Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a small scale tractor/pressor device for individuals
- Image Source: originally found here, modified by yours truly
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi Concord, Closed-Market
- Model: LPD-51 GravPulse Tactical Tractor/Pressor Device
- Modularity: Can be easily integrated into personal armors or droids; can easily be attached as an underbarrel weapon on larger weapons like blaster rifles
- Production: Mass-Produced.
- Material: Agrinium – condensed-matter composite frame, spun-plast brace fastenings (optional), spun-plast trigger ring, miscellaneous tractor / pressor beam projector components
- Classification: Pressor/Tractor Beam Projector
- Size: Small
- Weight: Light
Tractor Mode Pressor Mode Tensor Mode Ammunition Type Power Cell Power Cell Power Cell Ammunition Capacity Small Small Very Small Effective Range Personal Personal Personal Rate of Fire Low Very High Average Stopping Power Very High Very Low Very High Recoil High Average High
- Tractor/Pressor Weapon: GravPulse uses conventional force field technology in the form of a large number of bundled up, miniaturized tractor and pressor beam projectors. As such, GravPulse affects targets by its ability to push or pull away targets, with many of its practical effects and uses being similar to a Jedi padawan’s ability to use Force Push or telekinesis. Thus, GravPulse doesn’t necessarily have to be used as a weapon, but it can also be used as a tool to move or otherwise effect objects from short distances (less than 20 meters). As these forces cannot be directly observed by the user or the target, there is often a steep learning curve on how to most effectively use this device. However, the sheer nature of this device to manipulate an environment often provides even novice users with the element of surprise, especially when wielded at close ranges. Skilled users have even been able to trick others into thinking that they are themselves force-users.
- Variable Fire Modes: GravPulse utilize different force field components in different ways depending on where power is cycled to. Power can be diverted to only tractor beam projectors, only pressor beam projectors, or to both sets of projectors at once in order to produce different effects. In its tractor beam projector mode, GravPulse is equivalent to many standard tactical tractor beam projectors (but with significantly less operating time) and is capable of grabbing and pulling back human-sized targets a handful of meters at a time, though it inflicts very little actual damage (often manifested as muscle fatigue). Activating all of the pressor beam projectors allows the user to rapidly send out of series of gravity pulses to push back people or objects – this is often used to stagger or through off-balance an opponent charging the user, but it can also be used to knock back grenades or other projectiles. Again, it does nearly no actual physical damage to the target. The Tensor mode, however, is an extremely dangerous weapon. By activating both the tensor and tractor beam projectors simultaneously, parts of the target can be sheared and/or molecularly disrupted as unseen forces try to simultaneously push it parts of the target away even as other parts can be drawn to it. In this respect, it acts much like the Squib Tensor Rifle but on a smaller scale. Many conventional targets do not have protection specific to the threat posed by the GravPulse in this mode. However, this mode is somewhat hampered by its loud report, high recoil, and very limited power capacity – leading to many users to compare its practical tactical use as essentially that of a disruptor.
- Compact: The GravPulse is designed specifically for compactness in order to be easily fitted into a gauntlet or slung underneath the barrel of a rifle-sized weapon – which does not give much room for its mechanisms. In order to remain compact, the GravPulse has a fairly small powercell. These sacrifices make it fairly easy to conceal within clothing and easy to wield in close quarters, whether on a gauntlet or under the barrel of another weapon.
- Modular Trigger System: GravPulse by default has a trigger that is activated by pulling a ring that’s worn on a finger, convenient for use in its gauntlet or underbarrel weapon form. However, it does have a small socket set aside to allow it to be electronically fired if integrated into a battle armor or droid body.
- High Fire rate (Pressor Mode): GravPulse’s pressor mode can rapidly fire weak pulses, allowing users to fire just the right amount of thrust to kick back opponents or deflect objects.
- High Stopping power (Tractor / Tensor Modes): GravPulse’s tractor beam projector is fairly high-powered for its size, allowing it provide excellent pulling power as a tractor beam projector and deadly sheering power as a tensor weapon.
- Short-Range: GravPulse is fairly short-ranged, in large part due to small size of its clustered tractor beam and pressor beam projectors.
- Low Ammunition Capacity: GravPulse has a very limited number of shots due to the miniaturized power cell required by its small size.
As Lucerne Personal Defense began to complete a number of exotic wrist and underbarrel weapons ranging from cryoban sprayers to masers, the company’s engineers turned their attention to even more rarely utilized weapons technologies. Yet to that end, they utilized one of the more common galactic standard technologies: tractor beam and pressor beam projectors. While utilizing the same base chassis as previous LPD wrist weapons, the GravPulse itself in many ways is a much more sophisticated system. The ‘barrel’ of the gravpulse is actually a clustering of many miniaturized tractor and pressor beams, with there being about a 3:2 ratio between the two types of devices. This means that the GravPulse is actually stronger and capable of more consistent pulling actions rather than the pushing actions of the pressor beams. Of course, these projectors can be activated simultaneously to produce a tensor weapon that has a sheering effect on targets. The variety of effects GravPulse can produce then lends it to the characteristic versatility so common of the Lucerne consortium of products.
As a tractor beam device, the GravPulse is capable of moving individuals and even small vehicles like speeder bikes and small landspeeders for up to a dozen meters before needing a cooldown. This allows GravPulse to help users clear debris, move containers, or drag injured people to safety in civilian situations. Much of its effects as a tractor beam are limited by the wearer’s strength and mass, as to degree, some force is also placed on the user. In more combative situations, GravPulse can be utilized by users much like how Force-users use telekinesis – it can snatch away weapons, pull down opponents, or move objects to alter the environment to the user’s advantage. In any of these instances, however, GravPulse itself does very little if any physical damage to the target directly. As a pressor device, GravPulse is fairly weak, the nature of its weak-powered but rapid pulses allows users to easily and precisely deploy its power. In civilian settings, it can be used to operate some manual controls from a distance, push away incoming objects, or keep steady low level pressure on a bleeding wound. In combat settings, the pulses can be used to knock opponents off balance or deflect kinetic attacks. When both the tractor beam and pressor devices in GravPulse are activated simultaneously, the Gravpulse becames a sheering device, easily acting as an invisible blade to cut down objects such as jungle foliage or cause grievious internal injuries much like a tensor rifle. Theoretically, it can also be used to intercept and shred apart projectiles in flight, with the main limiting factor being aiming.
GravPulse is expected to be one of the least popular of the company’s gauntlet devices simply because it is harder to use and doesn’t have as many directly applicable combat uses. Conversely, its arcane abilities do make it attractive for some niche markets, such as heavy industry (to help with fabrication and construction) as well as organizations concerned about encountering force-users (as it can mimic the effects of some basic force powers). It remains to be seen if GravPulse will remain in production long, and there is some concern among the company’s board that the GravPulse will have a small production run and still have some units in storage idly waiting to be sold for years to come.
