Rifts Up Close: GLR-540

By Tim Willard

When the North American Alliance Pact of 2035 was signed into reality and NEMA was created on paperwork, the fledgling NEMA began looking for weapons and armor to field. Stockton Weapons Development fielded an unusual entry to the Future Warfighter Program in 2037 (When NEMA was still deciding on what weapons/armor/etc to use alliance-wide) for the heavy weapons entry.

While other companies were offering prototype railguns, laser rifles, ion blasters, and particle beam projectors, SWD offered a modification on the old Ripple Effect LLC XRGL-40, this time reducing the grenade size to 12mm from the old 40mm, using synthetic plastics and hyper-alloys to reduce weight and increase frame strength. The move to 12mm grenades allowed the weapon to carry 60 in the revolving magazine rather than the old 6 round cylinder. In addition, SWD made the magazine removable, rather than the old magazine, which required an operator to hand load the shells one at a time, moving the cylinder for each chamber. The new version could be reloaded by removing the magazine, opening up the back of the magazine, and placing the grenades in nose first.

The weapon was showcased using a variety of munitions, mostly 12mm remakes of the old 40mm cartridges still in use by the US Army and the US Marine Corps. The weapon proved capable of taking on light armored vehicles, hardened enemy structures, and disrupting troop formations.

Despite the snickers of manufacturers showcasing high tech still in prototype phase weaponry, SWD (owned by two brothers from Stockton CA and their college friend who was interning at NASA, who built the prototype weapon in their garage and ordered the prototype ammunition from a Russian munitions producer, and had the prototype weapon manufactured by a friend in NASA) won the contract within 3 months, while the other weapons were still in controlled environment testing. SWD immediately purchased an abandoned cannery in San Francisco, an old steel mill in South Dakota, a shoe factory in Chicago, and an old foundry in Maine, as well as two old Mexican canneries, an old whaling station in Canada, and an empty tract of land in the outback of Canada. They quickly leveraged their military contract into several hundred million in cash loans, and retooled the factories to produce the weapons, and build 2 factories that produced nothing but 12mm grenades.

Within 6 months of receiving the contract, NEMA received their first shipment of 250,000 grenades and 12,500 grenade launchers. When it was discovered that NASA advanced material labs were used to produce the six GLR-540's that were entered into the Future Warfighter contest, a litigation against the three owners of SWD by NASA. However, NEMA stepped in and shut down the lawsuit, citing NASA's failure to launch a NEMA specific GPS system into orbit as breech of their contract.

The GLR-540 is a sturdy weapon, which somewhat takes the brute force "if ain't broke don't fix it" attitude toward the weapon. It is virtually indistinguishable from earlier magazine fed grenade launchers, with the exception of the smaller caliber. The shroud around the 12mm barrel is an advanced polymer heat shroud, enabling the user to balance/steady the weapon by holding onto the barrel. The topside handle can be detached, and is also used as the tool to open the magazine for loading. The weapon is often carried on a sling by operators, and despite the weight is often issued in remote rural areas.

The pistol grip is easily interchangeable with the grip on a laser rifle, the fire selector switch is operable from either side of the weapon, and the mechanical sight performs well even under the worst conditions. Some versions were mounted on vehicles and converted to fully automatic to give rural NEMA forces an additional punch without having to resort to military grade heavy weaponry.

The GLR-540A1 was submitted in 2055, which now included a laser rangefinder and computer assisted targeting angle software. The weapon still used caseless solid chemical fuel launching, despite many companies moving the magnetic acceleration. This prevented the weapon from showing up as an energy source or source of peaking EM radiation. During the test a squad of gyroharness wearing soldiers armed with the GLR-540A1 were able to hide behind a hill and blow a Chromium Guardsman apart before it could engage them, solidifying the contract for SWD.

In 2084 the company submitted the munition it took them 30 years to finally get working right. A 12mm rocket capable of trajectory adjustment and limited gliding. This revolutionary rocket was capable of performing top down attacks, perform terminal guidance, and be lazed in by forward spotters. NEMA leaped on the munition like starving wolves, but before more than a few thousand could be manufactured the Free Canada Separatists terrorist organization blew up the Canadian plant, destroying the technical specifications of the munition, the three owners (who were the company's driving force), and 12 NEMA officials visiting the plant. Sadly, most of the 12mm rockets were used in the early days of the Cataclysm, and none remain.

The GLR-540A4, which contains only minor changes, which include official automatic fire selection, a vehicle mounting point, and a scope that could be used unpowered, or powered to provide VIR sighting.

During the Cataclysm and the Second Dark Ages, a couple of the factories were brought online and restarted, producing this weapon enmasse. Ammunition was hardly a problem, as there were literally billions of rounds in storage.

Post Rifts, this weapon disappeared for ages, until being brought back by Iron Heart Industries, who claim that they researched and developed it, when in reality that unearthed one of SWD's old plants.

Weight: 7 lbs (empty), 10 lbs (6-round drum), 36 lbs (loaded-60 round mag)
Length: 30.3"
Caliber: 12mm
Maximum Range: 1200m (3600 ft)
Maximum Effective Range: 800m (2400 ft)
Typical Combat Range: 400m (1200 ft)
Magazine Capacity: 6 for a mini-drum, 60 for a heavy support drum.

12mm Rounds
Sadly, the 12mm rocket is lost, but the following are standard rounds still in production.

LE-Low Explosive: This grenade uses low explosive, mostly to use it against non-hardened vehicles and structures.
HE-High Explosive: This is the standard thought of round, a simple high explosive round that produces almost no shrapnel, but instead kills and injures and causes damage via direct contact with a high explosive.
HEDP-High Explosive Dual Purpose: This round is a high explosive core surrounded by notched wire wound around the core, and an engraved steel jacket. This round provides high explosive damage as well as massive shrapnel to a 30 foot radius.
HEAT-High Explosive Anti-Tank: this one contains a micro-explosively forged penetrator and can penetrate up to 1.5 inches of modern hyperalloy armor.
APERS-Antipersonell: This is basically a 12mm shotgun shell
Stun: A common riot control round, this is a beanbag round intended on stunning rather than killing. Initial tests with rubber bullets showed they had a 15% chance of killing at target, with an 80% chance of killing those struck in the head or small children.
Flare Cluster: This fires 2-5 parachute flares that burn for 60 seconds. Usually used to illuminate a battlefield. IR and UV flares are available.
WP Smoke: White Phosphorous smoke is still under debate on whether or not it is a chemical weapon, but NEMA could care less. White phosphorous burns at a high temperature to produce thick clouds of noxious smoke, the WP continuing to produce smoke for as long as 10 minutes.
Smoke: Normal smoke rounds come in green, red, white, yellow, purple, blue, and orange. They produce smoke for 5 minutes.
HC Smoke-High Concentrate Smoke: This High Concentrate smoke is capable of defeating thermovision systems, as well as being nearly impossible to penetrate with radar due to high vaporized metal content. However, this round is suspected of causing lung damage.
Microcrystal Suspension Mist: A revolutionary idea from SWD, the micro-crystal grenades erupts in a spray of fine mist, each droplet containing two of more small micro-prism that scatter and defuse laser beams, drastically reducing their effectiveness. Lawsuits from the Mexico City WTO riots claim that the microcrystals cause extensive lung damage, and even death from lung hemorrhages/heart damage. Microcrystals will stay in the air for up to 4-5 minutes.
Chaff: Useful for modern warfare, the chaff grenade detonates and scatters ultra-fine mylar fibers cut to specific wavelengths to cause a solid mass to appear on radar, as well as scatter the radar beams. Chaff clouds stay in place, slowly drifting downwards, for up to 30 minutes, however breeze, wind, or an explosion can scatter it into uselessness.
Illum: A standard illumination grenade, it drifts slowly downward and burns quite brightly. It will illuminate a 500m radius for 15 minutes.