Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a basic, slugthrower sidearm coupled with an ascension gun for lightside groups
- Image Source: here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
- Model: LPD-18 Stormburst Pistol
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Galactic Alliance, Closed-Market
- Modularity: Ammunition, threaded barrel attachments, upper and under picatinny rails
Production: Mass-Produced.
- Material: Durasteel barrel, Ceramisteel internal components and frame, Permex furniture, Magnatomic Grip Panel
- Classification: Slugthower Pistol / Ascension Gun
- Size: Small
- Weight: Light
- Ammunition Type: Slugs / Monofilament Cable
- Ammunition Capacity: 8 slugs / 2 lengths of Monofilament Cable
Reload Speed: Average
- Effective Range: Personal
- Rate of Fire: Average
- Stopping Power: High
- Recoil: High
- Slugthrower: The Stormburst is a roller locked delayed blowback firearm that uses conventional cartridges consisting of a projectile, propellant, and primer. This relatively simple design makes it exceptionally reliable in the field and uneffected by ion or EMP weapons.
- Picatinny Rails: The Stormburst features a pair of Picatinny rails on the top and bottom, which allow it to accept aftermarket attachments such as scopes, sights, and tactical lights.
- Threaded Barrel: Since the action does not require the barrel to move, the Stormburst's barrel is threaded and highly compatible with a wide variety of muzzle devices such as compensators, silencers, and flash hiders.
- Modular Slugs: As with many other conventional slugthrowers, there is a wide variety of ammunitions available for it, ranging from simple hollow-point ammunition and armor-piercing bullets to exotic explosive tipped rounds and acid-filled bullets.
- Ascension Gun: The Stormburst features a grappling spike launcher with a liquid monafilament cable reservoir mounted on top of the slugthrower itself. This feature is a close clone of the launcher found on the archaic S-5 Heavy Blaster Pistol.
- Heavy Hitting: The Stormburst fires a large 12mm caliber bullet at subsonic speeds, relying more on the mass of the bullet to provide "knock-down" power. The relatively large size of this bullet also means that specialty slugs have more room for their actual payload, making them more powerful than many of their smaller caliber counterparts.
- Modular: The Stormburst, like most slugthrowers, is a relatively adaptable weapon. Not only can it accept different types of ammunition, but the rails allow it to accept a variety of lights, scopes, and other devices according to the customer's wants. The threaded barrel similarly allows a variety of attachments such as silencers and compensators.
- Ascension Gun: The Stormburst features a grappling spike launcher with a liquid monafilament cable reservoir mounted on top of the slugthrower itself. This means it can be used like the S-5 Heavy Blaster Pistol to launch cable lines to ascend or transverse obstacles.
- Short Range: Relying on a relatively slow-moving and large bullet makes the Stormburst relatively short-ranged even compared to many other handguns, with an optimum range of thirty meters. Some shooters can compensate for the high drop by angling the pistol upwards, but it's not very reliable nor accurate.
- High Recoil: While the roller lock delayed blowback action makes the Stormburst exceptionally reliable and light for its size, it has also a high recoil impulse, making it difficult to control for some people, especially during rapid fire.
- Limited Ammunition Capacity: Using a large caliber bullet and confining the magazine to the grip means that the Stormburst can only carry up to eight rounds of ammunition.
The Stormburst was originally designed by Lucerne Personal Defense for a tender put out by the Morellian Enforcers looking to replace their highly effective but somewhat dated .48-caliber Enforcer Pistols. Unsurprisingly then, the Stormburst is a very similar weapon, known for its heavy hitting power and limited ammunition capacity. But what was attractive for the Morellian Enforcers has also proven to be attractive to other buyers as well, who tend to appreciate that the Stormburst seems easier to master and more user-friendly to modify and accessorize.
The secret to its first improvement to the Stomburst over the .48 Enforcer is a combination of the basic mechanical design of the firearm itself and its weaker ammunition. Using a roller lock delayed blowback action made the design lighter, easier to manufacture, and theoretically more accurate because the barrel is fixed. However, it still transmitted too much recoil back in .48 Enforcer to be a practical weapon for most people. Because of that, Lucerne Personal Defense designed a new cartridge more optimized to provide a more gentle and steady recoil impulse. This translated into a larger bullet moving at a slower, subsonic speed. This gives the weapon significant "knock-down" power at short ranges and a quick ballistic drop after typical engagement ranges. While this latter quality is disliked by older gunslingers, it also comes with the attribute of a larger bullet carrying more of a payload, which many users feel like compensates for the weapon's short range. The following are some of the more common loadings of 12mm Stormburst.
Full Metal Jacket: A simple solid slog of lead or other dense material covered in a thin jacket of copper. This is probably the most common and cheapest ammunition available for the Stormburst. It is reasonably effective against most person-sized targets.
Hollow-Point: Another common variety, the hollow-point is designed to rapidly expand in diameter when it hits a target. While this makes it inefficient at penetrating through personal armor, it also ensures peak performance in unarmored targets with a very little chance of overpenetration.
Explosive-Tipped: This is basically a hollow-point bullet whose internal cavity filled with detonite. When the bullet collides with the target or object, the kinetic impact detonates the detonite. Because of the shape of the metallic portion of this bullet, it actually acts as a micro-shaped charge, with the detonite being focused forward into the target. This ammunition, like its Galactic Civil War counterpart, is well-suited for penetrating through many body armors.
Stun Bullet: This round consists of lightly-constructed plastic shell that contains bothan stun spores. Upon impact, the spores either enter the body or can be inhaled by the target. Depending on the target, the effect can range from mild nausea and vomiting to unconsciousness.
Acid-Filled: At a glance, this appears to be a typical full metal jacket cartridge. However, the jacket of this round actually acts as a reservoir for Trifaraleen gas. If the bullet penetrates into the target, the gas will be released into the target itself to rapidly eat at tissue. Against impact against armor and other hard objects, the gas will rapidly corrode a portion of the impacted target before dissipating away.
It's not uncommon to hear of other custom loads for 12mm Stormburst that are hand-loaded by individual users and smaller vendors. While officially silent on the use of such third party ammunition, it's not uncommon to hear LPD salesmen reference such ammunition when a potential client or buyer is mulling over their options. Aside from selling to law enforcement agencies, security personnel and hunters, the Stormburst is also marketed towards militaries who are looking for something more adaptable than the standard blaster pistol. Despite any large military orders for the Stormburst, steady private sales almost ensure that the Stormburst will be long-time LPD catalog offering for sometime to come.
