Chainfist

A Chainfist is a standard pattern Power Fist that has been fitted with a Chainsword attachment that is intented to allow its wielder to carve his way through armoured bulkheads. Originally designed for penetrating the armoured hulls of voidships during spaceborne boarding actions, the whirring adamantium blades of a Chainfist have long since proven their worth when engaging armoured targets of all kinds. Both Loyalist Terminators and Chaos Terminators often replace their armour's standard Power Fist with a Chainfist for use against enemy armoured vehicles and static defences in close combat.

History[]

Perhaps the most devastating melee weapon commonly used by both Space Marine Chapters and Traitor Legion warriors, these archaic weapons harken back to the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. Chainfists were originally designed for use during voidship boarding actions, where they would be used to tear open voidcraft bulkheads or breach even the most redoubtable of barricades. They were quickly repurposed by Space Marine Legion Terminators, who used them to great effect against even the most heavily armoured of adversaries. A Chainfist combines the matter-cleaving power field of a Power Fist with the rending adamantine teeth of a Chainsword. The matter-disrupting power field envelopes both the huge gauntlet and the whirring blade, yielding a weapon capable of slicing through armour, vehicles, heavy cruiser bulkheads, or nearly any other substance in the galaxy given enough time. These weapons are too unbalanced and unwieldy for even a Battle-Brother in standard Astartes Power Armour to wield effectively; Chainfists are only capable of being used with Terminator Armour. This is just as well, as any foe dreadful enough to warrant use of this weapon certainly calls for such equally potent protection.

Chainfist Variants[]

Traitor Legion Chainfist - These huge gauntlets resemble a Power Fist with a short, reinforced double-bladed Chainsword extending from the glove. Too heavy even for Chaos Space Marines in Power Armour, only those wearing Terminator Armour can operate such a weapon properly. Each gauntlet is as bulky as a Power Fist and cannot be used for any but the most basic manipulative tasks.

Reaver Chainfist — A Titan Chainfist mounted upon a *Reaver*-class Battle Titan

Titan Chainfist - Similar in concept to the Chainfists wielded by Terminators, only on a more massive scale, the Titan Chainfist takes the form of a large chainsaw attachment. Thanks to the available power from the Titan's massive plasma reactor, Titan-grade Chainfists are also equipped with a secondary Melta Array, to soften up the target while cutting through it.

Notable Chainsfists[]

Hunger and Slake - Tyberos, First Captain of the Carcharodons Chapter, is equipped with a pair of unique Power Weapons with which he has developed a murderous degree of skill. Named Hunger and Slake, each of these heavy, gauntlet-like devices of uncertain origin combine barbed Power Blades and an inner maw fitted with mechanised Adamantium teeth. Their pattern and manufacture are unknown to the Tech-priests of Mars.
Unmaker's Touch - In many Chapters, the mighty Chainfist is a weapon that sees use only in the direst of conflicts, as the armour of most Battle-Brothers is insufficient to bear the weight and supply the power of such a weapon. The Minotaurs Chapter's great stock of Terminator Armour means that they are able to bring forth such weapons more easily than most. Of the terrible weapons so mounted, few are more feared than the Chainfist called Unmaker's Touch. Its potent power field makes a mockery of armour and vehicles, and has also served admirably against the creations of Hereteks and other unliving foes.