Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer
The Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer is a super-heavy tank used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. It is built with the chassis of the Spartan Assault Tank, but instead of twenty-five Marines, it carries a twin-linked Neutron Laser Projector (the same weapon as the Valdor Tank Hunter) and the attendant arc reactor and radiation shielding -- in fact, the extra structure makes it even tougher than the Spartan.
- Length: 12.4m; approx
- Mass: 174 tonnes
- Crew: 3 crew
- Max Speed: 35kph
Overview[edit]
Apparently, the Mechanicus went to a lot of trouble to get the plans for the neutron laser -- they had to recover wreckage "at great cost" from a battlefield dating to the Dark Age of Technology in the Hyades system (a star cluster well-known for its appearance in The King In Yellow, by the way) and reverse-engineer the neutron laser from that. Still, it did provide an alternative to the bulkier turbo-laser weapons, with the "bonus" of risking backlash to the vehicle if the beam bounces off the target.
Miraculously enough, the Neutron Laser Projector is not a lost technology, given Valdor tanks can still be produced in a scant few Forge Worlds like Cyraxus II. The knowledge to manufacture the Spartan chassis though? It's kaput. Naturally, the few tanks who survived the Horus Heresy are treasured relics of a Chapter's armoury. The Exorcists for example, had not fielded their Cerberus for more than a millennia before the Ashen War, and have yet to awaken it ever since.
History[edit]
The Cerberus model was created by Forge World as part of their Horus Heresy line, specifically as part of the release of The Horus Heresy Book One - Betrayal. It later received rules for use in regular Warhammer 40,000 games in Imperial Armour Volume 2 Second Edition - War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes. As part of the Horus Heresy reboot, a new plastic version has been revealed.
