Rusty
Purveyor of Fine Weaponry
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a heavy assault weapon for the First Order's Stormtrooper Corps
- Image Source
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Oxidation Industries
- Affiliation: First Order
- Market Status: Open Market
- Model: HAMWS Mk1
- Modularity: Yes
- Production: Limited
- Material: Modular weapons system components
- Classification: Heavy Assault Modular Weapons System
- Size: Average
- Weight: Heavy
- Ammunition Type: Proprietary 7x55mm cartridges
- Ammunition Capacity: Average
- Effective Range: Average
- Rate of Fire: Average
- Damage Output: Very High
- Recoil: High
- Excellent stopping power
- Ship Safe™ Technology
- Integrated Grenade Launcher
- HUD Integration
- Modularity
- POWEEEEEEERRRRR!: The HAMWS Mk1 hits like a truck in either blaster or slugthrower configuration. Although the armor penetration power is purposefully limited through the use of frangible rounds and unstable blaster bolts in order to prevent limit hull penetration, the kinetic/thermal transfer characteristics are top notch. Anyone hit by the HAMWS Mk1 is likely to feel it all the way in their soul.
- Ship Safe™ Technology- Both blaster and bullet are specially designed for use in environments where overpenetration is potentially fatal for all involved. The bullets are frangible, meaning, they're made out of a dense combination of powdered metals, bound together under heat and pressure into a cohesive projectile. When they strike something solid, like a bulkhead or hull plate, they revert into powder form in a fair approximation of an explosion. The same is true when they hit flesh, of course, the difference being that the end result is far from harmless. While they'll just scour the paint off a metal surface, the impact against a human torso is something akin to twenty grams of high explosives detonated inside the ribcage. The blaster bolts, meanwhile, are purposely designed with instability in mind, for more or less the same result. Ship Safe™ doesn't just mean the rounds won't penetrate the hull, it means that they'll render the target safe as well.
- HUD Integration: The HAMWS Mk1 incorporates telemetry sensors that convey a variety of useful information to a trooper's helmet HUD. Round count, point of aim, temperature warnings, and even point of impact on a zeroed weapon can all be easily displayed.
- Modularity: Like the MWS Mk1, the HAMWS Mk1 is designed with an eye towards modularity. Although not as endlessly adaptable, it can easily be swapped between blaster and slugthrower by virtue of swapping out the barrel and bolt carrier.
- Handful: Thanks to the increased weight and recoil, the HAMWS Mk1 is significantly more difficult to handle than the average battle rifle. Training and familiarity can reduce the encumbrance to something manageable, but make no mistake: any unit equipped with the HAMWS Mk1 will need to train incessantly to be effective with it.
- Penetration?: Ship Safe™ Technology is not without its limitations. Each round can smack the hell out of whatever they hit, but they're purposefully designed not to penetrate hardened surfaces. If someone with armor comes along, they'll need to be pummeled or roasted to death to be taken out of action.
- Accuracy: The HAMWS Mk1 is a close range brawler, most effective in the corridors and compartments of ships. As such, its accuracy at range is less than optimal. Attempts to use it on an open battlefield will leave the unit in question looking a whole lot like the stormtroopers of old, pumping round after round into a target they can't hope to hit.
- Depot Queen: The HAMWS Mk1 is a sturdy and reliable weapon. When it does break, however, it breaks hard. Anything that can't be fixed by remedial action is going to require a trip to the armorer.
The HAMWS Mk1 was commissioned for the exclusive use of the First Order's naval infantry, the Stormtrooper Corps. As such, it's a specialist's weapon, designed first and foremost to excel at shipboard combat.
Although the HAMWS Mk1 shares a similar design philosophy to the MWS Mk1, it has nearly no commonality in parts or ammunition. It uses a more robust long stroke gas piston system that sacrifices stability for durability and reliability. It uses larger rounds that are less accurate, but far more powerful. Rather than compact helical magazines, it uses chunky box magazines. In short, although it came from the same general place as its little cousin, it's an entirely different beast altogether.
What it does share is the ability to swap between blaster and slugthrower, depending on the mission at hand. The blaster barrel incorporates galven circuitry and uses a lighter bolt carrier group/buffer spring, while the slugthrower barrel is rifled and uses a heavy BCG and buffer. As mentioned earlier, the use of Ship Safe™ technology prevents it from hole punching bulkheads and external hull plating, at the cost of having difficulty in dealing with armored opponents. It does, however, excel at taking out lightly armored and unarmored personnel, and making a bloody mess in the process.
In order to streamline the loading process, the HAMWS Mk1 uses traditional box magazines that can be easily swapped out in the heat of battle. They're bulkier than average, thanks to the size of the rounds, but since Stormtroopers rarely have to hump their ammo up the side of a mountain to get to the fight, this was considered an acceptable tradeoff. As such, it's not uncommon to see troopers lugging around spare satchels of spares, regardless of the increased weight.
In order to sustain the heat generated by extended use in the middle of a heavy firefight, both barrels are much heavier than normal. The so called "bull barrels" are designed to soak up a great deal of thermal energy while still remaining mechanically stable in ways that lighter, more handy barrels simply can't be. Once a normal barrel starts glowing red hot, it's ruined. Once the barrel on a HAMWS Mk1 starts glowing, it gets a +5 modifier to melee damage. In other words, if you muzzle thump someone in the face, you can burn the hell out of them while you break their nose.
Make no mistake, this is a speacialist's weapon, designed to do one job and do it well. Take the HAMWS Mk1 out of its intended role and it will suffer. Use it as intended, and you've got a weapon in a league of its own.
