Meltagun

The meltagun is a weapon of pure, devouring heat. At close range it projects a sub-molecular blast that flashes solid matter to vapour, hollowing out tanks, collapsing bunker walls and reducing armoured warriors to a puff of superheated steam. There is a characteristic hiss-crack as the air itself is boiled away in the instant before the target simply ceases to be.

Melta weapons trade reach for annihilating power; the gun must be brought close to bite, and so its bearers stalk to within a stone's throw of their prey before firing. That final approach is perilous, exposed to every enemy gun, but a squad that reaches an enemy war-machine can gut it in a single scalding instant, and no thickness of armour offers meaningful protection against so intense a heat.

The Space Marines prize the meltagun as a tank-killer and a breacher of fortifications, embedding it in squads whose task is to hunt the heaviest targets on the field. It is carried too by the veterans of the Imperial Guard and by the Sisters of Battle, who name its blinding fire the Emperor's cleansing light. Wherever an armoured monster must be brought low quickly and utterly, the meltagun is the Imperium's surest answer. Nothing lends a squad such quiet confidence as a meltagun in its midst, for its bearers know that whatever armoured horror the enemy rolls against them, they carry the means to unmake it in a single searing breath.