Summary
Imperial plasma weapon issued to Skitarii infantry, trading range for a punishing rate of fire at the cost of catastrophic instability.
Lore
The Plasma Caliver is an Imperial plasma weapon issued to the foot-soldiers of the Cult Mechanicus’ battle cohorts — the Skitarii orders, in particular Skitarii Vanguard and Skitarii Ranger maniples. Where a Skitarii Vanguard typically wields the radium carbine and a Skitarii Ranger the galvanic rifle (see Galvanic Weapons), the Caliver replaces these standard arms in the hands of a designated trooper whose role is to deliver a sudden, withering surge of stellar plasma at close to mid range.
In the canonical voice of the lore, “a squad of Skitarii armed with several plasma calivers can light up the night with each volley” — yet that radiance is paid in flesh, for “to say they risk life and limb in the process because of the instability of Imperial plasma weapons is a grave understatement, yet to their Tech-priest masters, such collateral damage matters not at all.” Plasma is sacred fire on the open battlefield, and the Tech-Priest who sanctions a Caliver-bearer regards the eventual immolation of the wielder as an acceptable tithe paid to the Omnissiah.
Pattern and Function
The Plasma Caliver belongs to the same broader Imperial plasma family as the plasma gun and plasma pistol, but is a distinctly Mechanicus pattern — heavier, two-handed, and tuned for a truly terrifying rate of fire at the expense of maximum effective range. Where a standard plasma gun seeks balance, the Caliver concentrates its sacred output into the close-and-mid envelope, transforming a single Skitarii into a portable furnace.
The weapon offers two firing rites. In its standard rite, the Caliver puts out a controlled, sustained burst of plasma. In its supercharge rite, the containment field is deliberately overstressed so that each shot strikes with greater penetrating heat — and each volley risks catastrophic feedback. This is the [HAZARDOUS] mode, and the Caliver-bearer who invokes it consents in advance to the possibility of being consumed by the very weapon they wield.
In Battle
On the tabletop of the 41st Millennium (10th-edition profile), a Plasma Caliver fields two attacks at Range 30”, BS 4+. Its standard profile is Strength 7, AP -2, Damage 1; its supercharge profile is Strength 8, AP -3, Damage 2 with the [HAZARDOUS] keyword.
In a Skitarii Ranger maniple, one model’s galvanic rifle may be exchanged for a Plasma Caliver; in a Skitarii Vanguard cohort, one radium carbine may be exchanged in the same manner. The Caliver is therefore a single-trooper specialist weapon — a focused mid-range punch threaded into squads otherwise built around volume of small-arms fire. A Caliver-bearer sanctified by a Tech-Priest Manipulus or otherwise blessed within an Eradication Cohort gains additional virulence; the cost, as always, is borne by the meat of the wielder.