by Halfbat
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by Halfbat |
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The ancient Arkanians in this corner of the galaxy tried to avoid the massive and obvious indications of the use of energy weapons. As a result, they developed a focussed repulsor/ tractor (reptrac) field which could accelerate anything solid (heavier than flesh, for example) incredibly rapidly. This meant they could use the plentiful supply of asteroids in the nebula as mass for kinetic energy weapons on their larger ships.
The technology was also capable of being miniaturised for use as hand-to-hand weapons. Whilst the weapons could look bulky and heavy, and the smallest they could build was the size of a light repeating blaster, the technology leant itself to firing a large quantity of small slithers of metal at very high speed, very efficiently and at high rates of fire.
Each shot from a personal slithergun fires at least two "slitherbolts" - splinter shaped slithers of metal, glass or ceramic around 2cm long. Occasionally these have an armour-piercing core surrounded by a discardable sabot surround. The first slither tends to impact armour, sometimes vapourising, whilst the second typically impacts in the same place, penetrating. Much of the damage comes from the speed of the projectiles.
Most slitherguns (or reptrac weapons) come in autofire and multifire modes. The multiple shots tend to enhance the occurrence of critical hits, even if the basic damage is not as much as a blaster. The minimal recoil tends to enhance accuracy, which supported the "stand-off" tactics of the designers. Most reptrac weapons come with enhanced scopes, tracking and sights.
Built-in sights give optional laser painting, telescopic long-range and infra-red vision. Without using the built-in sights (if they are broken, for example) the range increment is only 15m as the slitherbolts cannot be seen. When the sight is set to telescopic mode, the range increment is 50m, multifire and autofire is not possible and when shooting at ranges below 50m there is a -6 equipment penalty.
The weapons needs a powerpack or charge, which will last for up to 500 double-shots on its own, plus ammunition. The standard ammunition clip attaches into the butt and contains [or contained] 100 double-shot chambered and aligned slitherbolts and subsidiary power for the 100. Alternatively, up to 40 small, 1cm, regularly sized pebbles or slugs doing 2d6 damage can be put into the chamber and the carbine uses its built-in powerpack. With standard ammunition the slithergun is soundless beyond 4m - and within that range all that is heard is a faint whine. With larger pebbles or slugs the sound is somewhat coarser up to 8m, and the slug will make a noise similar to other slughrower projectiles due to its fairly un-areadynamic qualities. Cost: no longer available.
Examining and taking apart the weapon to duplicate its capabilities is a Repair DC40 task, failure meaning the carbine may blow up... The powerpack charger needs to be modified to fit into "modern" power sockets to take modern recharge cables.
| Slithergun Carbine (Kinetic Repulsor/Tractor Technology weapon) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Class: | Slugthrower | Damage: | 2d8+2 |
| Range Incr: | 30m | Fire modes: | "single"/mf/af |
| Critical: | 19-20 | Weight: | 5kg inc. sights |
Still under development In order to throw the modified slugs or asteroids needed to cause damage to the larger warships, anti-ship Reptrac weapons tend to be large and bulky. If the asteroids hit, however, they tend to be effective, causing a more impact and structural damage than a comparable blaster or turbolaser. Their speed, however, is not so great, demanding significantly better computing power and targeting computers.
The table below defines the main weapon groupings. Point defense and Anti-fighter reptrac can be turret mounted and tend to fire slither slugs as for carbines (see above). The larger weapons have launch-rails from 40 to 70m long, cannot be mounted in turrets and must be turned and fired using the ships facing: most such weapons face into the forward arc.
Due to the speed of Reptrac slugs, it is significantly more difficult to hit long-range targets than close-range. However, the range of a slithergun's armament or load is effectively unlimited, unless affected by atmosphere or gravity (imagine it as an unpowered missile): at such ranges, however, it is only useful for targeting planets and larger ships. In addition to the DM listed in the table below, ship-borne Reptrac weapons suffer a DMs for different ranges which differ than for energy weapons. This is given in the table below. For example, a medium Shipborne Reptrac onboard a Huge destroyer, firing at Medium range has a DM of -9 (-7 weapon, -2 ship) instead of the normal -6.
It is possible to load small, medium and large Reptrac weapons with meteorites rather than the tailor-made metallic slugs. If so, the asteroids have an additional -2 "to hit", but do an additional die of damage when they do hit.
| Reptrac Shipborne weapons (Kinetic Repulsor/Tractor Technology weapon) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Special | DM PB | DM Short | DM Medium | DM Long | DM Extreme | DAM | EP | Cost |
| Point Defense Slithergun | Autofire | 0 | -2 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 3d10x2 | 3 | 2,000 |
| Anti-fighter Slithergun | Multifire | -2 | -2 | -6 | n/a | n/a | 5d10x2+5 | 5 | 4,000 |
| Light Reptrac | - | -4 | -5 | -7 | -10 | -12 | 4d10x5 | 7 | 8,000 |
| Reptrac | - | -5 | -6 | -7 | -9 | -11 | 6d10x5 | 10 | 15,000 |
| Heavy Reptrac | - | -6 | -7 | -7 | -8 | -10 | 9d10x5 | 14 | 50,000 |
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Page created 27th November 2004 by Halfbat