The Zen Kendo 4-34x56mm Arbalest Scope is a precision scope designed by Ishikawa Kendo and produced by Zen Armaments beginning in YE 42 for the open market, it was adopted by the Nepleslian Space Marine Corps and a few paramilitary groups.
| Designer: | Ishikawa Kendo1) |
| Manufacturer: | Zen Armaments |
| Fielded by: | Nepleslian Space Marine Corps, National Police Force of Nepleslia |
Ishikawa Kendo has always been a gun man, and while he is known for his door-kicking antics the man has sat himself on a grassy, irradiated knoll with a marksman rifle more than a few times. While he loves tinkering with firearms in his downtime Ishikawa-san has never much liked needing to re-zero a scope every time he needs to swap them out, either due to a different level of zoom or some additional electronic assistance, some time in mid YE 42 Kendo Sr got so fed up he simply made his own scope from a variety of off-the-shelf components available to your average gun-owner.
Zen Armaments took notice and approached the azure-haired man with a proposition, soon enough scopes that copied his personal design began appearing in stores, right next to the pistol and .45 Magnum cartridge that also bore his name.
The Kendo Arbalest is, at its core, just a really nice precision scope with some basic sensory equipment for added functionality. It makes use of a Nepleslian-styled FFP2) reticule capable of being both illuminated and non-illuminated thanks to a small Tritium element embedded above the reticule-bearing lens, the reticule features crisp Milliradian dots to assist the shooter in quickly gauging their target’s distance. A small button on the top of the scope’s eye-piece is used to activate and deactivate the reticule’s illumination while a vertical four-position-switch on the left side of the scope, linked to a propriaetary version of the MOASS sensor3) above the scope’s ocular assembly, lets the user swap between what part of the electromagnetic spectrum is visible through the miniature volumetric module inside the scope. The mounting system is replaceable to make it compatible with a wide variety of hard-points and finally it features the regular dials one might find on any generic variable-zoom scope, it is all powered by a small fusion battery housed behind the scope’s sensor.
The scope is constructed primarily from Durandium Alloy with a bit of Steenplast taking the edge off of potentially sharp surfaces, with a non-reflective front lens. What sets this scope apart from others is the highly tuned “calibration” setting, which can be toggled by pressing a small, rigid object into a pinhole on the right-hand side of the scope. This provides a mostly transparent overlay that displays data taken from the rifle's sensors to ensure the scope is perfectly centered and level in relation to the weapon it is being mounted on4), it is deactivated by prodding the pinhole once more.
The scope features internal memory capable of recording what the shooter see's when wirelessly paired with a datapad or similar device, useful for shooter/spotter pairings, critiquing technique and keeping a record of confirmed kills.
The Kendo Arbalest is a fairly generic looking scope, matte-black in colour with a Diacry-infused paintjob, a small box above the front of the scope containing most of its electronics, and a removable rubber cup on the rear of the scope.
It is available in tan, olive green and a few other colours, but black is the most common.
Available anywhere guns, hunting or sporting equipment is sold, throughout the sector.