Serpent Pattern Bolter

“The Serpent Pattern Bolters are weapons that have a very troubled past. Originally, the weapon was designed by the Alpha Legion, during the latter years of the great Crusade, but didn’t start to see usage until just prior to the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. When the Horus Heresy officially started, then the pattern was used more commonly. Its purpose was to be used with infiltrator squads, which are squads of Alpha Legionnaires, placed in the ranks of the loyalist legions, to swiftly strike at their enemy fast and deadly like a snake before they even notice, hence its name. This bolter was used in conjecture with the Banestrike Bolter Rounds, also developed by the Alpha Legion. Since the Serpent Bolter, and the Banestrike Rounds were used in unison, it was highly effective when used against other Astartes, as due to the bolter was deadly accurate, it was able to effectively penetrate an armors weak point, which would kill or incapacitate the enemy, before they even had a chance to react, which further adds merit to its name. After the infiltrator teams were rooted out and terminated, many of the Serpent Bolters were given to loyalist forge worlds, to either use the weapon as scrap for other weapons, or to recreate its design so it can be used by loyalist forces. After the Horus Heresy ended and the Codex Astartes was implemented, only a few chapters currently use the Serpent Pattern bolter. Those who especially hunt the Alpha Legion, will actively use said bolter, just to spite the traitors with the very same weapons they used to kill so many loyal space marines. Hopefully those Chapters succeed in their goals…”

-Imperial Weapons Historian.

This bolter design was initially made by Janovich3D on Sketchfab. I couldn’t scale his model to properly fit the hands of a space marine, so I remade everything from scratch in order for it to properly fit. Please go show him some love, his work is amazing and he deserves all the love and support he can get.

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/bolter-20-alpha-legion-70384df616c14ff2abab35868b0b770b