Rapier Armoured Carrier
The Rapier Armoured Carrier or Rapier Laser Destroyer (Although /tg/ calls it the Rapepier hahaha get it? Cause it Rapes tanks? okay I will stop now...) is a tracked weapons carrier used by the Imperium of Man, including the Imperial Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus and Space Marines. It is identifiable due to its mini baby threads from a baby Rhino and may result in much unintentional "DAAAAAAAWWWWWW" among your enemies, which is a great distraction as this pint sized Land Raider caries weapons that can turn your Scorpion and Battlefortress into molten scrap. Yeah this mini-thread of doom is a dedicated anti-tank weapon as it mounts a powerful multi-barreled laser cannon (Think a quad barrelled Lascannon that has been supercharged). However Rapier's have also been seen wielding Graviton Cannons, Multi-lasers and quad Heavy Bolters to annihilate vast swarms of infantry both MEQ, GEQ and TEQ alike or use a Quad-mortar to act as a support artillery.
History
In the early years of the Imperium's history the Rapier was a common weapons platform used by the Imperial Army at both the company and regimental level. Under ideal conditions each company would have a support squad with five Rapier carriers plus other weapons, while regiments had support companies of ten machines each, such as five Rapiers and five Mole Mortars, though attrition often accounted for fewer numbers of these weapons.
Of course nowadays, the Rapier is now exclusive solely for the Space Marines as difficulties in manufacturing these complex devices coupled with the increasingly stubborn hoarding of the Mechanicus and competition with smaller, lighter, easier to maintain and cheaper to make anti-tank weaponry such as a pintle-mounted Lascannons or Plasmacannons among the growing Imperial Guard has resulted in a drastic decline for these dedicated tank-hunters.
Of course even in the 41st millennium, the Rapier still found some company in Chapters which descend from the Imperial Fists and Iron Hands Legions who are now known mass users of Rapiers, and have even employed them even for boarding assaults.
Overview
The armoured carrier is built around the weapon system with which it has become synonymous, the Rapier Laser Destroyer. This multi-barreled weapon achieves greater firepower than even a normal lascannon by focusing its four separate laser systems with precise accuracy on a single point. This is possible thanks to a weak machine spirit which can adjust the convergence of the beams depending on the target's range. However, the weapon system has tremendous power requirements, along with increased maintenance and heat build-up due to its moving parts and the close proximity of multiple laser chambers to each other. Rapiers have also been seen mounted with Graviton Cannons and quad Heavy Bolters or Multi-lasers and Quad-mortars.
As it was initially designed for defending cities and fortresses the Rapier has limited mobility, enough to move into ambush positions and across rough terrain, and is often fielded in special batteries of one to three Rapiers used to break up enemy armour attacks. The system can move and fire at the same time thanks to an auto-drive and benefits from targeter equipment. Actual aiming and firing of the laser destroyer however is handled by the on-board machine spirit making the Rapier a semi-independent system; its crew is necessary only for moving the weapon and operational mode selection.
Its form of locomotion is also an oddity as instead of sitting down and moving the machine, the driver much stand in a awkward position before turning and moving the machine with what counts as an Atari 2600 Joystick. This means that the driver of the machine is dangerously exposed to enemy fire and must be cautious to his surroundings.
Gallery
-
Rapier with Quad-mortars
-
Rapier with Multi-lasers
