Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/The Bolter Story

The bolter, also called a boltgun, and its variants are some of the most powerful, hand-held, ballistic anti-personnel weaponry in use by the military forces of the Coalition, and it's signature weapon like the Voshkods and their tesla or the Alliance and their spectrum tech. It is a powerful assault weapon that fires explosive kinetic rounds colloquially referred to as bolts.

The bolter is a weapon synonymous with the Adeptus Astartes, and rightly so. However, although the Space Marines are its primary users, the bolter finds itself in use in military organizations throughout the Coalition. The weapon is fearsome, with explosive rounds capable of ripping through or blowing apart a foe. The Chaos Space Marines of the Heralds were issued their Legions' bolters before the Horus Heresy, and therefore use generally older variants than the patterns available to present-day Coalition Space Marines.

The bolter is a mid-range, anti-personnel ballistic weapon that lies between the lighter and more compact Bolt Pistol sidearm, and the more effective but more cumbersome Heavy Bolter. The most common standard patterns of bolter can easily be wielded by a Space Marine, Dwarf, or other races with similar physique, but on account of their size and weight, smaller Human-scale pattern bolters are used by the elite forces of the Lineage Steel Legion, and are the only known manufacturers of said bolters.

Indeed, a good part of the daily firing rituals performed by the Space Marines or a Dwarf when not at war is spent carefully tending to the bolter's multiple mechanisms to ensure the weapon is always ready for war.

Every Astartes carries a bolter lovingly handcrafted by the Artificers of their Chapter's Armoury or by one of the Dwarfs forge guilds. At each point in its construction it is closely monitored to make sure there is not a single flaw. The bolters used by the Coalition are known to be coded to Coalitions genetic signatures so that they are only functional for members of the Coalition, and anyone dumb enough to use them will be blown apart as the bolter will self-destruct when used by unauthorized personal.

What Is A Bolter?
The bolter is a large .75 calibre assault weapon. It has a much greater mass than most standard-issue weapons such as the AR-15, although it is slightly shorter in length. Unlike most ranged infantry weapons, its baseline model lacks a stock, resulting in a grip much like a pistol's or a submachine gun.

A Space Marine's bulky power armour would make shouldering a stock an awkward experience, and Power Armour is most likely also able to compensate for firing vibrations and oscillation, making a stock redundant. Stocks are sometimes used, however, with an extended barrel and an M40 Targeter System to transform the bolter into a sniping weapon system. These sniper bolters, known as Stalker Pattern Bolters, are most often used with Stalker Silenced Shells.

The Space Marines are not the only warriors of the Coalition to carry Boltguns into battle, but the version carried by the Adeptus Astartes, the old Mark Vb Godwyn Pattern Boltgun wielded by the Heralds and the new Autoch Pattern Boltgun wielded by the Coalition, is by far the largest and most devastating. By comparison, the smaller patterns of boltgun carried by the champions of the Lineage Steel Legion are pale reflections. So large is the Godwyn Pattern that no normal man could heft one, let alone fire one without breaking their entire firing arm.

A standard pattern, the Autoch Pattern has served the Space Marines for millennia, its design based upon STC technology from long before the birth of the Coalition. The Autoch is not the only pattern of Boltgun used by the Adeptus Astartes though, and many of the Space Marine Chapters have their own variants, such as the "Angelus" Bolter used by the Blood Angels, or the "Fenris" Pattern boltgun used by the Space Wolves. However, the Autoch Pattern remains the most common weapon of the Space Marines and fills the role of the bolter, as cited in the Codex Astartes as the primary weapon of a battle-kin.

This variant has a built-in ammunition counter which indicates how many rounds are remaining in the weapon on an external display. The number of remaining rounds will also be shown in the auto-senses display of an Astartes' helmet. The Autoch Pattern uses a Sinister/Dexter locking mechanism with a drum-shaped magazine that carries 120 bolts and can fire in bursts of up to four rounds with a single trigger pull.

Other features include a biometric sensor integrated into the weapon's grip that allows the bolter to identify its user's genetic signature so that only Astartes can make use of the bolter, and will self-destruct otherwise. The Autoch Pattern also possesses an integral targeter that links with the Space Marine's auto-senses for enhanced accuracy. Bolters make a unique roaring sound when fired, which is caused by the propellant in their shells igniting, followed by an explosion when the bolt detonates upon hitting its target.

Like other Space Marine weaponry, Astartes bolters are designed to be handled by their superhuman physique. The weight of each Autoch Pattern Bolter means that most normal races cannot handle the weapon comfortably without the aid of a supporting brace, and the weapon's handgrips are too large for a mortal to grasp without assistance. However, even if a mortal were to fire the bolter, the resulting recoil would most likely break most of the bones in their arm.

It is illegal within the Coalition for non-Astartes to wield an Astartes pattern bolter, which is one reason why the weapons are genetically coded so that only a Space Marine can fire them. A Coalition citizen caught in unauthorised possession of a bolter or even of just a bolt round can be harshly sentenced by the Adeptus Arbites. However, some bolter patterns like the Godwyn-De'az or Locke Patterns are specifically built to be wielded by unaugmented humans, though they were prototype offshoots made when the Coalition chose to support the Lineage Steel Legion, and with the aftermath of the Aden-Elsword Conflict production of such bolters have slowed to a crawl (as the Coalition sees no interest in making such patters while most factions don't even know how to make one).

The major advantage of the bolter in comparison to the ubiquitous firearm is its stopping power, as the bolt's kinetic force and explosive head can deliver much more damage to a target than the lead bullet of an AR15. However, the major reason that the bolter never was favoured as a weapon for the soldiers of Solar Auxilia is that next to its mass and weight, it is also a temperamental weapon that requires lots of care and maintenance to function properly. Whereas an assault rifle only requires a quick daily disassembly and cleaning, the bolter requires much more careful tending and cleaning to ensure its proper function.

While a centuries-old Astartes Veteran can tend to their bolter blindfolded in less time than a freshly recruited Vinci Conscript tends to their rifle, such familiarity with a weapon is impossible to attain for the average Human soldier, hence the need for a simpler standard armament. Another disadvantage of the bolter is the need for its heavy and cumbersome ammunition compared to the small and easy-to-manufacture magazine clips While this is seldom an issue for the Astartes, due to their focus on rapid and overwhelming assault tactics, the risk of finding oneself out of ammunition is very real for most armies who favour the weapon during prolonged operations, or on missions where resupply is improbable or difficult.

The Boltgun can also be modified for a variety of roles; the Adeptus Astartes sanction some of these, and others are crafted by battle-kins themselves and remain confined to specific Chapters. Scopes of all kinds are a common addition to Boltguns, even though most marks of power armour incorporate optical enhancements. A scope can be tailored to its environment, keyed to different visual spectrums or the heat trace of certain foes, giving a Space Marine a better chance to find their target.

Double drum-shaped magazines are sometimes used to increase the ammunition storage capabilities of a boltgun, replacing the standard sickle clip. This extra ammunition reduces the time between reloads and allows a battle-kin to keep up a sustained stream of killing fire. Regardless of modification or pattern, a bolter remains an ancient and deadly weapon in the hands of a Space Marine, and if all else fails, it is solid enough to crack skulls and snap bones with its heavy casing.

The Bolters Many (Umgak) Copycats
Since the Bolters are only strictly made in the Coalition, as Aden (the only other nation that can make bolters due to their close alliance with the Coalition) manufacturing capabilities were shot to hell in the aftermath of their war with the Elsword. Means that most factions have tried to make copies of it and failed as part of the bolter's complexity is that it requires materials only the Coalition knows how to make, not to mention that those who seem to be succeeding suddenly dying in a freak fire accident, but a few have succeeded. With its two main competitors being the Gyrojets mainly used by the Syndicate, who also sells them, and the rocket rifles used by the Voshkod elites. And the mere mention of either copy is known to send a Coalition Dwarf and an Astarte into a flying rage, and is one of the pettier reasons why the Coalition is hostile towards both factions.