"Killerbot"

Autonomic "Killerbots" were a type of nanotechnology-based weaponry used by the Great Houses during an early period in the War in Heaven. The nanite bots targeted enemy soldiers and rebuilt their cellular structures in a fatal manner. This manner of combat was seen as crude and vulgar by most members of the Great Houses and it was phased out of use during the era of the Second Wave in favour of temporal vaccination, although certain members of the Fourth Wave used them as burlesque devices. (PROSE: The Book of the War)