Reinhart HI // BRAP

It’s as long as a thesis! I don’t want to read this... TLDR: read the bolded bits.

It's a multirole combat weapon, designed to operate in space and on the ground by a trained operator.

You see, in the Wetware universe, contemporary kinetic weapons - the kind you are used to seeing - have largely been phased out of any space-related duties. The reason for this isn’t too difficult to understand.

• Space is now up close and personal - someone is being boarded...

A spaceship here can only be boarded once it has been largely disabled, due to the incredibly effective CIWS and defense systems. When that vessel is about to be boarded, whoever is operating that craft has the option to put the thing into a spin. This is usually done for several reasons.

They now have centrifugal gravity. Most military craft have two sections - a core, which is a cylinder running straight through the middle of the ship, and the rest, which spins around it separate of the core. This core is designed for centrifugal gravity, while the rest has the illusion of gravity when the ship is accelerating. Now that the craft is in a spin, there is 1 g perceived within the core, and multiple g’s in the rest of the ship.

The crew retreats into the core. Anyone who tries to board will have to try from either the front or rear of this core cylinder - because if they enter anywhere else, they will be anything from immobilized to crushed by the centrifugal forces.

Now you have a combat environment which is set within this ~1g centrifuge.

• Coriolis effect - and why that damn M1911 just keeps on missing.

Welcome the Coriolis effect. If someone fires a gun from one area within the cylinder to another above themself, they miss. Why, you may ask?

Unlike that individual and their target, the bullet is not influenced by the centrifugal force. It’s not actual gravity - the individual is being pushed into the floor in a way that they perceive it.

So the target and the individual are moving with the spinning floor. The bullet moves in a straight line from where it was fired towards… where the target was just now.

Normal bullets have too low of a velocity to hit what they need to. So you’ve got a few options to choose from.

• You have a choice - kinetic-electromagnetic or photonic rigs.

Keep in mind that battery and supercapacitor technology really panned out in this universe.

Light moves at light speed. It doesn’t care for how fast the cylinder is spinning - it will land where it is pointed at, always. So photonic rigs are very prevalent, mainly in the form of electrolasers and blasters, depending on what it’s going to be used for.

But that’s not what we’re here about. We want to increase the velocity of a kinetic projectile. We love that gorgeous brute force they come with. We want a multirole weapon, that can be used everywhere. For that, we will look into electromagnetic weapons (in this case - I’m sure other methods would exist.)

• Railguns (and Coilguns, I guess.)

A railgun is a weapon that… eh, who cares. It’s basically a weapon that uses electricity to fire a special bullet. The more electricity you put in, and the better your tech for shooting it into the rails is, the faster your slug (the special bullet) will go. Maybe even fast enough to not care about that pesky Coriolis effect.

You’ve also got coilguns, which are more durable and less dangerous - but they are also more complicated (which is a bad thing when it comes to guns) and less powerful (which is very important in our scenario!) So we’re throwing these out for now. They’re probably used in this universe too.

• The BRAP ^{BRAP BRAP BRAP…!}

The BRAP is one of these railguns. Finally, battery and supercapacitor technology has come to a point where it’s actually practical to lug one of these things around.

The weapon was designed and built by Reinhart Heavy Industries, a company which often receives contracts from the Federation of American Entities. The FAE is one of the most advanced nations in the Wetware universe when it comes to military… and basically any other kind of hardware. This weapon model in particular is used by some of the most advanced combat units known to man, in missions ranging from interplanetary warfare to exploration to guard duty.

• Optics

You could say that the weapon falls into the category of ‘smartgun’. In any environment, but especially in CQC in urban areas and spacecraft (what this gun was intended for), you’d want a way to look around corners, see ammunition count, among other things. The BRAP is fully digital. Ammo count, a reticle, charge, environmental data, and more are fully accessible through the integrated aperture or a wearable HUD.

A small camera is mounted into the front to allow a user to put the entire rifle around a corner and aim using their HUD. But it’s really simple. No zoom, no NV, nothing.

For that, the weapon can come equipped with a BlueShift RT-1. This device, which attaches to the upper rail, provides the user with zoom and NV (such as FLIR). Even better, it’s connected to the integrated system by wire and is accessible on its own if needed. To top it all off, it even folds over to the side if everything fails and the iron sights need to be used.

• Fire Select (and what other bits do)

There are close to a billion knobs and buttons on the gun. Each is responsible for something…

The fire selector has 4 settings. Ascending, they are Safe, Semi, Burst and Auto. The small switch next to it is a quick switch from subsonic to standard velocities. When set to subsonic, it is ideal for stealth missions where a minimal noise level is critical. For everything else - armor penetration, Coriolis-negation, and maximum accuracy is provided by the red option.

The small screen and the nearby bits on the side allows a user to view and adjust charge rates, charge levels, energy storage, ‘loss rate’, and other nonsense. It’s labelled ‘TEKKAG systems’ because that’s the company that’s responsible for making the majority of the rail-related electrical components.

It’s very adjustable and customizable - the cheekrest and stock can be moved to more favorable positions, and custom setting profiles can be switched between using a knob right in front of the trigger.

And the whole thing is presented in the style of an advertisement on a FAE planet. i.gyazo.com/6393dc64977dd2f8e7…

• Everything else should be pretty self explanatory, but ask away if you’ve got any questions.