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Small
Arms Technology
Caseless Weapons - Caseless weapons use an electrially detonated solid chemical propellant to fire spin-stabilized lead projectiles. Their use is generally limited to civilian concerns, as caseless weapons as a rule do not have the penetration necessary to defeat military body armor, as well as the fact that some exotic or tainted atmospheres can cause the propellants to react explosively. Nevertheless, with the minimal industrial base of humanity’s settlements in the Sagittarius Arm, caseless weapons are cheap and reliable, and just as good for putting food on the table as they are for defending one’s home against bandits and thugs. Caseless weapons have four types of ammunition associated with them: Full Metal Jacket - a lead core bonded to a thin case of copper; Armor Piercing - a steel core bonded to a tungsten carbide case; Jacketed Hollow Point - a lead core bonded to a thin copper case with a hollow cavity in the tip to allow for the rapid expansion of the bullet in flesh; and Frangible a special blend of metal powders compressed into a hard bullet shape capable of penetrating light armor and then causing massive damage to body tissue.Gauss Weapons - Gauss weapons use strong electromagnetic fields to propel steel, nickel-steel alloy, or steel-jacketed lead/depleted uranium core projectiles at a high velocity. Gauss weapons use three projectile types – slugs, armor-piercing slugs, and flechettes. Slugs are similar in size and shape to a caseless bullet, while flechettes are slender finned darts about half the caliber of the weapon’s bore, which are housed in a fall-away sabot until they clear the muzzle. Flechettes have excellent armor penetrating abilities, but their small caliber and low projectile mass mean they do not inflict as much damage as a slug fired from a gauss weapon. Ammo Cost and Ammo Mass for gauss weapons reflect the cost of buying a disposable factory loaded and sealed magazine. Skilled armorers with access to a reliable power source and available loose projectiles (which the armorer may have to cast or machine himself) may reload a disposable magazine for reuse. Laser Weapons - Laser weapons direct focused pulses of coherent light, causing damage through rapid heating of the target. The effective range of a laser weapon is dependent upon the frequency of the beam and diameter of the muzzle aperture of the optics, with higher frequencies and larger apertures having longer ranges. IR lasers are the easiest to produce and require the smallest amount of power, so they are generally found in pistol weapons, particularly very small holdout pistols. Visible-light lasers are often found in larger pistols and “SMG” weapons. Ultraviolet frequency lasers are generally found on “rifle” weapons and on heavy laser weapons. The ability to make a man-portable laser weapon with a wavelength smaller than 100nm is currently beyond the technology level of humanity. Lasers suffer performance
losses when firing through heavy smoke, fog, rain, or dust; halving
their
penetrating abilities. Because of atmospheric effects and the
lower
damage potentials of most laser hits, modern armies continue to use
gauss
weapons on the surface of worlds, and limit lasers for use aboard
spacecraft
and orbital installations. Some laser weapons may fire 3 shot
bursts
rather than a single pulse, each pulse having 1/3rd the energy of a
single
shot and only using up 1 shot of power for the entire burst. Some
lasers also have a Maximum Damage setting, with a much higher damage
potential
while halving the effective range. Some may even fire maximum
damage
bursts. Laser weapon magazines contain power metering and
distribution
electronics as well as rechargeable powercells. A depleted
magazine
need only have its powercell recharged in place, or a new powercell may
be inserted. Most malfunctions with laser weapons occur within
the
power electronics, so in many cases a malfunction can be corrected
simply
by replacing the magazine. Because laser pulses have a duration
of
only 0.1 seconds, it is difficult to see the beam, and the beams for
laser
small arms only make a slight crackling sound through the air, thus it
is often difficult to determine where the shooter is firing from.
Snipers and assassins have exploited this advantage to their favor in
environments
where there is sufficient cover to get close enough to their target for
their weapons to be effective. Particle Beam Weapons - Particle Beam weapons magnetically accelerate heavy ions of neon, argon, or xenon to a quarter of the speed of light, and project them towards the target. Particle beam rifles function in an atmosphere by applying a high-powered laser beam an instant before the particle beam is released, ionizing a path through the air that focuses the particle beam and keeps it from scattering. Particle beam weapons carry an internal gas supply that must be recharged with a 1kg bottle of noble gas after every ten magazines of use. Particle beams are particularly destructive small arms weapons, and are among the few man-portable weapons that can damage spacecraft and mecha. Larger particle beam weapons will also inflict ionizing radiation damage to targets they hit. Most particle beam weapons are very easy to identify by their characteristic “tuning fork” focusing tines. Carrying a particle beam weapon in the open is a good way to attract attention, though not necessarily the kind of attention you were hoping for. Particle beam weapon magazines
contain power metering and distribution electronics as well as
rechargeable
powercells. A depleted magazine need only have its powercell
recharged
in place, or a new powercell may be inserted. Most malfunctions
with
particle beam weapons occur within the power electronics, so in many
cases
a malfunction can be corrected simply by replacing the magazine.
Weapons with E-cell and F-cell magazines are typically worn as a
beltpack
or backpack, with an armored power cable feed between the weapon and
the
magazine. Plasma Weapons - Plasma weapons use GHz-frequency microwave generators to superheat a mixture of hydrogen gas and outside air to about 10,000 degrees Kelvin, then magnetically project the plasma formed as a bolt of incredibly destructive ionized matter. Plasma weapon hits automatically set alight anything flammable such as clothing, plastic, and wood. As a rule in places where the law exists, plasma weapons are generally prohibited due to their indiscriminately destructive nature. Plasma weapons must be
recharged with hydrogen gas in addition to their powercell
magazines.
Pistols have a small internal bottle that can be refilled ten times
from
a typical 1 kg storage cell; SMGs and rifles use a 1 kg cell
directly.
Machine guns and cannons typically use a 10 kg cell if they are to be
man-portable,
or a 20 kg or even 100 kg tank if they are to be fixed
emplacements.
Plasma pistols deplete their internal hydrogen charge after five
magazines,
SMGs and rifles after ten magazines, and machine guns and cannons go
through
a 10 kg cell after ten magazines. Plasma weapon magazines contain
power metering and distribution electronics as well as rechargeable
powercells.
A depleted magazine need only have its powercell recharged in place, or
a new powercell may be inserted. Sonic Weapons
- Sonic weapons use focused beams of high-frequency sound waves to
incapacitate
their targets. Only the alien Dhaoghissi have gone so far as to
make
a sonic weapon capable of causing serious injury, and their “Screamers”
have become notorious symbols of their campaign of terror in the
Sagittarius
Arm. The effectiveness of sonic weapons is limited by the
atmospheric
pressure of the world on which they are used, and they will not
function
at all in pressures less than 0.05 Bar.
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