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B.K. 10/20 Mass Accelerator Carbine [MAC]
Affiliation:
Federation
Commonwealth
Independent Mandalorian Clans
Civilian
Ownership:
Keller
Dom Valke
Intent:
Proof-of-concept, and to provide a slugthrower that, thematically, isn’t out of place in the Star Wars universe.
But mostly because I wanted a new rifle that was somewhere between a blaster and a slug gun for Keller.
Model:
B.K. 10/20 MAC
Beskar’Kyramud, 10/20 millimeter, magnetic acceleration carbine.
Type:
Slugthrower/Blaster Hybrid
Size:
A carbine of intermediate length, it is very slightly longer than an E-11 with its stock fully extended. Its weight is considerable, however, at 4 kilograms flat unloaded.
Composition:
A heavy duraplast shell and machined durasteel chassis makes the B.K. immensely heavy… But so sturdy it could literally be used to bludgeon a Stormtrooper to death. A mish-mash of electronic components are used within the scope and accelerator, though these are EM-hardened.
Range:
The B.K. can fire a 10MM slug to ~600 meters and hit a target the size of a dinner plate. Its 20MM slugs are less accurate, and are only useful out to ~200 meters.
Ammunition Capacity:
10MM ~ 20 rounds
OR
20MM ~ 8 rounds
Power Pak ~ 200 rounds
Description:
Tol, frustrated after his prized Verpine shatter gun as well as his blaster rifle broke down in the thick jungles of the Kushari moon of Ulbar, ‘acquired’ the prototype just long enough to make a functional copy. As a hunting weapon, it was an abysmal disappointment. Though able to punch clean through infantry armor, its kick was vicious, its rate of fire low, and it tended to simply disintegrate smaller animals.
Obviously, something better was necessary.
He went back to the drawing board; several months of work yielded a prototype weapon in a smaller caliber (10MM), but this came with its own problems and was never truly satisfactory. Progress stalled. The local community caught wind of the project and, having run out of blaster gas for their favored weapons, found themselves far keener on owning a Mandalorian-built variant of a Kushari weapon than on owning a purely Kushari weapon, especially if that weapon used ammunition less inconvenient to handle than slugthrower cartridges.
Tollin, with plenty of help at his side, set back to work. The weapon was freshly redesigned, using only the basic technology from the original Commonwealth weapon, and rebuilt as a flexible, multipurpose weapon of intermediate length and weight with a focus on durability and reliability. It took a full year of development, but after all that time - and many, many cases of ale - the B.K. was born.
A flexible, functional weapon, the B.K. is a middle ground between a traditional slugthrower and a blaster rifle. Unlike a blaster rifle, it does not make use of traditional blaster gas; a fuel slug, embedded in the base of each round, is instantly vaporized at the moment of firing by an ignition laser. The slug bursts into a dense cloud of plasma, contained partly by the slug’s semi-hollow base and the intense magnetic field generated by the rifle’s accelerator coils. The accelerator coils shape the plasma cloud as they accelerate both it and the slug downrange at an acceptable muzzle velocity - comparable to an ordinary blaster rifle for 10MM ammunition, and roughly on par with a heavy blaster pistol for 20MM.
The plasma cloud is elongated to form a distinctive envelope around the projectile, which is completely encased in green energy by the time it leaves the muzzle. The fired round is, as might be expected, extremely bright and extremely hot. The plasma jacket gives the slug a heavy punch against thin-skinned opponents, as it partly dissipates against the target’s hide and then finishes dissipating within the wound channel. This, combined with the shock of impact of the heavy slug, allows the B.K. to deal damage on par with - but not in excess of - a heavy blaster rifle when firing 20MM slugs, and to be on equal footing with ordinary blaster rifles when using 10MM ammunition.
Neither 10 nor 20MM are capable against shields; particle shields stop the physical component of the round entirely and disperse its energy component. Ray shields only strip the energy component away, but they leave the projectile to carry on at a reduced velocity and with a loss of energy, rendering it only effective against the most lightly armored of targets. Any rifle-proof body armor is sure to stop it in its tracks. Pistol-proof armor has some chance against 10MM rounds slowed by ray shields, but will struggle to stop a 20MM slug after it's passed through a ray shield.
The weapon recycles fast enough that it can be fired as quickly as one can pull the trigger - automatic fire is enabled for use of 10MM ammunition, this having a rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute. The trigger is two-stage, with a light pull producing semi-automatic fire and a full squeeze producing fully automatic fire. For simplicity’s sake, no burst fire option is included.
While its ability to tackle game is very useful indeed, sometimes absolute obliteration is a necessity. To that end, the gunsmiths responsible for the B.K. fitted a Kushari 40MM gyrojet grenade projector to the weapon’s underside. Capable of holding a single 40x100MM gyrojet grenade, this weapon can fire its projectile out to a useful distance of 500M with a relatively flat trajectory, though the round is heavily affected by wind.
Rounds available are HEAT-DP, HE-FRAG, Smoke, and White Phosphorous, though Mandalorian gunsmiths have devised a truly dickish round for it: A glop rocket, with all the less-lethal messy goodness of a traditional glop grenade. Luma rockets are also available for illuminating dark battlefields, as are ‘wild weasel’ rounds designed to emulate the IR and radio signature of an active human combatant - complete with sound! It’s worth noting, however, that Wild Weasel projectiles have a short duration of 30 seconds upon activation. They harmlessly self-destruct after their power runs out, utterly incinerating their vital components by use of a few grams of thermite paste.
While all the firepower strapped to the B.K. is impressive, it’s useless without a means to direct it to the target. That’s where the optical package comes in. Rather than design their own, the gunsmiths purchased M99 Hawkeye gunsights as used on the XM2091 Lawbreaker rifle, a Kushari plasma weapon manufactured by Alda Industries.
This optic, the M99 Hawkeye, has a shockproof, electromagnetically hardened alloy casing that is just as rugged as the rifle it is mounted to. Its viewscreen and optical ports are made of transparisteel and are furnished with a self-cleaning energy system, which wipes away condensation, dust, and anything else that might hamper the use of the sight. It is a wide-relief sight with multiple levels of zoom and a Kushari-standard ‘triangle-dot reticule’ - the reticule is set for 25M. Inside that distance, the shooter need only put inverted triangle over the target and blast away, as the top and bottom of the triangle are, at 25M, a distance equal to that of the length of a man’s torso as measured between his shoulders and belt. Beyond that range, the shooter aims with the small dot within the center of the triangle.
This allows it to function as both a reflex optic and a proper scope without the need to fuss over reticules - though it is entirely possible to swap to alternative reticules if desired, and many B.K. users opt for reticules identical to those used on Mandalorian weapons.
The M99 optic is a 'smart' optic and comes with its own rangefinder and haze reduction system, allowing it to peer through thin clouds of fog or smoke and battlefield dust - smoke grenades are still effective against it. The scope can sync up to a soldier's armor to provide information on the rifle's status, ammunition load, and a targeting reticule in the soldier's HUD.
Should the scope fail, the shooter can knock it off to expose a pop-up collaminating gunsight. This primitive, but effective, chunk of transparisteel gathers ambient light and projects it as a bright reticule; it is used like a traditional unmagnified reflex optic.
As the weapon has a minimum of moving parts and plenty of excess internal space designed solely to ‘take grime’ - that is, give a place for mud and sand to go - it is both extremely reliable and easy to repair and modify. Maintenance is as simple as popping the weapon into its upper and lower halves, and no further disassembly is typically required.
There is one hiccup insofar as reliability is concerned, and that is in its feed system. Any attempt made to mix 20 and 10mm ammunition inside a single magazine leads to severe jamming, which can rarely be cleared without field-stripping the weapon entirely. It's therefore advised to never, under any circumstances, attempt to mix and match calibers in a magazine. The weapon is completely reliable when loaded solely with one caliber or the other, however.
Overall, B.K. series rifles are rugged, reliable, and hard-hitting, but they’re expensive and hard to find. Their price is constantly dropping, though, as several Kushari concerns have acquired the rights to manufacture these weapons under license. Still, they typically command a price of 12,000 credits per weapon.
Ammunition is dirt cheap, however, with each weapon coming with 20 spare magazines and the data files necessary to manufacture ammunition using simple, inexpensive machine tools and metal printing equipment. On average, it costs a well-equipped shop some 100cR to produce 500 rounds of 10MM ammunition, and 100cR to produce 200 rounds of 20MM ammunition.
Replacement parts are hard to find, but due to the overall simplicity of the weapon it wouldn’t be difficult for a competent machinist to simply manufacture a replacement - gunsmithing skills not required.
Ammunition Available:
Note that all rounds are tracers due to the fuel slug in their base.
20MM ammunition with an explosive component will not detonate in soft targets (read: player characters) under any circumstances due to fuze insensitivity.
10MM: FMJ, JSP (soft point, hunting round), AP, API
20MM: FMJ, JSP, API, API-HE, HEI, Canister (buckshot for all practical intents and purposes), Tracker Dart,
Addendum: If necessary, a piton or grapnel with a 10MM shaft may be muzzle-loaded into an unloaded B.K. and fired vertically up to 100 meters. Grenades fitted for use in the Imperial DC-11S blaster may also be fired through the B.K. by use of its magnetic accelerator coil.
The weapon has rail mounts and provision for a side-mounted bayonet, which can be used without necessitating the removal of the UGL.
A small targeting laser/taclight combo is integrated into the scope.
The scope can set the fuze on 'smart' HE rounds for the grenade launcher. A small control screen with a mix of touchscreen and button controls can be affixed to the weapon for the purpose of manipulating the UGL and any 'smart' munitions used. It can also be programmed to lock out the rifle unless a specific access code is entered or a biometric sensor is triggered by the owner, though for obvious reasons nearly nobody uses the lock function.
Note that all rounds are tracers due to the fuel slug in their base.
20MM ammunition with an explosive component will not detonate in soft targets (read: player characters) under any circumstances due to fuze insensitivity.
10MM: FMJ, JSP (soft point, hunting round), AP, API
20MM: FMJ, JSP, API, API-HE, HEI, Canister (buckshot for all practical intents and purposes), Tracker Dart,
Addendum: If necessary, a piton or grapnel with a 10MM shaft may be muzzle-loaded into an unloaded B.K. and fired vertically up to 100 meters. Grenades fitted for use in the Imperial DC-11S blaster may also be fired through the B.K. by use of its magnetic accelerator coil.
The weapon has rail mounts and provision for a side-mounted bayonet, which can be used without necessitating the removal of the UGL.
A small targeting laser/taclight combo is integrated into the scope.
The scope can set the fuze on 'smart' HE rounds for the grenade launcher. A small control screen with a mix of touchscreen and button controls can be affixed to the weapon for the purpose of manipulating the UGL and any 'smart' munitions used. It can also be programmed to lock out the rifle unless a specific access code is entered or a biometric sensor is triggered by the owner, though for obvious reasons nearly nobody uses the lock function.
As a final note on its availability, license-produced B.K.'s are rare outside of Kushari space but not impossible to acquire, with their cost generally running in the tens of thousands of credits outside the Kushari's home system. (15-20k per rifle isn't uncommon.) Still, they're out there, they're available, and they can be bought by any PC's with the will and money to do so.
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