Commodore Helix
Disintegrations done dirt cheap.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a handheld or vehicle-mounted anti-armor option for Helix Solutions
- Image Source: GregoryTrusov
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Helix Solutions
- Affiliation: Helix Solutions
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: M3S Ironbreaker
- Modularity: No
- Production: Limited
- Material: Durasteel, Phrik, Railgun Components
- Classification: Railgun
- Size: Average
- Weight: Heavy
- Ammunition Type: Sabot Darts
- Ammunition Capacity: Very Small (Four Darts)
- Effective Range: Long Range
- Rate of Fire: Very Low
- Damage Output: Extreme
- Recoil: Very High
- Built-in rangefinder and electronic sight, able to be synced to a droid's photoreceptors or a helmet's visor to have a targeting reticule appear in real-time in the user's vision.
- Able to be mounted to vehicles or droids with relative ease.
Can Opener: The Ironbreaker strikes with almost unbelievable violence, utilizing a powerful internal battery and highly efficient magnetic conduction rails. It is fully capable of penetrating the armor of all but the heaviest (or best shielded) vehicles, and even infantry whose armor it cannot penetrate will likely suffer serious injury from kinetic force alone.
Accurate: A well-engineered and precise weapon, the Ironbreaker is capable of striking infantry or armor targets with reasonable effectiveness at distances in excess of 3km in skilled hands, though the stated effective range is closer to .5km for most users.
WEAKNESSES
Cooldown: The incredible temperatures generated by the firing process must be vented after every shot, a process taking nearly ten full seconds as the weapon blasts air hot enough to melt paint (or flesh) out of small vents in the receiver. This can make the weapon nearly intolerable to use for organic wielders not armored against high temperatures, not to mention the dangers of such a lengthy firing period in combat...
Slow reload: Compounding the above difficulty, the weapon must be reloaded when empty (like all weapons) but this process can only be accomplished when the venting is finished, and requires removal of the battery beforehand.
Staggering: The Ironbreaker's force projection is fearsome, but force goes both ways. The weapon requires incredible physical strength, a comfortable prone stance, or being mounted on a vehicle to use with any kind of accuracy.
DESCRIPTION
Originally designed for use in the B3S Droideka, Helix quickly saw the virtues of this weapon in other areas, and lost no time in pushing it into production.
Accurate, deadly, and terrifying to face down, the Ironbreaker is Helix's own take on the classic railgun, and a rare example of a Helix creation that isn't a refinement of a CIS design. The rifle is long, bulky, unergonomic, and somewhat cumbersome to use, but its other virtues become apparent when turned on an unfortunate armored target.
Designed at first for the purposes of combating super-heavy infantry or medium vehicles after several encounters with Mandalorian sellswords went poorly, the weapon broke onto the scene with a bang, and succeeded beyond Helix's wildest expectations. Accepting bulky sabot dart ammunition approximately the dimensions of a human index finger, the weapon uses magnetic propulsion along rails, reinforced with small quantities of heat-resistant phrik, to project the ammunition at nearly 7 km/s, inflicting horrendous kinetic damage upon whatever is in its way.
Vehicles are the weapon's ideal targets, and the sheer violence of impact is capable of penetrating all but the heaviest of armor or shielding, punching through one side of a vehicle and out the other. Dark stories of crews being sucked out of their vehicle through the fist-sized exit holes this weapon creates by the force of its slipstream effect are doubtless exaggerated, but nonetheless have their effect on the morale of vehicle crews facing down this armor-piercing terror.
Armored infantry will fare little better, with those few protected robustly enough to survive the shot likely being hurled to the ground if it manages to connect. Such targets may suffer shattered bones and serious organ damage as the kinetic force transfers through the armor despite failing to penetrate.
Helix combat doctrine officially advises against using this weapon on unarmored infantry, as while the flamboyantly-gruesome results are amusing to Helix battle droids, they are also wasteful, and personnel discovered to have used the weapon in this way are subject to disciplinary action, in the unlikely event they survive the return fire while the weapon cools off.
Said cooldown takes a period that most sane armies would find intolerable, approximately ten seconds, and in doing so vents the waste heat from the firing process uncomfortably close to the user's forearms and face. This can be unpleasant even for droids, the weapon's intended users, and Ironbreaker gunners are often marked by the blackened metal of their forearms, something of a mark of pride among Helix droid troops. For organics, heavy thermal shielding is necessary to use the weapon with any degree of comfort, largely prohibiting its spread on the wider market.
The weapon's second major flaw is the thunderous recoil. While railgun weapons are slightly less punishing in this regard than a slugthrower of equal energy, that equal and opposite reaction must go somewhere, and using this weapon while on the move is an exercise in futility for all but the mightiest users. Droids are advised to kneel and brace themselves, or ideally be prone, to fire it with anything like precision.
Finally, the reload process is somewhat intensive, lacking the sophisticated autofeed system of the droideka-carried version. The weapon accepts box magazines containing four sabot darts, into a "bullpup" arranged receiver, but beforehand the battery must be disconnected to do so, then reconnected afterward, a process adding another five or so seconds to the already glacially slow cooldown period. Users are advised not to reload unless under very competent cover from their comrades.
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