Lucerne Personal Defense Thread

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• 
  Intent: To provide a set of basic power armor in Lucerne Personal Defense's line-up
  
• 
  Image Source: Star Citizen Power Armor
  
• 
  Canon Link: N/A
  
• 
  Restricted Missions: N/A
  
• 
  Primary Source: N/A
  

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• 
  Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
  
• 
  Model: Gundark-class Power Armor
  
• 
  Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
  
• 
  Modularity: Yes
  
• 
  Production: Minor Production
  
• 
  Material: Armorweave, Insulfiber, Duraplast, Plasteel, Laminasteel, Beskar exoskeleton frame, servomotors, Repulsorlift, Ceraglass faceplate, Biolux-series Organoform Circuitry
  

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• 
  Classification: Multi-purpose Heavy Armor
  
• 
  Weight: Very Heavy
  
• 
  Resistances
  

- Blasters (And other plasma type weapons): High
- Kinetic: High
- Lightsabers: Low
- Environmental: Average
- EMP/Ion: High

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Power Armor: Gundark uses an skeletal frame composed beskar which is joined together by servomotors that are fed by the suit's power supply. This provides the user with between two to three times their normal physical strength. While this is not as powerful as many power armors, Gundark partially compensates for this by focusing on retaining much of the user's natural grace and agility. Gundark's onboard computer is designed to learn their user's typical movement patterns, making the suit much more responsive and instinctive to use than many of its counterparts. This also makes the suit smaller and lighter, making it easier to use when unpowered or in certain environments.
  
• 
  Repulsorlift: Like The older AV-1A, the Gundark incorporates a built-in repulsorlift to help lighten the armor's load. It also can slowly allow the Gundark to rise and fly up to a 1 kilometer in altitude. Many users also use this repulsorlift as a braking device when deploying from flying vehicles and starships. It also can be used as an aid to move through waters and other liquids.
  
• 
  Composite Construction: Gundark uses a set of composite plates that integrally attached to power armor's beskar exoskeleton. Each plate is constructed using a standardized process designed to maximize the effectiveness of each individual material within the armor. Each plate consists of a laminasteel lattice which holds several duraplast inserts which may be hollow to allow circuitry and wiring to run through. This unit is this placed in mold into which molten plasteel is poured under intense pressure to form the remaining bulk of this plate. The laminasteel wire frame essentially works like miniaturized slat armor, making it useful against against small explosive projectiles, melee weapons, and slugs. Additionally, it can act as a farraday cage for components integrated into the armor plate itself. However, most of the EMP/Ion protection afforded by the armor is the results of the duraplast inserts, which provide most of the overall protection afforded by the armor. The outer covering of plasteel provides additional resistance to the armor, especially to heat based weapons such as blaster rifles. The bodyglove uses a blend of armorweave and insulfiber to provide a base layer to help reduce damage that penetrates through the plates and to insulate the wearer from the environment.
  
• 
  NiteSite/TIN Network HUD: Gundark uses an integrated NiteSite-based HUD systemhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/NiteSite_infrared_motion_sensor, providing users with zoom capability, low level vision, and integrated targeting capability that is especially useful with the suit's vambrace-mounted devices. Gundarks can be linked to each other and relay real time information to each other in a form of a Target Identification Network first pioneered on assassin droids. This provides users with an unusual situational awareness and additional sensor/targeting information that might not be immediately available through the helmet's own sensors because of either range or obstacles.
  
• 
  Modular Vambrace Hardpoint: Both of the Gundark's vambraces are designed with mounting recess that allow it to integrate a single small weapon (typically any pistol-grade weapon) or small device. Typical weapons that can be added include a MM9 Wrist Rocket Launcherhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/MM9_rocket_system, Dur-24 wrist laser, and ZX miniature flame projector. Commonly used devices include the Repulsor Grappling Gun, fusion cutter, and Magnaforce security shield. Each mounting point includes power socket and a datalink, allowing the device to not only be powered by the suit, but be fully integrated into the suit's HUD system as well.
  Modular Backplate: Gundark's backplate has modular fittings and power couplings that allow it to accept and integrate off the shelf equipment such as jetpacks, rucksacks, personal shield generators, and other like devices.
  
• 
  Redundant Powercells: The Gundark has an octet of power cells encased in armored compartments on the armor's back. They not only provide power for the basic functions of the suit, but also can provide power for any devices attached to the suit. These power cells can be changed out in the field with assistance.
  
• 
  Basic Environmental Protection: Like many common battle armors such as stormtrooper armor, Gundark provides limited protection from hostile environments. Each suit is vacuum proof and provides some insulation through the use of the base insulfiber-armorweave body glove. Gundark armor also incorporates air filtering through an atmosphere processorhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Atmosphere_processor as well as a 40 minute atmosphere supply, allowing troopers to operate for a limited time in hazardous atmospheres or in a complete lack of breathable atmosphere.
  
• 
  Integrated HUSH-98 Comlinkhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hush-98_comlink/Legends: This comlink is integrated into the helmet in a manner similar to comlinks found in stormtrooper helmets.
  

Strengths:

• 
  Enhanced Performance: Gundark notably increases the strength of the user, making the user significantly stronger than they would be otherwise.
  
• 
  Fortified: Gundark has been designed to be particularly resistant to some of the more widely used weapons on the battlefield: blasters and slugthrowers. The suit is also designed to be ion and EMP hardened, allowing it to operate effectively on worlds like Moorja which are wracked by electromagnetic storms or against opponents who widely use EMP or ion weapons. This same protection also provides protection to users of the suit who may be vulnerable to Ion/EMP weapons, such as droids or cyborgs.
  
  
• 
  Modular: Gundark builds off of the Anakkona's penchant for modularity, specifically incorporating a pair of modular hard points on either vambrace to integrate small weapons and devices as well as a hard point on the back to mount larger devices such as jetpacks or shield generators.
  
  
• 
  Target Identification Network(TIN): Gundark is specifically designed to work in numbers, where multiple suits can provide different vantage points to provide more comprehensive views and awareness of the environment to users. Not only does this provide information that might not be readily be apparent from a certain vantage point, but it also serves as a back-up in case one of the Gundark's sensors is damaged.
  

Weaknesses:

• 
  Bulk: While less bulky than many power armors, Gundark is still bulky enough the natural speed and dexterity of most users is more limited than it would be if they weren't wearing the armor.
  
• 
  Weakpoints: Gundark has several weak points. The ceraglass faceplate, while capable against many low-powered weapons, is particularly vulnerable to most rifle-grade weapons compared to the rest of the armor. Many of the inner-facing joints, such as the cubital fossa, are also only protected by the body glove. The popliteal fossa is similarly ill-protected.
  
• 
  Broadcasted: Using the TIN means that the suit is constantly transmitting, making the suit and its wearer easy to locate with the right equipment. It can also be jammed by communication's jammers, which effectively removes the advantage posed by the TIN.
  
  

DESCRIPTION
Gundark Power Armor is Lucerne Personal Defense's entry into the power armor market. Loosely based on the concepts of the older AV-1A Assault Armor, Gundark is designed to be more of a minimalist set of power armor with instinctive features that would not require a lot of extra training for end-users to use. Lucerne Personal Defense accomplishes this though an intuitive HUD system and an onboard computer that learns its user's movement patterns to improve response times. The physical elements of the suit itself help as well. Being relatively lightweight for a set of power armor because of its lack of bulk and repulsorlift system, most users barely notice a drop in their physical running speed. Unlike some old power suits like the AV-1A which require a lot special training to use, the Gundark's other basic systems are actually common battle armor features such as a HUD system, modular mounting hardpoints, an integrated comlink, and basic environmental systems.

The base layer of Gundark is a blended insulfiber-armorweave body glove, which primarily acts as a secondary armor layer to reduce the damage wrought by attacks which pierce through the main armor plating as well as provide cushioning for the body in the case of falls and other physical impacts. The body glove also acts as basic insulation for the wearer against temperature variance, though it is not as capable as dedicated environmental suits. A beskar exoskeleton frame then acts as an is then linked to t this body-suit by magno-clasps. This frame is then covered in laminated composite laminasteel/duraplast/plasteel plates which provide the bulk of the suit's protection against most battlefield threats. Its unusual construction provides the wearer with good protection against blasters, slugthrowers, and ion weapons. This protection is somewhat less than that afforded by the AV-1A, but is certainly step over common battle armors like the older Katarn series armor worn by Clone Commandos or lower grade Mandalorian battle armor. This durability comes with some bulk, but the powered exoskeleton combined with use of a repulsorlift largely removes much of the basic encumbrance for a suit of its weight. Even without these systems, users can walk around in the suit, though they will find their movement speed noticeably slower and producing great fatigue during extended use. But users find that the suit has more to offer than just its protection and enhanced strength.

The most obvious of these other benefits is the inclusion of the NiteSite Infrared and HUD system into the suit's helmet. On its own, the Nitesite provides enhanced visual acuity, including in low-light conditions, motion sensors, polarizing lenses, and a targeting computer that can be directly linked to the user's weapons. This makes it largely comparable to the MFTAS found on stormtrooper armor. Looking to gain an advantage in that field, LPD revisited the TIN concept pioneered by assassin droids and popularized by the Floating Fortress. The LPD version links multiple NiteSite units over the armor's integrated comlink, allowing the HUD to display data and feed gathered by other nearby users (typically members of the same squad). This allows increased awareness surroundings in spite of obstacles or a lack of range. It also can provide auxiliary targeting information if the user's own sensors are damaged. Perhaps the armor's second most popular feature is the inclusion of a pair of vambrace hardpoints, complete with their own datalinks and power sockets. These hardpoints provide users with some versatility in outfitting their suits for particular mission requirements. It's not unheard of to see an armor equipped with wrist rockets and wrist lasers for an assault mission, only to see the loadout be changed later on to a grappling gun and a plasma cutter to explore the wreckage of a starship later on. The armor's backplate is similarly modular, allowing the armor to integrate several larger devices, such as jetpacks, rucksacks, or larger personal shield generators including Lucerne Personal Defense's own Myntor Personal Shield. While the gauntlet hardpoints are typically plug and play, it typically takes a little more tinkering to properly integrate the controls of the backpack device to the suite's HUD system.

As a relatively basic set of power armor, Lucerne Personal Defense is aiming for the low-cost end of the market, particularly governments and private military contract companies where quantity and cost are higher priorities than the latest bells and whistles. Unsurprisingly, one of the first adoptors of the Gundark has been the Directorate, who has started to issue the suit to many of its marine assault teams for use in boarding actions.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Intent: To provide a sonic pistol in Lucerne Personal Defense's inventory
Image Source: here
Canon Link: N/A
Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Model: LPD-22 Furor Sonic Pistol
Modularity: Upper and Lower Picatinny Rails, "B" version removes sonic disruptor setting
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel frame, Permex Furniture, sonic pistol components

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Sonic Pistol
Size: Small
Weight: Light

	Sonic Pistol Mode	Wave Stunner Mode	Sonic Disruptor mode
Ammunition Capacity	40	120	10
Reload Speed	Average	Average	Average
Effective Range	Personal (30 meters)	Personal (60 meters)	Personal (20 meters)
Rate of Fire	Average	Very High	Very Low
Stopping Power	Average	Low	Very High
Recoil	Low	Very Low	High

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Sonic Pistol: The Furor is a sonic weapon, which fires compressed bolts of high-intensity sound, or alternatively can act as a nonlethal stun weapon by emitting a high-pitched cone of wailing noise that can cause disorientation or a loss of consciousness.

• Variable Fire Modes: The sonic projector in the Furor can have its output frequency altered, allowing the Furor to produce a variety of sounds, from typical compressed sonic bolts to area of affect sonic stun waves to tightly compressed and highly energized sonic disruptor bolts.

• Picatinny Rails: The Furor 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.

Strengths:

• Exotic: While not any more powerful than the typical blaster pistol, the Furor's exotic nature grants it a number of small advantages compared to typical blasters, such as improved performance within water and other liquids and an inability to be blocked by most lightsabers.
• Variable Fire Modes: The Furor's output frequency and pulse can easily have its settings changed, allowing it to fulfill the roles of a typical sonic pistol, wide beam sonic stunner, and sonic disruptor with the turn of a dial.
• Heavy Damage (Disruptor mode): In the disruptor mode, the Furor can inflict an incredible amount of damage as it breaks down materials at the molecular level. This makes it unusually powerful for its size and well suited to damaging or destroying heavy targets.
• High Rate of Fire (Stunner Mode): In stunner mode, the Furor produces almost constant pulses of sound, giving little respite to those the user is trying to subdue.

Weaknesses:

• Short Range: The Furor, like most sonic weapons, has a relatively short range in all of its fire modes.​

• Vacuum: The Furor is entirely useless in vacuum, as its sound waves cannot effectively in this medium. This makes it fairly unpopular for space-going users such as pilots and spacetroopers, who have the distinct possibility of having to use a weapon in that environment.
• Slow Rate of Fire (Disruptor Mode): While incredible powerful in disruptor mode, like most disruptors, it also has a very low rate of fire combined with little ammunition capacity and a very short range. This makes this mode of limited utility during extended fights.
• Low Damage (Stunner Mode): While in stunner mode, the Furor is not supposed to inflict damage, it is relatively low-powered for a stun weapon, often taking several seconds to take full effect whereas a typical stun blaster may only take a second. This is partially offset by the Furor's ability to affect multiple targets at once.

DESCRIPTION

The Furor is Lucerne Personal Defense's first foray into the sonic weaponry market. While broadly comparable in basic performance to typical blaster pistols in its traditional fire mode, LPD focused heavily developing the Furor's ability to modulate its sonic projector. This allows end users to change the intensity and the frequency of the weapon's sonic waves, which in turn allows it to produce effects similar to already existing sonic weapons. This allows the Furor to take the place of those weapons with just the adjustment of a dial.

The Wide beam sonic stunner was prioritized first, taking developmental cues not only from the ancient Juggernaut War Droid's weapon, but also the more modern and advanced Sil-50. In this setting, the Furor produces a cone of low-frequency disorienting sound that disrupt people's equilibrium or knock them unconscious. This cone is approximately half a meter wide at around three meters from the barrel, and up to five meters wide at its maximum effective range of sixty meters. Other common effects include nausea, dizziness, disorientation, and short term memory loss. The nature of this area of effect makes it particularly useful for law enforcement officers as a riot control weapon, because it does not permanently harm its targets and disrupts large groups of targets at a time. Pest Hunters and wild life control specialists also found it useful because it reduces collateral damage to a minimum while the area of effect nature of the weapon means that it does not need direct hits against agile and fast moving targets.

The sonic disruptor takes the opposite approach of the stunner, producing extremely narrowly focused, high frequency waves in a single, highly energized bolt. When this bolt hits a target, the intense vibrations contained within the bolt reverberate into and inside the target, which can cause significant molecular disruption. In practical effects, the effects of the Furor in this mode are almost indistinguishable from a typical energy-based disruptor pistol. Though the Furor packs impressive power in this mode, it is also extremely short-ranged and packs a long recharge time between shots. Combined with the potential catastrophic effects of a missed shot, most adopting organizations rarely encourage using this mode. However, this mode is exceptionally useful when facing large, heavily shielded or armored targets or when trying to demolish formidable barriers.

Given the controversial ethics of using disruptor-based weaponry on many worlds, Lucerne Personal Defense is extremely careful and limited in who they sell the mainline Furor too. Consequently, the vast majority of sales have been to military and police units where the legal issues can be dealt with fairly straightforward. For civilian users and more limited markets, Lucerne Defense does sell a LPD-22B, which does not have the disruptor setting, but is otherwise the same weapon. This version is particularly popular on water worlds and worlds where regulations are conventional blasters are more strict.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a slugthrower submachine gun in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-23 Firespike Submachine Gun
• Modularity: Ammunition, barrel attachments
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Durasteel Barrel and receiver, ceramisteel internal components, Permex furniture, Magnatomic Grip Panels

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Slugthrower submachine gun
• Size: Small
• Weight: Light
• Ammunition Type: Slugs
• Ammunition Capacity: 40 slugs per magazine
• 
  Reload Speed: Average
  
• Effective Range: Personal
• Rate of Fire: High
• Stopping Power: Average
• Recoil: Average

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Slugthrower: The Firespike is an advanced primer ignition blowback operated firearm that uses conventional cartridges consisting of a projectile, propellant, and primer. This relatively simple design makes it exceptionally reliable in the field and unaffected by ion or EMP weapons.
  
• 
  Threaded Barrel: Since the action does not require the barrel to move, the Firespike'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.
  
• 
  Variable Rate of Fire: Firespike has an ambidextrous selector level, which unusually does not have specific set fire rates, but allows users to adjust the rate of fire based on how high or low they set the selector lever at. The lower the selector level is, the lower the rate of fire. This allows users to easily select semi-automatic or low burst fire for precise and easily controlled attacks, or select a high rate of fire for inaccurate sprays of fire for dealing with multiple enemies or suppressing fire.
  

Strengths:

• High Rate of Fire: While the Firespike's 12mm round is nothing to sneeze at, the Firespike's real strength is its fairly high rate of fire that can overwhelm enemies by its sheer volume of fire.
• Modular: The Firespike, like most slugthrowers, is a relatively adaptable weapon. Not only can it accept different types of ammunition, but the threaded barrel similarly allows a variety of attachments such as silencers and compensators to be added as well. The stock is also adjustable for length of pull, allowing it to be easily adapted to different people's ergonomics or for ease of storage.

Weaknesses:

• Short Range: Relying on a relatively slow-moving and large bullet makes the Firespike relatively short-ranged even compared to many other submachine guns, with an optimum range of forty five meters. Some shooters can compensate for the high drop by angling the gun upwards, but it's not very reliable nor accurate.
• Simplistic Sights: The Firespike only comes with a fairly basic sight set-up that is only drift-adjustable with a punch and hammer, which is not the sort of operation that one wants to conduct on the battlefield. In addition, no provision has been made to allow the sights to be upgraded or augmented by a scope in order to reduce production costs for the weapon.

DESCRIPTION
The LPD-23 Firespike Submachine Gun is a close-quarters weapon designed to use the 12mm Stormburst round originally designed for the pistol of the same name. By using an existing cartridge, Lucerne Personal Defense hopes to make both guns more marketable to organizations as they would share a common ammunition supply despite fulfilling different roles. To that end, LPD focused on obtaining a controllable but high rate of fire with the Firespike, which was accomplished through using an API operating system along with an inline design to reduce perceived recoil by directing the recoil impulse more towards the center of the shooter. Aiding this design philosophy is the addition of an ambidextrous rate of fire selector that allows users to experiment with setting a rate of fire that is just right for them by using a rate reducer. This allows users to set the gun's rate of fire to the highest level that they are able to comfortably control.

The design of the 12mm Stormburst cartridge itself is specifically designed for ease of control, which aids this design philosophy because it has a more gentle and steady recoil impulse than many of its counterparts. 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 close quarters 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 Firespike. 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, which makes it a common choice for police and marine units which are concerned about damaging bystanders or their surroundings.

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 and droid armors.

Stun Bullet: This round consists of lightly-constructed, sublethal 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.

As with most submachine guns, the Firespike is bested in close-quarters combat, such as in urban areas or inside of starships. This niche makes it common as a police and marine weapon, where its lack of range is not an issue but its high rate of fire is useful when dealing with numerous enemies. Additionally, 12mm Stormburst's subsonic nature and the Firespike's ease of accepting silencers because of its threaded barrel makes it an easily silenced weapon, which has lead to its use for more covert operations by commandos and counter terrorist organizations. These same qualities have made it an attractive weapon to criminal elements, though none have been acquired in significant numbers by crime groups.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Intent: To provide a dual-purpose grenade in Lucerne Personal Defense's inventory
Image Source: here
Canon Link: N/A
Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Model: LPD-24 Fireblast Dual Purpose Grenade
Modularity: None
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel sheel, Detonite priming charge, Baradium Nitrate - Thermite primary charge core, Instant Adhesive bottom, typical grenade components

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Hand Grenade
Size: Small
Weight: Light
Ammunition Type: explosive
Ammunition Capacity: 1 charge
Reload Speed: Average
Effective Range: Average
Rate of Fire: Average
Stopping Power: High
Recoil: None

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Variable Timer: Rotating the red ring around the top of the grenade sets a mechanical timer,with the lowest settable time being 5 seconds, and the highest being 15 minutes. This allows the grenade to be used for immediate tactical use or be set as part of a demolition project. The grenade can have a timer set but NOT activated by keeping the grenade's safety pin in place. Once the pin is removed (by hand, tripwire, etc), the timer countdown starts.
• Dual Core Charge: The Fireblast's uses a two distinct substances in separate compartments: liquid baradium nitrate and a thermite powder. These substances can be ignited in their separate compartments, or can be ignited as a combined mixture. Sliding the button on top of the grenade allows these compartments to connect so that they can be mixed. When ignited separately, the baradium nitrate core detonates, shredding the grenade's shell and casting out now flaming thermite powder and durasteel shrapnel around it. This makes it act as a typical fragmentation grenade, with a large blast radius but reduced overall damage. When mixed, however, the grenade produces much more heat when detonated, effectively turning it into a high explosive concussion grenade, giving it greater damage potential in a smaller blast radius.
• Adhesive Bottom: The bottom cap of the LPD-24 can be screwed off to reveal a pad covered in instant adhesive, which allows the grenade to be solidly attached to a variety of objects.

Strengths:

• Jack of all Trades: The LPD-24 can be adapted to fulfill the roles of several common grenade and demolition types simply by using its built-in controls.

Weaknesses:

• Master of None: The Fireblast is not particularly good in any of it roles compared to dedicated or specialized grenades. Most fragmentation grenades produce more shrapnel than it, and most high-explosive grenades such as thermal detonators pack more power than it.

DESCRIPTION
Grenades are a mainstay in most armies because they offer a means for soldiers to carry heavy, indirect firepower in a lightweight and compact package. The LPD-24 is designed to fulfill that basic role but simplify logistics by combining the typical defensive (fragmentation) and offensive (high explosive) grenade into a single package.

Lucerne Personal Defense accomplishes this by using a dual material core composed of Baradium Nitrate and Thermite. Each can react separately of each other in response to the priming charge to form a basic fragmentation grenade. This setting is typically employed in close-quarters against enemy personnel, where high velocity durasteel shrapnel can pierce through armor and flesh while burning Thermite can ignite clothing and flammable objects. Alternatively, sliding the button on the top of the grenade allows the liquid Baradium Nitrate and Thermite powder to mix and a form a mixture that produces a more powerful explosive yield but with a more limited blast radius. This setting is more useful in demolition projects or in attacking armored targets such as vehicles or buildings.

The versatility of this dual-core is brought to full fruition by using a variable mechanical timer. Turning the red twist and plunge dial on the top easily allows users to adjust the detonation time from a mere five seconds to fifteen minutes. The shorter time fuses are most often used in traditional fragmentation role, where targets need to be immediately attacked or rooms cleared, whereas the longer time fuse is most often used in demolition work in the high explosive mode. This versatility is further augmented by incorporating a sticky base of instant adhesive on the bottom of the grenade that can be activated by unscrewing the grenade's base plate. While often used for high-explosive demolition work, some creative users have also found situations where it is beneficial for a fragmentation grenade, such as when setting booby traps.

While Lucerne Personal Defense has banked a lot of the grenade's success on being adaptable to different situations, it remains to be seen if it will actually reach that success. Part of this problem stems from the grenade's jack of all trades nature, which also means that it is not as effective as more dedicated grenade types. The other issue is the grenade's relative complex controls compared to many of its peers. Using the LPD-24 requires more time initially training personnel and the controls are more likely to be fudged or inappropriately used in stressful situations. Still, the Fireblast has seen modest and steady sales to organizations where users appreciate having options available to them on a frequent chaotic and ever evolving battlefield.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a slugthrower sniper rifle in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-25 Quickstrike Sniper Rifle
• Modularity: Ammunition, barrel attachments, scopes
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Durasteel Barrel and receiver, ceramisteel internal components, Permex furniture, Mono-Filament trace-wire feeder, Magnatomic Grip Panels

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Slugthrower sniper rifle
• Size: Average
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Slugs
• Ammunition Capacity: 10
• 
  Reload Speed: Slow
  
• Effective Range: Battlefield
• Rate of Fire: Average
• Stopping Power: Very High
• Recoil: High (Very High when operated as a manual bolt-action rifle)

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Slugthrower: The Quickstrike is a conventional gas-operated slugthrower using a gas-piston and a seven lugged rotating bolt assembly, meaning that it does not need any electronics to run. The gas port can be dialed to better work with different propellant charges. The gas operation can also be disconnected, allowing it to work as a straight-pull bolt action. While this produces heavier felt recoil, it is also notably quieter in this mode.
  
• 
  Accurized: The Quickstrike uses a number of inherent design features designed to increase its accuracy, including a free-floating barrel, built-in bipod, and adjustable match-grade trigger.
  
• 
  Threaded Barrel: Since the action does not require the barrel to move, the Quickstrike's barrel is threaded and highly compatible with a wide variety of muzzle devices such as compensators, silencers, and flash hiders.
  
• 
  Big Bore: The Quikstrike uses a proprietary cartridge, the 10 x 65mm Quickstrike Magnum, which is a big bore, but high velocity round with a relatively flat trajectory well-suited for taking down armored individuals or large, dangerous game animals. Its power is just less than that of many anti-material rifles.
  
• 
  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.
  
• 
  Mono-Filament trace-wire guided projectiles as pioneered by the HB-4 Projectile Rifle
  

Strengths:

• High Powered: The Quickstrike fires a 20 gram bullet at roughly 900 meters a second, giving it a high amount of kinetic punch when fired, making it well-suited for taking down most individualized targets with a single, clean shot.
• Long Range: The Quickstrike fires a magnum-grade rifle cartridge, meaning that the fired bullet has enough velocity quickly cover long ranges in a matter of seconds.
• Modular: The Quickstrike, like most slugthrowers, is a relatively adaptable weapon. Not only can it accept different types of ammunition, but the threaded barrel similarly allows a variety of attachments such as silencers and compensators to be added as well. The rifle uses a top picatinny rail and modular handguard mounting system to allow it to use a variety of off the shelf scopes, sights, and other devices with little to no adaptation by the end user.
• Fly-by-Wire: When used in a manual bolt-action mode (but not semi-automatic), the Quickstrike can use a built-in Mono-Filament trace-wire feeder which attaches to bullets as the bolt locks into the chamber. This allows the user to control the bullet in-flight by 'painting' the target with the rifle's sights or scope reticle. This makes the rifle more effective at tracking moving targets or avoiding obstacles in the bullet's path.

Weaknesses:

• Small Magazine: Using large cartridges means that the magazine only carries a small number of them.
• High Recoil: The Quickstrike's high power also means that it has a high amount of recoil, especially when the weapon is manually operated as a bolt action.
• Slow Reload: The Quickstrike takes longer to load than many handheld weapons. However, it's not a matter of inserting the weapon's magazine but rather charging its large and heavy bolt against a stiff buffer spring.
• New School, Old School: While the fly-by-wire can offer improved accuracy against certain targets in certain situations, it also brings back the some of the traditional rifle's worse features, including a greatly reduced rate of fire and higher perceived recoil.

DESCRIPTION
The LPD-25 Quickstrike Sniper Rifle is a fairly conventional semi-automatic slugthrower design which uses a proprietary magnum rifle cartridge to deliver accurate and hard-hitting firepower to effectively take down targets from long ranges. LPD started with a basic gas-operated action using a gas piston and rotating seven lugged bolt and combined it with several basic accurizing features such as a free-floated barrel, adjustable trigger, and built-in bipod. Combined with a hard-hitting cartridge with a flat trajectory, this would have made the Quickstrike a competitive but relatively lackluster rifle on the galactic market. Seeking to get an edge on their competition, Lucerne Labs turned to the little known HB-4 Projectile Rifle and adopted the mono-filament trace wire system, which allows users to guide bullets while in flight by painting the target with the rifle's sights or scope. Unfortunately, they were unable to get this system to work in the rifle's semi-automatic rifle mode, but when switched to manual repeating mode as a traditional bolt-action rifle, they were able to get the trace wire to feed from its compartment within stock and attach to the exposed bullet. As the bullet slides into the chamber, a special recess applies a micro-repulsor chip (to allow the bullet to physically adjust course) which is then connected by the mono-filament trace-wire to the rifle itself.

The 10 x 65mm Quickstrike Magnum cartridge itself is both a large bore and high velocity round, which provides the end user with plenty of knock down power. While its recoil is fairly harsh, it also has a relatively flat trajectory, meaning that effectively using this weapon is not necessarily a matter of pure ballistic skill, but also in the strength of managing the rifle's recoil. This recoil is reduced by using the weapon's semi-automatic gas operation, but is more significant in the manual bolt-action mode needed to use the mono-filament trace wire. But even without that mode, the Quickstrike Magnum is an effective round simply by ballistic design. It's relatively large case means that a wide variety of bullet weights and shapes can be applied with a variety of powder loads, meaning that the specific loadings can be easily made to the likings of different users or for special applications. While many users handload their ammunition or use third-party ammunition suppliers, Lucerne Personal Defense offers several factory ammunition types based on its previous slugthrower designs. None of these cartridges vary in terms of payload size or propellant charge, but only in the content of the bullet itself.

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 Quickstrike. It can often eliminate most soft targets within a single, well-placed shot.

Soft-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, which makes it a common choice for police and counter-terrorism units which are concerned about damaging bystanders or their surroundings.

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 is commonly used to defeat targets wearing high-grade battle armor or those hiding behind barriers.

Stun Bullet: This round consists of lightly-constructed, sublethal 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. Sometimes used by commandoes and other special forces to surreptitiously subdue targets at range for live capture.

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. Often used to quietly disable security devices such as holo-cameras and locks.

As with most sniper rifles, the Quickstrike is best used in for long-range combat, especially with ambush and overwatch tactics. Most users have their own preferred scopes, suppressors, and bipods which they customize the rifle with not only for themselves, but for the mission and environment itself. This means that few Quickstrike rifles in actual service are entirely interchangeable units, and most users need some time to adjust to these modified rifles before they can effectively use them, but few contend that such modified weapons aren't effective in that specific role. While intended for long-range operations, the Quickstrikes can be pressed into short-ranged combat with little difficulty, though the operator is advised that he should make every shot count if forced into this situation. Because of this, most operators carry a secondary small weapon such as a pistol to defend themselves in such situations. Quickstrikes are commonly found on the platoon level of many ISAF associated militaries and allied groups, where they are frequently issued to designated marksmen and snipers. Another large user of Quickstrikes are big game hunters, who use the power and range of the Quickstrike to bring down skittish prey and dangerous predators that can be difficult to encounter close up.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a multipurpose microwave-based weapon in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: inspired by Active Denial System, Vigilant Eagle

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-26 Sunburst DMW (Direct Microwave Weapon)
• Modularity: None
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Durasteel casing, electronics, Permex furniture, Magnatomic Grip Panels

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Direct Microwave Weapon
• Size: Large
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Power pack
• [tr] [th][/th] [th]Microwave Rifle Mode[/th] [th]Electronic Disruptor Mode[/th] [th]Crowd Control mode[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ammunition Capacity[/td] [td] 100 [/td] [td] 20 [/td] [td] 50 [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reload Speed[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Average[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Effective Range[/td] [td]Personal (50 meters)[/td] [td]Personal (100 meters)[/td] [td]Personal (75 meters)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Rate of Fire[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Very Low[/td] [td]Very High[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Stopping Power[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Very High[/td] [td]Low[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Recoil[/td] [td]Low[/td] [td]High[/td] [td]Low[/td] [/tr]
  
  
  

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Upper Picatinny Rail: This rail allows the Sunburst to accept a variety of aftermarket scopes, sights, and other attachments.
  
• 
  Variable Fire Modes: The Sunburst can fire different frequencies of microwave radiation, some even simultaneously, which allows the Sunburst to fulfill a variety of weapons roles.
  

Strengths:

• Variable Fire Modes: The Sunburst can fire different frequencies of microwave radiation, some even concurrently, which allows the Heatwave to fulfill a variety of weapons roles.
• High Rate of Fire (Crowd Control Mode): When on the crowd control mode, the Sunburst can be fired almost continuously in a wide cone-shaped area, allowing it to effectively disrupt large groups of people through experiencing an intense sensation of burning up.
• Magnum Stopping Power (Electronic Disruptor mode): In Electronic Disruptor mode, the Sunburst condenses and fires several short bursts of differing microwave radiation over the period of around 5 seconds. Unlike ion weapons, this mode doesn't attempt to fry circuits, but it actually inserts extra electrical signals into enemy electronics to scramble them. This causes the electronics to malfunction and the target may possibly injure itself in the process.

Weaknesses:

• Short Range: Microwave radiation has a short range before it disperses because of its short wave length, which means that any of its settings are shorter-ranged than most conventional weapons.
• Nonlethal (Crowd Control Mode): The microwave radiation produced in crowd control mode only produces very low amounts of damage because it only penetrate and 'microwave' the first 1mm of being's internals. This very seldom causes anything more than an incapacitating burning sensation, and particularly strong-willed or unusually shielded individuals may be entirely unaffected by it.
• Slow rate of Fire (Electronic Disruptor mode): Because it fires a mixture of different microwave radiation, the Sunburst consumes a lot of power in each burst of fire and also requires a noticeable cooling cycle before it can fire again. This means that the Sunburst has a noticeably slower rate of fire in this mode.

DESCRIPTION
The LPD-26 Sunburst is a direct microwave energy weapon, which can fire a variety of microwave radiation bursts at targets. Because this weapon can modulate the frequencies of its waves, the Sunburst can fulfill a number of different roles. In its most basic role, the Sunburst fires a compressed wave of microwave radiation that appears to onlookers to be a faintly blue and long-lasting blaster bolt. Upon impact, this bolt dielectrically heats the surrounding area, causing nearby molecules to rotate and thus produce damaging heat. The end result is that the Sunburst acts as a very precise flamethrower, capable of causing severe thermal damage to targets which can further be exacerbated by consecutive hits in the same or nearby areas. While in many instances this makes the Sunburst equivalent in use to a blaster rifle against many targets, the differing mechanism of injury means that protections useful against many blasters aren't useful against the Heatwave, and vice versa.

But Sunburst can modulate its microwave radiation bursts to obtain other very different effects.

Rather than a stun setting, Sunburst can fire an almost continuous high-frequency radiation with a very short wavelength. Because it has a very short wavelength, this radiation has very little penetration, causing almost a minimum of thermal damage but causing a very intense, incapacitating pain that makes many beings instinctively to try and get out of is path. In this mode, the Sunburst fires a cone of radiation, which allows it to cover a large amount of area and hit multiple people at once. This mode is often used in riot suppression to disperse crowds or as a psychological weapon in combat. While this mode is only useful against organics, the Sunburst does have another fire mode that is particularly effective against electronics.

The Sunburst has an electronic disruptor mode, in which it can discharge a large pulse of condensed microwave radiation of differing frequencies. When this pulse hits the target, it adds extra electrical signals into the present electronics, causing malfunctions and other errors. In many ways, this is conceptually similar to a human being 'tazed', as the extra electrical signals overwhelm its ability to process information. In some instances, the heat caused by this radiation interacting with the electronic components may cause components to fuse together, causing effects similar to low-grade ionization. However, because the primary method of its disabling effect is inserting extra signals, many droids and other electronics that are EMP proofed or using ionic shielding do not effect Sunburst's effects.

Sunburst's unconventional nature brings with it a number of advantages and flexibility compared to typical weapons, but its nature also brings some noticeable drawbacks. The most obvious of these is its relatively short range, which is caused by radiation's relatively quick break-up in typical atmospheres, as the radiation bolts lose energy as they interact with more and more molecules as they travel through the air. The Sunburst is also more energy intensive than most blaster rifles, meaning that users will need to carry more power packs to get an equivalent amount of firepower or fire less indiscriminate shots. This last one tends to be the favored approach by most because it also means few reloads, less ammunition to carry, and lower operating costs.

Sunburst is commonly found as a support weapon in Silver Jedi-allied organizations, such as ISAF militaries and local police forces, where they serve as adjunctives to typical blasters and slugthrowers. They are most commonly deployed en mass for crowd control operations by these same organizations. While rarely used by private individuals, a number of Sunbursts have been found in the hands of bounty hunters, who appreciate its exotic flexibility while on the hunt.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a personal blaster cannon in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-27 Flamestorm Assault Blaster Cannon
• Modularity: Rail attachments, scope, other typical blaster modifications
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Blaster cannon components, Durasteel casing, electronics, micro repulsorlift, Permex furniture, Magnatomic Grip Panels

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Personal Blaster Cannon
• Size: Very Large
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Power pack and gas canister
• [tr] [th][/th] [th]Blaster Cannon Mode[/th] [th]Supercharged Mode[/th] [th]Repeater mode[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ammunition Capacity[/td] [td] 60 [/td] [td] 20 [/td] [td] 180 [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reload Speed[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Average[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Effective Range[/td] [td]Average (600 meters)[/td] [td]Long Range (2 kilometers)[/td] [td]Average (600 meters)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Rate of Fire[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Very Low[/td] [td]Very High[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Stopping Power[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Very High[/td] [td]Low[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Recoil[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]High[/td] [td]Average[/td] [/tr]
  
  
  

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Picatinny Rail: This rail just to the left of the weapon's midsection allows the Flamestorm to accept a variety of aftermarket scopes, sights, and other attachments.
  
• 
  Variable Fire Modes: The Flamestorm can be set to use several different gas and power consumption levels, allowing it to adapt and full different roles as needed.
  
• 
  Repulsorlift Generator: The Flamestorm comes with a built-in micro repulsor to make it easier to carry the weapon and move it around.
  
• 
  Built-in Bipod: The Flamestorm comes with a bipod that flips down from a compartment under the barrel, allowing it to be more easily used from a stationary position. This can be removed and replaced by tripod for improved stability, but the tripod cannot be retracted.
  
• 
  Pivoting Spade Handle: The gun's rear grip can be rotated to point upwards (as shown in the picture) to allow easy from the hip firing, or rotated downwards to better enable prone/stationary firing.
  
• 
  Data Uplink: The Flamestorm as a dataport that can allow it to link through a wire or wireless adaptor to HUDs in personal armor, visors, and vehicles.
  
• 
  Stun Settings: The Flamestorm does have stun setting in its blaster cannon and repeater modes, which aside from not inflicting regular blaster damage are otherwise identical in terms of performance.
  

Strengths:

• Variable Fire Modes: The Flamestorm can alter the intake of its ammunition and firing cycle to allow it to be used in different weapon roles, making it a highly versatile personal heavy weapon.
• High Rate of Fire (Repeater Mode): The Flamestorm can operate as a standard medium repeating blaster not unlike the Mark II Medium Repeating Blaster, allowing it pour a high volume of fire. This is typically used for fire suppression role, though it also seems some use against groups of small, aerial targets.
• Magnum Stopping Power (Supercharged Cannon Mode): The Flamestorm can supercharge its bolts in a manner similar to the Hornet Interceptor's supercharged laser cannons, but the practical effects are more like that of BB-23 heavy blaster cannon. The produced bolt is enough to disintegrate sections of duracrete and durasteel or devastate a small number of clustered targets. It is frequently compared to and equivalent to a portable laser cannon, making it exceptionally dangerous to heavily armored battle droids and light vehicles.

Weaknesses:

• Bulky: The Flamestorm is a fairly large weapon, making it heavy and difficult to maneuver despite the addition of a microrepulsorlift.
• Low Stopping Power (Repeater Mode): The individual blaster bolts in repeating mode are fairly weak given the weapon's size, each being roughly equivalent to that of a compact blaster rifle.
• Slow rate of Fire (Supercharged mode): The supercharged bolts take time to build up full charge to fire, and then the weapon needs some time to cool down once fired, leading to a relatively slow rate of fire in this mode.

DESCRIPTION
The LPD-27 Flamestorm is Lucerne Personal Defense's take on the assault cannon popularized by Galactic Republic troops during the Cold War. It is a bulky blaster weapon that shares more in common internally with a crew-served repeating blaster rather than a personal weapon. Despite its size and power, the Flamestorm is designed from the ground up to be operated by a single person. This is accomplished by carefully mimicking ergonomic choices from tried and tested assault cannon designs used in the Clone Wars and practically shows in the weapon's excellent balance despite its size by careful placement of its underslung handles. Unlike many of these older designs, the Flamestorm also incorporates a built-in microrepulsorlift, which reduces some of the felt weight. But given the power drain from this feature, it typically is only activated during particularly arduous physical activity such as long marches or during rapid assaults when under enemy fire. Despite its weight, many users find its tactical flexibility in its different fire modes well worth that tradeoff.

Blaster Cannon Mode: The Flamestorm acts as a typical personal-scale blaster cannon, sometimes referred to colloquially as an 'assault cannon', with each bolt packing a significantly higher punch, close to that of the classic E-Web's bolt. This is typically enough to cut through armored soldiers and significantly damage light vehicles such as speeder bikes and small walkers. With sustained fire, it can even damage small starships and aerial vehicles.

Repeater Mode: The Flamestorm focuses on obtaining a high rate of fire at the loss of individual bolt damage and cohesion. Individual bolts are typically as powerful as those of a blaster rifle. This typically makes it useful as a fire suppression weapon, and oftentimes fulfills a role classically filled by slugthrower machine guns. Because of its portable nature, however, the Flamestorm notably lacks an extended ammunition supply. This means that it is best used in burst capacity, or only as a temporary means of suppression fire.

Supercharged Mode: The Flamestorm focuses on producing massive blaster bolts with impressive power. In this mode, the Flamestorm's bolts can sometimes outright disintegrate person-sized targets and becomes a significant threat to many enemy vehicles. Bolts in this mode often produce a small blast radius of a meter or two, which means it highly effective against clustered together infantry and other lightly protected targets. Unfortunately, this power comes at the cost of a slow recharge time and a greatly reduced ammunition capacity.

Flamestorms are typically issued as squad level support weapons, often acting as alternative to repeating blasters, especially in highly mobile groups such as scouts and light infantry. They also frequently are found in the hands of short-range shock troops, such as shipboard marines and urban combat specialists. The weapons are also large and ergonomic enough that wookiees and other larger species have little trouble using them as basic personal weapons. Because of the potential power of these weapons and the local legalities of possessing such weapons, the vast majority of Flamestorms are in government and company hands, rather than individual users.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a slugthrower machine gun in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-29 Firestrike Machine Gun
• Modularity: Ammunition, mount/handling attachments, scopes, rail accessories
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Mirrsteel barrel and receiver, Durasteel Barrel shroud and external controls, ceramisteel internal components, Permex furniture, Magnatomic Grip Panels

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Medium Slugthrower machine gun
• Size: Very Large
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Slugs
• Ammunition Capacity: 100 round belt in detachable box, 250 round belt in detachable box, 500 round belt in backpack feed system
• 
  Reload Speed: Slow
  
• Effective Range: Long Range
• Rate of Fire: Very High
• Stopping Power: High
• Recoil: Average

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Slugthrower: The Firestrike is a conventional gas-operated slugthrower using a gas-piston and a seven lugged rotating bolt assembly, meaning that it does not need any electronics to run. The gas port can be dialed to better work with different propellant charges.
  
• 
  Ruggerized: The Firestrike has been unusually ruggerized by incorporating a thick, case-hardened Mirrsteel receiver and barrel. This makes the weapon more difficult to damage under hard battle conditions, and also allows users to use it as an impromptu bludgeoning weapon with little fear of damaging the weapon itself.
  
• 
  Oversized Controls: The Firestrike uses larger than normal controls, allowing it to be more easily manipulated by soldiers in heavy armor or larger species such as Houks and Wookiees, and by extension, Arrichit series Synthetic Soldiers.
  
• 
  Medium Bore: The Firestrike uses the same 12x50mm Shadowstrike ammunition as the company's Shadowstrike Battle Rifle. This provides the machine gun with good "knockdown" power, especially at close range, along with a reach greater than many blaster rifles. Unfortunately, 12x50mm Shadowstrike also has a noticeable ballistic drop, which can make it difficult to accurately hit precise targets at long ranges.
  
• 
  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 full metal jacket bullets to exotic explosive tipped rounds and acid-filled bullets.
  
• 
  Modular Accoutrements: The Firestrike has a top picatinny rail that allows the machine gun to accept aftermarket scopes and other similar accessories. The barrel shroud and receiver also incorporate modular mounting slots allowing it to accept additional picatinny rails as well as different ways to hold or mount the weapon (ghetto grip, tripod, bipod, etc).
  

Strengths:

• Heavy Hitting: The Firestrike packs a heavy punch that is based more on the mass of its projectiles rather than its velocity, which provides it with good knock down power, which can make it deadly even to targets hiding behind light cover such as trees and hastily constructed barricades.
• Long Range: The Firestrike uses a full-power rifle cartridge, which gives it greater range than most blaster rifles and many other slugthrowers.
• Modular: The Firestrike, like most slugthrowers, is a relatively adaptable weapon. Not only can it accept different types of ammunition, but it has a top picatinny rail and modular handguard mounting system to allow it to use a variety of off the shelf scopes, sights, and other devices with little to no adaptation by the end user.

Weaknesses:

• Heavy: The Firestrike is a big, overbuilt gun which unsurprisingly makes it fairly heavy. Unsurprisingly, most people struggle to move quickly (if at all) while carrying it, and the average human rarely can quickly aim it effectively unless in a stationary position with the weapon either braced or mounted.
• Slow Reload: Being a belt-fed weapon, the Firestrike takes somewhat longer to load and cycle compared to many magazine fed slugthrowes or energy weapons.
• Ballistic Curve: The Firestrike's ammunition, 12x50mm Shadowstrike, has a heavy bullet which gives it a noticeably steep ballistic dropoff at longer ranges, which means that it is harder to precisely hit targets at range because most people find it difficult to get the precise angle of elevation necessarily to get accurate hits.

DESCRIPTION
The LPD-29 Firestrike is a general purpose machine gun that uses a full rifle power round to effectively provide mobile, saturation fire from range. From the start, the Firestrike was designed as an accompanying piece to the company's LPD-21 Shadowstrike Battle Rifle. Unsurprisingly then, both share the same ammunition to ease on logistics and lower costs. This largely gives both weapons similar ballistic performance, though the Shadowstrike tends to be more accurate while the Firestrike produces a substantially larger volume of fire. But behind these inherent role differences, the Firestrike was also notably designed with some cultural considerations.

Most pieces of technology in the galaxy are designed for use by humans. This has largely led other species of different sizes to either modify these weapons for their own use or make to use of their own native designs. With a large wookiee population in areas of the Silver Jedi's influence, Lucerne Personal Defense decided to make the Firestrike for their specific use from the get-go, carving out an untapped market niche in the process. To this end, the Firestrike comes with slightly larger than normal controls, allowing Wookiees and other larger species to use it with little problem out of the box. Most humans can use the Firestrike as is, though the controls usually do feel bulky in their hands. As another consideration towards Wookiee use, LPD made the Firestrike extremely rugged with the idea in mind that could well see use as an impromptu bludgeoning weapon in the hands of an enraged Wookiee. As a side effect, this overbuilding of the weapon has made it noticeably heavier than the typical slugthrower machine gun. While annoying to lug around for most people, this has also helped to reduce the weapon's recoil, especially since 12x50mm Shadowstrike was designed for use in a smaller weapon.

By using a relatively heavy bullet weight with a moderate amount of propellant, 12x50mm Shadowstrike hits with a fair amount of momentum, making it well-suited to flying through mid to long ranges before plowing through light cover and concealment into targets. Combined with the Firestrike's high rate of fire, skilled users typically have little trouble cutting down groups of enemies from a distance, though users can find themselves disadvantaged by the rate of fire of many comparable repeating blasters. LPD feels like this is a fair tradeoff for the flexibility in ammunition payloads afforded to slugthrower users. While aftermarket ammunition suppliers can and do supply a wide variety of ammunition in 12x50mm Shadowstrike, Lucerne Personal Defense offers these choices as standard in its catalog for use with the Firestrike for guaranteed reliability.

Full Metal Jacket: A simple solid slug of lead or other dense material covered in a thin jacket of copper. This is probably the most common and cheapest ammunition available in 12x50mm Shadowstrike.

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 heavy body armors and many battle droids.

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.

LPD has been marketing the Firestrike from two different approaches. The first has been selling it alongside the company's Shadowstrike Battle Rifle, where the use of interchangeable ammunition can ease logistics and costs for large organizations. The second has been oriented towards larger aliens such as wookiees who often do not have many factory tailored options available to them. Thanks to its parent's company's connections to the Wookiees it has enjoyed steady sales in the space around Kashyyyk. Lucerne Labs itself also offers it as a default weapon's choice for its Arrichit-series Battle Droids. These marketing approaches have led to steady stream of sales, making it a minor weapon of note in the Kashyyyk region.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Intent: To provide a thermal detonator in Lucerne Personal Defense's inventory
Image Source: here
Canon Link: N/A
Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Model: LPD-30 Flameblossom Cluster Thermal Detonator
Modularity: fuse/detonation device
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel shell, Baradium core , micro repulsorlift coil, typical grenade components

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Thermal Detonator
Size: Large
Weight: Heavy
Ammunition Type: explosive
Ammunition Capacity: 8 micro thermal charges
Reload Speed: Average
Effective Range: Average
Rate of Fire: Average
Stopping Power: Very High
Recoil: None

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Cluster Bomb: The Flameblossom is designed to use to separate into a cluster of smaller thermal charges once thrown thanks to an embedded micro repulsor coil, which actively pushes the charges away from each other in an equidistant pattern, allowing it to cover a small area with concentrated explosions. This mode can be turned off with a switch, effectively turning the Flameblossom into a large and powerful thermal detonator.
• Magnetic: Each microcharge has a strong magnetic strip which is activated once thrown, allowing the micro charges to leap to and cling to metallic objects in their immediate vicinity on their own accord.
• Oversized Controls: The Flameblossom is built with slightly oversized controls in order to allow larger species and Arrichit series Synthetic Soldiers to use them without any difficulty. A single switch on the top of the detonator allows it be detonated as a single unit or dispersed into submunitions which then explode individually after deployment.
• Replaceable Fuse: The Flameblossom comes at default with a seven second timed fuse, allowing it to be barely thrown or placed by the user before they're caught in its cascading set of explosions. However, the fuse can be easily be replaced with other detonation mechanisms by simply =unscrewing the default fuse and screwing in a replacement fuse or detonation adaptor. The most common replacement is wireless remote control, allowing the Flameblossom to be detonated by a set broadcasted comlink signal. The other common fuse is a ten minute chemical delay fuse, which is typically used for demolition tasks.

Strengths:

• Precise Area of Effect: The LPD-30 can effectively spread an area with high, concentrated firepower that can home onto individual targets with precision thanks to its powerful magnetic strips. This is useful in such circumstances as clearing out armored soldiers taking refuge in thick foliage.
• Heavy Firepower: Like most thermal detonators, the LPD-30 is exceptionally powerful. With all of its micro-charges combined, it is roughly equivalent to a Class-A Thermal Detonator.

Weaknesses:

• Bulky: The LPD-30 is a fairly large and heavy grenade, meaning that not only can most people carry fewer of them, but they also are harder to throw effectively for most people.
• Fractricide: As an area of effect weapon, LPD-30s can cause a lot of collateral damage, to include attacking friendlies. The magnetized nature of the microcharges makes it quite possible to get stuck on friendly personnel or equipment if not carefully employed.

DESCRIPTION

While the Lucerne Personal Defense was largely happy with its multipurpose LPD-24 Fireblast Grenade, that weapon proved to be too light to effectively deal with heavy targets on the battlefield such as troopers wearing heavy battle armor or armored fighting vehicles. To rectify that deficiency, the company turned to a favorite standby of soldiers and bounty hunters across the galaxy: the thermal detonator. Eager to set their product apart from the myriad of already existing thermal detonators on the market, the company decided to focus their attention on rectifying one of the traditional thermal detonator's greatest weakness: its large blast radius.

While the explosive power is often necessary to defeat such heavy targets, the indiscriminate blast radius of a traditional thermal detonator also limits its use in the field, especially in close quarters or around potential collateral damage. To that end, while the Flameblossom can be used as a large thermal detonator, it more commonly is used in a 'smart' cluster detonator mode. Shortly after being thrown, a micro-repulsor coil in the center of the detonator activates, spreading out eight baradium-based fusion cores. As the outer cases of these submunitions are magnetized by a trigger based interacting with the repulsor field, these submunitions automatically draw themselves to the closest metallic object in its immediate vicinity. Ideally, this is an armored soldier, vehicle, or a crew-served weapon, but the detonators are nondiscriminate and will just as easily cling to any ferric debris, buildings, garbage cans, or other ferric object. Three seconds after making contact with that metallic object (or falling on the ground if there isn't any nearby metal object), it detonates, producing a small blast radius approximately 1.5 meters in diameter that is ever bit as powerful inside this radius as that of a standard thermal detonator.

Lucerne Personal Defense has banked most of the detonator's success on the market based on this smart, homing cluster submunition feature. However, it remains to be seen if this is a successful ploy. Many of the other thermal detonators on the market are more easily thrown by their users due to their ball shape, a flaw which is compounded by the Flameblossom's somewhat larger mass than many of its competitors. However, with oversized controls made for larger species and its parent company's Arrichit series Synthetic Soldiers, it does have a small, almost guaranteed production run with at least these targeted demographic groups. Thus far, sales have not been as successful as the Fireblast Grenade, but the company does expect sales to rise higher as more Arrichit series Synthetic Soldiers become more proven on the battlefield.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a Ripper Rifle in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-31 Stormshard Ripper Rifle
• Modularity: Rail attachments, scope, other typical gun modifications
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Slugthrower & blaster components, Durasteel casing, electronics, Permex furniture, Magnatomic Grip Panels

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Ripper rifle
• Size: Average
• Weight: Light
• Ammunition Type: Turadium flechettes, power pack. gas canister
• [tr] [th][/th] [th]Ripper Mode[/th] [th]"Shotgun" Mode[/th] [th]"Light Blaster" Mode[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ammunition Capacity[/td] [td] 200 [/td] [td] 20 [/td] [td] 100 [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reload Speed[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Average[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Effective Range[/td] [td]Average (200 meters)[/td] [td]Point-Blank (10 meters)[/td] [td]Personal (50 meters)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Rate of Fire[/td] [td]High[/td] [td]Very Low[/td] [td]High[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Stopping Power[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]Very High[/td] [td]Low[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Recoil[/td] [td]Average[/td] [td]High[/td] [td]Low[/td] [/tr]
  
  
  

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Ripper (Energy-Propelled Slugthrower): The Stormshard is a type of Ripper weapon, which uses energy to rapidly launch metal flechette projectiles with exceptional shield-piercing qualities. The Iceshard itself uses laser ablation propulsion by using a small blaster housed in the weapon's rear to ignite the rear of the projectile to turn it into plasma which then propels and envelopes the projectile as it leaves the barrel. Due to the projectile's high velocity and encasement in plasma, these flechettes are unusually effective at penetrating through shielded targets.
  
• 
  Variable Fire Modes: While the Stormshard is typically used as a ripper weapon, it can focus more on its kinetic or energy nature to get different effects. The blaster mechanism at the rear of the weapon can be used by itself, which despite the rifle's side, is only as powerful as a sporting blaster pistol. While fairly weak, this does provide Stormshard users with a viable stun setting. Alternatively, the Stormshard's variable chamber can be overloaded with flechettes. In this mode, the blaster in the back is not able to fully convert all of the flechettes' base into plasma at a consistent level, which effectively turns the Stormshard into a short-ranged if powerful shotgun.
  
• 
  Stun Setting: The Stormshard does have stun setting via its internal blaster.
  
• 
  Picatinny Rail: The Stormshard does have a Picatinny rail, which allows it to use a variety of off the counter weapon's attachments such as aftermarket sights or scopes.
  
• 
  Combo Light/Laser: The Stormshard as a combination targeting laser and flashlight built-into the weapon just beneath its barrel. The targeting laser is often used reflexively, which combined with the weapon's short pull of length makes it very easy to use in close-quarters combat.
  

Strengths:

• Variable Fire Modes: The Stormshard can alter the intake of its ammunition and firing cycle to allow it to be used in different weapon roles, making it a versatile weapon.
• High Rate of Fire (Ripper & Blaster Mode): The Stormshard has a fairly high rate of fire for a weapon of its size, being largely equivalent to that of conventional blasters such as the famous BlasTech E-11.
• Impressive Stopping Power (Shotgun Mode): The Stormshard can cast out an impressive number of flechettes at short range at reasonable velocities, which gives it a very high stopping power at short ranges.
• Shield Penetrator (Ripper): The Stormshard, like other Ripper designs, is fairly effective at penetrating through personal-scale shields, though the damage it inflicts after piercing is less than it would be against an unshielded target.

Weaknesses:

• Dropoff: The Stormshard has a shorter effective range than many more common long-arms. Even its ripper mode, the Stormshard's range is typically comparable to a blaster carbine than a blaster rifle the Stormshard's size. This is largely due to the relatively light weight of the Stormshard's flechettes.
• Low Stopping Power (Blaster Mode): The individual blaster bolts produced by the Stormshard are fairly weak, largely because the built-in blaster is optimized for use a propulsion system rather than a purpose-built weapon on its own.
• Slow rate of Fire (Shotgun mode): The Stormshard kicks quite a bit when employed in the shotgun mode because of the volume of flechettes being unleashed as well as the Stormshard's relatively light weight.

DESCRIPTION

Seeing a proliferation of personal shielding technologies becoming more common on the battlefield, LPD president Tresk Ek'ala directed his designers to develop a weapon to counter this development. In turn, these designers turned back to the ancient Ripper weapon and combined it with the laser ablation propulsion concept previously used on Lucerne Labs' Seure-class Cannon. The resulting weapon can fire a steady and rapid stream of flechettes well-suited towards penetrating shields and into the target behind it.

The Iceshard uses a miniaturized blaster located in its rear to fire very diminutive bolts that partially vaporize the rear of the Iceshard's turadium flechettes, which are fed at almost the tip of the blaster's barrel by a vertical magazine. The vaporization of the rear mixes plasma not only from bolt itself, but the flechette as well. This exothermic reaction not only propels the flechette out of the barrel at a high velocity, but also encases in it a icy blue energy sheath not unlike that of bowcaster's energy quarrels. Because of the flechette's high velocity, the Ripper is a fairly straight shooting weapon throughout its effective range, requiring very little understanding of ballistics to effectively use. Upon impact with an energy shield, the flechette's surrounding shell of plasma helps disrupt the energy casing itself, while the nature of turadium can better withstand the heat produced by its impact on the shield itself before it tears into its target. While individual flechettes are only about as powerful as a typical blaster bolt, the volume of fire that an Iceshard can produce often means that multiple flechettes are impacting a shield a time, which improves their odds of penetrating through a shield to cause grievous harm to the target. While this is generally effective in most combat situations, the Iceshard can alter its fire and feeding operations to generate other effects.

The most common of these is to simply turn off the flechette feed and double the blaster component's cycle charging time. This effectively turns the Iceshard into a blaster pistol with the ergonomics of the rifle. While extremely easy to use in this configuration because of its low recoil, it is also hampered by relatively short range and low power output. This mode is often in conjunction with the blaster's stun setting, which unusually gives what primarily is a slugthrower weapon a stun setting. Its actually far more common for Iceshard users to use the weapon's other setting, which effectively turns it into a shotgun.

In its 'shotgun' mode, the Iceshard feeds a stack of twenty flechettes into its chamber which also mechanically dilates. The blaster bolt used for ablation also is increased in charge. Despite this, the ablation propulsion process is less complete, leading to the haphazard vaporization and encasement in plasma of the flechettes. The flechettes then fly out the Iceshards at a variety of angles and with slightly different velocities and trajectories in a semblance of a stack of projectiles. The sheer mass of the projectiles being expelled makes it exceptionally dangerous, with it almost being equivalent to being hit with ten blaster pistol bolts simultaneously. However, with such power comes great recoil, a highly reduced range, and a slow rate of fire. This makes its use to limited to being a potent manstopper in close-quarter's environments.

The Iceshard is exotic enough in that while its advantages have given it a certain widespread appeal on the market, it is also unconventional enough that few organizations have adopted it on a wide scale. Most users that have bought the weapons know that they will be facing shield-equipped organic foes, with the second most common buyers citing that they were looking for a more versatile close quarters combat weapon. Ek'ala expects that sales will increase once conflict escalates in the galaxy once more.

 

[Gir Quee]

Spoiler

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a light mortar in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-32 Flamefist Mortar
• Modularity: Ammunition
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Mirrsteel barrel and receiver, ceramisteel internal components and bracing, Permex furniture

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Mortar
• Size: Very Large
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: 1 Shell
• Ammunition Capacity: 1
• 
  Reload Speed: Slow
  
• Effective Range: Battlefield
• Rate of Fire: Slow
• Stopping Power: Very High
• Recoil: High

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Reconfigurable Firing Configuration: The Flamefist can be configured to fire in two different ergonomic firing modes. Most commonly, the Flamefist is used a conventional mortar, with a base plate and a bipod supporting the Flamefist on the ground for indirect fire. It can also fired over the shoulder in a manner similar to many rocket launchers, the recoil is very stout except for the strongest of individuals.
  
• 
  Variable Shells: The Flamefist can fire a variety of different shell types aside from its basic high explosive shell. These munitions include smoke, cyroban, T-238, Plank Gas, and many more.
  
• 
  Oversized Controls: The Flamefist uses larger than normal controls, allowing it to be more easily manipulated by soldiers in heavy armor or larger species such as Houks and Wookiees, and by extension, Arrichit series Synthetic Soldiers.
  
• 
  Iron Sights: The Flamefist uses iron aperture sights enclosed into a protective tube for when the weapon is used in the shoulder fired mode.
  

Strengths:

• Heavy Hitting: The Flamefist fires a fairly large payload, which in most cases makes it a fairly potent weapon, allowing individual troopers to take out armored vehicles or fortified positions.
• Long Range: The Flamefist's shells have a fair amount of propellant, which allows shells to potentially transverse across the length of many battlefields.
• Modular: The Flamefist, like many projectile weapons, is a relatively adaptable weapon because it can use different types of ammunition. While high explosives and shaped charges are by far the most commonly used rounds, the Flamefist can also use specialty munitions to achieve a variety of other effects.

Weaknesses:

• Heavy: The Flamefist is a big and heavy weapon, which makes it unwieldly and tiring to carry over long distances for many users. Ammunition is also quite large and relatively heavy, which means that only a handful of shells can be carried by an individual.
• Slow Fire Rate: Being a single shot weapon, the Flamefist lacks the rate of fire common to most modern weapons.
• Ballistic Curve: The Flamefist's projectiles are fairly heavy, which gives them a pronounced ballistic arc, which requires some effective ballistic knowledge and skill to effectively use. It also means that precise accuracy with the weapon over long-ranges is almost impossible unless precise firing solutions are laboriously calculated and the weapon very carefully aligned.

DESCRIPTION

The Flamefist is a single-man portable mortar designed to give infantry the ability to successfully attack armored vehicles and fortified positions. This is typically down through indirect fire, with the weapon braced into the ground through its base plate and bipod. However, the weapon can be fired from the shoulder, though the recoil is not inconsiderable. In either case, the Flamefist lobs out a heavy shell, typically packed full of high explosives which puts it on the borderline between a personal weapon and a dedicated artillery piece. Either way, while it fulfills a blunt instrument role, the Flamefist does have some refinements characteristic of Lucerne Personal Defense's products.

The Flamefist uses a heavy Mirrsteel barrel to hold a relatively large shell that only has a relatively small amount of propellant in it. Thus when the spring-loaded firing pin is release by the weapon's trigger, the propellant charge within the shell rapidly expands and is used up entirely before the shell leaves the Flamefist's barrel. This provides only a low velocity to the Flamefist's shell (and incidentally makes it a pretty quite weapon for its class), which largely relies on the contents of its shell to inflict damage rather than kinetic energy. The following are the more common shells used by the Flamefist:

High Explosive: This shell is filled with Nergon-14 primed with a Chepatite Impact Explosive detonation charge. This shell is about as powerful as a starfighter grade proton torpedo and produces a large, explosion approximately 20 meters in diameter upon detonation. It typically is used for indirect bombardment, especially against lightly protected groups of targets.

Anti-Armor: This shell uses a shaped charge of Nergon-14 primed with a Chepatite Impact Explosive detonation charge. Unlike the high explosive shell, the Anti-Armor shells is much more focused in nature, directing almost all of its energy in a forward, kinetic jet designed to penetrate through heavy vehicle armor found on tanks, walkers, and other heavy vehicles.

Ion: This shell carries an ion charge, which produces an intense electromagnetic pulse that can fry or temporarily disable electronics in such things such as droids, weapons, and vehicles.

Smoke: This shell produces an erupting stream of smoke used to mark sites for other friendly units, obscure the vision of opposing forces, or to “smoke out” occupants in enclosed spaces.

T-238 Shell: This shell produces a cloud of T-238 gas, which causes intense and immediate nausea and vomiting in most organics. It is most often used for riot control purposes or to combat creatures.

Coma Gas: This shell produces a cloud of coma gas, which typically knocks organics unconscious if only a few breathes of the gas are inhaled. This is typically used to subdue or capture organic targets such as people or creatures.

Cryoban: This shell releases a cloud of chilling Cyroban. This intense freezing effect is not only used to damage or destroy targets, but also sees use in putting out fires and combating area of effect thermal weapons.

Incendiary: This shell releases a cloud of fine thermite powder that is ignited on impact by a detonite priming charge. It produces a brief area of conflagration approximately 20 meters in diameter. The thermite burns out fairly quickly, meaning that for sustained fires to exist, something in the area must already be flammable.

Plank Gas: This shell releases a cloud of plank gas, which rapidly corrodes not only flesh, but eats through metal objects as well. While devastating, Plank Gas also dissipates fairly quickly in open spaces, which limits the gas' effectiveness.

The variety of ammunition available gives small infantry units many options for attacking opponents, which makes it particularly popular with smaller organizations who sometimes cannot afford expensive artillery pieces or dedicate personnel exclusively to artillery roles. Light infantry organizations appreciate for similar reasons, especially since it often means that they do not have to ask for out of organization fire support. While most Flamefists are organically assigned within infantry units as supplemental weapons, a handful of organizations using Flamefists have organized them into dedicated batteries, which allows them to almost continuously bombard targets. Regardless of the doctrine, Lucerne Personal Defense expects sales of these weapons to be steady for years to comes.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• 
  Intent: To provide a portable shield generator in the vein of the canon Rampart II
  
• 
  Image Source: here
  
• 
  Canon Link: N/A
  
• 
  Primary Source: N/A
  

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• 
  Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
  
• 
  Model: Akk Dog Portable Shield Generator
  
• 
  Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
  
• 
  Modularity: Auxiliary Shield Modules
  
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced.
  
• 
  Material: Carbo-plas casing, Biolux series Organoform Circuitry, Deflector Shield Generator, capacitor, capacitor overcharger, auxiliary shield module
  

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Portable: The Akk Dog fills the gap between typical personal shielding and installation-grade shielding by providing protection for several peoples or a stationary position. The Akk Dog weighs a little over ten kilograms, which makes it a portable if somewhat heavy load for an individual.
  
• 
  Deflector Shield Generator: The Akk Dog uses a standard, miniaturized deflector shield generator which can produce up to 16 square meters of area projection. This is typically generated in the shape a of a half-circle, though it can be reduced in order to increase density or to fit within corridors or other enclosures. It can even change shapes to make a small, enclosing hemisphere.
  
• 
  Auxiliary Shield Module: Building off their experience with the Myntor Personal Shield Generator, the Akk Dog includes a modular hardpoint that allows it to take a secondary shield module that allows it to incorporate other shielding technologies to make it more versatile, such as particle shielding, environmental thermal shielding, ionic shielding, rad-dampening shielding, and sonic dissipators.
  
• 
  Dataport: The Akk Dog features a scomp-link accessible dataport on its rear. This allows its settings to be accessed and changed through a datapad, droid, or armor suit HUD.
  
• 
  Toggle Switch: The Akk Dog has a toggle switch that allows its different shield types to briefly turned on or off individually. As an example, the Akk Dog could continue to project ray shielding even if its particle shield is turned off. This is most commonly done to let individuals in and out of shielding or to allow outgoing projectile weapon's fire.
  

Strengths:

• 
  Modular: Each Akk Dog has a slot designed to accept a modular auxiliary shield, which allows it to be adapted to better suit different environments or foes.
  
• 
  Expandable Protection: Akk Dog shielding typically provides protection in a half circle field just large enough to encompass its user, but it can be expanded up to a radius of five meters, allowing it to provide protection to people and objects besides the user in its field.
  

Weaknesses:

• 
  Limited Duration: The power pack that comes with the Akk Dog only provides enough power for 15 minutes of continuous use or to absorb around 200 blaster rifle shots.
  
• 
  Double-Edged: The nature of Akk Dog's deflector shield means that not only does it prevent projectiles coming in, but also projectiles coming out. This means that the shield has to be deactivated in order for troops using it to fire their own projectile weapons.
  

DESCRIPTION
The Akk Dog is Lucerne Personal Defense's entry into the portable shield generator market where it faces competition from longtime favorites like the Rampart II. Like those shield generators, the Akk Dog is a device that is planted onto the ground in order to generate a small, local shield to protect small field positions like machine gun nests or to block off corridors within artificial constructs such as in starships. To that end, the Akk Dog uses conventional deflector shield technology by producing both a ray and a particle shield. This shield by default produces an energy field in the shape of a half circle, with the diameter of the circle resting on the ground. However, the projected field can be altered by simply altering he shield's output through its control panel. This can allow the shield to change shape, such as to fill a corridor to restrict access or turn into a hemisphere to provide omnidirectional protection. The control panel also allows the shielding radius to be scaled up or down, with higher concentrations providing better protection from penetration by heavier attacks. While it's most common for this all to be performed manually, it can be performed wirelessly via the HUD of certain armors or by datapad or droid. While oftentimes wireless offers faster speeds and keeps hands free to do other things, it is also susceptible to communication's jamming or slicing. The toggle switch is also located here, which allows the default ray or particle shielding to turned on or off, along with the controls for the secondary shielding module. This module can be swapped in and out by a trained person in about five minutes. While typically used to provide protection from more esoteric threats, sometimes a secondary slot is used to provide a shield overlay to augment either the default particle or energy shield.

Xythan Force Shield: This module adds a small Xythan Force Shield, which appears a series of spinning hexagons overlaying the base shielding. This shield absorbs energy fire, such as from blasters or lightsabers, and then uses it to repower the shield generator's power cell. Energy conversion isn't perfect however, and additionally it can only absorb so much fire at a time. This typically can extend a Akk Dog's use for several more minutes in pitched battlefield conditions.

Particle Shielding: This module contains another particle shield generator, providing the user additional protection from slugs, shrapnel, many melee weapons, and other threats of a physical nature. This is often used in stationary ground positions, where the users expect to be hit by lots of artillery fire or they know that their opponents otherwise have a predisposition for using explosives.

Ion Shield: This module contains an ion shield generator, providing protection from Ion/EMP munitionss as well naturally occurring ion storms.

Sonic: This shield is actually a sonic dissipator, which rapidly reduces incoming sound waves to a fraction of their volume and power. This not only protects the user's ears from loud noises, but actually breaks down the ultrasonic waves of sonic pistols, blasters, and other like weaponry.

Radiation Dampening: This shield absorbs and protects against radiation from both artificial sources (like reactors or radiation grenades) and natural sources (solar winds, etc). This is most commonly used by spacers onboard starships (especially when engaging in salvaging operations) or scouts on radiologically contaminated worlds.

Thermal: This shield provides an exceptional amount of insulation to the user, protecting them from extreme differences in cold or heat. This is useful to protecting its users from extreme environments and exotic weapons like flamethrowers or cyroban weaponry, but it does not provide protection against blasters, slugthrowers, and most common weapon types.

Lucerne Personal Defense has been heavily betting that the Akk Dog's ability to be adapted to different circumstances will allow it to unseat the Rampart II, a mainstay of the market for decades. Thus far, sales have been slower than expected, as many organizations are content to rely on personal battle armor or on individual personal shielding to protect their troops. Still, LPD's management believes that the Akk Dog will eventually catch on; it just needs the right opportunity to prove its worth to the galaxy.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a blaster pistol in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-33 Dartfire Blaster Pistol
• Modularity: Rail attachments, scope, other typical blaster modifications
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: blaster pistol components, Durasteel casing, electronics, Permex furniture, Wroshyr Tree Grip Panels

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Blaster Pistol
• Size: Small
• Weight: Very Light
• Ammunition Type: power pack, gas canister

	Blaster Pistol Mode	Supercharged Mode	Repeater Mode
Ammunition Capacity	50	20	100
Reload Speed	Average	Average	Average
Effective Range	Personal (30 meters)	Personal (30 meters)	Personal (30 meters)
Rate of Fire	Average	Very Low	High
Stopping Power	Low	High	Very Low
Recoil	Low	Average	Very Low

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Variable Fire Modes: While the Dartfire can be used as a basic blaster pistol, like the Firebolt blaster rifle, this pistol can alter the gas feed and cycling rate to get different effects. The Dartfire can produce bigger and more damaging bolts at the cost of a lower rate of fire and greater ammunition consumption, which effectively turns it into a heavy blaster pistol. It can also act as a light repeating blaster pistol, not unlike the IR-5 Intimidator, by cycling more shots that use less blaster gas and power.
  
• 
  Stun Setting: Like most blasters, the Dartfire does have a stun setting in all of its fire modes.
  
• 
  Rail: The Dartfire does have a top rail that allows it to accept a variety of existing aftermarket scopes and other accessories.
  

Strengths:

• Variable Fire Modes: The Dartfire can alter the intake of its ammunition and firing cycle to allow it to be used in different weapon roles, making it a versatile weapon.

Weaknesses:

• Short Range: Like most blaster pistols, the Dartfire is fairly short-ranged, which limits its use to mainly being a back-up or self-defense weapon.

DESCRIPTION

The Dartfire is Lucerne Personal Defense's most basic blaster pistol on the market, and it very clearly emulates the aesthetics of the old-fashioned by still popular Blastech DL-44 Pistol, including its scope mounting hardware. But style aside, the Dartfire is a much different weapon which focuses on the company's preference to adaptability rather than raw power. Like most blasters, the Dartfire runs on power packs and blaster gas canisters. But like some advanced holdout blasters on the market and like the company's own Firebolt Blaster Rifle, the Dartfire can alter the intake of blaster gas into the Xciter chamber as well as the amount of power used in its particle beam. Consequently, while it normally is indistinguishable from a normal blaster pistol, a flip of the selector lever can turn it into a heavy blaster pistol like the aforementioned DL-44 or a repeating light blaster pistol like the IR-5 Intimidator. While highly versatile, the Dartfire is still limited by the shortcomings of most blaster pistols including a relatively short range and limited ammunition capacity.

Lucerne Personal Defense has marketed this weapon widely, not only to militaries and other government organizations but also to private citizens as well. As a relatively economical, every man's weapon, it has high sales volume even if the individual profit margin is small. Dartfires can consequently be found across the galaxy in decent numbers, though the highest concentration of weapons is within Silver Jedi space, where it is not only found within use of the Silver Jedi's soldiers, but by many of its private citizens as well. The Directorate often issues the weapon as a standard sidearm for its officers and spacebound crewmen.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a general purpose combat knife in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-34 Cracken Combat Knife
• Modularity: Ammunition, mount/handling attachments, scopes, rail accessories
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Beskar blade and tang, spun-plast grip, vibroblade components, micro repulsorlift coil

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Combat Knife
• Size: Small
• Weight: Very Light
• Ammunition Type: blade / power cell
• Ammunition Capacity: 1 knife
• 
  Reload Speed: None
  
• Effective Range: Personal (up to 50 meters when thrown)
• Rate of Fire: Average
• Stopping Power: Low
• Recoil: None

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Beskar Cast: The Cracken Combat Knife is formed by pouring liquefied Beskar into a mold. The blade blank is then tempered and sharped by automated ion fuser array. While these mass production techniques are non-traditional, they produce a blade as strong as the traditional beskad, which makes the Cracken fairly tough and even resistant to lightsabers.
  
• 
  Vibroblade: The Cracken Combat Knife can function as a basic blade, but it is more effective with the ultrasonic genenerator being engaged, which turns it into a basic vibroblade. Many often use this blade for basic utility tasks, such as opening up containers or for basic fieldcraft when in the wild.
  
• 
  Repulsorlift Assist: Inspired by the Rodian Throwing Razor, the Cracken includes a small repulsorlift motor that allows it be thrown longer distances than a blade can normally be thrown. Routinely using the blade often require its small powercell to be replaced.
  
• 
  Pommel Ring: The Cracken has an opening near the bottom of its hilt which is designed to accept lanyards for ease of use and to ensure that the knife is not easily lost. Some users have discovered that this ring is durable and large enough to be tied to the end of the rope, allowing it be more easily retrieved if thrown or used as an impromptu grappling tool.
  

Strengths:

Resilient: The Cracken is an exceptionally resilient weapon thanks to its beskar composition, making it a highly capable of withstanding abuse when used against most other materials to include other metals. Its blade can also noticeably withstand many lightsabers.

Extended Range: Thanks to the inclusion of a repulsorlift, the Cracken can be thrown for a longer range than most combat knives by even an inexperienced user.

Weaknesses:


What guard?: The Cracken does not have any sort of guard to its hilt, meaning that if used as a parrying weapon, users need to be careful that the enemy weapon does not simply slide down to wound their hand.


Power Drain: The Cracken goes through its powercell much quicker than a typical vibroblade, especially if its repulsorlift is activated, as it draws much more power than is typically used for cutting.

DESCRIPTION

Named after the famous Rebel Alliance general, the Cracken Combat Knife is designed to be a back-up weapon and tool for the modern soldier. While it has all of the utility of a normal vibroknife, the Cracken also has a number of carefully thought out features designed to make its user's life easier. The most immediately obvious of these features is its heavy duty beskar construction, which makes it surprisingly durable in the field. Users can not only eventually cut through small trees and other objects with it given enough time, but many have also used it as a prybar with no warping. This construction is also quite useful as a weapon, making it more forgiving when attempting to pierce through enemy armor or flesh, as well as making it resistant to enemy lightsabers as a last ditch parrying tool.

Perhaps the most unusual feature of the Cracken is its replaceable micro repulsorlift coil, which can be fitted into a slot in the middle of the hilt. When activated, this allows the knive to briefly levitate from the ground on its own. This means that it can be thrown for longer distances than most users can normally throw a knife. While this has obvious limitations as weapon when on a battlefield dominated by blasters and slugthrowers, when used in combination with a rope, the Cracken can also be a useful grappling tool in the right situation.

The Cracken has sold moderately well since its introduction, with the vast bulk of purchasers being private orders. Sales have largely been driven by the novelty of the repulsorlift feature, but a steady stream of sales has been growing in the outer rim, especially among scouts and other fringers who appreciate a hardwearing knife in the rougher patches of the galaxy. The Cracken is also a standard issue item to Directorate personnel, where it is more commonly considered to be a tool rather than a proper weapon.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Intent: To provide the equivalent of an old-fashioned smoke grenade in Lucerne Personal Defense's inventory
Image Source: here
Canon Link: N/A
Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Model: LPD-35 Shadowcaster Smoke Grenade
Modularity: None
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel sheel, Detonite priming charge, Nagnol Gas (50% of payload), Courenth (45% of payload), Ves (5% of payload) Instant Adhesive bottom, typical grenade components

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Defensive Hand Grenade
Size: Small
Weight: Light
Ammunition Type: Gas
Ammunition Capacity: 1 gaseous charge
Reload Speed: Average
Effective Range: Average
Rate of Fire: Average

Resistances
-Blasters (And other plasma type weapons): Very High
-Kinetic: None
-Lightsabers: None
-Sensor Sweeps: Very High

Recoil: None

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Variable Timer: Rotating the red ring around the top of the grenade sets a mechanical timer,with the lowest settable time being 5 seconds, and the highest being 15 minutes. This allows the grenade to be used for immediate tactical use or be set as part of a timed plan such as a tactical withdrawal. The grenade can have a timer set but NOT activated by keeping the grenade's safety pin in place. Once the pin is removed (by hand, tripwire, etc), the timer countdown starts.
• Obscuring: Nagnol gas produced by the Shadowcaster not only visually obscures the area around the grenade (typically within a 5 meter diameter), but also makes obtaining accurate sensor readings of objects and people within the cloud very difficult.
• Anti-Energy: The gaseous mixture of Courenth and Ves mimics the A3AA personal defense module and the antilaser aerosol, providing a means of temporary protection from blasters and many other ranged energy weapons with a 5 meter diameter of the grenade, as the gases rapidly break down and disperse those attacks.
• Adhesive Bottom: The bottom cap of the LPD-35 can be screwed off to reveal a pad covered in instant adhesive, which allows the grenade to be solidly attached to a variety of objects.

Strengths:

• Obscuring Cloud: The Nagnol gas provides excellent concealment for visual observation and most sensor types for those immediately around the grenade.
• Protective Cloud: The Courenth and Ves gas mixture provides excellent protection from most energy weapons in the vicinity around the grenade.

Weaknesses:

• Temporary: The Shadowcaster only provides several minutes worth of protection and concealment before the density of the gas in the area becomes practically ineffective. This duration can be lessened by wind and other weather, or prolonged released if in a confined area.
• Double-blind: Just as the Shadowcaster blinds those trying to see into the cloud, it also distorts visual observation and sensor readings of those within the cloud trying to look outwards.

DESCRIPTION
The LPD-35 Shadowcaster is the latest iteration of a very old idea: the smoke grenade. Using the base components of the LPD-24 Fireblast Grenade, the Shadowcaster instead carries a payload of three gases. When ignited by the priming charge, these gases are excited and released into the vicinity around the grenade to create a small but dense cloud of grey-blue gas. This gas not only visually obscures those within the cloud like a traditional smoke grenade, but the nagnol also thwarts most sensor scans: a virtual necessity because of how frequently sensors are integrated into modern battle armors and most battle droids. The other elements in the grenade form an anti-blaster aerosol mist, which rapidly breaks down most energy and beam weapons through diffraction, making their use inside the cloud usually ineffective except at almost point-blank range. It's most typically used then as a stationary device to provide protection in impromptu fighting positions, especially if the location of attackers is unknown.

While the shadowcaster was designed to be use a defensive device to provide both cover and concealment to its users, it can be used offensively as well. A favorite trick of guerillas and saboteurs is to use the adhesive back to stick the grenade into an unusual position, and then run a trip-cord to the detonator while in an enemy fighting position or battle station in a fortification. When tripped, the grenade's gases fouls up the enemies immediate sensors and can make their weapons ineffective when fighting from that position, thus forcing them to take time and find and remove the grenade, or prompting them to change locations to an area not affected by the gas. It is also frequently emplaced in similar ways on escape routes for such fighters, as it provides them a disposable means of protection and concealment. This concealment in turn can also be used for staging sudden ambushes on pursuers.

As a niche device, the Shadowcaster has been enjoying a small but steady production run. Most Shadowcasters have been delivered to the Silver Jedi and their allies for use in special operations groups such as the Directorate Trade Agents or the Silver Shadows. While not a breakout success, it seems likely that the Shadowcaster will continued to be produced for some time.

 

[Gir Quee]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Intent: To provide a large and powerful detonation device in Lucerne Personal Defense's inventory
Image Source: here
Canon Link: N/A
Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Model: LPD-35 Fire Pillar Detonation Charge
Modularity: Detonation trigger
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel shell and secondary Farraday Cage, Baradium-Collapsium core, electronics, typical explosive charge components

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Heavy Explosive "Shaped" Charge
Size: Large
Weight: Heavy
Ammunition Type: explosive charge
Ammunition Capacity: 1
Reload Speed: Average
Effective Range: Average
Rate of Fire: Average
Stopping Power: Very High
Recoil: None

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Focused Fire: Fire Pillars use technology similar to seismic charges to create an implosion-explosion that only effects a singular plane. While a seismic charge generates a disc that expands horizontally, the Fire Pillar's detonation produces a 1- 5 meter circular blast radius that expands upwards vertically much like a pillar. This essentially trades immediate area of effect for increased penetration, making Fire Pillars excellent for penetrating through thick defenses or creating spaces for vertical movement.
• Variable Blast Radius: The width of the Fire Pillar's blast radius can be precisely dialed into the charge's control panel. To accomplish this, the Fire Pillar uses technology similar to a thermal detonator to limit its blast field. This allows for relatively precise destruction, which is particularly useful for controlled demolitions or if the device is used in field engineering operations like blasting new mining tunnels.
• Magnetic: Each Fire Pillar has a pair of strong magnets on the side opposite of the weapon's control panel which can be activated and placed against a metallic surface such as a floor, wall, or structural support. Each magnet can be activated/deactivated by flipping the "A" or "B" switch respectively. This allows for precise placement for maximum effect.
• Farraday Cage: The Fire Pillar's control panel and detonating charge are encased in a durasteel farraday cage in order to prevent it from being deactivated by distant EMP or Ion weapons.
• Modular Detonation Device: The Fire Pillars are usually detonated by time delay, especially in non-combat situations. The weapon's control panel allows users to input a variety of times, from several minutes to several days. This can only be set and cancelled by inputting the proper authorization code into the control pad. However, the Fire Pillar does also have a information jack that can allow it to be detonated remotely by accepting either a standard demolition wire or wireless detonator. This latter option is typically used when Fire Pillars are set up as part of traps.

Strengths:

• Precision Tool: The LPD-35 is a precision explosive in that its blast radius can be precisely dialed in to prevent collateral damage while concentrating that power to produce an impressive penetrating effect. Similarly, the inclusion of a magnetic strip and modular detonation options allows the LPD to be set off exactly where and when it needs to be.
• Heavy Firepower: Fire Pillars are exceptionally powerful, having the size and firepower of several Class-A Thermal Detonators combined. Unsurprisingly, a Fire Pillar can typically penetrate through around 60-80 meters of most common starship and building materials.

Weaknesses:

• Bulky: The LPD-35 is a fairly large and heavy device, being roughly the size of two human heads but being considerable heavier. Most beings can only carry one or two of these devices, especially if carrying common combat gear.
• Volatile: Baradium is notoriously unstable, and being subjected to enemy fire or sudden impacts on hard surfaces can cause the device to spontaneously and prematurely explode.

DESCRIPTION

While Lucere Personal Defense had provided a number of smaller explosives to its customers, it became aware through inquiries from its customers about the need for a larger and more controlled device for larger demolitions projects. While it was relatively simple to pile up a bunch of smaller, loose explosives and detonate them to obtain a large explosion, military customers found themselves were finding it much more difficult to get a large but focused blast. Seeing a potential side market for mining and sapper applications, Lucerne Personal Defense decided to focus on making an explosive with a narrow blast radius but with a long penetration effect. To that end, the designers turned to traditional seismic charge technology but inverted the blast parameters to create the core of their new weapon. Combined with traditional explosive charge detonation and placement technology, the Fire Pillar entered its current form.

The resulting weapon uses a baradium-collapsium core to create a small explosion to trigger an implosion which then creates a larger but much more focused explosion that takes the form of a rapidly expanding column of white-light blue energy. Users can fine tune this detonation's blast rardius and detonating time via a built-in keyboard. Maintaining proper placement can be similarly be controlled from this control pad by activating built-in magnets, ensuring that this "shaped"charge is not misaligned before detonation.

Fire Pillars are exceptionally powerful and consequently aren't typically used as individual, tactical weapons. Instead, Fire Pillars are typically used as organizational assets or strategic devices. Commandos and saboteur teams often use them to demolish specific structural supports in buildings or components. Starship boarding teams and combat engineers often use them to quickly penetrate through dense defenses in preparation for assaults. Some more daring users employ them to create sudden field obstacles or traps such as fougasses or impromptu anti-vehicle mines. Such a variety of uses has caused the Fire Pillar to experience steady sale to a variety of customers, though their high explosive power makes the volume of individual sales rather small.

 

[Gir Quee]

Spoiler

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To provide a long blaster-style rifle in the Lucerne Personal Defense line-up
• Image Source: here
• Canon Link: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Lucerne Personal Defense
• Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed-Market
• Model: LPD-36 Hammerfire Heavy Blaster Rifle
• Modularity: Rail attachments, scope, other typical blaster modifications
• 
  Production: Mass-Produced
  
• Material: Hadrium barrel and internals, Phrik-Condensed matter composite receiver and barrel shroud, typical blaster rifle components, Permex furniture, Magnatomic Grip Panels

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Blaster Rifle
• Size: Large
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: power pack, gas canister
• 
  Ammunition Capacity: 80 (power cell), 300 (blaster gas)
  
• 
  Reload Speed: Slow
  
• 
  Effective Range: Long Range
  
• 
  Rate of Fire: Average
  
• 
  Stopping Power: High
  
• 
  Recoil: High
  
  

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 
  Stun Setting: Like most blasters, the Hammerfire does have a stun setting.
  
• 
  Picatinny Rail: The Hammerfire does have a Picatinny rail on its upper and lower receivers, which allows it to use a variety of over the counter weapon's attachments such as aftermarket sights, scopes, lasers, secondary weapons, etc.
  

Strengths:

• Long Range: The Hammerfire has a longer range than many of its blaster rifle counterparts, and effectively fills the classic battle rifle role in a manner similar to the A280 or GLX Firelance.
• Heavy Hitter: The Hammerfire packs a heavy punch with good penetration, making it exceptionally useful against armored soldiers or targets taking cover behind various barriers.
• Durable: The Hammerfire is built to be extremely sturdy, using a phrik-condensed-matter composite frame and barrel shroud along with Hadrium internals (for thermal control) and shock-resistant Permex furniture. A Hammerfire can be subjected to a wide variety of abuses in a myriad of environments and still function reliably.

Weaknesses:

• High Recoil: The Hammerfire packs a punch, and with that punch comes a corresponding recoil. While not unmanageable with some practice, this recoil effectively reduces its practical rate of fire to below that of an average blaster rifle.
• Bulky: The Hammerfire is a fairly large and bulky weapon, making it more tiring to carry and slower to track against close-range targets than many blaster rifles, especially compact weapons like the classic E11.
• Reduce Ammunition Capacity: The Hammerfire needs more reloads than the average assault-style blaster rifle because it uses up more gas and power per shot in order to obtain its high power.

DESCRIPTION

The Hammerfire is Lucerne Personal Defense's version of a 'long blaster', known for their long range and high power. Originally conceived as yet another attempt to recreate the StarAnvil, the Hammerfire project quickly turned from simple duplication to adapting existing components to try and mimic its performance. To that end, the designers enlarged the XCiter to handle more blaster gas per shot and added a long series of precisely formed galven coils to improve bolt cohesion. This leads to improved damage per bolt and long range respectively. In order to match the StarAnvil's legendary durability, the design team veered far away from the original Star Anvil's design and used material advances such as synthetic Phrik and condensed-matter composite to improve basic receiver durability. Permex furniture added another layer of environmental and shock resistance. Internally, the Hammerfire uses Hadrium castings which are then precisely machined in order to better regulate thermal changes, making it reliable in a variety of extreme climates. Unfortunately, these changes also make the Hammerfire bulkier and kick heavier than the average blaster rifle.

These tradeoffs make Hammerfires exceptionally valuable when fighting in wide and open terrain, particularly on wild and untamed worlds. It has consequently become popular with wilderness fighters and expeditionary forces, many of whom like to style themselves as accomplished marksmen. Because of that, LPD sells the rifle with a variety of off the shelf scopes to its customers. With some practice, many users can hit targets at long ranges. More accomplished shooters or those with deeper pockets often upgrade the rifle's scope. Unsurprisingly, large numbers of Hammerfires have been sold to Silver Jedi and Directorate affiliated forces, but it has also seen moderate and steady sales to planetary security services and big-game hunters.