Sarge Potteiger
Emotional Damage
Image Source: Lexicanum
Intent: Provide Sarge's NPC Troopers with a characteristic weapon fitting their purpose.
Development Thread: -
Manufacturer: Corellian Arms
Model: Mk. 1 Hellfire Blaster
Affiliation: Omega Protectorate / Omega Pyre
Modularity: negligible - can technically remove scope
Production: Limited
Material: Duraplast for increased protection against barrel fusing/heat damage
Classification: Blaster
Size: Handheld
Length: .65 meters
Weight: 3 kg gun, 11kg backpack.
Ammunition Type: Power Cell/Gas Canister, mixed in two separate canisters mounted in an armor backpack. Connected to rifle through cables fed into battery well.
Ammunition Capacity: Combination gas/battery of 300 shots. Without backpack, 50 shot battery and 200 shot gas canister; typically less than half that of a comparable blaster.
Effective Range: 400 meters.
Rate of Fire: Single or full auto.
Special Features:
- Backpack power unit to provide optimal combat efficiency
- Double the power of a normal blaster rifle
- Plasma based weapon similar to the DC series of Blastech design in terms of bolt fired
- Scope with variable zoom that syncs with HUD, allowing soldier total control. Goes up to 8x. If shooting a target farther away is necessary, soldiers are encouraged to order an air strike to save themselves the hassle.
Description: With Sarge's Purgation Suit completed, he realized he was going to need some serious potential backup were he to see his mission through to the finish. To this end, he began a careful process of hand selecting individuals to serve under him. These individuals were culled from the Protectorate Special Forces while others were pulled from Boot to undergo intense physical and psychological training.
This training ultimately revolved around a process that may be unfavorably be called brainwashing, or, were one to be generous, mental conditioning. Due to the high conversion rates of the One Sith, these soldiers were trained to all but worship the Force while spurning the Dark Side. This provides them something most others outside the Dark Side lack - faith. Faith in something more than them.
This faith is encouraged through training, leaving their minds tough bastions of obedience and faith, making them far less susceptible to corruption than their peers. To discuss this training here is important, not only to add some background to the weapon, but provide flavor to the soldiers using it.
Because of the nature of their training and more importantly the strength of their opponents - Yuuzhan Vong/Sith, Sarge opted to commission a plasma based weapon that only has one setting; overcharged. There is no stun setting to these blasters, and their power comes out to just under twice that of your regular blaster, allowing it to punch through some of the tougher armors out there. Armors such as beskar and phrik will still require multiple shots, but will require proportionally less than a less powerful weapon.
Due to the power needs, a specially designed backpack was created and then armored to allow the soldier to focus on the task at hand rather than reloading. This pack comes coupled with weapon and is unusable with any other blaster that's been tested with it, making it unique - so far - to this weapon and thus a package deal. Said pack has hooks and mounts for the soldier to carry their usual combat load of bed roll, etc.
Should the pack run out, however, the soldiers are trained simply to ditch it in the field. When this is done, the soldiers typically carry 4 powerpacks on hand in case of emergency. Without the pack, the weapon has a pretty abysmal ammunition count at least in comparison to your normal blaster rifles.
50 shots per battery and 200 per canister is generally inadequate for combat operations, but would suffice in the event the pack need be abandoned. Said gas canisters are housed in the stock and require roughly a minute and a half to replace, thus making it inadvisable to try replacing it without either cover or safety in numbers.
Soldiers are discouraged from using full auto, as after roughly 4 seconds of full auto barrel will fuse and require replacement, something impossible to do in the field. Single fire is the only other setting, although you can make it fire as fast as you can pull the trigger if you like to live dangerously.
