Unreviewed GGH-970 "Broadside" Shotcannon

[Helix]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a close-quarters weapon for the Dzara
• 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: Closed-Market
• Model: GGH-970 Broadside
• Modularity: Yes
• Production: Minor
• Material:
  
  • General Construction: Helsteel
  • Organic Components: Formgel
  • Self-Repair Lattice: Blightsteel
  • Exterior Finish: Helglass
  • Explosive Shotshell Charge: Otherplasma

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Shotgun
• Size: Large (Very Large in the "Tenderizer" configuration)
• Weight: Heavy (Very Heavy in the "Tenderizer" configuration)
• Ammunition Type: Shotshells
• Ammunition Capacity:
  
  • Small (Typically 4 shells + 1 in the chamber, 5 total)
  • Very Large ("Tenderizer" configuration only, typically in excess of 100 shells, fed from a belt & backpack arrangement)
• Effective Range:
  • Long Range (Slugs)
  • Average (All other settings)
• Rate of Fire:
  
  • Low (Pump-Action)
  • Average (Semi-Automatic)
  • Very High (Automatic)
• Damage Output:
  
  • Very High (Shot and Slug)
  • High (Frag)
• Recoil:
  
  • High (Pump-Action)
  • Very High (Semi Automatic/Automatic)

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Adjustable Choke
• Electronically-Programmable Ammunition
• Highly Customizeable
• Exceptionally Reliable

STRENGTHS

• Reliable: The Broadside uses a very ancient, proven method of operation. There's little that can go wrong, and generally a quick fix when something does.
• Programmed Fire: The Broadside's shells can be pre-set to fire in conventional scatter-shot, slug, or fragmentation modes.
• Hand Cannon: The Broadside hits like a drunken Rancor across the board, enjoying excellent damage and armor-penetrating potential.
• Hamburger Helper: The Broadside can optionally accept a belt feed mechanism, enabling sustained (and very messy) automatic fire.

WEAKNESSES

• Hand Brick: The Broadside is neither ergonomic nor lightweight by itself, and utilizes large, heavy ammunition. This problem is worsened further when the weapon is utilized with a belt-feed.
• Five-Spot: The Broadside's default configuration possesses a maximum capacity of only five shots, necessitating frequent top-up reloads in extended fights.
• Thunderous: The Broadside possesses recoil that could be charitably described as "bonebreaking". It requires at least a moderate degree of strength to use with any efficacy.

DESCRIPTION

Despite the clear technological sophistication of its armory, and the dizzying breadth of murder-tools available to its personnel, the humble and venerable shotgun remains widespread amongst the Dzara's lower ranks. Perhaps the most popular of these is the Broadside, a so-called "shotcannon" for its sheer size and power.

In truth, this weapon is arguably as iconic for Dzara soldiers as jetpacks for the Mandalorians or polearms for the Sun Guard. The sound of this ancient weapon chambering a shell has ended countless disputes early, and is considered one of the auditory hallmarks of a pirate raid kicking off.

The reasons for this are manifold. Such weapons are simple, reliable, and lethal, and require very low technological aptitude to create or maintain. Given that much of the Dzara's rank-and-file consists of loosely-allied criminals, this is no small boon.

Such pirates frequently find themselves engaged in gunfights in the tight confines of starships and space stations, where the weapons' greatest shortcomings are largely nullified. While they are often capable of punching a fist-sized hole through an armored soldier at short ranges, these weapons will not (usually) suffice to damage starship hulls in any real capacity, limiting the risk of decompression.

The Broadside is, in effect, a short-barreled shotgun of almost comically-overbuilt construction. It feeds sizeable shells from a tube magazine mounted under the barrel. Unusually, this tube is accessed through the top of the receiver, somewhat lessening the difficulty of reloading the weapon under duress. While this can theoretically increase the risk of fouling, the sheer violence of the weapon's firing process tends to render this risk negligible. Offering pump-action, automatic, and semi-automatic fire, the Broadside enjoys supreme reliability. Failures to feed are rare, and generally easy enough to clear when they do occur.

In its default configuration, the Broadside holds a total of five shells (counting one in the chamber). This renders the weapon's automatic fire option somewhat impractical and rarely used, as (aside from the earthshaking recoil that will likely throw the user onto their posterior), even a brief depression of the trigger can empty the entire tube. Most raiders will utilize the manual-action or semi-auto options near-exclusively.

Perhaps due to this, the Broadside is occasionally seen in a rarer, belt-fed variant. Most commonly, this model feeds from a backpack or (in the case of droids) an internal ammunition reservoir. This alteration is somewhat unpopular with Dzara raiders, as it exacerbates the weapon's already-considerable size, weight, and ergonomic shortcomings. Nonetheless, the so called "Tenderizer" Broadside is widely-feared amongst maritime security and marine forces in every corner of the galaxy; a prolonged automatic burst can potentially shred an entire corridor's worth of soldiers, and fill the air with bone-shattering submunitions.

While deliberately low-tech in most respects, the Broadside does have one surprisingly complex quirk: electronically-programmed ammunition.

The Broadside's massive shells each contain 14 individually-packed, 52-caliber Helsteel pellets, all encased in a semi-solid Formgel wad. Under normal circumstances, firing the weapon simply strikes a firing pin, creates an explosion, and ejects both wad and pellets at a fairly high velocity. Given their size and mass, even a single one of these pellets to a vital area can potentially be lethal, let alone multiple.

As the Broadside features a dynamically-adjustable choke, the exact flight patterns and behavior of its submunitions can vary somewhat. Users are typically advised to spring for tighter groupings, as this (needless to say) increases the odds of a fatal impact. Nonetheless, when fighting large swarms of lightly-armored enemies or creatures, it can be beneficial to simply fill the air with as much fast-moving, widely-dispersed metal as possible.

Optionally, however, the user may engage a selector switch on the shotgun's receiver, causing these shells to behave differently upon firing. This is achieved by sending electrical signals to the semi-organic Formgel wad in each shell, causing it to alter the properties of its attached submunitions.

In the "slug" configuration, firing the weapon results in the Formgel wad keeping cohesion over the shell's disparate pellets, effectively launching a single massive chunk of metal. While this does somewhat diminish the shot's reliability over shorter distances, it does allow the user to attempt to strike targets further away than the weapon would normally allow, and delivers a kinetic impact capable of staggering (if not knocking down) more heavily-armored foes.

In the "frag" configuration, the Formgel wad causes the pellets to launch as a single mass, as with the previous option. However, upon striking a solid object, this projectile then detonates a tiny Otherplasma charge, causing the pellets to burst out in all directions. In effect, this turns the shell into a fragmentation grenade, albeit one with a fairly limited effective blast radius.

These three settings largely alleviate any need to carry specialized ammunition, as the ability to set any shell to these configurations offers a sizeable degree of tactical versatility. While they cannot be utilized for some time if the weapon is struck by ion or EMP effects, the basic shell style still works, as the weapon's operation is largely mechanical, rather than electrical.

Even so, Dzara personnel take a perverse pride in coming up with ever stranger and more bizarre things to stick inside of a shotgun shell. As the Broadside features a pump-action mode of manual operation, it will reliably feed and fire all manner of exotic ammunition types, some of them unique to a single wielder.