The ZARC-T39, otherwise known as the ZARCNAM, is a weapon produced by Zen Armaments and intended to replace the older weaponry of Zen Armaments with a more up-to-date and capable weapon. It was created and began production during YE 39, aimed at a market for the common civilian and various military forces of the Kikyo Sector.

At the turn of YE 39, it had been nearly five years since the creation of the original weapon that had made a great impact on Zen's sales. With that age, it was a no-brainer to try and figure out if they could improve upon the trademark design of the ZARC and its larger ZAAR. Rather than make two weapons, they wondered if they could produce a new platform from one of them. Combining two weapons, however, unintentionally led them to trying to work with NAM. As a company who helps supply them, the scientists of Nepleslia paired up with the corporation to highlight what could go from the weapon and how to streamline it to still functionally achieve similar power. A joint project to provide NAM experience to pair with Zen's ingenuity and inspiration.

It took only a matter of a few months, plenty of testing, and more than a handful of the weapons blowing up while firing, but they created a new ZARC to act as a platform. The new weapon had been shaved of unnecessary parts, fitted with stronger systems based along Nepleslian-provided designs, and ultimately combined with a second weapon to act as an integrated underbarrel weapon. The combination of Zen and NAM had a profound effect on the Type 39's model, leading to its nickname and more loved name, the ZARCNAM. With further work to provide Nepleslia's soldiers with every type of attachment a gun could need, Zen had ultimately built one of the highest grade civilian and military weapons in their entire inventory.

• Designer: Zen Armaments and Nepleslian Arms and Munitions
• Manufacturer: Zen Armaments
• Name: Zen Automatic Rifle Compact, Type 39
• Nomenclature: Ze-W4-2c
• Type: Carbine / Plasma Weapon
• Role: Compact Combi-Weapons Platform
• Length: 23 inches
• Mass: 9 pounds / 4 kg

A default ZARCNAM base, lacking modifications.

While it has many modifications to change how it might look, the default ZARCNAM is still the same powerful weapon its original design hoped to acquire. A compact beast with a magazine that looks almost ridiculous, the weapon is hard-cut and sports a rather bulky shape along much of it. Its barrels are short, thanks to modifications inside allowing it to retain the effect of a longer barrel. The stock point of the weapon is essentially a ring-system, allowing it to be tightened either around a stock or left completely empty to provide a compact weapon. Jutting from the top of the gun's back is a small ammo-counter and a display screen that can quickly be tapped through during combat to check more in-depth statistics on the weapon through a touch screen. Noticeable changes in design, however, are the changes taken to its slide and its mag release in an attempt to make magazine transition a much smoother process to allow rampant shooting.

While the weapon is sold to anyone, its combined heritage from being worked on with NAM and Zen alike has left its default colors a mix of black, green, and gold. When ordering a weapon, however, one can get any color they desire for every part of the gun. Or, of course, one can always order it in the entirely black colors one expects when buying a Zen weapon.

The ZARCNAM has two barrels built into it, providing two types of discharge.

Although the ZARC utilizes the same bullets from the original ZARC, it makes up for this with a far more powerful yet simple magnetic accelerator in the gun. This allows the ZARC's bullet to be expelled with far more force, as it hits the magnetic accelerator after initial firing to accelerate to even greater heights.

The plasma underbarrel of the ZARCNAM is intended to provide an anti-power armor or obstacle solution. When loaded into the ZARCNAM, it will drain a cell immediately to fill its internal storage, allowing the operator to fit another to essentially “double-mag” the weapon. Useful for attacking power armor that has already been damaged, the gun's major uses are using it in streams to effectively spew plasma within a short radius, effectively allowing the user to melt common footsoldiers. Other uses allow it to melt and slowly erode through walls, providing the user has enough ammo.

The following charts/tables explain the two mechanisms that the ZARCNAM utilizes…

• Firing Modes: Safety - Underbarrel - Semiautomatic - Burst OR Auto
• Weapon Sight: While it has sights and short-range scopes, the traditional method of aiming the ZARC is with its two-point ironsights, which utilizes a ring and pin-point method.
• Attachment Hard Points: The weapon has three technical mounting points through its universal top-sights mount, underbarrel mount, and stock mount. While you can theoretically put most attachments on the weapon, it is recommended to avoid mixing it with weapons too different in size. A fourth attachment can be considered to be the plasma cell, as its grip-like shape allows it to be left in and used as a side-grip.

When ordering a ZARCNAM, it is required to specify which version you want, as the weapon can be made to fire in burst or fully-automatic. If one does not specify, there is no guarantee as to which version Zen will send. Not only that, but Zen also handles a selection of customized ZARC to be purchased at discounts, rather than requiring the buyer to customize it themselves.

A combat rifle-inspired burst variant, promoting a more traditional and capable mid-to-long range weapon.

• Base Gun: 500 DA
• Carbine Variant: 550 DA

• 10-shot Magazines: 20 DA
• 30-shot Magazines: 50 DA

The ZARCNAM was created with the use of many references to inspire and help guide the intended image of it. This, of course, includes the original ZARC created by Arieg as one of its prime sources of stylistic appearance.

created this article on 2017/08/23 09:01 at the request of legix.