Released by the Frontier Manufacturing Service late YE 42, this weapon is available for public sale and is heavily employed by FSCorp's defense force.

PGP Weapons were a natural evolution of FMS Graviton weaponry and improvement to the aging but popular WR-23 Personal Defense Weapon with the ulterior motive of preparing the local populace of Planet Osman with a weapon that could compete in apocalyptic conditions experienced during Mishhuvurthyar invasions. In order to get this technology into the hands of as many Osmans as possible it was not built as a complete unit but rather as a modular system that is assembled by aftermarket manufacturers associated with FSCorp. As a result PGP Weapons from any number of the third-party builders can look wildly different from each other. They come with different features based on what the customer desires as either a pistol, rifle, mounted gun or other style of traditional firearm. Their capabilities range from Personnel scale to use on powered armor and light vehicles based on the chosen design and graviton drivers equipped. Naturally, FSCorp has a range of what they consider 'baseline' models on which their associated third assemblers will construct and aftermarket parts sellers will dress up.

The weapon works with minimal power requirements, most using only a single battery fed by a Personal Hyperspace Resonance Generator to power the whole unit. While a UBC can only power it through 30 low-powered pulses the addition of the hyperspace resonance generator effectively grands it unlimited ammo, with a catch. These weapons generate too much heat to sustain rapid firing indefinitely, but the larger the cooling system is the longer they can fire. This means that the bigger PGP weapons will be able to fire vastly larger volleys than smaller ones, but most of the combat focused PGP weapons have a trick learned from the Starfighter Primary Laser Weapon. Often by manipulating a physical mechanism when the gun is overheating, hot gasses created by the boiling coolant can be released from the heatsink on the fly to quickly reduce the temperature of the weapon. Over the years FMS has been able to perfect both their coolant and the venting process to make this process both sustainable and favorable in combat with accessories made to quickly and easily refill coolant tanks between firefights. When the shooter sees his temperature gauge climb too high he or she need only pull the handle to purge the heatsink and release the handle to draw fresh coolant back into it. Shooters should note that they should always ensure there is no one or no part of their body near the vent as the spray of steam will cause burns ranging from minor to life threatening¹⁾.

As the NMX presence in the Osman System continued its rise through the end of YE 41 Mr. Donovan realized that while the highly penetrative Model r23 Personal Defense Weapon would be fine for most policing and self defense applications it lacked the actual killing power of traditional weapons on the market. While it could easily pierce most armor and the chitinous hide of the dreaded Mishhuvurthyar its underwhelming 'ballistics', being likened to a meager .223 caliber bullet would fail to perform in the chaos of an invasion. A new solution would be found in the Recoilless Graviton Howitzer which had successfully reduced the size of a light starship grade weapon into a package easily carried by ground vehicles while also perfecting construction techniques to drastically reduce both power demand and generated heat while emitting graviton pulses. Knowing the people of Planet Osman to be a people who are fairly reluctant to change Mr. Donovan called a meeting of FSCorps best minds to conceptualize a weapons system that would not only rival the popularity of the Osman favorited Wr23 platform, but win over its cult following. It was immediately agreed upon that this system would need to be a flexible platform that could be built into either pistols, rifles, or even heavy anti-material rifles. Immediately after the successful release of the Howitzer Mr. Donovan commissioned the Frontier Manufacturing Service to make a design that could do this and to reach out to the aftermarket builders and parts manufacturers of the Wr23 about joining 'the future' of Osman's weapons industry. The call was answered quickly with offers too good to refuse.

Production moved at an astounding rate as most of the research had already been performed during the Howitzer project and pre-orders were piling high for the weapon that would redefine the industry. By the end of YE 42 the first orders would be fulfilled and that was all it took. Reactions to the new weapons went viral in the local intranet as the first wave of owners demonstrated their latest purchase. It was loud and it had recoil, both giving it the illusion of 'superior firepower' to the layman. It could deliver massive kinetic force to a victim and fire hundreds of pulses before needing to refill the coolant tank proving to the experts it was clearly superior to the quirky Model r23. Best of all its base model was affordable enough for even manual laborers to afford one with payment plans made readily available by the Frontier Banking Service to anyone with a a form of income. The appeal of the weapon system even saw large orders coming from off-world, especially from Nepleslian gun enthusiasts and stores, many of which ordering only the parts to assemble into custom chassis to fit the desires of their customers. Though largely not a noteworthy weapon from a small frontier manufacturer the PGP Weapon system proved to be a both successful business decision and powerful upgrade to Planet Osman's readiness for the coming storm.

• Year Created: YE 42
• Designer: Frontier Manufacturing Service
• Manufacturer: Frontier Manufacturing Service
• Name: Personal Graviton Pulse Weapon System
• Nomenclature: Fs-W1-W4200
• Type: Graviton Projection Device and solid munition hybrid
• Role: Pistols to Rifles
• Length: 20cm to 140 cm
• Weight: 48oz to 15 KG
• Production: Mass Production

There are countless iterations of this weapon, so much so it is impossible to detail the exact appearance of them, yet they have many mechanical similarities which are often built in the form of traditional firearms. All PGP weapons emit the graviton pulse from a barrel, a roughly tube-like structure that extends outward from a gunstock or pistol grip. Various styles of magazine are present on models that can fire projectiles. The style of rifle produce directly by FMS resemble a traditional ballistic barrel with a mostly exposed barrel for shedding the heat of prolonged firing.

There are hundreds of unique iterations of this weapon system, though being based on roughly the same parts and design they will fall into these rough categories; pistol, carbine, rifle, and support weapons like a machine gun or sniper rifle.

• Muzzle Flash: Light is heavily distorted around the graviton emission. A white flash can be seen when the gun fires.
• Retort: Soft humming while charged followed by a sharp crack when fired.
• Projectile/Beam Appearance: The beam of compressed gravity is too dense for light to escape, thus it appears black, yet casts a bright glow and appears as a flash.
• Personnel Scale Effective Range:
  • Pistol: 50 Meters, 100 Meters max
  • Rifle: 300 Meters, 500 Meters max
  • Machine Gun: 300 Meters, 500 Meters max
  • Sniper: 1 Kilometer
• Power Armor Scale Effective Range:
  • Pistol: 100 Meters, 200 Meters max
  • Rifle: 400 meters, 700 Meters max
  • Machine Gun: 400 meters, 700 Meters max
  • Sniper: 2 Kilometers
• Rate of Fire: Semi-Automatic tops at ~40 RPM²⁾ for a human.
  • DR1: 1000 RPM
  • DR2: 700 RPM
  • DR3: 600 RPM
  • DR4: 500 RPM
  • DR5: 400 RPM
  • DR6: 300 RPM
• Recoil: Climbs with DR Tier from light to extremely heavy. Though a recoil damper makes a big difference, DR3 is the highest tier a human can fire without mounting³⁾

If the weapon has the solid munition feature, a projectile can be loaded into the breach from the magazine to augment the effects of the weapon. The damage rating is the same as the gun it is being used on.

• Ammunition: Surface Penetrator-Artificial Diamond Rod
  • Purpose: Tier 1-6 that can punch through light structures and thin armor.
  • Round Capacity: Linked to size of magazine.
• Ammunition: Needle Canister Projectile
  • Purpose: Tier 1-6 damage delivered in a 15° cone-shaped wave that leaves the target covered in sharp shards of diamond.
  • Round Capacity: Linked to size of magazine.
• Ammunition: HEC Projectiles
  • Purpose: Tier 1-6 explosion with an ammo dependent blast radius.
  • Round Capacity: Linked to size of magazine.

The weapon mechanisms are as follows:

• Firing Mechanism: The weapon is fired electrically by dumping massive amperage from the capacitors into the graviton projectors.
• Loading: A magazine is typically held below the receiver, though some models forgo solid munitions to reduce cost and weight.
• Mode Selector: A physical power switch or button is required for safety and is typically the same means to toggle semi and fully automatic fire modes.
• Firing Modes: All PGPs are capable of semi-automatic firing while other more combat oriented models have burst and fully automatic functions. A pull of the trigger will cause the weapon to fire a graviton pulse or burst while holding the trigger down will continue firing. Pressing a button or switch marked for the function will cause the weapon to start and stop launching projectiles from its magazine when fired.
• Weapon Sight: Most common are iron sights with accessories such as scopes or holographic sights costing extra as an accessory part.

Not all PGP weapons cool the same. Cooling capacity is based on power output and size of the weapon. This is a chart portraying how many pulses can be fired before having to purge the heat sink.

For the sake of simplicity FSCorp prices were made to be as easy to navigate as possible with prices being related to features rather than parts prices. Base prices are multiplied by their Damage Rating and added together at the end.

• Baseline W4200 PGP Weapon System: 200 KS
• Fully Automatic: 100 KS
• Solid Munition Functionality 20 KS

Replaceable components are priced the same as before. Prices are multiplied by DR Tier.

• Graviton Barrel: 50 KS
• Accelerator: 40 KS
• Driver: 50 KS
• Capacitor Array: 10 KS
• Coolant Tank: 3 KS
  • Coolant Refill: 1 KS
• Heatsink: 10 KS

The prices of these options presented assume the items are of the highest possible quality with the most advanced features they can have. Cheaper options and improvised items are naturally compatible. Scopes are assumed to have IR and night vision.

• Laser Sight: 5 KS
• Reflex Sights: 10 KS
• Rifle Scopes: 25 KS
• Sniper Scopes: 40 KS
• HUD Integrated Targeting System: 100 KS
• FMS Universal Battery Cells: 5 KS
• Induction Charger: 30 KS
• Integrated P-HRG: 100 KS
• 10-round Magazine: 3 KS
• 20-round Magazine: 4 KS
• 30-round Magazine: 5 KS
• 60-round Magazine: 6 KS
• 100-round Drum: 10 KS

While most of the finished products going to the public are being assembledand sold by third-party builders paying royalties to FSCorp, FMS has made a host of finished in-house weapons primarily for the FSC Defense Force and government sale. They are spartan and ruggedized but tend to appeal to people looking for a durable combat weapon.

Coming in both short and long rifle form, these rifles are built to fight in the most dangerous environments and operate for extended periods in the chaos of battle. They do not jam. They do not wear out. They do not need ammunition, that is simply a luxury that can be accepted via any of the compatible magazines made by FMS and its partners. Paired with an induction charger, they will never leave their owner defenseless. Machined from a durandium-titanium alloy, these rifles are light enough for all day trooping and strong enough to be used as a club. A soldiers best friend.

Equally built to withstand the rigors of warfare but specifically for cramped quarters, the Heavy Pistol and its carbine counterpart pack a powerful close range punch in a small package. Popular with vehicle crews and close quarters fighters, this small fully automatic pistol is ideal for anyone needing the power of a full sized rifle to fit in a tight space. The carbine variant distinguishes itself with a “stock” which contains a rifle-sized heatsink identical to the ones used on the combat rifle.

Built for war, but with every possible refinement to be the most precise PGP rifle on a battlefield. The FMS engineers who invented the PGP Weapon System would not easily be outdone by their aftermarket “partners”. Fulfilling both their FSCorp commission for a sniper rifle that would keep up with the Combat Rifle and making a statement to those partnered assemblers who looked down on the FMS series of weapons, this marksman rifle combines the long reach and punch of a sniper rifle in a portable package while retaining supreme accuracy. Sharpshooters all over Osman would comment favorably on its performance making claims of the rifle making it “impossible to miss” and having “practically no recoil”. FMS would eventually be forced by their parent company to share the secrets of the Recoil Damper system and their smart scopes targeting software, but the message to aftermarket companies and buyers alike was received loud and clear. Never rule out the inventor.

Rizzo created this article on 2023/10/10 17:54.

Art was done in Midjourney by Rizzo

This article was approved by Andrew on 2023/10/17¹⁰⁾