Approved Ranged Weapon RVN-236 "Scarecrow" Plasma Rifle

[Helix]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a standard weapon for the Dzara's footsoldiers
• Image Source: Link
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Helix Privateers
• Affiliation: The Dzara
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: RVN-236 Scarecrow
• Modularity: Yes
• Production: Mass-Produced
• Material:
  • Receiver/Wire Stock/Internals: Helsteel
  • Foregrip/Pistol Grip: Marrow Flower Wood
  • Ammunition: Otherplasma Bolts

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Plasma
• Size: Average
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Condensed Otherplasma Bolts
• Ammunition Capacity: Average
• Effective Range: Long Range
• Rate of Fire: Low
• Damage Output: Very High
• Recoil: Average

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Very rugged construction.
• Highly customizable.
• Exceptional range, accuracy, and damage.
• Secondary anti-materiel firing mode.

STRENGTHS

• Star-Gun: The Scarecrow fires glowing bursts of unnatural black star-stuff, giving it excellent killing power, range, and accuracy for its class.
• Square-Jawed: The Scarecrow is an incredibly durable weapon, and will virtually never misfire (at least in its primary firing mode), require maintenance, or otherwise succumb to the wear and tear of battle.
• Supercharge: The Scarecrow possesses a secondary firing mode that can inflict increased damage in a small area of impact, at the risk of possible harm to the user.

WEAKNESSES

• Make Em' Count: While it does possess an automatic fire setting, the Scarecrow's rate of fire is quite poor, requiring users to pick their targets with care.
• Kaboom: Repeated or incautious use of the weapon's secondary fire can damage or destroy the gun (and most often the user).
• Brick: The scarecrow is neither especially comfortable to use nor easy to lug around all day.

DESCRIPTION

As the Dzara quietly built up their arsenal, the Scarecrow was one of the first things to be cranked off the lines of the Helix Privateers' factories.

Based in large part on an earlier, cruder contract design for the now-defunct Tsis'kaar, the Scarecrow bears much of the same blocky, unappealing silhouette. It is not a graceful weapon in appearance, but this seemingly-crude manufacture belies a surprisingly-sophisticated operating mechanism.

The Scarecrow is heavy, incredibly unergonomic, and overbuilt, and should all else fail, it can serve as a very capable club. Given that it is handed out in vast numbers to everything ranging from Lirka Ka 's Third Legion to Darth Nefaron 's hideous Corpse Legionnaires, this is likely an intended feature.

Likewise, there are few more reliable weapons anywhere in the galaxy. During an early torture-test of the model under laboratory conditions, a Scarecrow model fired over one million shots without a single failure to feed. Severe debris fouling, battle damage, or simple incompetent misuse will all typically fail to halt this weapon's function.

The Scarecrow operates by igniting and launching a single mote of purple-black, semi-solid Otherplasma at significantly supersonic velocities. This creates an eerie, air-distorting howl (not unlike Helix's own phosphor-blasters), accompanied by a flash of migraine-inducing anti-light.

When many of these weapons fire together, this din goes from merely demoralizing to positively nerve-shattering in intensity. Nonetheless, as the weapon is most often found in the hands of criminals, lunatics, and far worse, most of its wielders find the racket amusing at best, or ignorable at worst.

Given Otherplasma's incredible burning temperatures, the combined thermal, kinetic and radiological shock of impact can easily be deadly, and allow this weapon an outsizedly-excellent armor penetrating capability for a weapon of this class.

Likewise, the Scarecrow is surprisingly accurate, though this is a virtue most often wasted on its typical user base. Most of the rifle's features are designed with the rabble in mind, as it features a fairly poor rate of fire and the aforementioned-superb terminal capability. In theory, these features are designed to limit the poorly-trained troops' ability to waste ammunition, and make the few shots they may actually land count that much more, respectively.

Despite this, the Scarecrow has its admirers among the Dzara's more elite ranks. Its accuracy, reliability, and killing power are above-average, and in the hands of a user capable of remaining calm under fire and making their shots count, it can truly shine.

Lastly, the Scarecrow possesses an "overcharge" feature. This allows the user to expend a significant portion of the current magazine's remaining capacity to launch a much larger, even more powerful shot.

This serves much the same function as the underbarrel grenade launchers found on other weapons, as the resultant sizzling blob of star-stuff will travel at a far slower speed, and at a more pronounced ballistic arc. Upon meeting a solid object or shield, this retina-scarring mass detonates spectacularly, dousing the surrounding area in blazing Otherplasma and leaving a patch of armor-melting black flame for a brief period afterwards.

This secondary firing mode can allow the rifle to threaten massed or entrenched infantry, as well as light vehicles. In especially skilled hands capable of actually aiming the weapon properly, repeat charged fire can potentially threaten the weak points in medium or heavy vehicles.

Unfortunately, this mode comes with its own risks. Aside from the obvious downside of rapidly emptying the rifle's current magazine, even so doughty a weapon as the Scarecrow cannot withstand such an internal energy discharge again and again in a short period.

Incautious troops can thus easily damage or destroy the weapon (or themselves, as an Otherplasma-based explosion happening in one's own hands is seldom good for the user), and as such, this feature is often disabled on rifles issued to particularly-dismal conscripts.

 

[Renn Vizsla]

Seems like a neat weapon, I have no issues, Helix

Approval