Storm Shield - Storm Shield Variants: Astartes Storm Shield - Storm Shields are large and heavy shields that can house extensive webs of field generation circuitry in their thick plating. The shield's generated energy field can fend off bullets and blasts from afar, whilst the physical shield itself protects against melee attacks. This is the most common variant utilised by the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes.Astartes Combat Shield - A Combat Shield is a compromise between flexibility and defence, trading the stronger protective energy field and physical protection a Storm Shield’s size offers for a free hand. A Combat Shield straps to the arm, providing an able parrying tool as well as a smaller protective energy field.Suppression Shield - The Suppression Shield is similar to a Storm Shield but replaces the power field generator with an electro-shock unit. The electro-shock unit builds up a powerful electrical charge which is discharged into the first unfortunate individual the shield contacts squarely. Suppression Shields are designed for crowd suppression and riot control so the electrical discharge is more debilitating than fatal but it is still distracting to even the most hardened hand-to-hand combat opponent. The following are the most common patterns of Suppression Shields utilised by the military forces of the Imperium:Hydraphur Pattern Suppression Shield - Suppression Shields are common equipment for the Adeptus Arbites, although upon seeing their effectiveness, many other organisations and individuals have moved to obtain them. The Suppression Shield is both a bulwark and a weapon, a heavy slab of ceramite large enough for the wielder to take cover behind. Each has a built-in arc-lumin at the top, and a powerful shock-plate in the shield's centre. If the wielder strikes with the shield, he can discharge the shock-plate on impact, delivering a powerful electrical blow. Suppression Shields do not constantly release their electrical shock, since the shock-plate takes time to build its power to dangerous levels. The Hydraphur Pattern Suppression Shield can still be used as a weapon while it is in the process of recharging. Arbites Suppression Shields are also designed with lockgrips on the upper corners. Crusader Suppression Shields are designed for combating the malefic and Warp-spawned powers, and are inscribed with hexagrammic wards.Synford Pattern "Lockshield" - The Adeptus Arbites commonly make use of heavy ceramite shields during operations of all types. These are rectangular plates, worn on one arm, which are typically equipped with a heavily armoured viewport that offers protection to the operator. The Synford "Lockshield" is a relatively standard example of the type, but with one unusual and defining feature. The Lockshield, like most Arbites shields, is designed with an armourglass viewport and a firing port through which a basic or pistol weapon can be fired. It also contains a powered Vox-hailer linked to the Vox-torc of the most senior Arbitrator present, allowing that officer to rebuke and remonstrate over even the most deafening racket. It contains mag-strips on both sides, which enable prisoners to be secured directly to the shield by magnacles. Its most unusual feature is its ability to lock solidly with adjacent Lockshields to create an armoured wall behind which Arbitrators can advance as a unit, thus giving the shield its common name. The shield can be locked using mag-strips to shields adjacent to it; the Arbites use this feature to create walled "Lockshield" formations during particularly lethal riots, or to advance large groups of Arbites down wide, fire-swept corridors.Vigil Pattern Storm Shield - Alongside the Salamanders Legion, who possessed their own prototype which relied upon superior construction materials, the Imperial Fists Legion was the first to utilise one of the enhanced storm shield designs during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. The Vigil pattern featured a uniquely potent field generator far exceeding that found elsewhere. The first of these had entered service with the Legion after the Ullanor Campaign, but difficulties in production meant that only a few hundred had entered full service at the outset of the wars of the Horus Heresy. Once full inter-Legion conlfict was underway, Rogal Dorn ordered resources to be spared in the creation of more such protective devices for the use of his Terminator units, knowing them to be invaluable against the deadliest foes for his Imperial Fists had ever faced; other Space Marines.