Weapons29

The arc-lance is the Lucius-pattern shock-lance — a taser lance re-cored with an arc-maul's discharge coil so the Dragoon's charge lands a crackling overload rather than a simple electric goad. Its Reach lets the walker strike first as it runs a target down, and the Arc trait re-rolls the wound against constructs and vehicles, turning the Dragoon into the maniple's answer to enemy machines. Shock topples what the raw Strength +3 does not outright break — a lance that fells armour and man alike on the charge, then rides on before the enemy can close.

The chordclaw is a Ruststalker's envenomed gauntlet, a cluster of neural whips tipped with toxic filaments. The blow itself lands lightly, but the poisons it drives into the wound do the killing, dropping a foe the strike would barely have marked. It resolves as a Melee weapon with the Toxin trait — the quiet, certain hand of the cyber-assassin closing on a target it has already run down.

The cognis heavy stubber is the Skorpius hulls' secondary array — the fore-and-aft automatic gun slaved to each Skimmer's targeting cortex. Its Cognis machine-spirit means it fires without penalty after the hull moves, so a Skorpius keeps a steady stream of suppressing fire on the advance even at full anti-grav speed. Rapid Fire (2) turns it into a hose against massed light infantry, the close-lane answer that clears a swarm off the hull's flanks while the Disintegrator's turret works the far target or the Dunerider races its cargo up the board.

The ferrumite cannon is the Skorpius Disintegrator's turret gun — a chassis-fitted hardpoint weapon that fires dense ferrous slugs which drill and re-drill through plate. Its anti-armour trait lets it re-roll wounds against the best-protected targets, so a turret sweep strips the armour off enemy Brutes and vehicles faster than the raw Strength 7 would suggest. Rapid Fire (1) lets the Skimmer put a second slug down-range at closer bands, and its Unwieldy weight is no burden on a hull that carries it rather than a fighter that must brace — the Disintegrator hovers, traverses the turret, and grinds the target's protection away.

Mounted high on the Ironstrider's striding chassis, the autocannon is the walker's reason to hang back and shell the line rather than charge it. Heavy shells hammer out in a measured cadence, punching through light armour and cracking a construct's hull across the field. It is a Heavy weapon carrying the Rapid Fire (1) and Unwieldy traits — cumbersome to bring to bear, but a firing platform in its own right for a walker that trades the lance for a gun.

The plasma caliver is the gunline's heaviest hand-carried gun, a caged reactor slung on a Gunner's shoulder. At its measured setting it looses a clean, disciplined bolt; vented to overcharge it spits a searing lance that shears through plate and hull alike, though the coils grow perilous when pushed. It resolves as a Special weapon carrying the Overcharge/Unstable and Rapid Fire (1) traits, and a settled Gunner can turn a mid-range firefight with a single measured burst.

The radium jezzail is the Xana-pattern long gun — a transuranic arquebus barrel married to the irradiated core of a radium carbine, giving the Marksman a sniper's reach with a radioactive bite. Its Sniper trait lets it pick a target out of a crowd at long range, and the Rad trait means a well-placed hit tears an extra wound from the mark as the isotope does its slow killing. Unwieldy weight keeps the Marksman set and still while it lines the shot — a patient, poisonous rifle that reaches across the board and rots what it strikes.

The galvanic-cog taser lance is the Sydonian Dragoon's couched charge-weapon, a long haft crackling with arc-current. Levelled as the walker breaks into its run, it strikes a fighter down and leaves the body twitching in the machine's wake. It resolves as a Melee weapon with the Taser and Reach traits — long enough to bite before a foe can close, and vicious when the current takes hold on the charge.

The transonic cutter is a Sicarian's shearing blade, its edge oscillating faster with every passing moment of the fight. What glances off armour in the opening exchange bites clean through it as the battle wears on, the weapon growing keener the longer it is drawn. It is a Special close weapon carrying the Transonic trait — the infiltrator's patient edge, most lethal in the drawn-out kill.

The transuranic arquebus is the Marksman's reason to exist — a long, heavy rail-rifle that reaches clear across the field. Braced and slow to bring around, it is no weapon for a fighter on the move, but set in a firing position it drives an armour-piercing round through a champion's plate or a construct's hull. It is a Basic weapon carrying the Sniper, Rapid Fire (0) and Unwieldy traits, and it takes the single killing target the maniple has already calculated.

An arc maul is a crackling melee weapon, its head sheathed in a discharge that stuns flesh and overloads machines. Carrying the Melee, Shock, and Arc traits, it is at its most lethal against constructs and vehicles, where the current does what a blunt blow alone could not. A close-quarters answer to enemy engines.

An arc pistol channels a coiled bolt of lightning into a sidearm's frame, made to cripple machines rather than men. With the Pistol and Arc traits, it is a close-range answer to enemy constructs and vehicles, overloading their spirits with a lash of current. Against armoured engines it bites where lead would only spark.

An arc rifle is a long-armed lightning-caster, built to burn out the spirits of enemy machines from range. With the Basic and Arc traits, it is the Mechanicus answer to constructs and vehicles that keep their distance — a coiled bolt of current that cripples engines lead cannot touch.

The flechette blaster of the Pteraxii Skystalker sprays a cloud of razor slivers, a skirmisher's weapon for the strike from above. With the Special and Rapid Fire (2) traits, it shreds soft targets in a hail of shards before the flyer wheels away. Short-ranged and vicious, made for the diving pass, not the standing fight.

A frag grenade scatters a lethal burst of shrapnel, the maniple's answer to enemies clustered together. Thrown with the Grenade, Blast, and Knockback traits, it catches a group in its blast and hurls the survivors back off their feet. A simple, universal tool for breaking up a tight formation.

The galvanic carbine of the Serberys Raiders is a saddle weapon, cut down for firing on the move. Carrying the Basic and Rapid Fire (1) traits, it throws the same reliable, armour-biting bolt as the Ranger's rifle in a handier frame. The mounted scout looses it after a hard ride and rarely misses.

The galvanic rifle is the Skitarii Ranger's mainstay — a long-barrelled weapon that throws a precise, armour-cracking bolt at range. It carries the Basic, Rapid Fire (1), and Precision traits, and like all galvanic arms it never jams. In the hands of the machine-precise Ranger it is a marksman's tool: patient, reliable, and unerring at distance.

The incendine flamer of the Pteraxii Sterylizor washes a descending gout of promethium across everything before it. Carrying the Special, Template, and Blaze traits, it is a melee-diver's weapon — no aim needed, only a target caught in the flame. The Sterylizor falls from the sky and burns whatever it lands upon.

A krak grenade packs a shaped charge meant to crack armour rather than scatter shrapnel. Carrying the Grenade, Scarce, and anti-Brute/vehicle traits, it is saved for the hardest targets — a Brute, a walker, an enemy engine — where its focused blast punches clean through. Few are carried, and each is spent with care.

A macrostubber is a heavy, multi-barrelled autopistol, the Dominus's answer to anything that draws too close. It fires with the Pistol and Rapid Fire (2) traits, hosing a storm of solid rounds across a short range. Crude beside the radium line, but the sheer weight of fire keeps enemies off a priest at prayer.

The Omnissian axe is the sacred tool and weapon of a Tech-Priest — a great cog-bladed haft that serves equally to consecrate an engine or cleave an enemy. Wielded with the Melee, Power, and Two-handed traits, it strikes with augmetic strength and shears through armour. It is the mark of a priest's authority as much as an instrument of war.

A phosphor blaster hurls gouts of clinging incandescent fire, favoured by Skitarii and gun-servitors alike. It carries the Basic, Rapid Fire (1), and Phosphor traits — fire that both burns and marks, dragging a target out of whatever cover it hoped would hide it. A workhorse of the mid-range gunline.

A phosphor grenade bursts in a sheet of clinging, luminous fire, lighting up an area as it burns those within. Thrown with the Grenade, Blast, and Phosphor traits, it both scatters flame and strips away the cover and concealment its glow reveals. Useful as a marker as much as a weapon, flushing hidden enemies into the open.

A phosphor blast pistol spits clinging, luminous fire that marks its target as much as it burns. Carrying the Pistol and Phosphor traits, it lights up whatever it strikes, stripping away the shadows a foe hides in. A short-ranged tool of the ranged line, favoured where a target must be seen as well as hit.

The radium carbine is the Skitarii Vanguard's weapon, shorter than the Ranger's rifle and built to drown a target in irradiated fire up close. With the Basic, Rapid Fire (2), and Rad traits, it sprays a lethal volley that poisons as it strikes. It never jams; the Vanguard advances behind a wall of sickening fire.

A radium pistol wreathes its muzzle in a haze of hard radiation, a Mechanicus sidearm for close work. It carries the Pistol and Rad traits and, like all radium weapons, never jams — the sealed machine simply keeps firing, sickening what it does not outright kill. The commonest holstered arm of the ranged line and its priests.

A servo-arm is an industrial manipulator — a hydraulic claw meant for heavy labour, turned to crushing an enemy in the press of melee. Slow to bring to bear, it carries the Melee and Unwieldy traits, but a blow that lands folds armour like tin. Servitors and Enginseers bear it as tool and weapon both.

A taser goad is a long electrified prod carried by the Skitarii Vanguard, built to loose a cascade of shocks on contact. With the Melee and Taser traits, its charge arcs violently through whatever it touches. Light and quick, it turns a Vanguard's reach into sudden, stuttering violence.

A transonic blade hums at a pitch that shivers matter apart on contact, the close-quarters weapon of Sicarians and the Manipulus. With the Melee and Shred traits, it worries through armour and flesh, the vibrating edge finding purchase where a still blade would glance. Quick, precise, and merciless in a duel.