POWER FISTS

A power fist is a formidable close combat weapon capable of pulverising armour, flesh and bone with horrific ease. Taking the form of a heavy servo-powered gauntlet, it is commonly worn as part of a suit of power armour, replacing the ceramite plates from forearm to fist. The real killing might of a power fist comes not from its piston-enhanced grip, though this alone could crush a man’s helmet and the skull within, but rather the disruption field that surrounds it. This field tears into matter at a molecular level and anything that remains for more than a moment within its grip is ripped apart in the most appalling fashion.

A Heroic Weapon

As is befitting for such a potent and fearsome weapon, use of the power fist is limited to such individuals as honoured Space Marine captains and chapter commanders. Sometimes, a sergeant might be rewarded with carrying one of these mighty weapons into battle, blessed by its brutal might so that he might better vanquish the enemies of the God-Emperor. As with many weapons of this ilk created by the Imperium, wealthy Imperial Guard officers, vain planetary commanders and stoic commissars carry lesser versions. However, when it comes to their efficacy, they are as a rusty knife to a well-honed blade.

This difference was evident during the battle for Tartarus Hive on Armageddon. The Steel Legion were struggling to hold back the Ork hordes of Warboss Ghazghkull, when Space Marines of the Blood Angels Chapter counter-attacked the aliens. Men stood mute witness as the red-armoured giants fell upon the foe with a horrific rage. In the midst of the carnage, Blood Angels Sergeant Kyron demonstrated the might of the power fist, single-handedly destroying a lumbering Ork Battlewagon covered in ramshackle armour and festooned with cannons. Thrusting his fist into the engine block of the machine, Kyron ripped it apart in an arcing shower of energy and flame.

Fixed to the mighty arm of a Space Marine, a power fist can punch through almost any defence, even hammering through the side of tanks to tear out the crew. Armed with a power fist, a battle-brother is deadly to anything on the battlefield, easily able to to crush foes within his grip. Equally, fortifications are little defence against an assault from a power fist-armed Space Marine, the coruscating gauntlet able to peel back plasteel bulkheads and batter down ferrocrete bunkers.

The only drawback of a power fist, apart from the strength required to wield it, is that it remains a slow and prodigious weapon to use. As the disruption field pushes back against the air and the power armour struggles to bear the weight of the fist, its hydraulics whine and hiss. In the time it takes even a Space Marine to raise the weapon for a strike, an enemy with a blade can dart in and land a blow. In a whirling and chaotic melee, a Space Marine must endure dozens of cuts, slashes and thrusts as he methodically pulverises his foes with crippling punches and backhanded strikes.

It is perhaps due to the cumbersome and unwieldy nature of the power fist that the Adeptus Astartes are among the few soldiers of the Imperium to use it in high numbers. The protection afforded by power armour and the enhanced frame of a Space Marine means he is able to take the punishment before readying a killing blow. Nethertheless, the speed of the weapon is balanced against the incredible damage it can cause, and many Space Marine commanders gladly accept the sacrifice of speed if it means they only need to strike once.

Hammer of the Fallen

Brother-Sergeant Yanor’s photo-lenses darkened as the ramp of the Drop Pod crashed to the ground, blazing light flooding into the cramped interior. As soon as the hydro-harness released him, Yanor charged out into the fray. All around him Lamenters Space Marines were spilling out from their Drop Pods and into the swirling Tyranid hordes. Overhead, winged shapes were blotting out the sun and Yanor knew that the world of Malvolion was doomed. Even so, he ploughed into the enemy, triggering the energy field on his power fist and smashing apart the hated invaders.

In quick succession Yanor killed a dozen of the foe, crushing the skull of a Termagant in a spray of purple ichor, ripping the head from a Ravener with a gout of fluid and burying his fist deep into the chest of a Tyranid Warrior until it exploded in a shower of gore. Everywhere he looked, the Lamenters were reaping a terrible toll upon the Tyranids, hundreds of alien creatures blown apart by bolt shells, incinerated by plasma blasts and ripped to shreds by chainswords. Even so, thousands more remained and the Space Marines were being pushed back toward their Drop Pods one grudging step at a time.

Out of the corner of his eye, Yanor saw a Zoanthrope drifting into view, the weird floating alien sending corruscating beams of pure psychic energy into the ranks of his brothers. Charging forward, Yanor raised his power fist to end the creature. As he drew near, the Zoanthrope’s warp-field pushed back against him, and it seemed to the Space Marine as if he were trying to run through water. Agonisingly slow, Yanor reach out with his power fist, fingers spread ready to grasp at the alien. As he watched, it turned, blinding white energy forming around its exposed brain as it summoned a warp-energy bolt. Refusing to let this be his end, Yanor closed his fist around the creature’s head, a silent warcry upon his lips. All at once time sped up as the power fist turned the Zoanthrope’s brain into a cloud of diffuse meat and blood, the vile remnants spattering across Yanor’s power armour.

Taking a ragged breath, the Lamenters sergeant looked away from the Tyranid corpse and back to the battle. To his dismay, only a handful of Space Marines remained, fighting back to back against ever increasing numbers of alien monstrosities. With a prayer to the Emperor, Yanor raised his power fist once more and waded into the foe.

Symbol of the Space Marines

Crafted on forge worlds and in the depths of Space Marine fortress monasteries, each power fist is unique to the Tech-Priest or Techmarine who created it. Hours of painstaking work based on millennia-old templates and designs go into fashioning the weapons from the rare components required to grant the fist its singular strength. So difficult are some of the parts to produce, especially the shielded containment chambers of the power core and the web of field emitters arrayed across the fist’s fingers, that they are often scavenged from older weapons.

Many rare and exquisite examples of the power fist exist within the ranks of the Adeptus Astartes, such as the paired weapons of Marneus Calgar, the Gauntlets of Ultramar. These ancient weapons served the Chapter Master during the Battle for Macragge, where they split the skulls and spines of countless Tyranid bio-horrors. Pedro Kantor, Chapter Master of the Crimson Fists, also famously wields a power fist. Painted crimson as an icon of his Chapter, Pedro put this sacred weapon to terrible use during the Rynn’s World campaign, where he crushed the invading Orks of Waaagh! Snagrod.

A well maintained power fist is a near priceless weapon to its owner, carefully cared for and stored with the reverence reserved for a great treasure. This respect for the weapon goes beyond simple superstition and matters of honour, and has as much to do with the impressive combat capabilities the gauntlet possesses. A Space Marine is wise to respect his weapons, lest they fail him in battle – this is especially true of one as deadly as the power fist.

POWER FISTS

Range:

Strength: X2

AP: 2

Type: Melee, Specialist Weapon, Unwieldy

Melee.

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Specialist Weapon.

A model fighting with this weapon does not receive +1 Attack for fighting with two weapons unless both weapons have the Specialist Weapon rule.

Unwieldy.

A model attacking with this weapon does so at Initiative step 1, unless it is a Monstrous Creature or a Walker. If it does so, it will also Pile In at Initiative step 1.

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A GAMES WORKSHOP LTD PUBLICATION

Published in 2013 by Games Workshop Ltd., Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK

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Table of Contents

CoverImage

Power Fist - Introduction

Power Fist - Background

Power Fist - Rules

Power Fist - New Titles

Power Fist - Copyright