A Rad Grenade.
A Rad Grenade is a potent and dangerous radioactive anti-personnel weapon used by the military forces of the Imperium of Man.
Rad Grenades detonate in a shower of tiny, radioactively-contaminated fragments. Each fragment's ionising radioactive emissions have only a millisecond half-life, ensuring that the wielder can charge in without exposing themself to radioactive contamination.
Nevertheless, those enemies caught in the initial blast will feel the Rad Grenade's debilitating influence for some time afterwards as they suffer the horrific effects of lethal radiation sickness.
This makes the victims of the Rad Grenade a burden upon their comrades if they manage to survive the initial explosion of the grenade.
Rad Grenades have been used by Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos and their Acolytes, by the Space Marines, and the Grey Knights.
They were also a favoured weapon of the ancient Blood Angels Legion formation known as the Angel's Tears during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
The Angel's Tears Grenade Launcher could only fire this type of grenade.
Sources[]
- Codex: Grey Knights (5th Edition), pg. 61
- The Horus Heresy Book Eight: Malevolence (Forge World Series) by Neil Wylie and Anuj Malhotra, pg. 208
- The Horus Heresy Book Five: Tempest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 95 (Image)