Unreviewed YGG-002 "Firefly" Plasma-Disintegrator Pistol

[Helix]

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OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a powerful field sidearm for the Dzara's upper echelons
• Image Source: Link
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Helix Privateers
• Affiliation: Helix Privateers / The Dzara
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: YGG-002 Firefly
• Modularity: Yes
• Production: Semi-Unique
• Material:
  
  • General Construction: Helsteel
  • Organic Components: Formgel
  • Self-Repair Lattice: Blightsteel
  • Exterior Finish: Helglass
  • Internal Precision-Focused Lensing Chambers: Magnetically-Restrained Tarnicite
  • Primary Disruption Payload/Internal Power Source: Otherplasma
  • Internal Anti-Mechu Layer: Helixium

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Disruptor/Otherplasma
• Size: Large
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Otherplasma-Based Disruption Bolts
• Ammunition Capacity:
  
  • Extremely Large (In Total)
  • Small (Limited to six shots over a short period)
• Effective Range: Long
• Rate of Fire: Average
• Damage Output:
  
  • Very High (Normal Mode)
  • Extreme: (Supercharge Mode)
  • High (Seeker Mode)
• Recoil:
  
  • High (Normal and Seeker Modes)
  • Extreme (Supercharge Mode)

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Helixium-Based Anti-Mechu-Deru Defenses
• Integrated Aftershock Software
• Integrated Carrion Software
• Locked to one specific user's physical structure
• EMP/Ion Resistance
• Significant ammunition reserve

STRENGTHS

• Magnum: The Firefly projects stabilized Otherplasma-based disruption bolts capable of inflicting potentially-fatal harm even with a graze.
• Trick-Shooter: The Firefly possesses two additional firing modes, for tackling multiple moving targets or massive/heavily-armored enemies, respectively.
• Ammo Cache: The Firefly feeds directly from a highly-constrained internal KBR Otherplasma battery. In theory, it possesses a greater ammunition capacity than a user is likely to ever expend.

WEAKNESSES

• Six-Shooter: While its theoretical ammunition capacity is much higher than common disruptors, the Firefly must either pace itself between six shots or endure a waiting period after firing six shots quickly. Users must thus utilize the weapon carefully, or risk being rendered vulnerable by this period of inoperability.
• Battery Rupture: As with many weapons bold enough to weaponize Otherplasma, the Firefly only barely keeps this dangerous energy source in check. Serious damage to the weapon can result in breaches, seriously threatening the user (and likely anyone else unlucky enough to be nearby).

DESCRIPTION

These rare but exceptionally dangerous sidearms are usually commissioned directly by high-ranking Dzara personnel. No two are exactly alike in appearance, but as a rule, they are bulky and intimidating handguns.

These weapons have their origins in the ancient and widely-reviled MSD-32 models once produced by Merr-Sonn. True to form, it didn't take Helix long to reverse-engineer (and improve upon) the process after capturing a single museum-grade example.

As they are solely found amongst the Dzara's uppermost crust, no expense has been spared in these weapons' construction. Every millimeter is the result of delicate handcrafting, and every component has been meticulously picked for quality. Internal scanning and calculation software ensure that even a user unfamiliar with such weapons can strike targets precisely, and perhaps more importantly, these same systems ensure that the weapon is inoperable in the hands of any save the one it was made for.

What happens in the case of attempted unauthorized use may be selected by the owner. The weapon might simply fail to fire at all, or vent its internal battery's scathing heat over the thief's hands and body, or it might simply overload its internal reactor deliberately, engulfing the interloper in a small thermonuclear explosion.

The Firefly is hefty and overbuilt, enough so to be used as a club in close quarters. Indeed, it is likely that its designer had this in mind. If all else fails, its user may freely utilize it to bludgeon a foe to death, as the weapon is more than durable enough to withstand such abuse.

Much of the weapon's exterior departs from the usual alien architecture more commonly associated with Helix designs, featuring a deliberately-archaic layout. This includes such oddities as a hammer and what might appear to be a revolving chamber. While these might be mistaken as purely stylistic design choices, both do indeed have a purpose. Internally, however, the Firefly is as arcane and baffling as other Helix-designed implements. It appears to be at least partly organic in function, with pulsing miniature internal organs fusing with crystalline machinery of unknown purpose.

As with other weapons of this type, this renders reverse-engineering largely a lost cause. By all accounts, the Firefly functions on an elevated understanding of physical principles likely only comprehensible to its designer.

The Firefly is a disruptor weapon of sorts, albeit one of a terrifying and advanced nature that stretches the boundaries of what this family of weapons are capable of. Rather than traditional tibanna mixes utilized in blaster weaponry (and most disruptors) the Firefly utilizes unstable Otherplasma to generate much the same reaction, albeit at greater potency.

This follows a broader trend of Helix-designed weapons diverging almost entirely in nature and function from those found elsewhere, but also allows these weapons a massively-larger ammunition capacity when compared to traditional disruptors, at least in theory.

Most notably, and most unpleasantly, the Firefly typifies an incredibly lethal wounding potential similar to that once led to the MSD-32 being scrapped. Even a glancing impact can destabilize the target's molecular structure, inflicting a torturous death over the space of several minutes. Humanoids struck center-mass are likely to be disintegrated in a puff of fine ash, as is the hallmark of disruptors everywhere.

Worse still, the weapon features two additional firing modes, as though the primary were not dangerous enough.

The first of these allows the user to "lock on" to up to six targets simultaneously. The resultant bolt then splits after exiting the barrel, launching a flurry of smaller tracking bolts that follow their targets' movements.

These energy discharges' ability to seek their quarry makes them ideal for dealing with numerous or fast-moving opponents, though their commensurately-reduced lethality renders them somewhat unsuitable for harder targets. As with so much about the Firefly's function, how the energy bolts are able to identify and seek their targets remains unclear. It is theorized that the weapon's internal target-spotting/analyzing technologies somehow scan the target, and subsequently harmonize their molecular structure with the magnetic fields that contain each bolt, thus causing the projectile to be attracted to them.

While this mode can theoretically drop an entire squad of enemies at one time, utilizing it instantly puts the weapon into the later-mentioned cooldown state, as it charges and utilizes all six chambers at once.

The second, and by far the more dangerous, is an "overcharge" function, displayed as a bright-red series of segmented red light displays on top of the weapon's receiver. The user may hold the trigger down (for a maximum of five seconds), which gradually charges a much more powerful shot.

At full power, these massive bolts can potentially core an armored vehicle, turn armored internal ship bulkheads to ash, or bore a glowing tunnel straight through bedrock. Though comparatively slow-moving, infantry are extremely unlikely to survive contact with these overcharged shots, as they pack a punch more commonly associated with the heaviest of anti-vehicle weapons.

All told, anyone fortunate enough to own a Firefly may rest assured that it can tackle most varieties of threats, be they large and armored or small and numerous.

Due to the tremendous energies that its frame (barely) contains, the Firefly features a hardwired internal safety mechanism. When fired, one of its six focusing chambers is briefly rendered inoperable, requiring the user to rotate to the next. This functions (at least from an ergonomic standpoint) precisely the same as a slugthrower revolver.

These internal chambers may be rotated either manually (by pulling back the hammer) or in a "double-action" fashion by simply pulling the trigger again. In theory, the weapon may be fired as quickly as the user can pull the trigger. In practice, attempting to shoot again after firing six shots in quick succession will result in the weapon becoming briefly inoperable; it is possible for all six chambers to be in a cooldown state if the user fires too quickly.