Scythe Sniper Autocannon

Red Bar Veteran with his Scythe

A staple of the Legion's tactical marines, the Scythe Sniper Autocannon is an example of the ingenuity inherited from their days pre-reunification with their primarch thanks to their previous doctrine as Thunder Knights. Used instead as a sniper rifle, the humble autocannon has been adopted by legionnaires as a perfect weapon to compliment their doctrine.

## **History**

Originating from the Legion's early days, their trademark need to tinker with technology and adapt it for new and unique uses was one of the major reasons that relations between the Thunder Knights and Mechanicum broke down. As negotiations soured and the Knights found themselves significantly under-supplied it was under the this hardship that the idea of the Scythe was born.

While fighting a campaign against a minor Ork empire the Legion's battle calculations quickly found their forces overwhelmed overwhelmed, the normal tactics of advancing into the enemy methodically with technological superiority impossible without the technology at hand. Tasking his Tech-Clave to finding a solution the Legion Master was not disappointed when he was presented with a freshly built Scythe, and a new plan.

While the vanguard force would make the same advance into the enemy with bolter, blade and terminator armour, the simple to convert Scythes would be given out to legionary marksmen of all stripes. From their position behind the front lines they were tasked with executing any form of greenskin leadership that they saw rallying troops, sending those around into disarray to be easily mopped up with their vanguard brethren. The resulting slaughter of greenskins proved so effective that the weapon was immediately entered into legionary archives and stratagem, even birthing a new type of veteran specialist known as 'Red Bars' named for the overheated autocannon barrels after shooting for so long during the battle.

## **Design**

While originally a makeshift conversion of a Kalibrax pattern autocannon, the Scythe eventually grew into it's own class as a sniper autocannon. The main changes to the later designs are internal to the autocannon itself, with the basic layout of barrel and upper/lower body being left as-is. The action of the weapon has been altered so that it can only fire on semi-automatic, as well as a massive reduction in ammunition capacity, being magazine-fed from the underside of the rifle like most small-calibre weapons. The bolt has had an internal upgrade as a pair of plasma igniters are used to ignite the charge in the ammunition. Using a precise electrical charge to burn the propellant as efficiently as possible, giving increased velocity and accuracy compared to the standard weapon, not to mention the reduced recoil from using non-standard propellant materials. This overall increase in accuracy, range and penetration has helped shape the identity of the weapons user's to this day, believing themselves to be guiding the will of their primarch into the rounds they fire.

Around the barrel itself is a metal guard, keeping the barrel free-floating and allowing for other equipment to be mounted onto it to assist the shooter. A large bipod or suspensor can be attached to the underside of the barrel to help compensate for the weight, but the most common method of stabilisation has proven to come from Seran design.

Equipped with both a Heavy Arm-Assist a marine can easily move and support his weapon with little effort, even able to stow it should they need their hands free for climbing or taking out an enemy silently. It has proven a great boon to be able to effectively brace the weapon against the heavy arm-assist when there is a lack of appropriate cover to do so.

Mounted on top and easily the most distinguishable part is the Beholder sighting augur array, a collection of apertures that allow for multi-spectrum vision as well as a variable magnification used by those first Red Fangs. Since becoming incorporated into the identity of the Monastic Ascendants, a sub-link has been added that allows everything the augur views to be transferred directly to the Marine's autosenses.

### **Ammunition**

The basic charges used in every Scythe round are chemical in nature, requiring the plasma igniters to be fired. The electrothermal reaction from the charges mean the explosion inside the barrel can be controlled rather precisely by varying the level of electricity discharged. Marines can deliberately lower it if they don't wish to over-penetrate a target, conversely they could heighten it should a particularly hard armoured target show itself.

There are many and varied kinds of ammunition used depending on the situation and enemy the legion faces, a few examples are listed below:

* Spearpoint Penetrator Rounds
* Nemean Shield Breaker Rounds
* Modified Stalker Rounds
* Argo-Viral Rounds