Annihilator Cannon
The Annihilator Cannon was a type of Vortex Weapon used by the Dark Angels during the Horus Heresy.[1]
Overview
These cannons were massive armaments, whose size could run the entire length of a warship. With kilometre-long vanes like the vertebrae of a saurian extruding from its flanks. Their technology was known to draw upon the same ancient Terran knowledge as the legion’s void munitions.[1]
When preparing to fire, energy would flare along the length of the vessel, arcs of purple and blue energy leaping from one vane to the next, moving from bow to stern in succession. A few seconds later another surge of lightning would ripple down the starship, with the pause between surges being shorted by the passing of every few seconds. Pulses of cerulean fire would envelope the warship almost constantly. While in orbit above a battlefield, it would seem as though a violet star sprang into life in the skies above. All while back within space, the vessel would be awash with swirling energy, the void around it buckling and twisting like a warped mirror, the flare of power casting impossible shadows against the vacuum of space itself. The bolt would then be discharged, and in the instant that followed a rift blast would expand around the target, taking the form of a lightning-wreathed oval of discordant energy that filled the space around the enemy, its edge crackling, and a screech like a God’s whetstone would split the air, causing any speakers or vox-units in the area to emit their own piercing feedback wails in reply. Millions of tonnes of material would sparkle in blue suspension, every grain of rock and mote of ash shimmering with tiny arc of warp power. In the depths of this rift shapes would move almost unseen – the broadest sweep of a face or raking claw. They appeared more like afterimages, rendered in three dimensions against the stretched skin of reality, pressing to pass through a veil only made visible by their presence. An instant later the warp field would collapse like a storm bubbling down into a single drop of rain. Anything caught within its rift would all disappear with a boom that eclipsed all other sounds.[1]
Annihilator cannons could also be adjusted for precision strikes, such as during the Battle of Zepath, where the fire from the cannon mounted aboard the Dreadwing ship Intolerant was adjusted to create a precise corridor of fire no more than one kilometre wide, and two kilometres long, to support the wing’s advance upon the traitor stronghold held by the 12th and 17th Legions.[1]
Examples
An Annihilator Cannon is known to have been mounted on the Dreadwing vessel Intolerant.[1]
Sources
- 1: Angels of Caliban (Novel), Chapters 3–6
