At the start of a battle where you can use the Deep Strike rules, you can declare that your Space Marines are deploying by landing in drop pods from orbiting spacecraft. Models doing this deploy using the Deep Strike rules in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.
Only the following can deploy from drop pods. No other models in the army can be used in this mission (they stay onboard ship).
- Any Space Marine model in power or Terminator armour
- Space Marine Scouts
- Dreadnoughts and Land Speeders
Errata — Chapter Approved: Codex: Space Marines Q&A (v3.0): A Land Speeder deploying via drop pod (Deep Strike) is assumed to have moved over 6" (it has just dropped from orbit!), and can therefore fire one weapon; all penetrating hits against it that turn are treated as glancing.
A bike is not considered to be wargear that makes its rider count as "a Space Marine in power armour" for the purposes of this rule — bike-mounted models may not deploy via drop pod. Among the reasons: it's impractical to drop bikes in pods when they'd normally arrive via Thunderhawk as part of the exploitation wave, a biker's bolters would be disproportionately effective on the turn they landed, and it just doesn't fit the drop pod assault concept.