Approved Ranged Weapon CR8 "Errant" Cryo-Arrestor

[Helix]

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OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a cryonic weapon for the Helix Privateers
• Image Source: Link
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Helix Privateers
• Affiliation: Helix Privateers/The Dzara
• Market Status: Minor
• Model: CR8 Errant
• Modularity: Yes
• Production: Minor
• Material:
  • Receiver/General Construction: Helsteel
  • Finish: Shiftsteel
  • Freeze Chamber: Storm Iron
  • Internal Power Source: Otherplasma

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Cryonic
• Size: Average
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Freezing Blasts
• Ammunition Capacity: Large
• Effective Range: Personal
• Rate of Fire: Average
• Damage Output:
  • High (Primary Fire)
  • Low (Secondary Fire)
• Recoil: Average

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Aftershock-Integrated Optics
• Inbuilt Carrion sensor package
• Secondary, disabling fire mode

STRENGTHS

• Remorseless Winter: The Errant is an advanced form of cryo-weapon, and is particularly effective against armored/shielded infantry and light vehicles.
• Mr. Freeze: The Errant possesses a secondary fire mode which enables it to (somewhat) non-lethally freeze enemies and objects.

WEAKNESSES

• Spring Thaw: The Errant is best utilized within short range, as it suffers harshly at longer distances.

DESCRIPTION

A weapon adapted from Xylax technologies, the CR8 is ideal for battle against armored foes in close engagements.

Around the size of a somewhat blocky rifle, the Errant is nonetheless sometimes spotted in a shorter, carbine-length variation, particularly when integrated into Xylax battle armor. In either case, the weapon is somewhat back-heavy, as the dense Storm Iron of its thermo-nullification chamber weighs the weapon down considerably.

The Errant possesses two primary firing modes, both very different in operation and intended purpose. The first, and simpler of the two, creates a zone of near-total molecular inertia within the weapon's internal magnetic housing. In effect, this creates a small, contained area of incredible cold, which the weapon utilizes as its primary means of dealing damage.

The weapon fires individual, constrained bursts of this thermal-erasure not dissimilarly to the condensed plasma packets fired by a blaster. On impact with a solid surface, these projectiles briefly but completely suck thermal energy from the impact point.

Against organic matter, the results are usually as grisly as they are clinical. Intracellular water often freezes instantly, rendering the target area incredibly brittle. Bones and muscle can disintegrate as their internal tension vanishes. To outside observance, an affected area can appear to instantly crystallize, potentially causing a remote wounding effect to nearby tissue.

The effects on metal or other such inorganic surfaces are scarcely better. The incredibly low temperatures can potentially cause solid structures to lose ductility, collapsing rapidly as their molecular structure becomes brittle and weak. This grants the Errant decent armor-penetrating capability, though tougher or denser materials can resist the effect more gracefully. Likewise, the Errant enjoys some utility against vehicles. While it lacks the destructive power of proper anti-materiel weapons, its effects on the moving parts and electronics of vehicles can potentially result in the hampering or halting of the vehicle's mobility, damage or destroy external weapons, or otherwise impede the vehicle's function.

Most interestingly, the Errant is also effective against most energy shielding. Interaction with the weapon's freezing bursts can cause shields to lose thermal integrity, placing significant stress on their power source. The shielded area might appear to flicker or dim, or possibly even collapse entirely.

The Errant's secondary fire is a sustained ray of weaponized cold, achieved by focusing the weapon's heat-stealing effects down a controlled repulsor-channel.

This mode is usually swept side to side, flash-freezing virtually anything it touches on impact. While significantly less lethal than the primary fire mode, it is simpler to use, and much more effective at halting large groups of enemies. This method is much less likely to kill, while potentially causing such disruptions as encasing enemy soldiers in solid ice, jamming up vehicle treads or wheels, freezing engines and reactors, or causing weapons malfunctions.

This mode can allow a creative user to create a variety of useful secondary effects and traps. These can include creating ice slicks on the ground to hamper infantry movement, freezing the legs of a fleeing priority target to stop them them, encasing a weapon or item in ice to prevent foes from utilizing it, or producing solid walls of ice to cover the user's own retreat.

Regrettably, the Errant suffers from somewhat poor range, as its temperature-cancelling effects are forcibly equalized by the laws of thermodynamics past a point. It is best utilized within 300-350 meters, as beyond that distance, its effects become weakened to the point of near-uselessness.

 

[MANIAC]

Helix

Nicely made.

Approved.