The Ankh of the Triarch, ancient royal symbol of the unified Necron Empire used by every current Necron dynasty
The Æonic Orb is the rarest and perhaps the most powerful of the weapons devised by the extraordinary technology of the Necrons, intended to destroy the largest and most potent enemy units, such as Titans, with the nuclear fire of a star. First created during the War in Heaven against the Old Ones, an Æonic Orb was crafted from the living metal of the Necrons' own undying bodies, Necrodermis. This was the only material strong enough to withstand the raging plasma and gravitational force generated by the fragment of a star that was housed within the Orb's containment field. It is believed by those few Imperial savants even aware of the existence of this device that the C'tan who still ruled the Necron at the time of the War in Heaven were required to devour almost an entire star to provide the stellar fragment needed to fuel the device. This fragment of roiling plasma is then encased within the weapon's orb-shaped containment field and placed atop an anti-gravitic skimmer platform so that it can be moved onto the battlefield. This allows its user to place it strategically where it can do the most damage to the enemy front, particularly any attacking Titans or other super-heavy vehicles.
If the Æonic Orb's mechanisms take too much damage, the device's containment field will undergo a catastrophic failure, releasing the stellar fragment uncontrolled into the local space-time with the force of hundreds of megatons of explosive power. As might be expected, such an explosion is likely to destroy all of the forces, friend or foe, in a wide radius from the point of the Orb's detonation. This is not considered a design flaw by the Necrons, however, for such an outcome will both punish an enemy force capable of getting close enough to damage such a valuable weapon and prevent it from falling into the hands of the "lesser races" of the galaxy.
Armament
- Solar Flare - Belying the complexity of its construction, an Æonic Orb is actually a very simple weapon. Once a target comes within range, its containment field is lowered in such a way as to determine the intensity and direction of the resulting blast of solar plasma. The fragment of the contained stellar fragment is so powerful that the resulting surge of plasma can destroy almost any known material and overwhelm any form of Void Shield. The power of this weapon, essentially an artificial solar flare, is unmatched, but such a blast will force the Orb to recharge for a significant period of time before it can be unleashed again.
- Solar Burst - However, the Æonic Orb has a second attack that can be used more frequently than the devastating solar flare. Known as a solar burst, this is a less-damaging, shorter-ranged plasma blast otherwise identical to the full solar flare. However, the solar burst's beam will sweep across a wider area as a result of its greater accuracy and the increased second-order radiation effects.
Sources
- Specialist Games (Site no longer exists)