Dark Mechanicum - Heretek Technologies: Berserker Thorn - A very unusual device, this arcane-looking heavy-pronged dart is laced with circuitry and power coils and contains a strange and baleful technology little understood even by the Logicians. When breaching a Servitor or similar mechanism's control system, the penetrating barbs release a cascading pulse of electromagnetic force and poisonous Machine Spirits that can overload and burn out the imprinted command functions and drive such a machine into an uncontrolled murderous rage.Cerebral Annihilator - Used to conduct covert murder and dispose of test subjects, this easily concealed palm unit uses a focused electromagnetic field designed specifically to destroy the delicate neural synapses in a living brain. The unit must be held within a few centimetres of the skull for at least one full round to function and is too precise and delicate to use as a weapon against any target that is not unconscious or completely immobile.Immateria Ward - An Immateria Ward is a form of null-field projector and Machine Spirit cogitation core intended for use in armour, portable shield-walls, and similar devices. Empyric Engineers who infuse the Warp into their machinery are rarely insane—at the outset at least. They understand the need for protection from corrosive Warp-energies, and so turn to Heretekal archeotech lore concerned with creating Machine Spirits that can channel the power of the Warp. Placed upon armour (to the accompaniment of long ritual and forging of the Machine Spirit) an Immateria Ward appears as a sigil within a circle, both shapes outlined by thin silver cables set into shallow channels. The null-field projector and cogitation core are hidden beneath the centre of the sigil. The potent Machine Spirit within slumbers until it senses the presence of the Warp; when it wakes to action, the silver cables smoke and glow with a purple mist of dissipated Empyric energies. The Empyric Engineers have long granted Immateria Wards to allies as a form of compact—loyalty is given by the Hereteks in return for a willingness to embrace Dark Tech from the ally. Thus the ward sigil has become a reviled symbol of the outcast Empyric Engineers in the eyes of the Loyalist Mechanicus Tech-priests like the militants of the Cult of Sollex, whose Magi direct Auxilia Myrmidon hunter-cohorts far and wide across the Calixis Sector to slay those who bear the sign of the Heretek Empyric Engineers. Mere association with the owner of an Immateria Ward bears a risk of death at the hands of the servants of the Machine Cult—or worse, a short life connected to the interrogation machinery of a Magos-Militant.Irradial Cogitator - An Irradial Cogitator is a malefic piece of technology which fues a Daemonic spirit with a highly advanced cogitator created by the damned magi of the Hell-Forge of Samech in the Jericho Reach. The brilliance of Samech's cogitators was legendary long before their fall from the Omnissiah's grace. And while the Iron Pit's magi have turned to the forbidden and blasphemous across the ages, their craft with these calculating machines has only grown. An Irradial Cogitator is often a bargain too good to pass up, a miraculously efficient machine whose price appears remarkably low. In their nascent stages, an Irradial Cogitator's intellect can answer a struggling hive city's prayers. Disease, hunger, and pollution are some of the most common problems the beneficent machine seems to cure for its new masters. While the cogitator's miracles are still endearing it to the local population, it seeks its first apostle. This person will be the seed of fear and worship. He serves as an innocuous voice for the infused cogitator;s true wishes, a disciple to spread the knowledge of its impending divinity. Tech-priests are the obvious choice, but anyone in a position to maintain the cogitator's physical housing, who holds substantial regard for the device's miracles, is a candidate. While the first apostle cultivates the population's reverence for the cogitator, it begins to spread its sphere of direct influence as well. An Irradial Cogitator spreads the tendrils of its neural pattern out into technology connected to its location. An Irradial Cogitator's "body" is an inanimate machine, easily destroyed if it can be located and reached. However, the Daemonic spirit within is possessed of malevolent brilliance, and has many abilities that allow it to indirectly influence its surrounding to protect itself.Malygrisian Bioforging - Heretek Malygrisian Tech-priests -- later purged from the foundry wards of Port Wrath -- practiced a form of mutational bio-forging upon their workers to both improve their quotas and control them, body and soul. As the bioforging took hold, the workers grew addicted to the addition of a rare and synthesized Promethium extract called Nephium that was added to their food rations by their masters. Over time, unnatural bio-motes grew within their bodies and began their dreadful work of twisting the sacred human form. An irregular, lumpy rind of organic plasteen developed beneath the skin, and their flesh became laced with filaments of that tough material. Eyes and mucus membranes also became plasteen-saturated. Within a few weeks, menials could enter the void unclothed, shrug off heavy blows, and survive terrible injuries. Over time, however, the bio-motes and plasteen growth reshaped the flesh to give the appearance of horrific mutation and went out of control, turning the body on itself with appalling consequences. The tainted workers died in drooling agony as plasteen formed in the brain, crushed vital organs, or broke through the skin in ridges, horns, and fronds. Before long, the Hereteks' blasphemies could not be hidden from their just punishment. For all the dreadful consequences of the bioforging’s eventual failure, the wealthy and powerful have since been tempted by the possibilities of the body remade, both for their "chosen servants" and even for themselves, and the secrets of the blasphemous technology has spread to several worlds despite a ban by both the Inquisition and the Machine Cult. For its proponents, the bioforging is a glorious opportunity; flesh is sculpted and changed in its constituent material, potent new organs grown within, and the mind is warped to grant unnatural focus and clarity. Proponents of the procedure believe that it is noble to attempt to ascend beyond the limits of one's birth-genes. To the Imperium, however, such thoughts pave the road to tech-heresy and mortal sin.Murder-Cogitator - A dark lore of data-violation and ravishment of Cogitator Machine Spirits has long existed in the Calixis Sector. It is suppressed by the Mechanicus at every turn, but cogitation heresy remains widespread; there are always more Hereteks willing to carry on their damnable toil in the shadows. Many influential figures in the Imperium so greatly desire unfettered access to secret data that they turn to forbidden cogitation lore, and the careful Heretek prospers by preying upon these illicit desires. Tech-devices capable of despoiling data-vaults have spread across the Calixis Sector through the black paths of smugglers, alongside Vox-heresy, unsanctioned psykers, and a thousand prohibited substances. Crime barons of the Golgenna hives call these devices "Murder-Cogitators." They allow the uninitiated to pillage a cogitation array of encrypted secrets, slay the Machine Spirit within, and leave a steaming ruin behind. This is anathema to the Mechanicus, and Cult of Sollex hunter-cohorts show no mercy to anyone suspected of involvement with these vile devices. The dominant pattern of Murder-Cogitator is produced by adorants of the Arch-Heretek Nomen Ryne, cultists who spread forbidden cogitation lore in the Malfian Sub-sector Hive Worlds of the Calixis Sector. Many of their tainted works employ the Thirteenth Pattern of Cogitation, a Heretek design abhorred by the Omnissiah no matter what purpose it is put to. A Ryneite Murder-Cogitator appears to be a heavy, bronze-cased data-slate ornately embossed with raised scrollwork and Cherubim. Paeans declaring Nomen Ryne a saint and verses of Ryne’s Precepts Mechanicus are engraved upon the device.Oblivion Volitors - The notorious Heretek Illucis Grizvaldi and his Heretek cult followers are known to prey upon Imperial fears in regards to the immortal soul and its possible destruction. They do so by heavy-handed use of Oblivion Volitors. These tech-devices are a corrupted and clumsy pattern of neuroaugmetic; when surgically implanted into the brain, an Oblivion Volitor turns a man into a soulless "Obliviate." Obliviates are empty shells, living on after the soul is consigned to nothingness. Hereteks further augment Obliviates with crudely implanted blades and metal fangs, so as to use them like attack animals. They debase the divine form of Mankind by whipping Obliviate packs to savage their foes. But the true weapon is terror -- terror of theoblivion brought to cherished souls, terror that the God-Emperor’s protection within the Warp for the soul is sundered. To the perceptions of the psyker, there is little difference between an Obliviate and an aggressive Combat Servitor.Prognosticaon - Amongst the many tech-perversions bestowed upon the Calixis Sector by the Arch-Heretek and former Logician Ammicus Tole is the foretelling device known as a Prognosticaon. It is an inverted iron pendulum suspended within an enclosure of circular hoops and surrounded by a hedge of seemingly meaningless mechanisms. The construct is usually small enough to carry in one hand and may be etched with profane symbols or Heretekal texts. The pendulum bobs and oscillates in response to changes in its surroundings—it is very sensitive, particularly to tides in the near Empyrean. Patterns for the Prognosticaon are ciphered within rare fragments of Ammicus Tole’s tome of rituals and chants: the cipher-keys reveal attendant scrawling as debased rituals of operation. The secret of the Prognosticaon lies in perturbing the near Warp in a way that steers the pendulum towards desired revelations about the future. Wizened tech-witches of Cyclopea, devotees of Ammicus Tole, accomplish this through blood sacrifice and wild ritual taught by their master’s Tome. A Heretek Tech-priest of the suppressed faction of Empyric Engineers might find other ways of achieving the same end, but the Prognosticaon is, at its core, a tool enabled by death and suffering. Tole’s ritual requires eight human sacrifices, achieved in a variety of unpleasant and carefully specified ways, and rousing excitement amongst eight more participants. Blood is strewn about and painted upon the Prognosticaon device, and prayers offered to false gods. The tech-witch who seeks a foretelling sets Signifiers—disturbing sigils daubed in sacrificial blood at cardinal points about the device. The meaning of each Signifier is determined by the tech-witch and pertains to eight questions permitted by this tech-sorcery. With the ritual at its height, movement of the Diviner’s pendulum to one Signifier or another reveals true answers.Samech Redemption Servitor - A Samech Redemption Servitor is a type of Servitor whose creation is used as a punishment reserved for criminals and unruly serfs. To become a Redemption Servitor is therefore a fate reserved for traitors, weaklings, and hated enemies of those in power. Many say that the feral intelligence of these drones still bears the tormented, malicious echoes of those now trapped in servitude. Scholars suspect the Redemption Pattern Servitor originated in the Lest District, where it remains extremely popular. However, the model can be found in use throughout the Dark Forge World of Samech in the Jericho Reach. The pattern involves heavy replacement of the organic neck, arm, and leg joints with pivots that provide almost 360 degree rotation. The torso is then augmented with four additional limbs, creating a squat, arachnid profile. Most models also use epidermal armour plating, although its design varies with the forge city of manufacture. The Redemption Servitor incorporates several pieces of Samech’s electromagnetic wargear, although it is of substantially poorer quality than devices used by the world's Dark Magi. The standard configuration includes a Techxorcism Cannon—usually installed in the chest and fired through the gullet— for neutralising other technological enemies and scavenging machines that may not be completely inert. In order to reach and disassemble precarious wreckage, the Redemption Servitor contains an auxiliary magnetic repulsion system that allows them to traverse unstable structures, and its spindly limbs are capable of puncturing steel. These limbs also double as dangerous weapons, which the savage Servitor needs little provocation to use. The Redemption Pattern’s principal drawback is that its programming works as intended. In order to scavenge Samech’s wastes effectively, they must be relatively autonomous, with the capacity for self-repair and an instinct to seek out valuable technology. Not only does this cause the automatons to kill for the smallest scrap of tech, it has led to a high incidence of the Servitors infesting starships bound offworld, spreading these dangerous cyborgs across the galaxy.Scrapcode or scrap code - Also spelled scrap-code, this is actually a simple form of computer virus, often used by the servants of the Dark Mechanicum against their more technologically advanced opponents. When this weapon is employed, blocks of self-replicating machine-code are constantly being broadcast on every possible vox frequency, and when picked up, if the other cogitator fails to identify the transmission as Scrapcode, the virus will quickly flood it by self-replicating, either forcing the machine to shut down or severely impair its functioning. Scrapcode is rather inefficient, and is considered more of a general nuisance than a real weapon by the Loyalist Tech-priests of the Mechanicus. Scrapcode infection can be prevented simply by securing one's communication channels, and even then cogitator system incompatibility can prevent the Scrapcode's self-replication, but Scrapcode has the advantage of being a completely passive assault. More advanced forms of computer virus which would allow a Heretek to actually take control of an enemy computer system or network, do exist, but those must be tailor-made for their target, and cannot be used in this way. Scrapcode was first used on a large scale as a weapon by the Dark Mechanicum during the Battle of Calth in the Horus Heresy when the Word Bearers Traitor Legion launched a massive surprise assault upon the Ultramarines Legion.Speculum Umbrae - A Speculum Umbrae is an intricate crystalline device formed of layer upon layer of circuitry arrayed like the petals of a flower—a piece of barely understood archeotech infused with Warp-knowledge of the Heretek Mechanicus Calixis faction of the Empyric Engineers. A handbreadth wide, it is much heavier than it looks and consumes power prodigiously. The dead keep their secrets, but sometimes a Radical Inquisitor must have those secrets. At great risk to the soul, it is possible to summon shades of the dead via the dark arts of the Anima Mori; Hereteks of the Empyric Engineers who use the Speculum Umbrae device to achieve this end. When active, the Speculum crackles with energy as it draws forth visions of madness and dead souls formed from particles of Warp-matter. The sane Heretek employs Immateria Wards and Servitor labour-proxies to avoid direct exposure. Commoners upon most Calixian worlds believe in ghosts: that the dead sometimes linger where they died, seeking vengeance or trapped by unfilled desires. Hive World Ecclesiarchs preach against these beliefs and call ghosts the evidence of foul witchcraft. It is Adeptus Ministorum orthodoxy that all souls go before the God-Emperor—He protects, and no-one is overlooked. In contrast, Empyric Engineers assert that the Empyrean records echoes of tormented death-throes and the mind that made them, ripples in the Warp that drift across time to exert their influence upon the Materium. Regardless, ghosts raised by the Speculum Umbrae are not who they were; they are hollow shells of souls, indistinctly formed of glowing Warp-motes and filled out by the tides and evils of the Empyrean. They may have the answer that a Radical seeks, or they may be screaming, glowing phantasms that try to possess the living. Only the strong-willed can stand before moaning Warp-ghosts and compel answers to their questions.Vore-Weapons - Vore-Weapons are genetically engineered beasts, a living assassin’s tool crafted by Heretek Genetor and Xenobiologis Tech-adepts from raw xenos breeding material. This crafting is a dangerous practice for a Mechanicus Tech-priest. While the Omnissiah blesses the toil that created the Grox, Beremoth, and a dozen other worthy Imperial agri–breeds, the creation of new xenos beasts from breeds declared corrupt or vile is tech–heresy. The line between the sacred and the Heretek Xenobiologis is smudged and often redefined, but the creation and use of Vore-Weapons are emphatically tech–heresy in the Calixis Sector. No faithful servant of the God–Emperor would create or employ such obviously corrupt xenos life, and those who do must be hunted down and burned.