The Exitus Rifle, exclusively employed by the Assassins of the Vindicare Temple.
The Exitus Rifle is a specialised projectile rifle used exclusively by the Imperial Assassins of the Officio Assassinorum's Vindicare Temple. It is purpose-built for each individual Vindicare sniper.
The weapon is outfitted with a variety of micro-sensors that are capable of detecting even slight changes in ambient temperature, humidity, gravity, and air pressure intended to aid the Assassin in effectively targeting his victim at long ranges.
Exitus weapons are always manufactured as a matched set including a pistol and sniper rifle for an individual Vindicare Assassin, and the weapons utilise high-powered kinetic rounds with armour-piercing tips for general-purpose executions.
Exitus Ammunition[]
All Exitus ammunition (including all special rounds) contain miniaturised cogitator targeting-spirits (guidance computers) that make them nearly impossible to avoid.
Exitus rounds can also be programmed to self-destruct. The rounds are disintegrated, consumed as if destroyed by a virus, and leave no trace behind.
Specialised Ammunition[]
Vindicare Assassins are normally issued special ammunition when sent on an assignment. These unusual rounds are very rare, and each is extremely difficult and time-consuming to craft. Therefore, the Assassin is usually given a single round of each type. Occasionally, other special rounds (such as the Hyphosphus Incendiaries) are issued in their place. The ammunition described below may only be utilised by the Exitus Rifle and the Exitus Pistol:
- Shell Breaker Round - A Shell Breaker Round is used by Vindicare Assassins for bypassing a high-value target's personal energy shielding, such as a Conversion Field. This round is specially-treated with a psychically-charged imprint, and contains a complex circuit of anti-phase technology that is little understood even by the tech-priests of the Mechanicus. The Shell Breaker is employed against a variety of targets such as the protective Warp fields generated by a Tyranid Zoanthrope, an Aeldari Warlock's Rune Armour and the psychic shields often employed by powerful psykers.
- Hellfire Round- The Hellfire Round has devastating effects on organic matter, specifically the Tyranids.The core and tip of the standard Exitus round are replaced with a vial of mutagenic acid. Thousands of armour-piercing micro-needles inject the target with this acid upon impact and the needles pierce the victim's flesh, pumping the acid into the target, eating away flesh and metal alike with horrific speed.
- Turbo-penetrator Round - The Turbo-penetrator Round is a hypervelocity, adamantine-jacketed bullet surrounding a special magno-sealed flux needle. These special rounds are renowned for their ability to pierce nearly any armour, and the hypervelocity round wreaks havoc upon any target, often by the secondary effects of its phasing passage through the target’s molecular structure.
Sources[]
- Assassinorum Executioner Force: Rulebook (7th Edition), pg. 25
- Codex Assassins (2nd Edition), pp. 9-11
- Codex Assassins (3rd Edition)
- Dark Heresy: Ascension (RPG), pp. 139, 147-148