuff. Standard infantry weapons are straight up anti-armor level firepower to modern Earth.

They state that the standard Antitank Bazooka type weapon does a whole whopping 1 MDC....... So yeah Rifts is less modernish and more high Sci Fantasy.