Approved Ranged Weapon Umbral Viper Wrist-Caster Mk. I

[Darth Prazutis]

• Intent: To create a concealed, vambrace-mounted micro-disruptor as part of the dedicated weapons suite for the Umbral Guard of Darth Prazutis, giving them a close-range "hands-busy" execution and maiming option.
• Image Source:
  • Headers - Teresa Zambrano | Darth Pellax
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

• Manufacturer:
  
  • Malsheem Hypernautics and Manufacturing
• Affiliation:
  
  • The Kainate
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: Umbral Viper Wrist-Caster Mk. I
• Modularity: Yes - Designed to be hard-mounted into approved vambrace frames of the Umbral Aegis; removal or re-chambering requires armorer and ritual recalibration.
• Production: Limited
• Material:
  • Qazur Weave
  • Alchemized Bloodsteel Receiver
  • Umbraplast Barrel Shroud
  • High-Density Blaster Components and Focusing Array
  • Pyroclast Alloy
  • Inscribed Sith Runes & Micro-Circuit Sigil Lattice

• Classification: Disruptor
• Size: Very Small
• Weight: Light
• Ammunition Type:
  
  • High-density disruptor power cell
  • Alchemically stabilized micro-gas cartridge
• Ammunition Capacity: Very Small - 4-6 Full Power Shots per Loaded Cell/Cartridge.
• Effective Range: Personal
• Rate of Fire: Low
• Damage Output: Very High
• Recoil: Very Low

• Vambrace-Integrated Micro-Disruptor: Compact disruptor coil and barrel are fully integrated into the outer vambrace of the Umbral Aegis, fired by a subtle wrist/finger motion or neural cue through the Qazûr Weave inlay, allowing the user to attack while both hands are occupied with pike, shield, or grappling.
• Obsidian Viper Lance: The weapon emits a narrow, searing lance of dark-tinted energy fired at supersonic velocity designed for precise surgical maims, severing limbs, burning through joints, or breaching light to moderate armor rather than full-body disintegration.
• Rune-Keyed Firing Authorization: The disruptor cannot be fired unless it recognizes the wearer's specific Qazûr imprint and bio-signature; stolen bracers or severed arms will lock the weapon, preventing opportunistic use by enemies.
• Flash-Containment Shroud: Umbraplast and internal baffles damp visible flash and side-blast, making the shot visually narrow and reducing tell-tale bloom in confined or dark environments.
• Viper's Mark Residue: The disruptor lance leaves a distinctive pattern of charred, "eaten" tissue around the entry point, recognizable to Kainate forensic adepts and certain Sith rituals, allowing command to trace kills back to a particular mission or unit.
• Viper's Hex: Each lance carries a bound curse woven by Darth Prazutis and the Shadow Mind. On a telling hit, the disruptor energy "infects" the wound with a creeping Force malady that briefly drags at the target's muscles and nerves, slowing their movements, degrading balance and weapon speed, and amplifying pain. The effect is short lived.
• Ritual / Technical Recharge Protocol: After expending its full magazine, the Viper must be recharged via both armory station and short blood-rite; neglecting the rite can cause minor instability and painful "biteback" sensations along the wearer's arm.

• Hands-Busy Lethality: Allows the Umbral Guard to maim or kill while both hands remain locked on the Qazûr Execution Pike, shields, or an opponent's weapon, turning clinches and shieldwalls into sudden sources of catastrophic injury.
• Armor-Punching Precision: High-intensity lance is excellent for targeting weak points, armor joints, exposed limbs, helmet seal, with enough power to shear through light/medium armor and cripple heavily armored opponents.
• Lightsaber and Deflection Resilience: The Viper 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.
• Hard to Steal, Hard to Turn: Rune-keyed authorization and Qazûr Weave integration make the weapon effectively useless to anyone who is not an encoded bearer or who lacks the proper ritual imprint of Kainate technology.
• Low Visual Signature: Reduced flash and tight beam profile make it easier to disguise the origin of a shot in close quarters, especially during melee chaos or shield-lock formations.

• Very Limited Ammunition: With only a handful of full-power shots available before requiring extensive recharge, the Viper cannot be used as a primary weapon; careless expenditure leaves the wearer with a dead weight strapped to their wrist.
• Short Effective Range: Tuned for personal-range engagements; the lance loses coherence over distance, making it unreliable beyond a few meters and essentially useless at anything resembling typical blaster exchange distances.
• Heat & Feedback Risk: Firing too rapidly risks heat-buildup along the vambrace, which can scorch or numb the wearer's arm and temporarily interfere with Qazûr Weave tactile feedback; ignoring recharge rites can also cause painful nerve "bites" when the trigger circuit is engaged.
• Force Nullification: While under Force Nullification, the wrist caster's Viper's Hex is suppressed until removed from the effect.

Where the Qazûr Execution Pike is the Umbral Guard's declaration of judgment, the Umbral Viper Wrist-Caster Mk. I is the hidden fang that strikes in the gap between heartbeats. Conceived in the forges and ritual halls of Malsheem at Darth Prazutis' command, the Viper was designed to solve a recurring tactical problem: Elite bodyguards who excel in close order spearwork, shieldwalls, and grappling often have no hand free for a sidearm at the moment when a single, decisive ranged strike would end a threat.

Rather than compromise the Guard's doctrine of two-handed control over their primary weapons, the Shadow Mind's engineers and alchemists buried the gun into the armor. The result is a slim, obsidian-shrouded projector hidden along the outer forearm of the Umbral Aegis, visually little more than a subtle vented ridge, until it spits a narrow, venomous lance of dark energy across a few meters of air. The internal lattice shapes each shot into a high-intensity disruptor micro-beam, tuned not to vaporize entire targets but to shear through specific body parts or armor with sickening precision.

In battle, a Guard can lock shields with one enemy, hook another's weapon with the Qazûr pike, and then simply flick a finger inside the glove. The Viper lashes out, taking a hand, an ankle, or blowing out the side of a knee, without any visible change in stance. In a crush of bodies, the origin of the shot can be almost impossible to determine, and by the time opponents realize one of their number has been maimed, the Guard line has already advanced over them. In duels, the Viper serves as a trump card. An opponent who believes they have locked the Umbral into a contest of blades may suddenly find their guard hand missing.

Because disruptor technology is both feared and tightly controlled, the Umbral Viper is layered with safeguards. The Qazûr Weave beneath the vambrace ties the firing circuit to the bearer's nerves and ritual imprint; A stolen gauntlet or severed arm will not fire and attempts to bypass the locks carry a high risk of coil overload. Ammunition is deliberately sparse, only a handful of shots, forcing its users to think in terms of surgical, premeditated maims rather than indiscriminate use. Between deployments, the Viper must be slotted into specialized charging cradles while Sith technicians and adepts perform short blood-rites to "settle" the coil and vent the psychic residue clinging to its lattice.

Within the Kainate, the Umbra Viper has already developed a quietly dreaded reputation. Officers and prisoners who have seen it in action speak of enemies whose limbs simply come apart in the middle of a shield clash, or of defiant captives who lose a hand or foot in the time it takes a Guard to flex their wrist. Those who survive a Viper strike report not merely pain, but a crawling, sorcerous weight in the wound, muscles refusing to answer, fingers fumbling, legs turning to slag until the curse burns itself out or is driven away. For the Umbral Guard themselves, it is not their primary instrument of judgment, that distinction will always belong to the Qazûr Pike, but it is the close, coiled shard of terror they keep hidden in the crook of their arm, waiting for the exact moment when a single, precise stroke will end the fight.

 

[MANIAC]

Darth Prazutis

As usual, amazing.

Approved.