Confessor Las Machine Gun

Vaunted among the rank and file of the Imperial Army as a weapon no guardsman squad would be without, the Confessor is an enhance version of the standard lasgun used during the Great Crusade. It is commonly issued to special weapons troopers for it's superior rate of fire and suppression capabilities.

## **History**

Found amongst the wrecked orbital arcologies of Grissen during the Great Crusade, the STC for the Confessor was hidden away in deep archeo-vaults protected by the remnants of the station's abominable machines. Having rusted away they still managed to slaughter hundreds of Imperial Army soldiers as they poured through the complexes maze-like internals. The arcologies themselves were almost through lost as several began to deliberately fall from orbit. Their machine masters having seem the scales of the fight tipping against them, they decided they'd rather die than submit.

It was the Ferrum Jannisiers 179th that had been assigned to wipe the 5th arcology of enemy life that suffered under the withering automoton fire that day. Managing to push back the monstrous rusted relics through a mixture of ambush tactics and distractions they held the defenders down with the sacrifice of their brothers and sisters. The sacrifice would not be in vain either, as stormtrooper squad pierced the internal controls of the station and cut the machines off from the bulk of their processing power, leaving them to be easily mopped up.

It was after the cleaning of bodies, both enemy and ally that the command overrides were deciphered, leaving the Jannisiers with a wealth of knowledge including a single STC. The Confessor.

## **Design**

Known as the Confessor or the 'Cutting Beam' among troops, is a large laser weapon meant to dish out punishing amounts of fire upon an enemy. With a bulkier weapon chassis, a series of focusing arrays, a flux cooling system and interchangeable barrel assembly it can keep continously fire for extremely long periods of time. Best used against light infantry it allows a guardsman squad to tear through lightly armoured targets and suppress those smart enough not to get hit.

Internal to the weapon itself are a number of core components similar in function to a lasgun. With 3 separate focusing arrays each generates the same amount of power as a normal lasgun, with the lower power allowing for extended use without putting stress on the lens arrays. Thanks to the more specialised hellguns of the Stormtrooper detachments focusing on penetration power and higher amounts of energy, the Confessor was happily adopted as a far simpler and easier to maintain lasgun variant. With it's lower power consumption and extended battery life it is highly praised as a simpler solution than needing a stomtrooper with a hellgun or a multilaser heavy weapons team.

The barrel itself is wider as a result of the 3 barrels present, but this is another element designed to extend the life of the weapon. With each barrel firing in sequence, the strain is lessened compared to only having one barrel and one lens array. All in service to extending the usability and reliability of the weapon. The barrels themselves are all shrouded within a casing with slots to allow for air-cooling. This entire casing assembly is designed to be easily replaceable should the lens arrays or barrels become warped from extended use. A spare barrel or two is usually necessary and carried by either the weapon specialist or one of their squad mates.

To deal with the tremendous amount of heat build-up of such a high rate of fire weapon, the inner workings are covered by a jacketed cooling element. This element is usually filled with a liquid coolant but in some cases when this isn't available water has been used as a substitute. Much to the joy of guardsmen working alongside the gunner they sometimes fire off a number of rounds to heat up the water inside the jacket to use for beverages in cold climates. The other major cooling element is hidden under the barrel-shroud. The 3 barrels underneath have an array of t-shaped dissipator fins around their circumference interlocking with one another. From the outside the shroud has a roughly triangular configuration while hiding these fins underneath. With more surface area to heat up they improve the heat build-up significantly.

Usually used as an alternative, the Confessor is able to be powered by a large box power pack equating to roughly 31 megathules. It will not be able to function for longer periods of time however, and these are usually used when the main power source is being recharged. The main method of powering the weapon comes in the form of a backpack battery much like the ones used by stormtroopers. This large 44 megathule battery is able to feed the Confessor via a cable for an extreme amount of time. The liquid metal core of the backpack battery cells having been overlaid in sequence so they can hold more charge. Though this overlapping of power fields does make the backpack more volatile, troops usually accommodated this by making small shelves in trenches that a weapons specialist can place their backpack on without fear of it being hit.

The weapon is compatible with most lasgun attachments such as sights, slings, flashlights, etc. thanks to the main body remaining relatively the same. The standard Confessor is rather simple in comparison only giving a guardsmen iron sights to rely on like his fellow troopers. Usually coming with a bipod and a simple folding stock with some basic recoil suppression springs built in. This keeps down the relative cost of manufacture rather than adding specialised laser sights and targeting arrays that would easily be lost or damaged otherwise.