Look buddy, I'm an engineer...
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create an ultra slick suppressed pistol for espionage types.
- Image Source: Artstation, original artist: Ben Bolton
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Graenge Armaments & Industries
- Affiliation: Ezekiel Graenge, Strategic Intelligence Agency
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: Graenge Armaments - (Very) Quiet Pistol, 3mm
- Modularity: Yes, the weapon has different types of suppressors that are designed to be swapped out. More on this later in the submission.
- Production: Limited
- Material: Polycarbonate frame, Duramite flechette projectiles, Fiberplast grip molding/projectile saboting, Bandorium finish, supercooled ablative coolant
- Classification: Slugthrower
- Size: Small
- Weight: Light
- Ammunition Type: Caseless saboted 3mm Duramite Flechettes (The specific chambering is referred to as 3mm CDF)
- Ammunition Capacity: Small (8 projectiles)
- Effective Range: Personal
- Rate of Fire: High
- Damage Output: Low
- Recoil: Very Low
SPECIAL FEATURES
- The (V)QP3 is a pistol that utilizes chemical-based propellant for solid projectiles, much like conventional slug throwers. It differs in a few ways:
- The projectiles are caseless, meaning that the ammunition is a block of solid propellant and the projectile and nothing more.
- This means that there is no firing pin, extraction of spent casings, and a number of other mechanical processes that are completely sidestepped by the use of a strong electrode to detonate the propellant and fire the round. This leads to a completely sealed system that is incredibly reliable in any environment, but more importantly in this case, no gasses escape due to a case ejection process.
- The (V)QP3 is built from the ground up to be one of the quietest personal weapons ever produced and for its use to be incredibly hard to detect forensically as well.
- The weapon includes 2 different suppressors that easily mate with the host weapon.
- One is a wiper suppressor filled with an ablative, meant to be supercooled inside of the weapon's carrying case, which by outward appearance would seem to be an ordinary briefcase. The refrigeration compartment is sealed away from the rest of the pistol allowing for it to be removed only when it is needed.
- The other is a baffle suppressor fairly standard in design, with the exception of its bandorium anti-sensor finish.
- Holovid Quiet - The (V)QP3 includes a wiper suppressor with a supercooled ablative stored inside of its baffles. To break those technical terms down, the suppressor operates by having successive chambers or 'baffles' that are divided by flexible rubber-like disks called wipers. When the weapon is fired the projectile pierces through these disks, causing a perforation that immediately flexes back to a 'closed' form as the projectile leaves it. Each of these baffles trap the hot gasses produced in the weapon's firing, slowing it down long enough for it to be cooled. The report or noise created by a weapon firing is the result of the pressure of hot gas pushing out of the barrel and rapidly expanding. By using a sealed system with supercooled ablative these gasses are cooled tremendously. Utilizing the specialized suppressor results in the report of the weapon being measurable at roughly 55 decibels. To put that in perspective a quiet office or a library has ambient noise in that range. The sound of moderate rainfall hitting pavement is in that range.
- Difficult to Detect - The pistol's makeup is nonmagnetic, and the bandorium finish on it is well known for deflecting most sensors. Combining this with the pistol's small size makes detecting its presence very difficult. In addition, its carrying case - designed to look like an ordinary briefcase - has a false backing lined with the same substance, concealing the pistol's storage compartment and the refrigeration unit that houses the specialized suppressor. Allowing the owner to put papers and other innocuous materials inside. This provides a way of infiltrating the pistol even into controlled spaces where full searches are being conducted. The pistol can also be broken into three very small pieces for ease of concealment on one's person: The suppressor, the action, and the magazine. As the magazine is part of the pistol's grip assembly this creates a very small form factor for each individual piece of the weapon.
- Forensically Baffling - This weapon leaves behind very little evidence that it has been employed. With the rounds being caseless, there is no shell casings to collect. With the projectiles being frangible, they break apart into a fine dust after impacting a hard surface. With the weapon's inventor and manufacturer being a space gypsy that lacks name recognition, the pistols themselves are likely be unknown, meaning that forensic investigators may struggle when they are left with bodies with very small holes punched in them and no explanation of how said holes were formed.
- Malfunctions are Particularly Bad - Due to the lack of a mechanism for extraction, if a round fails to fire the only way to remove it is to disassemble the pistol, making clearing a malfunction under duress functionally impossible. This is somewhat offset in the fact that the ways malfunctions can happen are greatly reduced by the design: With no ejection necessary, common malfunctions such as stove pipes are completely eliminated. There are however, two malfunctions that are of note with this pistol. The first is a failure to fire in which the electrode that detonates the propellant has been covered in a layer of carbon. This can result quickly from failing to clean the weapon, as no propellant can be completely clean-burning, and with much of the gasses being trapped inside of the firearm by intent carbon buildup happens much more rapidly than with other chemical propellant weapon systems. The second common malfunction is a user error - once again with no method of extraction if one were attempt to rack the charging knob of the firearm to chamber a round with a round already inside of the chamber, it would result in a double feed that prevents the weapon from functioning.
- Not Quiet Forever - The use of wipers in the specialized suppressor is necessary for it to achieve its incredible low volume. As is the use of the supercooled ablative. However, both of these things degrade. As the weapon is fired successively the holes in the wipers will grow larger and larger until they are no longer able to close behind the projectile and trap gasses efficiently. In addition as more hot gas is vented over the ablative, it will grow warmer and warmer until it eventually evaporates. Over around twenty shots, the specialized suppressor loses effectiveness until it is no more effective than an ordinary baffle suppressor.
- Innaccurate - By the rounds directly passing through the wipers, their flight path is slightly disturbed. In terms of ballistics, 'slightly disturbed' at the point of the muzzle results in greater deviation the farther the target. Using the wiper suppressor, the pistol is capable of putting all of its shots into a three inch group at ten yards. This becomes six inches at twenty, and nine inches at thirty, and so on. This is referring to 'bench' accuracy with the pistol braced into a stationary position where it cannot move. Effective accuracy in the hands of a living operator these results are optimistic at best. With the baffle suppressor accuracy is a great deal better. However, this would be employing the weapon in a manner in which its primary specialty is unutilized.
- Useless Against Hard Armor: The projectiles fired by the weapon are uniquely suited for what they do -- creating small holes in vital organs to produce dead bodies and leave almost no evidence behind. However, the frangible nature of the flechettes also mean that when impacting hard barriers such as plastoid or other combat armors the projectile breaks apart harmlessly into a fine dust.
DESCRIPTION - The (V)QP3 is a pistol that utilizes chemical-based propellant for solid projectiles, much like conventional slug throwers. It differs in a few ways:
Approached by a shadowy figure from an organization unknown to him, Zeke was offered a manufacturing contract for the production of a weapon to very exact specifications. They wanted a weapon that lent itself to being smuggled into controlled spaces. They wanted a weapon that was small, quiet, unobtrusive, deadly, and hard to trace. This is the result of Zeke drafting together a weapon to meet those criteria.
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