Commonly known as the "Juicer Assassin Energy Rifle" Post-Rifts, this weapon has a convoluted and murky history. While most on Rifts North America insist that this weapon is indeed of German manufacture (Triax claims that they built the weapon to increase market share and sales, when in reality, they simply reverse engineered the weapon, which had been handed to Triax by NEMA in 2089 for examination)
More than anything, the JA series of rifles was definate evidence that despite the fact that NEMA was arguably "peacekeepers" and often fell under UN jurisdiction and usage in other nations, NEMA was painted as the big bad guy and the NAA as the architect of everyone's woes.
In 2089 a force armed with JA-11 rifles began harrassing NEMA and UN troops stationed in Sudan. At first the UN commander thought there were four different, standard, weapons in the enemy arsenal. An ion blaster, a laser rifle, a 7.62mm sniper rifle, and possibly another laser rifle, as there were two separate frequencies of laser rifles in use. However, recon patrols had found nothing, despite the cooperation of the Sudanese military.
In the early morning of the 5th of January, 2090, forces made an assault on the NEMA/UN compound on the Sudan/Congo border, highly accurate sniper fire seeking out crew served weaponry, sensor turrets, an vulnerable military personnel. This was immediately followed by a massed rush on the NEMA/UN compound by lightly armed personnel wearing knock-off light body armor normally worn by low-threat area security personnel.
The brutal fight lasted a little over 18 hours, as the first wave was followed by eight more in succession. Literally tens of thousands of people were killed during the rushes. The whole time, the snipers kept plying their trade. When the dust settled, only the NEMA armors and the heavily fortified command post remained, and the body count of the enemy was later determined to be 34,839 dead. The UN Peacekeeping force has suffered a little under three thousand dead, nineteen Chromium Guardsmen destroyed, 45 disabled and no longer combat effective, 28 Silver Eagles destroyed, 62 no longer flight capable, and 41 disabled and no longer combat effective. UN Counter-Snipers had engaged and defeated over five hundred snipers, usually making 1 to 1 kill ratios, while the enemy snipers had made in the area of 8 to 1 kill ratios. In addition the snipers were the only forces who had disabled or destroyed any of the power armors, with the exception of a single Silver Eagle which had been hit by a missile and fell nearly 800 feet to the ground, only to be mobbed by the incoming wave attack.
The UN investigators found something new on the bodies of the snipers. The JA-9 was found, as was half expected, but also found was something new, something more than a little disturbing.
A new multi-function rifle, made entirely of synthetic plastic polymers and polyceramics, with no metal content beyond the bullets that the weapon was capable of firing.
The weapon appeared to be based on the old Soviet SVD sniper rifle upgraded by a quad-magnetic rail system. Added to the weapon was a multi-frequency laser rifle and a short range ion blaster. All three were wrapped in a nasty single package, easily disassembled or reassembled. The weapon easily fit in the bottom of a standard sized suitcase when disassembled, and was completely undetectable by metal detectors. In addition, the weapon could be assembled in such a way that it resembled a large laptop computer, with the datascreen of the scope used as the laptop's primary screen.
The weapon is entirely made out of plastics and ceramics, with a scope, laser targeter, Battlefield Tactical Network Interface system, and integral bipod. The weapon is undeniably a sniper weapon designed for anti-power armor work. Conventional wisdom stated that chemically fired rounds could not penetrate advanced armor, but someone had altered the weapon with innovative plastic "rails" that became magnetic when an eletrical charge was added. Four of these rails were put at 90 degree angles to one another, and were used to accellerate a depleted uranium discarding sabot cartridge, the steel sabot acting as the only metal part of the caseless round. In addition, the weapon could also fire cased rounds, and the weapon was configured to use the old 7.62 Soviet round, rather than the NATO 7.62mm round.
The scope contains passive and laser assisted nightvision, UV, IR, VIR, thermographic, and 1X/3X/5X/10X/15X/20X magnification. The scope can be hooked into the Battlefield Tactical Network by itself, or use a tactical interface screen which is usually set beside the weapon.
The weapon switches between modes via a hand operated lever on the side of the weapon, which moves the parts inside around the weapon, so that the same barrel and trigger mechanism is used for the entire weapon. This strange and innovative process marked the weapon as currently under development, with the JA-9 perhaps being an early run of an anti-armor rifle being made by an unknown government and/or corporation.
The laser emitter is somewhat larger than normal, allowing the frequency shift between light and heavy use via small lenses inside the housing, giving the light and heavy settings two different laser frequencies (both of which are on the frequencies that Chromium Guardsmen are vulnerable to). There are a total of 10 different emitter sets, each one designed to fire on a frequency the Chromium Guardsman is vulnerable to. The emitter is well built, and has one of the most comprehensive shock dampening housings built. In addition it can be quickly and easily replaced by a trained user. (15 seconds for a trained user, 3 seconds for a trained Juicer) The weapon uses an eight sided synthetic ruby lasing matrix, which can be quickly changed out by an operator.
The ion system uses air injection, like most modern ion weapons, however it also uses the barrel of the weapon as a linear accelerator to further enhance the ion packet. This results in a devestating ion beam, normally considered low range, able to be used at extended ranges normally thought impossible.
The 7.62mm part of the rifle was the strangest. It has to be hand loaded, one shell at a time. It wasn't until a former Canadian Armed Forces sniper pointed out that a lot of snipers were trained to load the rifle one bullet at a time that it made any sense to UN or NEMA forces.
The plastic magnetic rails was a system unfamiliar to nearly everyone, and the plastic was immediately given to "safe" contractors to reverse engineer. The plastic was a highly advanced polymer of unknown make and unknown manufacture. It appeared to have variable magnetic qualities, depending on the sine wave of the electricity applied, and needed far less energy for the "rail gun" effect than metal rails.
The weapon also featured a canister energy source, which could not be detached, but could be recharged via standard means, or motion charging, or even if the weapon was set out in the sun, where the whole body of the weapon acted as a solar charging cell. In addition to the canister's charging port, the port could be changed with a simple twist to a power conduit input jack.
The JA-11 was proof that someone out there had it in for NEMA and the UN. As the majority of the nations had membership in the UN, this made it a very small pool of possibilities, and of those nations who were not members of the UN, either they were on good terms with the multi-national body, or they did not possess the technical knowledge to produce such a rifle. The scope was one high tech piece, built in such a way that a juicer would not have to watch the rastering of the electronic screen, as the refresh rate was set high enough to comfortable to a juicer.
During the Coming of the Rifts and the subsequent Cataclysm, a few of these rifles popped up in strange places and in stranger hands. The first thing to be lost was the BaTNI, the rails were the second thing to go.
During the Second Dark Ages, this weapon mostly disappeared. The enhanced system of the plastic rails virtually vanished, as nobody could replicate the plastic rails, and after awhile, nobody even knew what they did. Nobody even cared about the BaTNI, so it too vanished.
However, in 54 PA, a micro-fabrication unit to produce JA-11's showed up in the hands of an adventuring group who had returned from the Utah Desert. It was quickly sold to the Black Market, and the JA-11 made its appearance on the scene again. However, the plastic acceleration rails and the BaTNI are not currently in production.
Triax has long claimed that they built the JA series of rifles, but in reality they reverse engineered both weapon for use by their own snipers. This biggest piece of evidence is the fact that the Triax versions of the weapon lack the plastic acceleration rails.
Weight: 6.5 lbs
Length: 39"
Caliber: 7.62mm
Maximum Range:
© 2004-2009 all authors as specified. Duplication of contents with permission only! This means you can't sell it, but feel free to print, modify, or use in anyway for your personal campaign use.
All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity to characters or persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Disclaimer.
