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[Trekkin]

I have an odd question: How does the Imperium (or more accurately the Adeptus Mechanicus) generate power on municipal or ecumenopolitan scales? I remember reading about nuclear reactors in the Mechanicum novel; do they just run through uranium (and presumably thorium) like crazy? Or do they just burn huge numbers of heretics and stick very large power packs in the fires?

I realize this is probably more pedantic than the setting was really designed to support, but I'm curious if there was ever a defined handwave given.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's noted in a few places that the Mechanicus sucks the plasma straight out of stars, that might be where they're getting their fusion stock from.

Though the best example is probably the Leman Russ tank. It will run if you stick plasma in it. It will run if you stick oil in it. It will run if you stick wood in it, so long as you light it on fire. The Imperium as a whole sucks power from wherever they can get it, and if they can't...well, in the grim darkness of the 42nd millennium...

[Rolan7]

Yeah, that ruggedness is interesting.  Seems like the inventors knew that these machines might have to survive without support.  For the lasguns, too.

I don't know much about the Great Crusade, but maybe the supply lines... weren't great.  I imagine many armies sent out for glory or death.  The Emperor and his Children can only be so many places, there must have been expeditions sent into unknown places without support.

And the Emperor knew that even physics could be... warped, in these places.  Might have required such ruggedness.  Never saying why.

[Akura]

Yep, the Leman Russ runs on star stuff, hydrocarbons, wood, and the Guardsmen who were sent out to clear the minefields so the Leman Russes could advance. That's the power of the Imperium.

[Tack]

Yeah, lasguns are awesome, or at least the charge packs are. Same thing. If it's sunny, lay them in the sun. If it's not, toss them in a fire. Anything charges if up.
Wouldn't be surprised if vigorous shaking did the trick.

[Rolan7]

I really hope vigorous shaking does work.  Or there's a fold-out crank, heh.  Got a nice radio like that.  Has a solar panel, and two USB charging ports (in and out).

I can even throw it in a campfire!  Once.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm now imagining the Emperor in contemporary times watching informercials while pondering his plans in twenty-eight thousand years when one for Shakeweight comes on and he finally realizes the solution to providing ammo for a pan-galactic war.

[Trekkin]

It's noted in a few places that the Mechanicus sucks the plasma straight out of stars, that might be where they're getting their fusion stock from.

Though the best example is probably the Leman Russ tank. It will run if you stick plasma in it. It will run if you stick oil in it. It will run if you stick wood in it, so long as you light it on fire. The Imperium as a whole sucks power from wherever they can get it, and if they can't...well, in the grim darkness of the 42nd millennium...

They're making hydrocarbon-burning tanks in factories powered by D-He³ fusion?

I know the Mechanicus keep all the good stuff to themselves, but it's starting to sound like they're just messing with the Imperium for shiggles.

[pisskop]

yea, somebody told me laser muskets were a thing?  I can only imagine why you would use such a thing.  Single shot laser?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's noted in a few places that the Mechanicus sucks the plasma straight out of stars, that might be where they're getting their fusion stock from.

Though the best example is probably the Leman Russ tank. It will run if you stick plasma in it. It will run if you stick oil in it. It will run if you stick wood in it, so long as you light it on fire. The Imperium as a whole sucks power from wherever they can get it, and if they can't...well, in the grim darkness of the 42nd millennium...

They're making hydrocarbon-burning tanks in factories powered by D-He³ fusion?

I know the Mechanicus keep all the good stuff to themselves, but it's starting to sound like they're just messing with the Imperium for shiggles.

It's about keeping in supply. Fancy plasma guns and fusion plants are all well and good so long as you get your source tanks refilled every couple of days, and on some battlefields that might well happen. But what if you're a pack of poor Guardsmen sent to put down Chaos-worshiping feudal worlder hordes? There's not a drop of promethium on the entire planet. When that happens, the difference between being mobile and untouchable or immobile and eaten alive is whether or not this Leman Russ can pull 30 MPH with a stock of alien wood burning in the fuel compartment.

yea, somebody told me laser muskets were a thing?  I can only imagine why you would use such a thing.  Single shot laser?

Dueling nobles aren't going to use peasant lasguns when the Third-Sovereign Holy and Righteous Duke of Serraino Spire makes a casual comment at a party implying that the consort of the Stellar-And-Sanguine Dutchess of Trebalor Spire did not sire their heir under a consecrated image of the God-Emperor.

[Kot]

Or there's a fold-out crank, heh. 

I am 100% sure that some form of crank power generator was a standard issue for charging up lasgun packs at some point in canon.

[Trekkin]

yea, somebody told me laser muskets were a thing?  I can only imagine why you would use such a thing.  Single shot laser?

Maybe it's for cooling? Imperial laser weapons kind of work like mode-locked Q-switched lasers anyway (in the sense they produce one big pulse that acts like a lot of tiny little pulses), so if they're willing to accept a lower cyclic rate of pulse train emission they could increase the peak power relative to a lasgun for the same heatsink capacity.

[Kot]

yea, somebody told me laser muskets were a thing?  I can only imagine why you would use such a thing.  Single shot laser?

Maybe it's for cooling? Imperial laser weapons kind of work like mode-locked Q-switched lasers anyway (in the sense they produce one big pulse that acts like a lot of tiny little pulses), so if they're willing to accept a lower cyclic rate of pulse train emission they could increase the peak power relative to a lasgun for the same heatsink capacity.

The old difference is that it's apparently easier to make the rifle shoot one big burst of energy and uncharge the power pack at once, than to portion it like in regular Lasgun - which makes Las-locks a relatively lower tech alternative. The power-packs of Las-locks of course carry much less power total, as uncharging a regular power pack basically turns it into a grenade, but they also output it at once, which does indeed mean the Las-locks shots are more powerful.

The new difference is that Las-locks are Hotshot Lasguns taken to the extreme, which means they're more high-tech and output the whole pack for even more punch, and only Adeptus Mechanicus use them, probably because >filthy peasant hands on my superior tech hurr.

[Trekkin]

yea, somebody told me laser muskets were a thing?  I can only imagine why you would use such a thing.  Single shot laser?

Maybe it's for cooling? Imperial laser weapons kind of work like mode-locked Q-switched lasers anyway (in the sense they produce one big pulse that acts like a lot of tiny little pulses), so if they're willing to accept a lower cyclic rate of pulse train emission they could increase the peak power relative to a lasgun for the same heatsink capacity.

The old difference is that it's apparently easier to make the rifle shoot one big burst of energy and uncharge the power pack at once, than to portion it like in regular Lasgun - which makes Las-locks a relatively lower tech alternative. The power-packs of Las-locks of course carry much less power total, as uncharging a regular power pack basically turns it into a grenade, but they also output it at once, which does indeed mean the Las-locks shots are more powerful.

The new difference is that Las-locks are Hotshot Lasguns taken to the extreme, which means they're more high-tech and output the whole pack for even more punch, and only Adeptus Mechanicus use them, probably because >filthy peasant hands on my superior tech hurr.

Well, apparently the Munitorum is the difference between being able to be routinely supplied with transuranic elements and being routinely out of gas, so it may well be >filthy peasants can't get spare parts hurr.

The old difference makes sense as well, though, since according to Lexicanum they're pulsed pumped. Las-locks wouldn't need the internal capacitors and discharge generator circuitry. They could just have a switch.

[Tack]

Sad part is I don't think anything in the ad mech army book uses laslocks.
It's all radium radium tazer.