Rifts Up Close: NG-P7 Particle Beam Rifle

By Tim Willard

Another weapon offered by Northern Gun as far back as -62 PA. This weapon was sold as a fixed emplacement weapon or a squad heavy weapons add on to increase a squad's firepower by a large magnitude normally only found in rail guns.

The weapon is often called a "Lightning Bolt Thrower" or even a "Thor's Hammer" by some settlements, sellers, and mercenaries/adventurers. The weapon literally fires a man-made lightning bolt, pushing literally gigawatts of power through the target.

The weapon uses a linear accellerator and a hot cathode system to create a negative charge of massed electrons, and the aiming tube acts as a Farraday cage to keep the electrons or magnetics from affecting anything before the charge leaves the barrel. The negative charge binds to the positive spot placed onto the target by the laser scope, and the 4.5 GW charge causes armor or tissue damage by the massive transfer of electricity that overcomes the target's natural resistance and channels hundreds of amps into the target. Many armors shatter under the sudden influx of heat and the atomic and molecular disruption. Living tissue is heated up massively, and the cells themselves often explosively rupture as the liquid within the cell walls turns to superheated steam.

The NG-P7 is very sturdy weapon, sacrificing light weight for endurance and physical toughness. The frame is made of neo-tungsten and monocularly bonded polyceramics. Rather than use a standard stainless steel barrel for the linear accellerator, density collapsed neo-tungsten was used until 5 PA, when suddenly Northern Gun switched to ion bonded neo-tungsten.

The weapon appears to be a bulky, oversized laser rifle, very crude looking, with two forward prongs in place of a laser, ion, or kinetic round aperture. It has a built in scope on the top, a laser designator built in right above the prongs, a heavy duty stock capable of absorbing the recoil of the massive bolt of electrons, a power conduit port, a removable energy canister (45 shots), a bipod, and a servo-rig stud.

However, in 22 PA the canister port, the servo rig interface, and the power conduit port were removed from the weapon. This lightened the weapon by 5 pounds total.

The weapons manufactured between 22 and 41 PA suffered from faulty bipods, which had difficulty remaining the lock-down mode, often causing the weapon to suddenly list to one side or the other, or completely drop down as both bipod legs suddenly collapsed into storage mode.

The versions from 52 PA to 79 PA suffered from bad Farraday Barrel manufacture, resulting in less firepower and less range than previous models. However, Northern Gun sold a replacement barrel for 1,500 Cr, despite accusations that the barrel was deliberately mis-manufactured.

Several thousand of a "mismanufactured" version were sold in 86 PA that had "US ARMY" stamped on them, as well as "XM-429" above the handgrip. This has led to much speculation on the true origin of the weapon. The 2,500 of these weapons were primarily sold in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Colorado. Northern Gun traded for these weapons by offering a Samson power armor and a year free repairs and ammunition in return for the weapon, and Northern Gun managed to reaquire 2,400 of the 2,500 weapons.

(The US Army weapons featured double the normal range, double the damage capability, twice as many shots per energy canister, advanced scope optics, a dataplug for integration of the scope into the HUD, and a Battlefield Tactical Network Interface, in addition to advanced recoil compensation. However, these weapons are EXTREMELY rare, have no spare parts, and Northern Gun will definitely try to reacquire it.)

Weight: 21 lbs
Length: 44"
Caliber: 4.1 GW
Maximum Range: 500m (1,500 ft)
Maximum Effective Range: 400m (1,200 ft)
Typical Combat Range: 200m (600 ft)
Magazine Capacity: 8 shots from a standard eclip, 12 shots from a long eclip, 25 shots from a canister, 52 shots from a belt pack
Manufacturer's Cost: 5,000 Cr
Wholesale Cost: 16,000 Cr
Manufacturer's Recommended Price: 22,000 Cr
Black Market Price: 25,000 Cr
Wilderness Price: 7,500 Cr