Volkite Weapons
Volkite is an arcane Martian term for a variety of powerful ray weapons whose origins date back to the Age of Strife. Possessed of considerable killing power surpassing most armaments of their size, Volkites were difficult to manufacture, even for the most able of the Mechanicum's forges, and the demands of the expanding Great Crusade swiftly overwhelmed supply of them. A commonplace technology among the armories of the Mechanicum, these weapons were found in wide use among the Taghmata of Mars as a standard infantry weapon, having not suffered from the fall from favor that saw them removed from the arsenals of other Imperial forces. Even today, Tech-priests Dominus continue to wield volkite weapons.
However, ancient Standard Template Constructs found on Knight Worlds and other Human populated planets across the galaxy have proved capable of replicating these advanced weapons, particularly those worlds that maintain and produce armories dating back to Old Night, thus allowing widespread use even among both the Legiones Astartes and Imperialis Excertus. Unlike most of the other exotic weapons and technology wielded by the Mechanicum - known for zealously hoarding ancient archeotech and scarcely understood designs - the Volkite remains prevalent in the arsenal of the Imperium's other military forces, including both Space Marine Legions and Imperial Army soldiery. Civilizations whose entire armies are equipped with Volkite weapons have been encountered by Expeditionary fleets.
They have the ability to deflagrate. Deflagrating attacks have a devastating effect on organic matter, explosively burning flesh into ash and jetting fire. Volkite weapons impart so much thermodynamic energy to the target that those under their shimmering rays simply combust. Such unfortunates burn to cinders in explosions of jetting flame, frequently taking nearby comrades to the grave with them.
When amplified, Knight, Super-heavy, and Titan-scale Volkite weapons fire thermal rays powerful enough to superheat protective energy barriers, such as void shields, and pop them out of existence.
Arc Weapons
Arc weapons are powered by bulky permacapacitors shipped from Mars's Great Repositorium, storing energy in zinc-plated blocks. They discharge with a loud crack, firing bolts of blue-white electricity that can fry a man's brain or overload a war machine's datacortex in a second.
These weapons are powered by potent capacitors of ancient design, the schema of which are thought to reside on Mars alone, though it is being discovered that many other Forge Worlds possess similar templates as well. When these energy repositories are discharged, they produce an ear-drum splitting crack of sound and a bolt of pure, blue-white lightning which can overload both a mechanical data-core and a biological cortex with equal ease.
Akin to these weapons - such as the arc mauls of Skitarii Clade officers and the far larger weapons wielded by the mighty Cerastus Knight Lancers - the arc lance is a powerful spear which can project bolts of coruscating energies over a short range, its power supply augmented by the inversion generators mounted in the mag-inverter shield it is usually paired with.
Lightning Weapons
Lightning guns take the form of baroquely designed carbines either connected to a micro-reactor or, in the case of a Ordo Reductor Thallax, their firer's own cybernetic power core. It fires an ionizing las-beam down which a powerful phased discharge of electromagnetic force is unleashed, and is equally effective at slaughtering the living and overloading machine targets.
On a larger scale, the lightning locks mounted on Armiger Moirax and the bigger lightning cannons wielded by the Krios tanks, or even the Super-heavy Magaera Knights, draw from massive plasma reactor cores to unleash focused electro-magnetic beams capable of vaporizing infantry and blasting apart armor.
This configuration takes advantage of the tank's or Knight's powerful on-board reactor's vast capacity to create a laser-path guided electromagnetic beam, able to vaporize flesh and rupture heavy armor with sustained blasts. Though relatively short-ranged, its advantage over conventional weapons is that its reactor-fed firepower has the capacity to fire at full effect for extended periods, far eclipsing the number of physical shells a normal tank would be able to carry.
Galvanic Weapons
Galvanic bullets of galvanic rifles are incredibly advanced projectiles that causes all the potential energy of the target to burn out in a killing blast of electric force. Electro-galvanic weaponry uses a combination of magnetic and galvanic forces to project solid shot or explosive ballistics at low velocities but with the precision accuracy of a marksman.
More advanced forms of such weapons like the galvanic casters are laser-guided, multi-functional launchers similar to advanced combination weapons. With their main weapon mechanism, they are able to fire rapid bursts of razor-edged metallic flechettes, or with their secondary dischargers, attack concealed targets with retina-burning ignis charges. When further upgraded with a high-intensity capacitor and by compressing the galvanic charge, they can fire an armor-piercing inert slug-shot at supersonic velocities.
Las Weapons
In the Imperium, the term las is applied to a variety of weapons, from crude particle weapons like the ubiquitous laspistol to more complex and deadly weapons like the neutron laser beam cannon. With a stabilized neutronic coil arc reactor as its power source, the neutron laser is able to fire a beam so devastating it not only punches through the thickest armor but also sends out a blast wave of electromagnetic energy that scrambles circuits and synapses alike.
These energy weapons rely on rechargable power packs or portable generators instead of conventional magazines like projectile weapons. The ability to draw and project vast quantities of power has made such weapons ideal anti-tank armament among the ranks of the Mechanicum. Volcano cannons, turbo laser destructors and laser destroyers/blasters are Titan-scaled laser weapons capable of leveling entire hab-blocks or even melting holes through heavily fortified bunkers. Not to mention Titan-killing.
Photon and Pulsar Weapons
Photon and pulsar weapons are deadly but unstable, and the arcane secrets of these beam weapons are jealously guarded by the adepts who hold them, leading some to believe the technology is xenos in origin or originates from forbidden caches of the Dark Age of Technology. When fired, photonic weapons unleash howling, needle-thin beams of utter blackness able to pierce the densest matter, or else explode in scintillating pulses of blinding light, slicing armored men and machinery apart like razors, leaving waves of darkness burned upon an observer's retina in their wake.
The exotic power sources of these unearthly weapons are extremely unstable, and catastrophic failure can lead to its firer being consumed by raging flames until only dust remains. While they have intransigent and unpredictable machine spirits, the efficacy of such weapons against heavy infantry is undeniable.
Pulsar weapons are an ancient and complex weapons system that is a relic of the Dark Age of Technology. It is a multi-chambered particle beam cannon designed to fire volleys of destructive energy bolts which detonate explosively upon hitting their target, hammering armored vehicles to pieces with repeated strikes.
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