"Death comes in many forms, but I must count aerial bombardment amongst the most satisfylingly efficient."
- —Executioner Ezandrakh of the Mephrit Dynasty; Herald of the Red Harvest
A Necron Doom Scythe strafing the enemy with its lethal arsenal
A Doom Scythe is a form of Necron aircraft and Attack Craft designed to range independently of a main Necron force whilst bringing terror and destruction to its enemies. Capable of destroying both infantry and vehicles alike from the air with impunity, a Doom Scythe is a dangerous foe that can very often spell the doom on an enemy army on its own.
Role
Doom Scythes are heralds of terror and dismay, supersonic fighter craft that range far ahead of a Necron invasion. Unlike many of the forces deployed by the Necrons, Doom Scythes can function in a highly independent manner. Much of the craft’s super-structure houses datastacks that are in turn heavily laden with strike plans, stratagems and tactical variants. When faced with a situation outside of known parameters, the pilot can sift through and retrieve the correct response from this datastack. Thanks to the ruthless of his android brain, the pilot can simulate billions of possible strategies in the span of a few nanoseconds.
Doom Scythes are piloted by a Necron Immortal who is hard-wired into his aircraft. Because of this robotic nature, the pilot is uninhibited by mortal frailties and is able to steer to the craft to higher speeds and perform more extreme manoeuvres than those pilots of flesh and blood. Likewise, a Doom Scythe is also a small spacecraft that fulfils the attack craft role in Necron fleets, despite the lack of a cockpit to protect the pilot; for what protection does the machine need?
A Necron Doom Scythe
Doom Scythes are often deployed to sap the resolve of the enemy before the battle beings in proper, for its presence induces an almost irrational terror in living creatures. A Doom Scythes primary propulsion systems is a scaled up and augmented version of the dimensional repulsor drive employed by Tomb Blades. On these smaller craft, the whine of the drive is piercing and discomforting. On a Doom Scythe, the scale and amplitude of the sound is many hundreds times greater; it resonates deep within the primitive core of living brains, playing havoc with memory, perception and sanity. Victims can collapse into a catatonia, slump into slack-jawed vacuity and suffer hallucinations of their dead comrades returned to worm-eaten life. Little wonder is it then that entire armies of battle-tested veterans have been known to throw down their weapons and flee at a Doom Scythe’s onset, or else gouge out their own eyes in futile attempts to stop the images scratching at their senses.
Should the foe not yield in battle on the Doom Scythe’s first pass, its pilot will then unleash the full fury of the craft’s firepower. Tesla Destructors explode into life, raking the battlefield with arcs of eldritch lightning, instantly incinerating any infantry not cowering in cover. Armoured targets can perhaps weather this sizzling storm, but they cannot hope to stand against the fury of the Doom Scythe's main weapon – the aptly named and rightly feared Death Ray. There is seldom a warning before the Death Ray strikes, for any sound it makes is lost under the unearthly wailing of the Doom Scythe’s engines. A particularly alert foe might recognise the nimbus of energy building up around the focussing crystal, or the abrupt change in air pressure; but few recognise the significance in time. The nimbus pulses one final time and an irresistible beam of blinding white light bursts from the Doom Scythe’s underside, vaporising infantry and tanks alike; leaving only charred and rutted terrain in its wake. A single Doom Scythe can carve its way through an entire armoured column so long as its Death Ray remains operational; and a full squadron can reduce the sprawling spires of a Hive City to fulminating slag in less than an hour.
Armament
- Death Ray – The Death Ray is a Doom Scythe’s primary weapon, and is capable of vaporising whole battle lines in a single shot. Equipped as part of an underslung turret, a Death Ray fires a narrow beam of intense energy capable of passing through many enemy units and vehicles before the energy is dissipated; often leaving nothing but a line of ruin in its wake.
- Twin-linked Tesla Destructor – A Doom Scythe’s secondary weapon is its twin-linked Tesla Destructor which is also mounted upon the same underslung turret as the Death Ray. A Tesla Destructor is mainly an anti-personnel weapon though only the most heavily armed tanks can risk its wrath with utter impunity. The Tesla Destructor employs much the same lightning-arc technology as found in the smaller Tesla Cannons and Tesla Carbines. Its energy discharges of crackling lightning can wreak terrible harm on living targets; searing their flesh, melting their armour and boiling their blood. Furthermore, the Tesla bolts fired feed off energy released by the destruction they cause, often meaning that the lightning becomes more ferocious with each arc. So powerful are the blasts from a Tesla Destructor, and such is its shocking rapidity of fire, that the lightning fired is capable of leaping from target to target before they are finally grounded; leaving a trail of smoldering carnage across a broad swathe of the battlefield behind them.
- Necrodermis - The armour of Doom Scythes is made up of the same living metal Necrodermis that makes up all Necron bodies and vehicles. Its remarkable regenerative properties allow it to automatically repair damage to itself; whether this is the regeneration of parts of its hull, the reknitting of metal plates, and the reconnection of circuits and other delicate systems to bring its weapon online again.
Sources
- Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), pp. 50, 82
- Warhammer 40,000 Compendium: Death From the Skies, pg. 60
Gallery
