"Hoy, Beckwith. Command been treating you okay? Not nickle and diming you for tube of plasteel bonding glue?" Cantrell says as she strolls into the armory.
"Can't complain, Sergeant -- oh, someone's got a new promotion, I see," the quartermaster says, grinning and throwing up a playful salute.
Cantrell had shared a couple of pitchers of beer with the quartermaster during her last visit to the Castle, when she'd been healing up after cybersurgery. They'd bonded -- he used to run with a mercenary squad that did some work for (and against) the Coalition, and she'd helped him run a couple of problems up the chain of command, avoiding a nit-picking supervisor.
"Eh, I think they just felt guilty for sticking me with a bunch of pickpockets and teenage boys," she says.
"You think you can get me a box of AP grenades for my rifle and some new e-clips? The ones I've been using are six months old and don't hold a charge like they used to."
Beckwith grabs the requested ammo, then gestures around at the walls festooned with implements of death.
"Can I interest you in some new firepower? Explosives? I've got some refurbished power armor in the back."
Cantrell shakes her head.
"Nah ... I'm carrying a platoon's worth of gear as it is, plus a couple of magic doodads I picked up along the way ... wait. What's that on the shelf there, next to the Triax pulse rifles. Is that Naruni or something?"
Beckwith grins as he brings over the tubular weapon, which features a gracefully curved drum magazine and trigger mechanism clearly designed for non-human hands.
"No, picked this up from a trader who said he got it on Central. It's an EMP launcher, meant for disabling electronic devices - computers, lasers, powered armor, you name it, this thing fries it, as long as it penetrates the shielding. I've got a couple of loads of ammunition, if you're interested."
Cantrell nods absently, examining the firing mechanism, which incorporates some wiring that looks compatible enough, if oddly configured.
I bet I could take this three-fingered grip-thing off and mount it on a shoulder-gimbal ... patch it into my armor's targeting system, maybe with a voice prompt ...
"Yeah, load it up and I'll do some field-testing for you, let you know how it performs," she says, before heading back to her room to break out her tools.
Alien EMP launcher: Range 24/48/96; 3d6*; ROF 1; AP *; Shots 20; Weight 8 lbs + .25 lbs per grenade; Knocks out electronic devices in MBT; Does nonlethal damage vs. constructs, power armor or shielded devices against base Toughness, no armor. Military and combat grade hardware and electronic devices have a toughness of 8 and sometimes higher if so designed to be resistant against EMP. They become disabled after taking a wound; Has 2 spare loads.