Project: MWP

[Sere Reene]

Bootana Hutta Region – Gos Hutta System - Kor Oktanivii Planet

Location: North Continent
Deep in Hutt Space.
FFE’s Main Production Facility, Punta Outman Geesa, or Dead Outlanders
In the rubbled filled interlinked cities of Seutta and Nuttaon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGs34a3b_8w

A wet day all things considered, acid industrial rain tapping against the rubble, pooling and running inward from the downpour outside. Acid rain you didn’t want to be out in, the hutts didn’t really care one way or the other about the environment, a smoggy cesspool was all the same to them, and to the Sluissi hybrid Sere in charge here, it was all the same to her. It smelled like industry.

Inside the factory looked much like the inter-linked city, it wasn’t a nice orderly setup, it was cluttered with chemicals, crates, leftover spice, alcohol you name it. The place stank of industrial death going on twenty four seven, and it smelled good, to Sere anyway.

Some particularly sharp spice was passed around, the drug to encourage focus here a stimulant, she waited for her minions to assemble. Someone had even arranged a holoscreen, though a great fat wookiee was in the way of it, until her tail pushed the shaggy furred brute aside.

She ran over the essential inventory:

Project Designation: MWP - Modular Weapon Project
Technicians Involved: 25
Spice Sticks Ordered: 500
Bottles of Liquor stocked: 5,000
Handovers expected: None.

The last bit seemed unlikely but at least her cerean supervising friend was optimistic, though getting started himself early on the drinking part it seemed. The only ones keeping out of the fun were as usual the Noghri Commandos sent by her Boss to keep things ticking over quietly.

 

[Sere Reene]

Today was fairly orderly all things considered, still the mix of swearing, spice and slang going on the in the background amidst the sounds of machinery, but all in all things were sedate. Probably the rain, nobody could work up a good stomach for violence when they were soaking wet, with their armor burning from acid rain, ruined a good polished finish and it just made everyone grouchy.

First thing was first, get the composite alloy up to temperature. Super hot plasma cooking away, as the mix was readied and poured in, the Duravlex was tough to smelt because it was heat resistant, hence they’d had to use pure plasma as the heat source, and the heat coming off the smelting unit was incredible. Didn’t matter how many heat sinks they’d added or how insulating the polymers were around it, the smelter was a nightmare. So it was manned by the street rats, fresh from the gangs outside working it, or trying to.

45% AG4, 45% Duravlex and they were trying 10% N1 but whether they could pull off the alloy, who knows, they’d aimed for a simpler 60% AG4 Agrinium mix but the last alloy just crumbled. On the holoboard ahead the the numbers flicked up, and how stable the alloy was becoming as the first test results cooled. A nearby jawa looked to be pocketing the failures so far, which was weighing the small creature down so much he could barely stand.

 

[Sere Reene]

“Wo abnib woooooaaaaaa” The Jawa had unfortunately for him picked up a piece of still smoldering metal, and was hightailing it out the nearest door trying not to burn himself further, smoke following as he dived into the nearest coolant tank, a large splash and hiss followed.

Sometime after the laughter had settled down.

While they were waiting for the metallurgists to get the mix right. The mountings were first, easy release tripod holder and grenade fitting, it was all being built to a standard blaster rifle size, and they’d got a few standard weapons out laid across the table to measure the sizes. For the prototype casings they were working with basic plastic polymer at least until they had the sizing right, as a prototype, it was also cheaper to just discard and try again until they had a design they were happy with.

Which it was discarded, many times. The retractable mountings were not all that complicated to measure up and design, getting the spacing for them was however. Beyond that the alloy was proving by far the most difficult part of this process to stabalize, and various mixes were being tried, 45/45/10 was better, but still too light from the Agrinium used, so it was was discarded in favour of trying a 40/45/15 mix.

 

[Sere Reene]

Further testing on the alloy, a 40/45/15 mixed proved stable, but when running it under a nearby sensor system still registered one in ten times, 40/40/20 was the ultimate choice, as it had the balance of properties they wanted from the alloy, naming it Agr-Dura-Nuto, or ADN1 for short. It proved to be senor resistant enough with the twenty percent mix, had the radiation and heat resistance from the other metals. Better it was light and durable, all in all it was a real winner. All it had cost them was one Jawa and some time, the only question was, how would it hold up when fitted to the barrel shape?

While that was going on below, the techs had the measurements for the tripods position, and the launcher mount setup, the launcher was proving troublesome, as it needed to fit a rifle through to lightmachine gun sized weapon, angling the mount to be safe for use with a longer barrel was proving troublesome to the predicted accuracy of any weapon placed on it.

Sere hissed satisfied, none of the usual dismemberment, or people killing each other, made for a calmer day. The sluissi hoped more often for rain, even if the occasional employee lost an eye because of the weather, business ran smoother. Now to the harder part, the dual barrel system, she was looking forward to this part, which meant the technicians opposite her were dreading it!

 

[Sere Reene]

Before that however, some argument had broken out, a heated debate which as usual saw a guard lose his life, they’d need to start an employment drive at this rate! The argument was about tamper proofing weapons, something of a concern since it had been raised to her, so while the alloy cooled, she brought everyone over to a discussion.

Tamper Proofing

Her metallurgic expert was working on the anti-tamper system for the casing of the rifle, though the MWP system itself wasn’t all that valuable on its own without additional components, it would be good to have a double tamper system rigged up on the final design, for both the components and the rifle. The parts could be stripped to be cleaned easy enough, but to take the weapon to pieces beyond merely cleaning it, required a special physical key and a signal sent to the internal chip to unlock, a code which would be rotated every 1000 models. The weequay nicknamed, None fire, because he never carried a gun himself, was an electronic expert, or so he claimed to be. The tiny receiving device he placed within the metal was shielded by an inert polymer to avoid simply burning it away with acid, all in all it would take as much work to crack the chip code and steal a key, as it would for someone to just design their own model, if not a lot more.

Sere Reene sat back quite satisfied with herself, even if someone did steal her guns from her warehouse they’d be no good to them, because they wouldn’t have been unlocked for sale, so the firing mechanism would still be locked in place. With that in mind, she gave the nod to add the mechanism to the MWP design schematics.

 

[Sere Reene]

Folding Stock

Putting the dual barrel system on hold for now, the main benefit of this entire project was to make multipurpose modular structure for a variety of uses, the folding stock was the next logical step to design, allowing increased accuracy, or for it to be folded away so the gun could be brought into tighter quarters, like an SMG. The techs took their time over this principal, basic as it was, they wanted the stock to have a secure fit, and use a stable material. Which is why the temperature resistance was so important in the alloy, so accuracy wasn't reduced with usage, like it commonly was in many non durasteel weapons. Keeping the stock a level temperature they’d gone with the higher grade durasteel which even at around 50% should give the weapon a steady accuracy even at extreme temperatures.

The ADN 1 alloy was ready to begin pouring into the first cast that had been made, just to test the weight and balance, while that was going on, and the remaining Jawa’s were resisting the temptation to burn themselves reaching for discarded hot metal… but barely.

Full Length Rail System

The next logical piece to design on the plastic polymer prototype was a full length rail system to the upper part of the weapon, allowing for a wide variety of optic mounts, or increased stability for the grenade launcher attachment should it be used. Truly a modular weapon they were building, modern and light in its base form, upgraded it’d be heavier. The rail ran in teeth like ridges along the upper part of the weapon, allowing for easy mounting.

So far so good, but this was just prototype work, cutting away or gluing plastic which was easy, when the real thing came it'd be a whole different hologame.

 

[Sere Reene]

Feeling good about herself, that today was going smoother than their last development, she ordered everyone to take a break, and they cluttered around the machines swapping war stories, lies mostly if you knew the kind of criminals she dealt with. Everyone had a bigger story than the last man and hardly any where actually true. The banter was good natured, the liquor and perks appreciated, though one or two of them would probably blow themselves up, it all added to the ambience.

When they were relaxed but certainly not drunk, she needed at least basic cognitive reasoning out of them, they lit up their stimulant spice sticks to bring themselves to a level, taxing their bodies surely but focusing their minds on the task at hand. All but one Twi’lek who got her lekku caught in a droids malfunctioning leg somehow, less said about that sordid episode the better!

Breaking up, they got back to work..

Free Floating Barrel

One of the biggest possible advantages was the barrel here, it was a floating barrel to increase accuracy, because it didn’t touch the stock and come out of alignment over time, a modernized weapon concept but an important one for long term use in the field. The critical thing with the MWP kit though was the ability to swap the barrel out, so you effectively could gain more accuracy with a longer one, or use a different ammunition type. Though the individual guns would have more say whether the kit was geared toward energy, slugs or anything else, the kit did allow for larger slugs to easily be swapped in or out depending on the weapon type.

 

[Sere Reene]

Metal cooled, and the moulds looked stable, production was already beginning on the first five test models, each slowly being upgraded by the prototype polymer the team were busy redesigning. It was a much more slow and steady approach than their previous test runs, were FFE becoming respectable? Yeah right!

Ambidextrous weapon operation.

Giving the stock and rail the right elevation for standard optics, and even substandard ones to be fitted allowed for easier aiming, but another important feature on the design was the ambidextrous nature of the magazine release, and the safetying of the weapon, so people who were both right and left handed could operate it equally easily.

Whether they were respectable or not, this whole project was coming together nicely, even if those essential supplies were going down a bit too fast, especially the spice, they’d almost cleaned her out, little did they know it wasn’t full of just spice! Sere was saving money, but more importantly what they were smoking was designed to keep them alert even while drinking!

 

[Sere Reene]

Swappable Barrels

Hiss from the mixes and the bang of metal as they clanked to the end of the production lines, the first ten models were done, basic incomplete designs, each one another step further along, small improvements, steady, almost boring to the FFE crowd who were itching for something to happen.

The first design had cooled enough to be assembled piece by piece by the production line specialists. A reason to use modular tech over almost anything else out there, was the ability to not only pick up a new barrel and use your opponents ammunition, but covertly if you wanted to make it appear as though you were a different faction or to hide your true colors, leaving behind casings or markings of another group to cause misdirection and suspicion. It also meant you could put on a longer barrel to increase your accuracy, or a shorter one if you wanted a lighter weight gun.

There was some doubt they could go down to an SMG size but a larger SMG might be fashionable, certainly light rifles through to machine guns would fit the setup, so that is what they were ordering next, a range of longer barrels to take them all the way up to a light machinegun size. Locked and loaded the first rifle was constructed, the most basic of the designs, taken to the firing range.

“Quiet today,” hummed the usually jittery Rodian tech, happy actually.

The weequay opened his mouth to say his usual line… "Shab..", but stopped as the Rodian waved a hydro spanner in his face.

“I swear if he says shabala one more frakking time….”

 

[Sere Reene]

6 x Component Mountings

Shots being fired as the prototypes were tested, a few gangland crimebosses were arriving to see the show. They really wanted to get their hands on this kind of weaponry, the potential for its application was huge, and they saw it, bringing their own security and entourages, the firing range and testing balconies were filling up with interested parties. Each was wanting to haggle for pre-paid orders, but Sere had told their broker to string them along for now, no promises on anything.

Proposed between her technicians, a tri-rail system on the outside, and a tri-rail system internally, allowed for up to six modular components to be fitted, or swapped in to mount on the weapon, depending on size and weight. Xanatos Skobra her chief scientist was doing his rounds personally overseeing the metal mix, while Loman lester had finally got himself over his triple slug leg wound to arrive to oversea the production side of things, adjusting the railing system so they didn’t interfer with the usual operation of the gun or its switches was his main task.

The two managers usually stayed to their offices, and took care of the overall supervision of large projects, if anything the regular floor techs resented them getting in the way, but this was so big to FFE that Sere had wanted everyone hands on, and the number of guards had also steadily gone as they neared completion.

 

[Sere Reene]

Dual Barrel System

While it would be impossible to have every component and a second barrel on the same gun, the modular approach meant that a customer could order a second barrel in place of a component slot. Though making this adjustment was by far one of the most tricky additions of the weapon, requiring a design of a trigger system which allowed easily swapping between one barrel, the other barrel, or both barrels for that matter.

Several designs were drawn up, none that could satisfy Sere as to just how effective they would be in the field, two barrels that close together, was going to make accuracy a real problem when the weapon heated up with some ammo types. An additional heat sink slot internally was used, taking up two of the possible six component slots just to get the second barrel, a compromise but likely to be a popular one. It took several hours to design the dual trigger mechanism that was eventually placed side by side on the double barreled option, to fire one or both if required.

Holding up her first dual barreled slug thrower, that she’d ever seen outside of rim world conventions, Sere was pleased with herself, moments later even the first fire test blowing the arm off one of her shooters didn’t unsettle her much, because the concept was sound, minus a few flaws. Besides they always had another shooter... though sometimes she thought the gamorreans squealing lust for watching their own blown up was slightly unnerving.

 

[Sere Reene]

Largely the parts between the two barrels were interchangeable, with a few conjoined extras to be taken into account, but it was in essence just doubling up what was already there, minus the grip and ammunition which needed to be fitted specially. The slug carriers were standard for example, which was agreed upon to keep things simple, and cycling properly. This did mean they couldn’t alter the weapon type of the second barrel, but they could alter the weapon ammunition using two separate clips, which was the real benefit of the modular ammo they were developing.

This brain child believe it or not fell to her lackey Bssik, who despite his social graces being that of a small child, knew his guns inside out, even if he was probably the galaxies least responsible man handling them. When they rolled out another testing model, using a well-balanced double barrelled system it fired and recoiled in a much more balanced manner, even if it got twice the recoil from each shot requiring greater strength to operate.

Several local gang leaders were impressed, and one even wanted to test fire, which Sere advised against, because she didn’t want a shooting match in her warehouse, if someone’s favorite brother or uncle blew himself up before the gun was at least signed off on.

 

[Sere Reene]

Weapon Coating, Variable Grip

The next two components were simpler to design for, but they still had to attend to a few small challenges. First to leave room for an optional coating to be applied to the weapon, which meant spacing everything out a fraction more, and testing that their alloy would hold up while coated in some similar test mixtures. This would also double as some further stress testing for the new alloy, and the resulting guns themselves. While that was going on, Sere was more interested in having a chat to Xeri, her often over excitable Rodian tech about the grip they were using.

Grip was important in any gun, much more so than almost anyone gave it credit for, nobody seemed to pay much attention to the fact it was one of the key reasons you ended up with an accurate shot, damaged thumbs, or just missing entirely. FFE hadn't overlooked it, and several plans were on the table about what materials to use.

Sere swished her tail as they considered various grips and how to make them moddable, they would have to be just so a double barrelled grip could be interchangable on request, or altered for larger and small models of weapon. Which finally set them off into one of their usual heated arguments, not Sere she just sat watching Xeri, None fire, and the two managers go at it in what was almost a four way shouting match, at least they were passionate about their work, or just stubborn.

 

[Sere Reene]

Metallic Bonding

Ordered from Coluchem, with a representative on hand, the only one dressed in any kind of uniform, the standard coating was chosen to be Anti-Corr 113 which was naturally corrosive resistant and cheap enough to buy or produce, though they left room in the design to vary this based on a customer’s order. The chemical bonded with the alloy easily enough as that was the point of its design.

With the hiss of another pungent aroma filling the production line, vast quantities of Anti-Corr were arriving and being unloaded, vats pulled up to sit beside the guns being assembled, application done by the chemtechs usually handling explosives. Dobool was an ithorian tasked with overseeing the proceedure, his slow ponderous approach was the complete opposite of most here, but given he was handling dangerous chemicals all day, he’d survived years as opposed to the usual months in the role.

The grip however was proving a real sticking point, arguments about choosing a default standard grip were not abating, and while most employers would have been incensed, or at least moved to act Sere’s usual overly calm demeanour left her observing not moved or bothered by the loud shouting, unless it got in the way of production.

 

[Sere Reene]

Bssik offered to intervene and by intervene he meant shoot someone in the head, which although an efficient end to the problem, might slow things down on the design front, what with someone losing a head and all. “Jus’sssst punch one of them,” she requested, not really minding which at this point.

Which is what happened, a large Gamorrean stepping up and getting a kick out of kicking someone, hard, the argument died down, and it appeared by a vote of 1 to 0, as the 0 was rolling around clutching his stomach, that the grip was decided upon, Arachsilk would be the lining. Arachsilk was not only extremely strong but also comfortable to work into the design, giving holding the weapon a comfortable but strong feel to it.

“This part is always fun boss.” Bssik added, approaching to get involved further, but Sere hissed for him to step back and let people get back to work, soon yawning and stretching her arms up, finishing off her surveying of the final design. Confidently she was signing off on the first real modular personal weapon she’d ever heard about, and it looked a beauty, there was so much potential in the MWP kit for a variety of weaponry, her mind was slowly getting its head around the possibilities.

 

[Sere Reene]

Going away from the gathering with the basic prototype designed, the real models were being rolled out for everyone to have a look at, the first few dozen being shipped to the various local crime syndicates for field testing, FFE’s own inexpensive method of getting their guns test run was by arming up some of the local gangs and seeing how their weapons compared to other models. Then they’d go and do the same through agents to other competing gangs with the next model, to test how they fared against each other.

One week later

After a week’s solid test firing the weapons seemed ready to be used on a larger scale, the kill rate was up substantially, especially in the urban environments where you needed to be able to adjust your weapon on the fly, the folding stocks and extendable barrels had proven a huge success. They had advanced orders for at least the first few hundred models to the larger gangs, but as always had to balance who they wanted to be winning the territorial war so no one gang gained supremacy in any city.

Mass production was ordered and Bssik put in charge of dealing with the gang leaders, he seemed to have the temperament to get the job done, or kill everyone and then go find another job, thankfully there was always another band of mercs on this world, the youth saw gangs as their only method of security and respect.

 

[Sere Reene]

Histan Rauk a Kiffar representative from the Uos crime family arrived to take shipment, getting a through rundown of exactly how the weapons were put together, and how to best use them. Their offworld business associates on Kiffu would be making good use of these to further secure their holdings in their growing criminal enterprise.

“No better gun” Bssik said simply.

“Er what he means is, you’ll not find a better more reliable multipurpose rifle,” the Rattataki broker Zenie Rethalie was trying to smooth talk them. “Full modular attachments and scoping.” She picked up a rifle, raising her eyesbrows with a killer smile

“No better gun,” Bssik said again, ever the intellectual, tapping the rifle butt, straight over someones head, and tapping it hard.

Thud

...

A weequay fell over.

"No break"

The Uos gangsters looked at each other, then back to Bssik shrugging, they seemed sold, if it was made by FFE and had half the cities here wanting a copy already, then they wanted a shipment paid for in advance, they didn’t need convincing though they had to admit a trandoshan salesman was a first.

 

[Sere Reene]

Bringing in men to drop off cases of payment, largely spice, delivered by Pyke’s mostly, about four to a crate, pulling it into place, they popped open the case and showed off what they had, straight from Kessel. Sere couldn’t complain, her chemtech who ironically sampled the least here, which made him perfect for his job, agreed it was good quality and that was that.

The Uos family left three men behind to discuss what was to come next, along with the pkye syndicate leaving three, a round table of small crime families about to unveil a larger plan. Shipping out the last of the riles for today, the factory turned off its lights and Sere closed the main doors, many of the guards remained, as several were stationed here overnight, and she had some business to discuss up in her office regarding the future and the small families place within it.

Bssik accompanied her up to her office, the open stairs through the factory giving her a balcony view. The Trandoshan stood guard outside with a huge looking rifle, glaring angrily at anyone who interrupted the meeting,

“I’d like you to meet s’ssssomeone” Sere hissed, a blob like sentient appeared from the back, golden and scaly, rolled its slime all over the floor. “Tnaru….”

 

[Sere Reene]

Tnaru was hardly the poster child for your usual business partner, but very little about this ragtag band of yahoo gunrunners was standard, they were rimworlders, the tunnel rats, or a blip out of the unknown sector just past the horizon. He was cloaked so you couldn’t see but you could see the shape, the gluttonous mass of whatever the hell he was. The Uos began negotiation, joined by some pyke representatives, all in the start of the arms deals that the future would bring, because Tnaru here held the key to one very important advantage.

Sitting down in the office, drinks were served, woman arrived and men, all tastes catered for in this den of sleeze and filth. Some of their guards casually started a sabacc game in the middle of the meeting, and it was more likely that not it would end in someone getting shot. Sere found it very difficult to really care behind her usually lies and deceit to clients, she really had no care or emotion at all, but the timetable for their integration into FFE was drawing closer to hand, they had to establish their common ground.

Looking out the blinds as the first modular rifles were now full made ready and offered by example. Sera’s tail swished side to side, she was excited about the next project, and the next potential clients, that much was odd but she was genuinely happy, pulling a cigara into her own mouth and lighting it with the end of her tail.

Fin