The Gun That Won The Outer Rim [Kerrigan]

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

The time finally came, throughout the years while the droid slept within his metal casket, waiting to be awakened when the Galaxy needed him the most, or apparently when Siobhan had to deal with a moderately difficult skirmish and she was bored, his servants on Abregado-Rae worked in their research labs and factories, furthering the works he left behind when he went into stasis.

And finally it bore fruit, the scientists at the Guild of Hammers finally made first prototypes of upgraded versions of the shatterguns the droid manufactured, particularly the shattergun pistol and rifle he had in production. The one limitation these guns had on them, their limited rate of fire, they were finally able to overcome it.

Abregado-Rae,
The Capital City, Guild of Hammers secret research lab,

HK was in a firing range, looking over the two prototypes presented to him, one was a large pistol, revolver from the looks of it, the other a rifle, with its trigger sitting in a lever. He called on Siobhan few hours ago, summoning her to give presentation of the new weapons he had for her and for Firemane.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


In all fairness, HK being woken up early meant that the droid was able to participate in the dramatic Omega battle! Besides, there'd been that one time when his metal casket had accidentally been misplaced. Siobhan preferred not to mention that embarrassing episode.


Anyhow, while he lazed around in his coffin, the researchers at the Guild of Hammers had continued their work. The company had gone through some changes during his slumber. A few locations had been added, others removed, a couple people hired or sacked and they'd reached tier three. But on the whole Siobhan had not interfered a lot since it already ran smoothly. Echani graphite and Herakles construction droids were a hit on the market.


Now that the backstory is out of the way, we shall move on with the actual plot. Siobhan's fancy high heels click-clacked on the floor as she strutted down the hallway, entering the firing range. "Oh, there you are. I see you're settling in well again, old friend! You said you had new toys for me." Her eyes fell upon the two guns the droid had with him. Despite being a classy lady in her late thirties, she looked a bit like a kid in a candy store.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

Besides, there'd been that one time when his metal casket had accidentally been misplaced. Siobhan preferred not to mention that embarrassing episode.

Wait, what? Never mind that,

The droid simply nodded at her question as he picked up the revolver,

"Yes, we were finally able to substantially increase the fire rate of our shatterguns."

Turning to the targets he raised the pistol, giving a demonstration, he pulled the trigger and the pistol fired, sending out six hyper-velocity pellets in quick succession, one burst that ripped a large hole within the target, the revolver didn't made much sound outside of the whir of its chamber spinning and the pellets hissing through the air. HK pulled with his thumb on a small lever behind the chamber of the gun, it spun full rotation again.

He put the pistol down on the table,

"We call them Magnetic Revolver and Magnetic Repeater. Are you familiar with the Volley Gun our Guild makes? That weird gun with seven barrels in honeycomb and a huge revolver chamber to help with reloading?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


"Yeah, I remember the Volley Gun. Awkward to use and hell of a recoil, but hits very hard. I take it that its design influenced these toys here?" she watched while HK demonstrated his new gun - a shatter revolver? One burst tore a large hole through its target. Presumably Revolver Ocelot, if he existed in this universe, would really approve of it.


"You know, I think I like the Magnetic Revolver." Never one to just watch when there were toys on display, she walked towards the magnetic repeater, picked it up and, after familiarising herself with the weapon for a moment or two, took aim and squeezed the trigger, blasting a target with rounds. As for the incident where HK's coffin was...misplaced, everyone involved had been forced to swear a pledge of silence. Of course, the eccentric droid might find out anyway!

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"Yes, that design and the principle behind our rotary cannons. We built a chamber into the gun and attached a portion of magnetic railing the gun can fire faster when the trigger is pulled. By including multiple railings, one magnetic accelerator can be ready for firing when the other already fired. However, we are still facing energy limitations multiple rails like that put on the system, that's why only portion of the magnetic rail can rotate. We were able to design the main firing railing to sustain the charge over multiple firing sequences. The pellets are loaded into the chamber automatically each time the gun fires normally, when the trigger is pulled and held then the chamber is emptied in one burst, the chamber can be then fully refilled by pulling on the lever behind it. The main magnetic railing does not need to recharge if the pellets are fired one at a time, but firing in quick succession after a burst requires the railing to cool down for a bit and recharge."

He explained and motioned to the lever the trigger was sitting in on the repeater,

"Pulling the lever and reloading the chamber gives enough time for the main rail to build up charge again, so the gun is good for another burst once the chamber is filled up. Same principle on the repeater, when the chamber is emptied in a burst it can be refilled by pulling on the lever and setting it back in place, otherwise it works as a semi-automatic."

He raised the magnetic revolver again, firing one at a time, the lever behind the chamber would cock and rest on its own after each round was fired, showing that it was loading pellets automatically, then the droid held the trigger and let out a burst as the chamber spun with a whir, he pulled on the lever and the chamber spun around again with another satisfying whir and mechanical clicking of its pellets.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


"Ok. I see. What's the revolver's weight like? The repeater is extremely heavy. That wouldn't be a problem for a droid, someone with super strength or power armour, but it would be for a common human. The place to store ammunition is quite big. What are the power requirements like? They must be high," she asked.


The weapon had plenty of punch, but she imagined these factors would restrict deployment. Besides, every tech sub needed weaknesses. She pulled the lever and reloaded the chamber of the railgun repeater, letting it charge up again, and fired. This time she was more prepared for the substantial recoil. Hyper-velocity pellets tore through a target like a hot knife through butter.


"I like the firepower. What's the heaviest armour these guns could realistically pierce or inflict significant damage on?" Obviously one had to keep in mind that just because a bullet could not pierce armour, it did not mean it could not harm the wearer through simple blunt trauma.


For instance, beskar armour was weak against kinetic damage. An armour-piercing bullet might not penetrate the heavy armour plating if it struck the wearer's chest, but it would inflict internal damage and that would hurt a lot! A jostled rib was enough to puncture a lung.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"The weight will not be much heavier than what the pistols and rifles we already have. But for the revolver, we will start producing a heavy variant to add extra firepower, probably doubly the weight or add half of it, and for the rifle we were going to make a carbine variant along with the standard rifle based on our current design to cut on the weight a bit, make it more manageable."

The droid spun the chamber as he looked over the revolver,

"Ammunition wise, the pellet cartridge will go into the stock, but yes at this point the ammunition storage is not the issue, the energy is, until we come up with something better, the energy pack needs to be swapped out every 30 shots or so, probably 15-20 if it is fired in all bursts, so there is still reloading, you are just not reloading the ammunition. Although that will run dry too eventually in longer battles, so pellet cartridges need to be carried."

HK looked over the magnetic barrel of the gun,

"Ammo piercing and firepower will be the same as with normal shatterguns we made. As much as I would love to add extra kick, our magnetic rails are already pretty much the most efficient we can make them, there's only so much power you can get electromagnets to generate with the energy limitations we have. So, the only way you can get more acceleration is to create a longer magnetic rail, which means bigger gun. The heavy revolver will get better penetration than the standard version, but the carbine repeater will not have as much kick as the rifle."

The machine looked at the repeater Sio was holding,

"Although that thing is much more of a sniper rifle anyway, I have tore through vehicles and bent Phrik plating in one shot with it before."

He shrugged,

"Other way to get more armor penetration is to make pellets out of stronger or heavier material like Phrik or Beskar, it needs to react to magnets though, so that is a whole another problem."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


Siobhan listened to the technobabble and could probably follow well enough. "Ok. I see. Funny that you should mention beskar. A Sith sniper fired a beskar pellet on Tempest during the Battle of Ruusan, when we led the charge into Olmondo. It hit her in the shoulder, damaged her beskar armour and she needed medical care, though she was able to rejoin the fight later on," she explained. That battle had been a mess and marked the beginning of the rift between Firemane and the Silver Coalition, which shortly thereafter become a Jedi theocracy.


"We weren't able to catch the sniper or recover the weapon, but we took the bullet as a souvenir. According to my researchers, what sets it apart from traditional shattergun ammo is that it incorporates beskar, which gave it improved armour piercing capabilities and meant that blocking it is nearly impossible. It was probably a limited edition ammo for a single weapon though. I believe we can forget about beskar for a number of reasons, but I've considered the possibility of phrik." Full-phrik-jacket lead bullets were an appealing thought, if it could be turned into a practical reality.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"Honestly, Beskar is better for shattergun ammo because for one thing, it is ferrous which means magnetic, so the whole pellet or bullet could be made from it, and for another, it is denser than Phrik, heavier ammo will pack much better punch at this speed than just harder ammo like Phrik."

He shrugged again,

"Too bad Mandalorians have monopoly on it, we would need to work out some sort of deal with them to make anything like that."

The droid shook his head,

"If I had access to ammo like that, I would not waste it like the Sith, there would not be any wounded to leave and tell the tale. Either way, even normal pellets are hard to block by lightsabers, they are so small and move so fast that very few Jedi have the reaction time and coordination to block it, pretty much just those who have precognition or are masters of the art. Either way, the firepower will be the same, this is just a pure fire rate upgrade, and hopefully accessibility upgrade. I think we should expand the production from just minor status."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


"Technically, I am a Mandalorian by adoption and Firemane has business relations with them. So I might be able to mine some beskar, but probably only in very limited quantities." Moreover, she'd consult some of her own researchers first to see how feasible the project would be. After all, it would mean a considerable investment.


"Anyhow, conventional pellets are perfectly adequate as it is. As you say, unless a Force-user is extremely specialised in precognition like, say, [member="Coryth Elaris"] or in Force-enhanced speed, they'll find it very difficult to dodge or block it in time," she tilted her head slightly.


"I can make the funds available to expand production. There's several ARGH designs that would benefit from greater availability, too. The Protectorate is gone, but the Galactic Alliance is a good market for the tech we make." This had surprised Siobhan a bit, since it was full of Jedi crusaders. However, she felt a grudging respect for them despite disagreeing with their ideology. They had a spine, unlike the hippies.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

The droid nodded,

"Good, I could call upon my past allegiances to them too, I hope they have not forgotten I was there strangling Sith and Deathwatch invaders when they nuked Mandalore and then brought the man responsible to justice."

Remotely the machine would activate a holographic political map of the Galaxy,

"I think we should think broader than just the Galactic Alliance, yes they are a viable and war-hungry market, but now we have two Mandalores waging for supremacy amongst the Clans, I say we use that and our ties to them to support the one true Lord Mandalore on his throne in Echoy'la with our weapon,"

He would look to Siobhan,

"For the price of building our factories within their territory, of course."

The droid motioned to the Outback then,

"There is also those filthy Spacers in the Kathol Sector. A ragtag bunch but I would trust them more than the One Order."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


Siobhan frowned. "I think you're a bit behind on events. Isley of Echoy'la gave up the claim to be Mandalore when the Clans anointed Ra Vizlsa. His group is pretty inert. Both Crusaders and Clans gave the Republic a beating at Kashyyyk."


In all fairness, HK had only been awake for a short time and a lot had happened! "Besides, to be frank, the Crusaders are suspect to me. Word is they collaborated with Sith monsters and criminal scum. I don't trust them. I'm close with the Clans, though. I've got contracts with them. So setting up factories in their territory should be easy. Firemane has offices on Mandalore."


She shrugged. "The Outback is a ragtag, disorganised bunch with neither a government nor a stable credit, but they got their paws on some powerful tech, such as ion cannons that ignore shields. We could make arrangements with the local governments in their sphere, like the Kathol Republic. The First Order are fascist scum who welcome Sith with open arms."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

The droid paused for a second,

"Ok, in all honesty, just between you and me-"

He raised his hand as if he was about to drop a bomb,

"I may or may not have had the Clans and Crusaders confused all this time and thought Ra Visla was the one with Echoy'la, so never mind that, there is only one true Mandalore, he sits on the throne in Mandalore, yadda-yadda."

The droid looked over the map again,

"Let us work with Clans and set up factories on Mandalore."

He shrugged,

"As to the Outback, let us talk with them, a lot of spacers would probably want a gun that can take down a Sith in one burst, does not cause explosions to blow up their ship, and is stylish like all Chaos."

He looked at Sio,

"Have you ever talked to those Kathol guys?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


Siobhan laughed. "Of course, HK. It's not at all just old age catching up with you!" In all fairness, the divisions between Mandalorians were more than a little confusing. Hence the True Mandalorian Fallacy. Almost as confusing as the divisions between the various Jedi.


"I haven't really had direct contact with the Outback. They're internal structure is a bit opaque. [member="Judah Dashiell"] does business in their territory though and Jorus Merrill is one of their military leaders."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

The droid put his hands on his hips,

"Well that is the sort of thing that happens when you do not let me slowly boot up as I should and instead drop me in the middle of a warzone to re-activate me."

The machine grumbled,

"Besides, I do not miss the Death Watch but I will say this, you could always tell who was who back in those days."

He shook his head,

"Either way, Judah and Jorus are still alive? Good, good, I see that people do not really die, but I always liked Judah. I do not really have strong feelings about Jorus,"

The droid rubbed the back of his metal head trying to recall anything,

"I remember he used a shotgun at least once in the past, but that is not really a personality trait is it?"

HK shrugged again,

"Should we contact them before or after we have the weapon on the market? If we will do it before, we can put it out with greater production if things go well, we have some prototypes ready to show it off."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


"[member="Judah Dashiell"]'s solid. Has a good head on his shoulders." This was quite a compliment since Siobhan was rather sexist. "Merill's alright. I'm sceptical about how much help the Outback can be when it comes to production. So they wouldn't be my first choice, unlike the Alliance and the Mandalorians. They keep saying they're poor. The cynic in me suspects it's because they want discounts, though if you think it's worth contacting them now, feel free. Best address Merrill or General Beyyr. That's a Wookiee."


The Outback fought the good fight, which Siobhan appreciated, but their lack of a clearly defined hierarchy made them a bit awkward to deal with from a business perspective. "You could demonstrate your prototypes' efficacy to the Alliance. They're about to launch an offensive to rid Boomis Koori IV of genocidal Imperial scum. That could be a good field test. And the Mandalorians are dealing with Sith cultists on Vjun."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

The droid nodded,

"Then Judah can be our in, I will try to entice the Wookiee with the bowcasters the Guild makes now. We do not need much help from them, we just need them to let us in. They have planets with people on them, we can hire them for our factories, then the products we make in their territory we sell back to them, they get their weapons, we get greater production capacity and profit."

He crossed his arms at his chest,

"At least if everything works well."

Then the droid would send a message to [member="Judah Dashiell"],

"Hey Judah, me and Siobhan were thinking about expanding into Outback territory, we have a couple of new guns they might be interested in, shatterguns that can fire in bursts, we were wondering if you could help us talk to one General Beyyr."

He would look back to Siobhan,

"I am not too worried about the Galactic Alliance, they have Protectorate remnant with them and their territory is right in my back yard, I could probably just sharpen a stick and they will be wiling to negotiate a manufacturing contract for it."

HK would look over the map again,

"The Mandalorians on the other hand are proud and stubborn, they might have difficult accepting weapons not made by Mandalorian hands. Besides, the Mandalores tend to easily forget the deals and promises made by their predecessors. I want to go into production with these weapons before I will show them to the Mandos, work out the bugs so everything goes smooth."

He would look to Siobhan,

"Maybe you should handle negotiating with Mandos and I will talk to Beyyr in the Unknown Regions and maybe Merrill if that will not be enough? Also, I think we should expand our Graphite production, our fletching plants on Abregado are reaching their capacity with the projects we have coming up."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


Siobhan was not sure how connected Judah was to the Underground's general staff or whether he'd want to play go-between, but it seemed the Iron Knight had already called him!


"Funny that you should mention graphite, there's been a lot of interest in it while you slept. Sold plenty of the graphite reinforced durasteel to the Mandos for a fortress they built on Wayland."


Well, Fort Monroe had fallen to Primeval, but the graphite bunkers had withstood an awesome amount of punishment! "MandalHypernautics has voiced interest in a very large supply contract. We've used the stuff a lot to reinforce critical areas of military installations, ships and so on. So I'd say we should definitely expand production. It's already difficult to keep up with our present projects."


She looked at the target that had been torn apart by a burst from the magnetic revolver. "Firemane and the Guild could jointly produce the shatter weapons, y'know. We've got lots of credits to throw around." Making deals with yourself was convenient, and she was not asking the droid to outsource production to the parent company. ARGH would still be able to produce and sell them independently, they'd just have Big Sister backing them up.


"By the way, the Eldorai Matriarchy may be interested in some of ARGH's melee weapons. Specifically the Spears of Rae and the new flails. They're upgrading the Angelii's arsenal, and are considering upgrades for traditional weapons such as the Sarix and the Sarzmigar since they're a bit dated."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"Really?"

The droid asked and shrugged,

"I always thought they were kind of chit. More of a by-product of our research into Graphite Body armor more than anything."

HK recounted their military research,

"We tried to just make a plate by binding the Graphite rods together, but they fell apart too easily, so we bound them in other metals, but that was too thick and heavy so we put it aside into building and vehicle construction. It was not until we were able to made them thin enough to twine wires that we spun first mash to reinforce durasteel plates, that was closer but still a bit impractical for personal armor."

He shrugged again,

"As to supplying the Eldorai with weapons, we just need to expand the production of Graphite, most of what we use comes through rods and shafts for weapons more than anything else. With more fletching facilities we will be able to keep up with production and expand the stock of what we already have. Our phrik mining facilities from the deal with Moross back in the day delivered, we have a stockpile of spearheads to supply both of our companies with the spears, at this point it is the graphite that is our only limitation."

The droid nodded, more to himself than Sio,

"Same goes for other weapons."

He would look aside towards a chest against one of the walls,

"Speaking of Graphite, there is something else I want to show you."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


HK's reaction made Siobhan burst out into laugher. "Yes, really. I suppose I'll forego telling my customers you think the stuff's chit!" Finally she composed herself as the droid continued speaking.


She gave him a nod. "That's acceptable. If we need more phrik as opposed to graphite at some point, Firemane has mines on Seltos and Gromas. I've also got my way on Arkania." It was neutral since the Republic had finally decided to give up the ghost.


Then HK said he had something to show her. Yay, a present! Well, probably not. Perhaps some day HK could make another painting for her. After all, she was nobility now. "Oh, what have you got for me?"