Post by MikDaTv on Apr 1, 2013 14:10:26 GMT -5
GSR-20
Overview – General Synthetics developed a Gravity Spike Launcher for use as a survey tool during mining. The launcher was capable of driving long metal spikes into solid rock several feet to act as markers for a survey or salvage team. These GSL’s eventually found use in other fields, such as making holes for explosives during a mining operation, or as line launchers for climbing purposes. The GS GSL was such a versatile tool that GS decided to see if they could turn it into an effective weapon.
The offspring of that particular line of research was the GSR-20. The Gravity Spike Launcher uses artificial gravity technology, similar to that used in Verpine Shatter Guns except instead of launching simple bullets or rounds, the GSR still fires spikes. The advantage of spikes over simpler bullets is that they have more mass for a greater impact and it’s much easier to customize them with various technology.
The downside with the GSR-20, as with most accelerator weapons, is that they require frequent maintenance. The Repulsor arrays that line the barrel push against one another as they accelerate a round which causes stress on the barrel itself. Also, the round is accelerated so quickly that heat from friction builds up in the barrel after constant use, as well as in the repulsors due to the charge flowing through them. Frequent maintenance negates this defect, but this isn’t the type of gun you can bury in the sand and expect it to still work a year later.
General Synthetics had a hard time selling it to military’s since it would require them to purchase the ammunition for it as well, instead of simply charging power packs for blaster weapons. The gun however saw huge sales in the civilian markets where they were legal and private military companies as well. They also became popular among freelance bounty hunters, private investigators, mercenaries and assassins.
Ammunition – The GSR-20 fires spikes made from titanium with a lead core. The spikes are about 4 inches long but only a 1/5th of an inch in diameter and pointed in order to achieve maximum armor penetration. To maintain accuracy, each spike has rifling grooves cut into it rather than the barrel itself. This allows for two things. First, the round maintains a good spin in the air to maintain accuracy over long range. Second, the groves are cut into the metal, so when they stick into a target, the grooves act as a sort of blood outlet, letting blood flow more freely rather than the spike itself plugging the wound.
One of the keen advantages of using a spike is that the spikes can be customized to suit a task. Weight can be front loaded in order to increase overall armor penetration. Tracking devices can be added in order to stick a tracker to a target. The spikes can be coated in magnesium to create incendiary rounds. Even small explosives can be added to create an explosive spike.
The average round impacts with enough force that it renders most armor completely moot. It’s sharp tip and incredible speed can penetrate most any light armor at short to medium ranges. Even Mandalorian armor made from Besker can be penetrated with a spike more easily than a blaster bolt. Even if the spike doesn’t penetrate, whoever is wearing the armor certainly won’t be happy after the impact.
Ammunition includes, but is not limited too…
Fracture Rounds – These spikes fracture right after leaving the barrel of the gun creating a shotgun spread like effect. The mass of each individual round is much lower and therefore has much shorter range than a normal round. When the spike separates, the rounds deform slightly, further increasing it’s deceleration and decreasing it’s armor penetration. At 20 meters the spread reaches out to an average of 8 inches.
Tracker Rounds – The Spike is normal in most respects except a radio beacon is attached to its back end. The beacon allows for short range tracking of the target using radio triangulation. Useful for tracking ships or other vehicles so long as they stay active and within range of your triangulation.
Explosive Rounds – The spikes core is pulled out and replaced with a core of explosive. The round is detonated on a timer which activates after impact via blasting cap that triggers upon sudden deceleration. The explosive detonates .00013 seconds after initial impact. This allows the round enough time to penetrate some armor before exploding. Due to the small amount used, the explosive itself isn’t doesn’t explode very big, but it is high speed to facilitate armor damage and concussive shockwaves.
Incendiary Rounds – The spike is coated in a layer of magnesium. The high speed friction through the air sets the magnesium alight and when the spike impacts, the burning magnesium shell sticks too, or shatters all around whatever the spike hits. Magnesium burns at 3,100 °C, hot enough to melt most other metals and can easily start fires in flammable materials.
Heavy Penetrators – Loaded with depleted uranium cores instead of lead, these rounds have much more mass and impact with a lot more force, but travel at a slower speed and have a shorter range. The spikes tip is sharpened more than the average round and the increased mass gives it much more penetrating power than a normal round. Capable of piercing cleanly through some starship hulls.
LTL Rounds – Less Than Lethal Rounds are designed for police forces. These rounds powderize almost as soon as their achieve max velocity (right after it leaves the barrel). The powder is still traveling at super high speed and each partial inflicts the same amount of force but over a much more spread out area. These rounds are very short range with a max effective range of about 20 meters. The cloud impacts a target at speed and is designed to not only push them off their feet, but also blast their body with super fast metal powder. Bad for the eyes, nose, mouth and skin. Protective gear is recommended when using these as some blowback is possible in windy conditions or indoors.
Operation – The butt of the stock pulls out to reveal the loading breach. Spikes are loaded into the stock via a simple stripper clip and the butt is then closed. Each stripper clip holds 50 spikes in a side by side formation. Cycling the bolt once loads the first spike into the firing chamber and the weapon is ready to fire.
Pulling the trigger sends a signal which activates the primary firing repulsor which launches the spike through the barrel which is lined with rings of repulsor arrays which activate in sequence to accelerate the round. It achieves a muzzle velocity of nearly 2,500 meters per second. An internal inertial compensator cancels out most of the recoil, leaving just enough to give the shooter a sensation of the gun being fired.
The weapon is semi-automatic. While it’s possible to make a fully automatic weapon, the stress on the barrel would cause degradation to the point that it would only be able to fire for a few minutes before needing maintenance. Keeping it semi-automatic cuts down on heat generation and stress on the rings.
Each spike leaves a semi-bright trail behind it as it travels. To the naked eye this resembles laser likes streaks from the barrel of the gun to the point of impact. This is in fact plasma generated by the friction through the air that gets caught up in the low pressure zone behind the round created by the spikes travel through the air. In daylight this plasma is only just barely visible and dissipates quickly but in the dark or low lit rooms it is much more visible and can be quite spectacular.
Engaging the safety cuts power to the Repulsor system making the weapon incapable of firing. Cycling the bolt with a spike already loaded in the firing chamber will eject the spike from an ejection port on the right hand side of the gun.
Power for the gun is provided by an internal, rechargeable power cell. On a full charge, the cell has enough power to facilitate 2,000 shots. If a power source is not available, the power cell can be preplaced with a fresh one, although this can be time consuming as the power cell is built into the gun.
Accessories – As the GSR-20 is the base model and is more of a proof of concept, it wasn’t built with modularity in mind. It has no exterior hard points for mounting devices. It has a built in scope which uses a fiber optic sensor just above the barrel to provide a simple 3X zoom. On the underside of the gun there is a flashlight and laser targeting system which displays it’s info on the scope readout. There is no built in customization features for any of these systems. Future designs my incorporate more options, but the Model 20 is pretty set in stone.
Overview – General Synthetics developed a Gravity Spike Launcher for use as a survey tool during mining. The launcher was capable of driving long metal spikes into solid rock several feet to act as markers for a survey or salvage team. These GSL’s eventually found use in other fields, such as making holes for explosives during a mining operation, or as line launchers for climbing purposes. The GS GSL was such a versatile tool that GS decided to see if they could turn it into an effective weapon.
The offspring of that particular line of research was the GSR-20. The Gravity Spike Launcher uses artificial gravity technology, similar to that used in Verpine Shatter Guns except instead of launching simple bullets or rounds, the GSR still fires spikes. The advantage of spikes over simpler bullets is that they have more mass for a greater impact and it’s much easier to customize them with various technology.
The downside with the GSR-20, as with most accelerator weapons, is that they require frequent maintenance. The Repulsor arrays that line the barrel push against one another as they accelerate a round which causes stress on the barrel itself. Also, the round is accelerated so quickly that heat from friction builds up in the barrel after constant use, as well as in the repulsors due to the charge flowing through them. Frequent maintenance negates this defect, but this isn’t the type of gun you can bury in the sand and expect it to still work a year later.
General Synthetics had a hard time selling it to military’s since it would require them to purchase the ammunition for it as well, instead of simply charging power packs for blaster weapons. The gun however saw huge sales in the civilian markets where they were legal and private military companies as well. They also became popular among freelance bounty hunters, private investigators, mercenaries and assassins.
Ammunition – The GSR-20 fires spikes made from titanium with a lead core. The spikes are about 4 inches long but only a 1/5th of an inch in diameter and pointed in order to achieve maximum armor penetration. To maintain accuracy, each spike has rifling grooves cut into it rather than the barrel itself. This allows for two things. First, the round maintains a good spin in the air to maintain accuracy over long range. Second, the groves are cut into the metal, so when they stick into a target, the grooves act as a sort of blood outlet, letting blood flow more freely rather than the spike itself plugging the wound.
One of the keen advantages of using a spike is that the spikes can be customized to suit a task. Weight can be front loaded in order to increase overall armor penetration. Tracking devices can be added in order to stick a tracker to a target. The spikes can be coated in magnesium to create incendiary rounds. Even small explosives can be added to create an explosive spike.
The average round impacts with enough force that it renders most armor completely moot. It’s sharp tip and incredible speed can penetrate most any light armor at short to medium ranges. Even Mandalorian armor made from Besker can be penetrated with a spike more easily than a blaster bolt. Even if the spike doesn’t penetrate, whoever is wearing the armor certainly won’t be happy after the impact.
Ammunition includes, but is not limited too…
Fracture Rounds – These spikes fracture right after leaving the barrel of the gun creating a shotgun spread like effect. The mass of each individual round is much lower and therefore has much shorter range than a normal round. When the spike separates, the rounds deform slightly, further increasing it’s deceleration and decreasing it’s armor penetration. At 20 meters the spread reaches out to an average of 8 inches.
Tracker Rounds – The Spike is normal in most respects except a radio beacon is attached to its back end. The beacon allows for short range tracking of the target using radio triangulation. Useful for tracking ships or other vehicles so long as they stay active and within range of your triangulation.
Explosive Rounds – The spikes core is pulled out and replaced with a core of explosive. The round is detonated on a timer which activates after impact via blasting cap that triggers upon sudden deceleration. The explosive detonates .00013 seconds after initial impact. This allows the round enough time to penetrate some armor before exploding. Due to the small amount used, the explosive itself isn’t doesn’t explode very big, but it is high speed to facilitate armor damage and concussive shockwaves.
Incendiary Rounds – The spike is coated in a layer of magnesium. The high speed friction through the air sets the magnesium alight and when the spike impacts, the burning magnesium shell sticks too, or shatters all around whatever the spike hits. Magnesium burns at 3,100 °C, hot enough to melt most other metals and can easily start fires in flammable materials.
Heavy Penetrators – Loaded with depleted uranium cores instead of lead, these rounds have much more mass and impact with a lot more force, but travel at a slower speed and have a shorter range. The spikes tip is sharpened more than the average round and the increased mass gives it much more penetrating power than a normal round. Capable of piercing cleanly through some starship hulls.
LTL Rounds – Less Than Lethal Rounds are designed for police forces. These rounds powderize almost as soon as their achieve max velocity (right after it leaves the barrel). The powder is still traveling at super high speed and each partial inflicts the same amount of force but over a much more spread out area. These rounds are very short range with a max effective range of about 20 meters. The cloud impacts a target at speed and is designed to not only push them off their feet, but also blast their body with super fast metal powder. Bad for the eyes, nose, mouth and skin. Protective gear is recommended when using these as some blowback is possible in windy conditions or indoors.
Operation – The butt of the stock pulls out to reveal the loading breach. Spikes are loaded into the stock via a simple stripper clip and the butt is then closed. Each stripper clip holds 50 spikes in a side by side formation. Cycling the bolt once loads the first spike into the firing chamber and the weapon is ready to fire.
Pulling the trigger sends a signal which activates the primary firing repulsor which launches the spike through the barrel which is lined with rings of repulsor arrays which activate in sequence to accelerate the round. It achieves a muzzle velocity of nearly 2,500 meters per second. An internal inertial compensator cancels out most of the recoil, leaving just enough to give the shooter a sensation of the gun being fired.
The weapon is semi-automatic. While it’s possible to make a fully automatic weapon, the stress on the barrel would cause degradation to the point that it would only be able to fire for a few minutes before needing maintenance. Keeping it semi-automatic cuts down on heat generation and stress on the rings.
Each spike leaves a semi-bright trail behind it as it travels. To the naked eye this resembles laser likes streaks from the barrel of the gun to the point of impact. This is in fact plasma generated by the friction through the air that gets caught up in the low pressure zone behind the round created by the spikes travel through the air. In daylight this plasma is only just barely visible and dissipates quickly but in the dark or low lit rooms it is much more visible and can be quite spectacular.
Engaging the safety cuts power to the Repulsor system making the weapon incapable of firing. Cycling the bolt with a spike already loaded in the firing chamber will eject the spike from an ejection port on the right hand side of the gun.
Power for the gun is provided by an internal, rechargeable power cell. On a full charge, the cell has enough power to facilitate 2,000 shots. If a power source is not available, the power cell can be preplaced with a fresh one, although this can be time consuming as the power cell is built into the gun.
Accessories – As the GSR-20 is the base model and is more of a proof of concept, it wasn’t built with modularity in mind. It has no exterior hard points for mounting devices. It has a built in scope which uses a fiber optic sensor just above the barrel to provide a simple 3X zoom. On the underside of the gun there is a flashlight and laser targeting system which displays it’s info on the scope readout. There is no built in customization features for any of these systems. Future designs my incorporate more options, but the Model 20 is pretty set in stone.