Arms and Armament

Choosing personal armaments in the Age of Convergence is a matter of cost, practicality, utility, and even fashion and subculture. Walking around with a gravitic sling sends a different signal than a D-HEW to potential adversaries. Nanite Swarm Weapons make robots nervous, while lasers are the weapon of salt-of-the-earth farmboys and smugglers. Below are the memetics and other considerations regarding costs and usage of the various weapons available in the Age of Convergence.

Ranged Weapons

"Civilian" Weapons

These weapons are generally legal to carry anywhere that weapons are allowed. They are considered personal weapons, civilian weapons (despite the fact that most militaries use Lasers as a staple service carbine), and self-defense weapons. A man walking into a spaceport bar with a D-HEW on his hip won't get a second glance.

Laser Weapons: These weapons are considered the 'standard' of the day. They are a 'rural' weapon, giving impressions of no-nonsense, simplicity, and a lack of sophistication or nuance. They are the weapon of Line Infantry and farm-colony militias, and the lower class. They're considered a blunt instrument, and convey this to their users. The primary reason for this impression is the fact that they're cheap. Yute, Seneca, Lister Unified has schematics for all basic Laser Weapons, they make the most efficient use of Quantum-Matrix Battery, and they're deadly enough for a gunfight while not being unnecessarily messy or damaging to collateral.

Directed Hyperdense Electron Weapons: These are standard weapons among security professionals, police, starship defenders, etc. They are minimal collateral weapons, and their variable-setting ability makes them versatile both for employing a wide variety of escalations and for energy conservation. Despite being able to technically do more damage than a similar sized laser weapon, these are sometimes seen as less intimidating than lasers, as the option to stun is employed more often than the disintegrate setting. It also, in the mind of the public at least, makes the wielder more culpable should they decide to escalate too far too fast. A D-HEW is a professional's weapon, with professional responsibilities.

Neural Weaponry: Neural Weaponry's impressions in the zeitgeist are separated into two categories: those who have experienced them and those who haven't. Those who haven't experienced them view them with a sense of curiosity and perhaps humor. A weapon that primarily induces panic on the order of losing control of one's bladder or a weapon that can induce mind-blowing ecstasy may seem hilarious or at the very least non-threatening. The fact that Venusian Defense Forces are often somewhat trigger happy with their NeuroStims doesn't seem so horrifying to those facing down Gravity Slings on Mars. However, those who have been on the receiving end often find them paticularly violating and deeply personal. Having a sense of panic imposed on one's mind, particularly someone who is normally stoic and calm, can be damaging to their sense of self. The imposed panic or just stunning effects of various Neural Weapons can be psychologically damaging, but NeuroStims' induced ecstasy and their potentially addictive nature along with the possibility of 'burning out' the target's ability to feel joy at all are terrifying prospects to anyone who actually understands them.

Smart Weapons: Smart Weapons have a mythologized place in the hands of outlaws and engineers. The versatility of various 15mm Rounds is legendary and the skill required of those using Gyroc Guns, which are just Smart Weapons with no intelligence attached, is legendary. These are the weapons of outlaws, engineers, gadgeteers, and cowboys. Bountineers in particular favor these as 'dead or alive' is a simple matter of which round is in the chamber. Costs and space can be prohibitive for users of these weapons, and the bullets are notably heavy.|

"Weapons of War"

These weapons are considered more at home on a battlefield than a seedy bar. Rightly or wrongly, people who are carrying them attract attention as if they're on a mission and expecting violence. They also are considered to have too much collateral for use outside of a battlefield.

Gravitic Slingers: The lonsdaelite rods of Gravitic Slingers and the sheer weight of math around their acceleration and mass are terrifying. Their habit of overpenetration and their extreme ranges and the mangled remains they leave behind all combine to make the authorities and public nervous. Serious, calloused killers use Gravitic Slingers. The ammunition costs can be prohibitive, but can be manufactured with Fabricators.

Nanite Swarm Weaponry: These aren't considered so much a weapon of war as a weapon that should only be used narrowly. Using it against a human being is considered an unthinkably heinous act. They are most often used by Freelance Artificial Intelligence Compliance Agents for use hunting glitched Synthetics and Unshackled AIs. Both of these may react to the presence of an NSW with violence or social/combative maneuvers whether the wielder is actually an FAICA or not.

Particle Weapons: These weapons were meant as anti-vehicle weapons, and they fulfill that role beatifully. They are also notably bad at containing damage to specific small targets. This means that someone walking around with a Blaster Pistol swinging on their hip is likely something of a monster who doesn't care who gets hurt in a fight, so long as the one they're facing off with dies at the end. The ammunition blocks can be expensive for the truly trigger happy, but not as much per shot as a Gravitic Sling. That being said, the batteries are expensive and a little bulky, and even the holdout blasters aren't particularly comfortable.

Gravitationally Excited Barium Accelerator: The "GEBA" is not only a 'weapon of war' but also a proscribed weapon in most planetary systems. It is legal to carry in Wolf, Neptune and Pluto, though depending on the context the carrier is likely to get a wide berth. The weapon is anti-personnel, but the damage it does is disfiguring and toxic, and can lead to toxic environmental effects.

Melee Weapons

Electron-Sheathe Weapons: Electron-Sheathe Weapons' context is crime and enforcement. Like D-HEWs, they are mostly wielded by police officers and starship security. Their variable settings, stun, and pain compliance possibilities make them ideal as less than lethal weapons but their ability to slice through armor on the Focus setting means that the wielder doesn't have to switch to another weapon when encountering armor. The ESW Shillelagh is, however, seen as a weapon of terrorists and rebels, and is somewhat feared as a result.

Molecular-Ceramic Blade Technology: MCBs are ubiquitous, particularly in the forms of knives and bayonets. Larger weapons like longswords and katanas are often snickered at as the weapon of Techno-Barbarians, antiques dealers, and people who watch too many cartoons. They're cheap and easily made in a fabricator, and thus disposable which gives them value among the Three Suns Paradisio.

Momentum-Amplifying Weaponry: MAWs were tools first, and this is still their primary purpose. That being said, they're a blue-collar weapon, found in the hands of rioters and strikers. They're force equalizers, and many a Corporate Raider found his million dollar training and five million dollars' worth of gear smashed into pieces by a hulking striking miner wielding a Grand-MAW. That being said, their relatively prohibitive cost makes them less attractive to street gangs or the lower classes, and their brutality and perceived lack of elegance makes them less attractive to the upper crust and the professional soldiery.

Particle Ripper Technology: Particle Rippers are a 'heroic' weapon. These beamswords are beautiful and they require a high degree of skill, so they are popular among Eclipse Entertainment protagonists. This has cemented their place as the weapon of heroes and villains, epic struggles and dramatic falls. They have almost equal popularity among collectors who would likely chop off their own heads if they tried to use them in anger as they do among the commandoes and starship-raiders that they're actually meant for. The energy cost of running a Particle Ripper are also prohibitive and unsuited for long engagements.

Grenades and Mines

Grenades, Mines, and Deployables are generally considered 'battlefield' weapons. Setting them up anywhere civilians might reoccupy is generally a violation of Harmony and Detente, and combatants who use them either take extra care to retrieve or disarm all of them, or erase the evidence that they were there in the first place and hope the Pan-Solar Consortium doesn't come after them.