Approved Ranged Weapon Umbral Talon Hold-Out Blaster Pistol

[Darth Prazutis]

• Intent: To submit a compact, stealth-oriented hold-out blaster pistol as a secondary or tertiary sidearm for the Umbral Guard and select Kainate operatives, providing a quiet, ceremonial yet lethal weapon for covert killings and close-quarters use where subtlety is paramount.
• Image Source:
  • Click - ChatGPT by Me
  • Headers - Teresa Zambrano | Darth Pellax
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source:
  • Qazûr-Pattern Soulpistol Mk. I

• Manufacturer:
  
  • Malsheem Hypernautics and Manufacturing
• Affiliation:
  
  • The Kainate
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: Umbral Talon Hold-Out Blaster Pistol
• Modularity: Yes - Limited options for grip wraps and finish; core internals and suppression assembly are not meant to be altered.
• Production: Limited
• Material:
  • Qazur Weave
  • Alchemized Bloodsteel Receiver and Barrel Shroud
  • High-Density Blaster Components and Focusing Array
  • Pyroclast Alloy
  • Inscribed Sith Runes & Micro-Circuit Sigil Lattice

• Classification: Blaster (Suppressed Hold-Out Pistol)
• Size: Small
• Weight: Light
• Ammunition Type:
  
  • Compact Blaster Power Cell
  • Micro Tibanna Gas Cartridge
• Ammunition Capacity: Very Small - 8 Overcharged Shots per Cell / Cartridge.
• Effective Range: Personal
• Rate of Fire: Average
• Damage Output: High
• Recoil: Low

• Integrated Suppression Emitter: A tuned focusing array, baffled barrel shroud, and gas-diffusion chamber dramatically muffle the report of each bolt. At close ranges the weapon produces little more than a sharp hiss and faint heat shimmer, making it ideal for quiet kills in enclosed spaces.
• Spearhead Barrel Shroud: The outer barrel is forged and etched to resemble a stylized downward-facing spearhead. When the pistol is drawn, the silhouette is immediately recognizable to those who know what they are seeing, and utterly anonymous to those who do not.
• Overcharged Micro-Bolts: Despite its size and magazine limitations, each bolt is slightly overcharged to ensure lethality at short distances. Against unarmored or lightly armored targets, center-mass hits are often decisive, especially at the ranges this weapon is intended to be used. The weapon is capable of penetrating even heavily armed targets like Beskar or Impervium armor.
• Concealment & Ritual Presentation: The weapon's finish is a matte, near-black crimson with runes that only faintly glow when armed, helping it blend into armor seams, robes, and shadows. Some Umbral Guards pair the Talon with a small wrist or belt holster designed to present the pistol into hand with a single practiced motion, useful for court chambers, elevators, and crowded gatherings.
• Veil of Unremarkable Death: The Talon's barrel shroud and rune lattice are inscribed with a minor hex keyed to quiet-kill executions. When the wielder fires at close range with calm, focused intent, the bolt briefly "smears" the victim's passing in the Force and in memory. Nearby witnesses often struggle to recall the exact moment of the shot, security observers' attention slides off the incident for a few heartbeats, and Force Sensitives feel only a muffled ripple instead of a sharp death-cry.
• Limited Qazûr Interface Nodes: Small Qazûr Weave inserts beneath the grip panels provide subtle tactile feedback, heartbeat-like pulses when the weapon is armed and cell levels are low, and a slight chill when safety interlocks are disengaged. The interface is far weaker than that of the Soulpistol, but enough to make the weapon feel "alive" in the hand of a trained wielder.

• Integrated Suppression Emitter: A tuned focusing array, baffled barrel shroud, and gas-diffusion chamber dramatically muffle the report of each bolt. At close ranges the weapon produces little more than a subtle, sharp hiss and faint heat shimmer, making it ideal for quiet kills in enclosed spaces. Furthermore, the Veil effect the weapon has further reinforces swift, silent, shrouded kills.
• Spearhead Barrel Shroud: The outer barrel is forged and etched to resemble a stylized downward-facing spearhead. When the pistol is drawn, the silhouette is immediately recognizable to those who know what they are seeing, and utterly anonymous to those who do not.
• Lightsaber and Deflection Resistance: The Talon utilizes an advanced form of particle beam blaster technology. This creates powerful bolts that lose cohesion once their path is impeded. Due to this it ensures any force user using a lightsaber to block or deflect will suffer disastrous results from the attempt, as they are washed with agonizing energy once the bolt is impeded.
• Overcharged Micro-Bolts: Despite its size and magazine limitations, each bolt is slightly overcharged to ensure lethality at short distances. Against unarmored or lightly armored targets, center-mass hits are often decisive, especially at the ranges this weapon is intended to be used. The weapon can even pierce heavily armored targets.
• Concealment & Ritual Presentation: The weapon's finish is a matte, near-black crimson with runes that only faintly glow when armed, helping it blend into armor seams, robes, and shadows. Some Umbral Guards pair the Talon with a small wrist or belt holster designed to present the pistol into hand with a single practiced motion, useful for court chambers, elevators, and crowded gatherings.
• Limited Qazûr Interface Nodes: Small Qazûr Weave inserts beneath the grip panels provide subtle tactile feedback, heartbeat-like pulses when the weapon is armed and cell levels are low, and a slight chill when safety interlocks are disengaged.

• Very Limited Capacity: The Talon's compact frame and overcharged micro-bolts leave room for only a handful of shots. Eight bolts per cell mean that missed shots or prolonged engagements quickly drain the weapon, making it a terrible choice for extended firefights or open battlefields.
• Short Reach, Limited Penetration: Built for close-quarters execution, the Talon performs poorly beyond personal range. Targets at longer distances are difficult to hit and far less affected by the weakened bolts, and even at close range its armor penetration is noticeably inferior to the Qazûr-Pattern Soulpistol or larger service sidearms.
• Specialist Tool, Not a Workhorse: The Umbral Talon is a niche weapon. It has no stun setting, offers no suppressive fire capability. In open warfare or high-intensity combat, it is drastically inferior to carbines, rifles, or even heavy pistols, and is meant only as a last-resort or assassination piece.
• Force Nullification: While exposed to Force Nullification, its ability to shroud the kill is significantly reduced until the weapon is removed from the effect.

Where the Qazûr-Pattern Soulpistol is the loudly declared verdict, the Umbral Talon Hold-Out is the quiet punctuation mark at the end of a whispered sentence.

Designed at the behest of Darth Prazutis as part of the armament suite for his Umbral Guard, the Talon fills a specific and chilling niche. A pistol that can be carried into the most secure halls of power, hidden beneath the layered plates of the Umbral Aegis or within the folds of formal regalia, then brought to bear with almost no warning and even less sound. Where the Soulpistol is drawn when the Dark Lord wants a death to be seen, the Talon is drawn when he wants it to be forgotten.

The Shadow Mind's artificers and engineers approached the project from two directions at once. Technicians focused on designing a compact, overcharged hold-out with integrated suppression, sacrificing range, capacity, and battlefield utility in exchange for minimal signature and decisive lethality at arm's length. In parallel, Sith alchemists sketched the aesthetic. A slim, spearheaded weapon echoing the signature weapon of the Umbral Guard.

The result is a weapon that is almost ceremonial in appearance. The barrel shroud tapers to a stylized spear point, its surface etched with shallow Sith runes that are only visible when caught by a close light. The frame is finished in darkened crimson, more black than red, with just enough reflective sheen to hint at hidden richness under the right conditions. Only when the pistol is armed do faint internal lines glow, tracing the circuits of the suppression array and the minimal Qazûr interface nodes beneath the grip.

Beneath those etchings lies the Talon's most insidious refinement: a minor hex keyed to executions carried out at close range and in cold blood. When fired with focus and intent, the runes along the spearhead briefly veil the moment of death, blurring witnesses' immediate recollection, softening the psychic spike of a life ending, and making nearby Force sensitives feel only a muted ripple instead of a sharp scream in the current. It does not erase bodies, evidence, or the truth of what happened, but it buys the wielder precious heartbeats in which no one quite grasps that a murder has just occurred.

In use, the Talon is unnervingly quiet. A shot fired in a crowded hall might be mistaken for a distant door closing, the hiss of a vent, or the hum of a power conduit shifting load. The victim simply stiffens, clutches at the sudden heat blooming in their chest or throat and collapses before anyone fully registers that a weapon was present at all. In tighter spaces, turbolifts, corridors, private chambers, the sound is clearer, but still shockingly subdued for something capable of killing in a single well-placed shot.

The Umbral Guard typically carry the Talon as a third line of lethality, a backup to their Qazûr Execution Pike and main sidearm. It sees use when prisoners must be silenced without panicking the rest of a transport hold, when a single troublesome voice in a council chamber needs to stop mid-sentence, or when an "accident" must occur in a place where blaster reports would raise alarms. Outside the Guard, a handful of trusted Kainate officials and assassins have been granted Talons of their own, each serialized, rune-marked, and recorded, such that every killing carried out with one can be traced back through ritual and forensic channels to its bearer.

To those who understand what they are seeing, the glimpse of a spear-headed grip beneath a cloak is as clear a warning as a drawn blade. To everyone else, the Umbral Talon is nothing more than a suggestion of metal and shadow, unnoticed until the moment the light in someone's eyes quietly goes out. The Umbral Talon retains a similar level of lethality as the Soulpistol, albeit sacrificing slightly in favor of its compact, silent state.

 

[MANIAC]

Darth Prazutis

Very cool sub again.

Approved.