Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a small dart launcher in Lucerne Personal Defense's line-up
- Image Source: here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source:N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Jedi Order, Closed-Market
- Model: LPD-38 QuietNeedle Dartcaster
- Modularity: darts, aftermarket sights & scopes, etc; comes in pistol or armor-attachment form (gauntlet, shoulder, or knee hardpoints, etc)
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: permex frame and most internal components, ceraglass dart cylinder, miscellaneous dart gun components
- Classification: pneumatic dart gun
- Size: Small
- Weight: Light
- Ammunition Type: Darts / Compressed Air
- Ammunition Capacity: Very Small - 6 darts
- Effective Range: Personal
- Rate of Fire: High
- Stopping Power: Average
- Recoil: Average
- Pneumatic operation: Using pre-compressed air allows the QuietNeedle to live up to its name, being exceptionally quiet due to a subsonic round with only a slight , muffled 'pop' of air heard nearby the user when discharged. It is virtually noiseless outside of close proximity to the shooter. It also means that the base model does not rely on any electrical components to fire (If part of a battle armor, may use electrical-based trigger).
- Modular Payload: QuietNeedle can utilize a variety of different darts, from standard darts, to flechettes, and Kamino Saberdarts. The only requirement is that the dart be capable of fitting into the ceraglass cylinder and squeezing through its barrel.
- Modular Chassis: The QuietNeedle's base firing receiver can either be fitted into a gauntlet or attached to a separate pistol grip chassis.
- Nonmetal Construction: QuietNeedle uses very little metal in its construction, aside from some springs and valves. This typically makes it very difficult to detect with metal detectors and weapon scanners.
- Manual Pump Back-up: While QuietNeedle is designed to be used with precompressed air cartridges, it does have a small, thumb operated back-up pump with a one way valve that can refill the air reservoir in an emergency. This is usually takes some time to do, but is invaluable if one cannot carry another air cannister or if the spares are lost or used up.
- Stealthy Killer:The QuietNeedle Is a fairly small and light, which naturally lends itself to easy concealment. The largely nonmetallic nature of its construction also makes it difficult to detect on most sensors and weapon scanners. Its relatively quiet report also makes it ideal for hitting targets without nearby bystanders from realizing that someone or something was just shot.
- Modular: QuietNeedle has some modularity built into making it somewhat adaptable in use. It can be used and carried as either a pistol or a gauntlet weapon. It can also accept and use a wide variety of darts.
- High Rate of Fire: QuietNeedle has a relatively high rate of fire, as its firing mechanism is literally just a valve releasing air. The limiting factor of its rate of fire is actually how quickly the user can index the revolving cylinder, which is fairly quick for most users.
- Limited Ammunition Capacity: Using a revolving cylinder, while making the weapon relatively compact, also gives it a very low ammunition capacity.
- Slow Reload: QuietNeedle takes somewhat slower to load than many comparably sized pistols because it needs two things reloaded: The dart ammunition cylinder and the precompressed air reservoir.
- Limited Range: While very quiet, the QuietNeedle's compressed air also means that it has a relatively short range, typically measured in the dozens of meters depending on the terrain and circumstances.
Dart shooters are staple weapon of spies and bounty bounters. Lucerne Personal Defense had little interest in supplying either of those clienteles with weapons, but buckled under pressure from one of its majority share owners, Gir Quee, to produce such a weapon to equip Directorate spies and guerillas. Tresk Ek'ala was backed into this project with the understanding that it could serve as a back-up gauntlet weapon on the series of advanced power armors that the company was tooling up to the build. The resulting QuietNeedle takes a middle-ground approach between the two typical examples of dartcasters: short-range spring-powered weapons and more powerful, but louder, air-compressed versions.
As its name suggests, the QuietNeedle is a fairly quiet weapon whose report is often unnoticeable when fired among the everyday sounds of civilization or at any noticeable distance from the weapon. Unsurprisingly, the relatively low velocity of these darts to ensure that quietness also means that the kinetic impact of the darts is not terribly high – typically enough to pierce through normal skin, clothing, and some light armors. But the power of the weapon isn't in its kinetic energy, but the actual payload of the darts itself. While designed to accommodate a wide variety of dart designs (a spy or guerilla isn't likely to have many choices in acquiring ammunition), Lucerne Personal Defense does supply several standard payloads, which are often issued with the weapons initially. All of these darts initially appear to be copies of the famous Saberdart (which the QuietNeedle can also use).
Solid Flechette: A Mirrsteel flechette where the only damage it can inflict is kinetic. Probably the least powerful of ammunition, this is mainly used for practice purposes, but it also has the advantage in that the ammunition can be recovered and used almost indefinitely. If the dart is damaged, it usually doesn't much effort or tooling to fix it. Typically comparable to a small caliber slugthrower pistol in performance.
Electro-Dart: An electro-dart, used to temporary stun and paralyze targets, especially useful for self defense purposes. Other uses include nonlethal subduing in crowded areas or abducting personnel in covert operations.
Lecepanine: This dart is almost an exact copy of the Saberdart, but is loaded with Lecepanine, a strong chemical tranquilizer. Another favorite for users looking to capture their targets alive and unharmed.
FEX-EX: This dart is another exact copy of the Saberdart, but is loaded with the neurotoxin Fex-Ex, also known as Blue Harvest. Typically used for close-quarter assassinations or on the battlefield as a back-up weapon.
Banthazolate: This dart is almost an exact copy of the Saberdart, but is loaded with Banthazolate, a powerful hallucinogen. Commonly used by spies to create distractions or enable other means of disposing of targets (such as pushing the now confused target out of a window, etc).
Transponder: A transponder node dart, used to track targets in a close vicinity for several hours. This dart is significantly smaller than the other darts, making its attachment to the target to be less likely noticed.
Hollow: A hollow copy of the Saberdart, with the payload often created or collected by the end-user. Common payloads include industrial acids (to sabotage items like security cameras) or custom poisons, such as xenotoxins.
The QuietNeedle is not a well-advertised item in the Lucerne Personal Defense catalogue. Even when found, the only ammunition listed for its use are the Mirrsteel Flechettes and the electro-dart in order to fit with its alleged role as a “last-ditch self-defense weapon” on worlds with stringent blaster and firearms controls. However, it is almost an open secret that the weapon is widely compatible with other dart types. The QuietNeedle mostly finds its home with spies and guerilla allies of the Directorate and that organization's allies. It does see some use as a back-up gauntlet weapon, especially in battle armors, where it frequently is equipped with special chemical payloads based on likely scenarios or opponents.
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