Wargear of the Imperium
This list names various types of equipment used by the Imperium. Often known as wargear, these are grouped according to their category. There are several armed branches of the Imperium's military and police services, and much of their equipment is common to multiple branches.
Armor
Mesh armor
Mesh armor is a fabric-like material made from carbon-ceramic polyfibres or bonded thermoplas. The resultant mesh is light but very strong and can be fashioned into garments or used as protective lining. Mesh absorbs physical blows or heat energy by becoming momentarily solid.
Flak armor
Flak armor consists of layers of padded and reinforced material. It is primarily designed to protect against shrapnel and ricochets, but provides some protection against direct hits. Flak armor is commonly used by Imperial Guards units, usually in the form of a bulky vest worn with a helmet.
Carapace armor
Comprised of rigid plates of armaplas or ceramite, carapace armor is made up of plates that are moulded to (loosely) fit the body. Usually a carapace suit will cover the torso and major joints with separate plates for the limbs along with a helmet, although it is also available in full-body suit form. Unlike flak armor it can realistically be expected to stop a large variety of mid-range weaponry.
During periods of relative peace, and during training exercises, some Space Marines will don carapace suits- such garb befits a Space Marine during times of wait. Space Marines Scouts are allowed access to Carapace Armor as they are not yet worthy enough to wear power armor and that their Black Carapace has yet to have grown in so they are unable to properly interface with the armor. Carapace armor is used by elite units such as the Adeptus Arbites and Imperial Guard stromtroopers.
Power armor
Power armor is a suit of ceramite plates with armored fibre bundles and servos that replicate the wearer's movements and enhances a Space Marine's already superhuman strength, as well as allows them to easily withstand fire that could kill a normal human. The suit is coupled to the nervous system of the Space Marines via the Black Carapace. It is designed as a fully enclosed suit with life-sustaining systems that now allowed the wearer to fight in deep space and on alien worlds with hostile atmospheres or environments.
The Sisters of Battle and several high-ranking members of the Inquisition also use Power Armor. The armor's effectiveness is reduced unless they are directly linked to their suits in the way Space Marines are.
Terminator armor
Tactical Dreadnought ('Terminator') Armor was developed for close-quarters fighting, where staying power was more important than maneuverability. The technology was originally developed to enable maintenance crews of space ships to operate in hard vacuum or in other adverse conditions. It was combined with power Armor technology and brought about the invention of terminator armor during the Great Crusade.
It is manufactured from a ceramite plasteel alloy as an exoskeleton with servo assisted interfaces with the users own neurological and muscular systems to enhance movement. It is the heaviest armor in any Imperial arsenal, is able to withstand tremendous punishment, and serves as a solid heavy-weapons platform in open-field combat. The First Company of most Space Marine Chapters uses Terminator armor extensively, and only those Marines who earn the Crux Terminatus are permitted to wear it.
Less frequently, high ranking members of the Inquisition have been known to wear Terminator armor.
Drugs
Frenzon
Frenzon is a collective term for a cocktail of psychoactive drugs injected into a willing (or unwilling) recepient in order to manipulate his psychological state. They are used by a some Imperial Guard units.
Kalma
Slaught
Spook
Stim
Personal Equipment
Bionics
Bionics are mechanical replacements for injured or damaged body parts.
Cameleoline
Cameleoline is a special fabric often used in camouflage attire by special forces of the Imperium.
Jump Pack
Jump Packs are bulky, vectored thrust engines that can be worn by a single soldier, designed to be attached to the Space Marine's or Sisters of Battle's existing powered backpack. They are used to make powered jumps across the battlefield, allowing the troopers wearing them to quickly engage their foes. Jump Packs are thus used by assault troops, primarily the Assault Marines of the Space Marine chapters, and the Seraphim of the Sisters of Battle. Jump pack equipped infantry are often dropped from low-flying Thunderhawk gunships and deepstrike into combat, as the jump pack also functions as a makeshift anti-grav parachute.
Medi-pack
Varying from a medikit to a diagnostic computer, the Medi-pack, generally helps a medic to heal wounded or ill troopers in a battlezone. Sometimes in particularly vicious and dangerous warzones, medics will have to scrounge for medical supplies and beg for drugs from aid stations and passing Munitorum cargo transports.
The Narthecium is a medi-kit/medi-pack used by Space Marine Apothecaries and are automated units. They carry drugs and equipment that is geared for the hardier constitution of a Space Marine, and thus can be dangerous to use on normal humans. They also include a Reductor, which allows the Apothecary to withdraw the precious gene-seed from a fallen Space Marine so that the Marine's gene seed returns to the chapter.
Sister of Battle Hospitallers have a down scaled version of the Space Marine narthecium, usable on normal human anatomy - and, in the service of the Inquisition, for torture. Many an Imperial servant has had reason to thank the gentle touch of the Hospitaller, and many an Imperial enemy has had bad experiences with this 'gentleness'.
Servo-arm
A servo-arm is a special tool used by members of the Adeptus Mechanicus to assist them in repairing mechanical equipment.
Targeter
A targeter is a device issued to some elite Imperial Guard and Space Marine soldiers. It usually appears as a scope of some sort attached to a firearm.
Teleport homer
Teleporter
Vox-caster
A communications array, similar to a radio, that can be as small as helmet mounted links to massive banks of equipment at the HQ. Usually a squad or platoon will have a link to HQ via one vox unit and smaller relays for trooper-to-trooper communications. Command units usually use more complex versions of vox casters-known as master voxes. These can receive and transmit on multiple frequencies at once, making them ideal for coordinating many squads at once. In absence of any vox communications, troopers are taught to sign to each other when in battle.
Space marines and Sisters of Battle (and high ranking members of the Inquisition, Adeptus Mechanicus) have miniature vox-casters built into their power amour (or cranium in the case of the Adeptus Mechanicus). Most of these are short ranged and used only for squad to squad communication.
The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer
A small book issued to all guardsmen in the Imperial Guard that is full of prayers and descriptions of basic tasks an infantryman must perform. Regulations and forms are also part of the book to ensure each trooper has his own book. Troopers are encouraged to read and memorize most of the primer, while disgruntled regiments may refer to these books as "toilet-paper" (and occasionally use them as such).
See also
External links
- Wikipedia: Equipment of the Imperium
- History of power armour
