Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create an anti-material rifle in the LPD catalogue
- Image Source: here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
- Affiliation: Silver Jedi Concord, Directorate, Lucerne Personal Defense customers
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: LPD-61 FarShot Anti-Material Rifle
- Modularity: Underbarrel attachments; sights/scopes; ammunition; barrel attachments
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Mirrsteel barrel, frame, and action with condensed-matter composite inserts and recoild pad, Ceramisteel internal components, permex furniture, Magnatomic Grip Panel
- Classification: Slugthrower Rifle
- Size: Very Large
- Weight: Heavy
- Ammunition Type: slugs
- Ammunition Capacity: Very Small (8 shots)
- Effective Range: Battlefield
- Rate of Fire: Average
- Damage Output: Extreme
- Recoil: Average
- Slugthrower: Aside from its large size that almost takes it into autocannon territory, the FarShot is a fairly traditional gas piston operated slugthrower that uses a rotating seven-lugged bolt. As with several other Lucerne Personal Defense slugthrowers, the gas block port is adjustable, allowing the weapon to be optimized for different ammunitions and/or barrel attachments.
- Picatinny Rails: The FarShot features a pair of Picatinny rails on the top and bottom, which allow it to accept aftermarket attachments such as scopes, sights, and tactical lights.
- Collapsible Bipod: The FarShot has an integral bi-pod up front with feet that are adjustible in height and spread, allowing it to be tailored to user preferences and environments to provide a stable firing platform. When not in use, it neatly folds into the rifle's fore-end.
- Adjustable Stock: Ergonomics are especially important on sniper rifles to better ensure accuracy through shooter comfort. To that end, the length of pull and cheek riser on the stock can be adjusted by set screws to get just the right fit.
- Take-Down Build: A fairly large piece of equipment to lug around, the FarShot can be separated into two components for easier transport: barrel with fore-end and action with buttstock. The three take down pins are all captive, ensuring that they are not easily lost and that the rifle can be easily put back into action in under a half minute.
- Modular Slugs: As with many other conventional slugthrowers, there are a wide variety of ammunitions available for the FarShot, ranging from simple hollow-point ammunition and armor-piercing bullets to exotic explosive tipped rounds and acid-filled bullets. It is also backwards compatible with many other ammunition types offered by third party vendors.
- Heavy Hitter: The FarShot is chambered in 20mm FarShot, which is effectively a vehicle-grade autocannon round. Unsurprisingly, a single shot from the FarShot frequently leaves a gaping, fist-sized hole that runs cleanly through most armored humanoids, and it is really best put to work as an anti-material weapon, where it's excellent power generally allows it to effectively fight large armored battle droids, medium-sized armored combat vehicles, and many large dangerous beasts.
- Long Range: 20mm FarShot, as the name suggests, has a very long range for a rifle round on the account of its very large size and high velocity.
- Low Ammunition Capacity: Large rounds take up space, thus it's no surprise that the FarShot's detachable box magazine can only hold a small number of rounds at a time.
- Bulky Weapon: The FarShot is a large and bulky weapon, even surpassing the large DLT-19 used by the late Empire and some infamous bounty hunters.
Vehicles and light fortifications have frequently been the bane of many infantrymen over the ages. Unsurprisingly, a variety of weapons have been developed over the years to better provide the individual with a means to defeat these foes, including one of the most simplest - a bigger rifle. True to tradition, the FarShot Anti-Material Rifle is very much an oversized slugthrower rifle, throwing out rounds more typical in size to those used by vehicle autocannons - and with the power and range to match. Using a simple gas-operated firing mechanism to withstand the pressure of each shot, the FarShot is largely able to keep firing relatively comfortable through a combination of its large mass and unusual condensed-matter composite which dampens and disperses recoil and its subsequent vibrations. Like many slugthrowers, the bullet coming out the other end can vary considerably:
Full Metal Jacket: A simple solid slog of lead or other dense material covered in a thin jacket of copper, plasteel, or another gilding agent. This is probably the most common and cheapest ammunition available for the FarShot. Despite its simplicity, it's sheer velocity and high mass means that a single shot is frequently lethal to most humanoid species regardless of shot placement. Its power is usually sufficiently to outright destroy small vehicles like speeder bikes in a single shot, while several rounds can usually put out landspeeders and light military vehicles with a few shots. Full Metal Jacket rounds frequently can completely pierce through most commonly found available cover on battlefields, such as walls, trees, and civilian vehicles.
Hollow-Point: Another common variety, the hollow-point is designed to rapidly expand in diameter when it hits a target. The sheer size of 20mm FarShot means that unlike smaller hollowpoints, it will likely penetrate through most personal armors and deal extensive tissue trauma, however, it is not likely to overpenetrate past the target because of how efficiently it transfers energy into the target itself. This makes it the choice round in taking down targets with a minimal of collateral damage, such as assassination or hostage rescue missions.
Armor Piercing Explosive: This is basically a hollow-point bullet whose internal cavity filled with detonite. When the bullet collides with the target or object, the kinetic impact detonates the detonite. Because of the shape of the metallic portion of this bullet, it actually acts as a small shaped charge, with the detonite being focused forward into the target. This ammunition, like its Galactic Civil War counterpart, is well-suited for penetrating through many light to medium-grade vehicle armors. Against large and/or heavy vehicles, it is frequently used to destroy subcomponents which can impede the vehicle's performance or create an opening for a closer range assault.
Explosive: This bullet is almost entirely detonite contained within a thin gilding of pre-stressed plasteel. Unlike the previous ammunition type, the explosive blast in here is not shaped forward but is actually omnidirectional. While not as good as piercing through armor, it produces a larger blast radius with some shrapnel, effectively making it equivalent to the standard fragmentation grenade, capable of creating blast and shrapnel damage sufficient to kill or seriously wound several clustered individuals.
Poisoned: Officially marketed only for use against dangerous apex predators, this round consists of mirrsteel barbed bullet liberally coated in Cyanoxis D-570. Upon impact, the barbs irregularity carve up deep channels into the wound and then act to make bullet removal more difficult and damaging, while the poison furthers blood loss, frequently leading to deep internal bleeds and blood trails that can be easily followed. 20mm FarShot poisoned rounds have effectively been used to kill rancors with only a few shots.
Stun: This round consists of lightly-constructed plastic shell that contains bothan stun spores. Upon impact, the spores either enter the body or can be inhaled by the target. Depending on the target, the effect can range from mild nausea and vomiting to unconsciousness. The sheer volume available on the 20mm FarShot's projectile means that this cloud of spores frequently entirely engulfs the entire target as well as those in close proximity to them.
Acid-Filled: At a glance, this appears to be a typical full metal jacket cartridge. However, the jacket of this round actually acts as a reservoir for Trifaraleen gas. If the bullet penetrates into the target, the gas will be released into the target itself to rapidly eat at tissue. Against impact against armor and other hard objects, the gas will rapidly corrode a portion of the impacted target before dissipating away. The large size of the 20mm FarShot round means that the power and spread is equivalent to that of a small gas grenade, making it dangerous to small groups of enemies and ground vehicles.
Incendiary: This round contains a small detonite tip which acts as an impact primer for plasticene thermite gel contained within a plasteel jacket. Upon impact, the detonite ignites the gel, heating up the immediate impact area to almost 5000 degrees Celsius, which is more than capable enough of starting fires and burning through many armor materials. Combined with the round's high velocity, it tends to create deep, tunneling penetrations that make it more effective at penetrating through armored vehicles than many of the FarShot's other ammunition choices.
CryoBan: This round consists of a thin, plasteel container filled with condensed CryoBan. Impact causes this thin outer shell to rupture, releasing a highly concentrated burst of CryoBan. Combined with the round's high velocity, the shell tends to rupture inside large organic targets, causing devastating internal injuries that are not easily staunched or healed. This has made it a munition of choice for many looking to defeat to foes of Bryn'adul biology, as several species within the former empire were known to be particularly weak to cold damage. However, it is also a useful way to destroy delicate electronics and organic matter without seriously damaging infrastructure around it, making it also useful for those looking to capture vehicles and buildings with a minimum of later repair work.
Wrist Rocket Sabot: This is a plasteel casing that can enclose any number of types of wrist rockets. As the round's velocity slows near its terminal point, the casing falls off and the wrist rocket activates. With dumb rockets, the motor simply ignites and the rockets jets forward. With homing or smart rockets, the munition immediately targets the object the closest object in front of them. While more costly and usually less powerful than other rounds, the wrist rocket sabot offers a precision and variety of potential payloads that other rounds simply do not have.
It's not uncommon to hear of other custom loads for 20mm FarShot that are hand-loaded by individual users and smaller vendors, but the rifle's size, expense, and frequently high civilian licensing cost means that it is most commonly found in the hands of governmental institutions who usually prefer factory-loaded ammunition. Other aftermarket options are generally more popular, and a wide variety of scopes, silencers, and other muzzle devices have been successfully paired with the rifle. Most FarShots in military service are issued to sniper or heavy weapons units, who can take advantage of the weapon's great reach and power while limiting the drawbacks of its large size and limited ammunition capacity. As vehicles, fortifications, and large war beasts and battle droids are still likely to be encountered for some time, the FarShot looks to have a long production run ahead of it.
