Items · Ranged Weapons · Non-Magical
PR-13 Plasma rifle
The mainstay of heavy weapon squads of the twenty-seventh century, the PR-13 Plasma Rifle permits a man to become a maestro of destruction.
Codex
Codex introduction
Full Item Description
Commissioned, ordered, and paid for by the Alliance military, the PR-13 was the first field-deployed plasma weapon in the history of Mankind.
Bearing a strong physical resemblance to the US flamethrowers of 1945, the plasma rifle consists primarily of two parts. First is the business end, which is little more than a stock, trigger, and two large chambers at each end of the ‘barrel’, the first of which creates and provides forwards propulsion to the superheated, ionized bolt of fluid, while creating a magnetic spin on the inside of the bolt, and the second of which which creates a hydrodynamic spin contra-rotational to the bolt’s magnetic flow, producing a blast which holds together for as long as it takes for the two angular momentums to interact and cancel out, about a hundred and fifty meters downfield.
The second part, the rather heavy backpack, powers the rest of it. A simple fission pile pellet reactor, the fuel on the PR-13 generally lasts about three days before the fissile chain sputters out, and usually requires the replacement of 10% of the pellets. While criticality excursions are considered impossible, it is possible for the insulation to not quite be as good as it ought to be, occasionally leading to radiation poisoning of the crew, and even out right burns on the bearer of the weapon - after all, the fissile pile does run at around 1000 C.
History
Commissioned at the very beginnings of the Scranja war, the PR-13 plasma rifle was the eventual winner in a research scrap to pierce the advanced armors worn by Scranja warriors. Unfortunately, it took many failed attempts, with many testers killed as previous incarnations melted down, exploded, or backfired.
It was while coming off a terrible hangover from a party involving mass amounts of ethanol and stripper tassels that the undergraduate who created the dually-spinning stabilization system that eventually made the PR-13 possible. He would, however, never publicly admit that it was the image of glittering, spinning tassels stuck in his mind that inspired the principle. Implemented with surprising quickness for the involved parties, the system made it possible to hold back the enemy’s ground forces for a time… all thanks to the three wise men and some glitter.
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- The Kel'Regar: A Sci-Fi look at Elves by Siren no Orakio Claimed alongside
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A useful weapon.
So, this plasma bolt, I am assuming that when the spins cancel out, there's a flash of plasma cloud that scorches things unlucky enough to be in the area, if not outright vaporizing the poor schmucks?
So, I could see this being of use to Oraki; would they be able to power it with their internal power cells? And Salvorathan might not find the malfunction if they've got a cooling thing between them and the power pack, since radiation is far less worrying to them...
Kudos for the bit about how the mechanism for containing the bolt was devised. I am quite amused.
Well, I had assumed it kind of fizzling out as it lost containment and kind of splashing a little bit as it dispersed, but nothing really impressive. As for the Oraki... Who knows? It would take a little bit of work.
I'm mostly going on the idea of it being dense enough to give a hydrodynamic spin; sufficient mass that, when freed of confinement, being superheated to a plasma form, it flashes out in a small-radius burst of plasma before the heat dumps into the surrounding area and it cool back down to a lot closer to background temperatures.
A nice stable piece of sci fi weapondry. Like all sci-fi toys, there is not much you can add to them or their description. Science fiction, like most science, is about the the facts and details. It is the classic, Sears. 14.99, line.).
However, when you read about the history of most "interesting pieces of technology" you always find interesting story tidbits or quirks of circumstance that can make "history/ technology come alive". Accidental inventions, oops like "Watson, come here! I want to see you!" after spilling the acid, and eureka moments changing things are what science is made of. That bit about the engineer is classic "history of technology" sort of stuff.
A solid piece of technology with an amusing backstory.