Leman Russ Incinerator

The Leman Russ Incinerator is an almost unheard variant in the 41st Millennium, of the Leman Russ Tank. During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras in the 30th and early 31st Millennium, the Incinerator was one of the most powerful variants accessible to the regiments of the Imperial Army. The elite Solar Auxilia Cohorts in particular, were known to field the Incinerator in large quantities as infantry support or to accompany armour-borned assault thrusts. The twin-linked Volkite Demi-Culverin with which the Incinerator was armed, were rare and highly prized weapons more commonly seen on the war machines of the Legiones Astartes, and they had to be painstakingly calibrated and intensively ministered to by Tech-Priests assigned to the cohort to ensure their continued operation. This particular pattern in almost unheard of in the armies 41st Millennium, having been replaced by the more versatile Hellhound, and only a very few venerable regiments must still maintain a couple of these rare but vastly powerful relic machines.

History
The Leman Russ battle tank was first developed some time during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. The Leman Russ battle tank proved to be a reliable and proven armoured vehicle named after the Primarch of the Legiones Astartes Space Wolves in honour of his savage ferocity in war. Amongst the force of the nascent Imperium that utilised the resilient and ubiquitous battle tank, was the elite forces of the Solar Auxilia. Numerous sub-patterns mounted a wide array of weapons in service of the elite armoured formations of the Solar Auxilia, and were often enhanced to the "Solar" pattern, fitted with supplementary survival and exploration systems. Leamn Russ tanks in Auxilia strike squadrons were fitted with extended fuel reserves and their engines enhanced with forced induction chargers. These combined to increase the tanks' speed and operational range substantially. Leman Russ Assault squadrons consisted of heavily armoured variants of the Solar pattern -- re-configured for direct assault against fortified enemies. They lacked the speed of the strike Russ squadrons but were formidably durable. Their main weapons were comparatively short ranged in relation to the artillery batteries, but they were used in a direct assault role or in close support of the Infantry Tercios. The rare Leman Russ Incinerator was one of the rarest and most devastating variants of Leman Russ battle tank accessible to the regiments of the Imperial during Mankind's conquest of the galaxy.

The Leman Russ Incinerator mounted a terrifying twin-linked volkite demi-culverin, a powerful weapon from the Dark Age of Technology that could tear through infantry squads with ease. Like all Volkite Weapons it produces a deflagrating attack, in which subsonic combustion caused by a beam of thermal energy is propagated through the target by thermodynamic heat transfer, so that hot burning material heats the next layer of cold material and ignites it. In this regard, the Incinerator's weapon-system only proved inferior to the mighty Volkite Carronade mounted on Glaive Super-Heavy Special Weapons Tanks of the Legiones Astartes, but it still remained more then capable enough for burning entire squads of enemy infantry to ashes in a blink of an eye. Due to its painstaking calibration-process and intensive need in maintenance, the Leman Russ Incinerator has progressively vanished, the technological know-how and expertise required to maintenance its complicated and delicate weapon-system becoming ever rarer. In the armies of the 41st Millennium, the role of the Leman Russ Incinerator has since been taken over by the more versatile Hellhound, and only a very few venerable regiments must still maintain a couple of these rare but vastly powerful relic machines.