12-11-2011, 03:37 AM
Born out of some stuff I was mucking with on IRC to make Ford more of a character. Even if she's drifting closer to her inspiration....
Note: I know sweet shag-all about firearms. And, well the weapon'll work without 'wave effects.... the only 'wavium acts as a recoil compensator.
And it might give me a denoument for Saber Chase....
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Quote:Like many things in Fenspace, it started with an accident.
A vulcan cannon being removed from the airframe of an Aeritalia F-104 being made into asteroid racer was dropped on the workshop floor, damaging the gun's operating mechanisms beyond repair. Half as a joke, Daryl Haur suggested that the six barrels could be made into the ultimate handcannon. Jet Jaguar found the concept of an anti-tank pistol hilarious, and agreed to shoot it if ever such a thing was built. Ford, being the only one with anything resembling gunsmithing experience, got stuck the hard part of the job.
The result was the first 'caster gun'. An anti-tank pistol. Firing the 20x102mm Vulcan round. As a nod to the cartridge name, the gun bears the ironic inscription Live long and Prosper.
The second was built for Benjamin Rhodes, being a true Caster-Gun replica, and the Third went to AC Peters. Jet sent both of them as private thank-you's for their help establishing the Knight Sabers.
All three are capable of firing, though they require a great deal of strength and resilience to control, limiting their use. They are basic single-shot firearms, breech loading, and approximately 40cm long. The cartridge itself is nearly 17cm long on it's own. Triggering is electric, with a stiff triggerpull for safety reasons. Each weapon has both a mechanical, and electronic safety. They are capable of using any 20x102mm cartridge, from standard training rounds, up to high-explosive incendiary, and armour-piercing. Although equipped with adjustable iron sights, they lack the mounting points for smartgun systems.
A Fourth was built for Noah Scott, requiring a little more thought and a lot more time to get right. The original plan was the use either a smaller round, or some form of modified cartridge, either cut-down, or even a waved round or cartridge. The eventual result was the driver coil compensator.
The driver coil compensator operates on the same basic principal as the main gravity propellers fitted to a Peacemaker bomber, via the Havoc and Hokum choppers built for Survival Shot. It was found that, with contra-rotating rotors a form of enforced position-hold could be achieved, increasing the effective inertia of the spacecraft. Ford Sierra, trying to figure out how to manage the ferocious recoil of the Vulcan round, wondered if she could adapt the same principals to a firearm.
A pair of rotating, minaturised gravity coils are mounted on the barrel. They are energised by the weapon's battery mounted in the grip at the same time as the primer is triggered. Hot gasses are vented through the coils, momentarily spinning them up, generating a drive field around the weapon that peaks in intensity just as the recoil begins to take effect after the projectile leaves the barrel. This has the effect of momentarily increasing the effective inertia of the gun to a point where the recoil is at least manageable by a regular human being. The field collapses moments later as the coil current below the activation threshold of the drive field. This also has the effect of holding the weapon on target as it fires.
Ironically, with the cabling and spinning, venting coils, this weapon comes closest to replicating an actual Caster. A quirk causes a beam of coloured light to chase the round to its target, emulating the original Caster. The weapon can also still be fired without the compensator, but doing so by an un-modded human is done at the risk of the shooter. Noah Scott has compared the recoil of the compensator-equipped weapon as 'less vicious then a Pfeifer Zeliska', but much heavier and harder to hold on target for long. The muzzle blast is still explosively violent.
The Fifth and Sixth incorporated some improvements based on experience, but were substantially similar. Number's 1 and 6 remain on Frigga, with 6 made available for public shooting at the firing range (for a fee per round). They are not the most powerful handguns in Fenspace.... there are plenty of coilguns and railguns that have a substantially higher kinetic energy and are much easier to shoot and control, something Whistler goes to great pains to point out... but they are the most powerful chem-gun pistols in existence. And they are capable of firing explosive ammunition, something railguns, with mega Amperes flowing through the projectile, or coilguns relying on the magnetic fields interacting with a metallic projectile, struggle with. They are intended to be fun things to shoot at a range, rather than practical weapons in themselves.
After word got out, Ford started receiving requests from other Fen interested in their own custom built handcannon, equipped with a driver-coil compensator. Thus Ford's Heavyarms brand began.
The signature product is still the 20mm pistol, though other versions are offered with smaller rounds. They also offer a substantially modified Anzio rifle, equipped with a customised semi-automatic action and a driver coil compensator. It was first seen in the hands of a rather fetching Yoko Littner cosplayer where it fired with blue sparks, rather than a trailing beam of light which gave away the shooters position.
Anyone ordering a weapon from Ford is expected to understand that gunsmithing is done in her free time.... so lead times are quite high and variable compared to professional outfits. Each weapon is also rather basic, being equipped by default with only iron-sghts, though Ford will fit off-the-shelf smart-link systems and optics if requested. Ford will also modify smaller, standard firearms to specification. Ford does not work on electromagnetic weaponry, or energy weapons, only chem-guns. The driver coil compensators can only be fitted to larger firearms.... and Ford strongly suggests not fitting them to anything expected to be fired on the move, or attached to a vehicle.
Given that each weapon must be custom crafted by hand, the price is.... rather high. Still, even the compensator equipped weapons have low amounts of handwavium in them compared to the mass, and aside from the tendency to get a bit 'disco-gun', they're relatively quirk free. There're no complex drive-field controls, the drive field merely forms and collapses according to the speed/voltage of the coils, and while the field coils and gas vents themselves require careful lubrication and cleaning to keep combustion debris from jamming them, the weapon will still fire without them.
Note: I know sweet shag-all about firearms. And, well the weapon'll work without 'wave effects.... the only 'wavium acts as a recoil compensator.
And it might give me a denoument for Saber Chase....
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
