Personal Armaments

Sometimes, you need to shoot someone. It's not a pleasant way to go about things, certainly, but there are just times in life when it's you, or the guy shooting at you. Starfleet trains and equips its officers to defend themselves in all manner of hostile situations. This is a very good thing, what with the universe being the dangerous, scary, dark place it is.

Here are the tools of life.

Phased Nadion Accelerator
The phaser is the most common, most flexible beam weapon type. It fires the second-stage equivalent of the electron, packaged into a subspace delivery envelope. Phasers have three general settings, each of which can be tuned for delivery as a "burst", "short beam", "stream", and potentially other 'shapes' of energy. Different power sources provide varying beam colors and sounds, as well as occasional secondary effects. In more sophisticated weapons systems, nadion beams are equipped with an annular subspace field "wrapper" around the discharged quanta to hold them in coherence for greater distances with better accuracy; a device lacking this improvement is generally called a "disruptor".

A Federation-issue phaser has three settings:
 * Setting 1: Neurological Stun (Stun)
 * A very low-energy-use setting, Neurological Stun delivers enough nadion charge into the target to overload its motor and sensory peripheral neurology, causing immediate and painful unconsciousness, accompanied by rapid muscular failure. Upon waking from a stun, symptoms can include some or all of: Severe headache, light sensitivity, loss of feeling in the extremities, lack of coordinated movement, inability to speak, and minor burns to skin and peripheral nerve tissue. These effects can last for anywhere from minutes up to permanency. If repeatedly or excessively stunned, the target may experience sudden organ failure, brain damage, or death.
 * Setting 2: Thermal Agitation (Weld)
 * Setting 2 delivers a nadion burst with just enough energy deposition to cause a stricken material to excite on the gross physical level, causing a gradual but rapid heating effect. This effect is enough to cause serious third-degree burns to a human in three to five seconds.
 * Setting 3: Disintegration (Kill)
 * Setting 3 delivers enough nadion charge to dissociate the bonds between atoms, even famously stable bonds such as hydrogen links. This setting is capable of 'punching holes' in an object, as the disintegration effect does not cascade.
 * Setting 4: Detonation (Explode)
 * Enough high-energy nadions delivered into a target at once generates a cascading disintegration reaction, dissolving not just the inter-atomic bonds of the target, but the subatomic bonds as well. In this vein, the target simply detonates violently, leaving residue detectable with a sensor array. The area around the target is briefly superheated as the individual dispersing subatomic particles sink heat to the air.

United Defense Limited's Pocketable Phased Nadion Emitter Mark 1 (Type-1 Phaser)
The Type-1 Phaser, 9cm long and powered by a rechargeable sarium-krellide power cell, is a low-power personal sidearm weapon issued to all crew for shipboard use. While it has low power consumption, it also has only a small quantity of internal space available for battery. It interfaces with the standard-issue wrist tricorder to provide all of its displays, with a separate hard key to display available power and current setting. The Type-1 is only capable of firing at Settings 1 through 3. A civilian model of the Type-1 is available under United Defense's "Pulse Defender" line as the model PD25.



Morris Magtronics' Handheld Phased Nadion Emitter Model 3120 (Type-2 Hand Phaser)
Like its smaller cousin, the Type-2 phaser is powered by a sarium-krellide cell, albeit a much larger one. It is the standard-issue sidearm for away team use, and as such includes a holster that can attach to any Starfleet-issue belt, Naval or Marine. Power consumption and supply are increased substantially in this model, and the rechargeable battery packs are easily interchangeable, functioning like a semi-automatic pistol's magazine. Like the Type-1, the Type-2 can use the wrist tricorder's holographic projector for targeting and information display, but unlike the Type-1's continuous stream of Nadions, the Type-2 fires in short bursts, giving the weapon the appearance of firing two-foot 'bolts' of energetic particles. At Setting 4, there is an automatic two-second cooldown delay betwee shots. Morris Magtronics markets exclusively to the UFP government, but it has licensed the design for civilian sale to Holland and Holland. H&H manufactures the weapon with wooden grips and finer metals as the 'Knight' Particle Projector.

Chroma Industries Phased Nadion Emission Rifle, Series V Mark 3 (Type-3 Phaser)
The Type-3 phaser, issued as standard to Starfleet's naval away teams while on duty outside the ship or in other very hazardous conditions, is a larger-scale, more potent version of the Type-2. Featuring improved ergonomics, an integrated targeting module, light, and reflex sight, its own holographic projectors, and a microfusion power system, the Type-3 phaser rifle is capable of far greater accuracy and power output than any sidearm. It is worthy of note that this unit is capable of all four power settings for an indefinite time, though under continuous fire it will stop to dump heat and recharge its firing capacitors. Like the Type-1, the Type-3 phaser fires linear beams of energy connecting the emitter to its target. On "Stun", however, the Type-3's beam width cannot be thinned to more than a thirty-degree cone, as it is intended to use this setting primarily for crowd suppression. Chroma Industries markets the Type-3 to civilians as part of their Militia series of weapons, despite the weapon being designed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers.

Česká zbrojovka a.s. CZ-2380 Energetic Particle Rectification Rifle (Type-4 Phaser)
On spec from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers like its sibling, the Type-4 phaser is the Starfleet Marines' answer to the Type-3. Built hardier for combat in various environments, it is technically a disruptor rifle as its stock configuration does not have an annular confinement beam channeling system. Such a mechanism is an option, however. In its basic configuration, the Type-4 rifle includes a reflex sight, dual weapon lights, a laser targeting system, a carbon-pellet microfusion power cell, holographic projector array, two spring-loaded slings and a full targeting computer. Due to the nature of its power supply, the Type-4 rifle outputs an energy stream that is bright white in color, contrasting the other issue weapons' red beams. The Type-4 phaser has only three settings: Weld, Kill, and Explode. Like the Type-2, the Type-4 outputs long 'bolts' of energy. There is no civilian version of the Marines' disruptor/phaser.



Starfleet Corps of Engineers R&D M-116 Marksman's Rifle and M-118 Storm Rifle
There are times when you can't use a phaser. Either natural or artificial interference is blocking your equipment's ability to operate, or you're in a place that's sensitive to high-energy discharges. Maybe your enemy has a personal shield tuned to handle incoming particle blasts. Or, let's face it, when you just plain want to tell someone you don't like them in a novel way. For these situations, Starfleet developed the M-116 Marksman's Rifle and the M-118 Storm Rifle. Put simply, they're advanced slugthrowers. A micro-replicator in the receiver generates ammunition inside the armament's chamber, and when the trigger is pulled a good, old-fashioned electrical burst detonates the caseless ammunition and sends the 10mm caliber bullet down the barrel. The recoil is absorbed by the user and the cycle is free to begin anew. The M-116 and M-118 are powered by a microfusion drive similar to the one found in the Type-4 phaser rifle, as well as replaceable dilithium-cored magazines, each of which holds up to 50 rounds' worth of mass. The ammunition type is selectable on the rifle's control panel, and can range from armor-piercing, antipersonnel, rubber, or paint-marker bullets to fin-stabilized long-range anti-vehicle explosive munitions. Each type uses a different quantity of mass. The rifle can be sighted either by holographic projection, control panel output, or a small set of back-up iron sights stored next to the holographic projector. The M-116 is a semi-automatic rifle, firing one round per pull of the trigger. It is designed for low-impact missions or for recreational exercise. The M-118 has a fully-automatic setting as well as two, three, and five-round burst options. It was manufactured to meet the need for an automatic version of the M-116, as well as for people who would prefer to have serious fun during their off time. The M-116 and M-118 replicator patterns are available for materialization by authorization of the Captain, Executive Officer, Chief of Security, or Chief Engineer. However, a denial by any one of these officers precludes any future authorization by a different officer.

Starfleet R&D Difference-Tone Stun Device
The stunner is exactly what it says on the box, within limits. A difference-tone stunner generates two narrow 'channels' of VHF audio, slightly out of sync. The effect of having one of these trained on the skull of the species it's currently attuned for is very similar to a splitting headache, resulting in swift unconsciousness. The stunner has to be carefully calibrated for the target's physiology. Some settings are very general, but a stunner tuned to affect for example a human will work on Trill or Vulcans, but will not work on, say, a Klingon or Jem'Hadar. Entities such as Tholians, Horta and other crystalline exoskeletal species will simply shatter immediately under the sound pressure.

It is worth noting that the Heisenberg was not issued any difference-tone stunners. They are still experimental equipment, being developed for situations where handing a guard a phaser is not a smart idea.