Blast Rifle

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Description
A blast rifle is a weapon capable of firing highly concentrated blasts of volatile anti-matter. Blast rifles have been the staple infantry small arm of the Mrcillian people for hundreds of standard years, but finding one in use outside of the Empire's reach is not unheard of. These weapons are so powerful, many planets outside of the Mrcillian Empire consider them too dangerous for their inhabitants to possess.

Principle of Operation
A blast rifle operates under the premise that upon collision, matter and anti-matter destroy themselves in a violent cataclysm. When the trigger is pulled on a blast rifle, a burst of energy is released from the energy cell of the rifle and is pulsed rapidly through acceleration coils until it begins to form into matter. As the matter accumulates on the cylinder coils, it is rapidly thrust outward through transition grates which then convert it into unrefined anti-matter. The anti matter then is sucked rapidly into a refinement pulsator, and is then briskly discharged from the weapon. this entire process takes fractions of a second, and produces one blast of anti-matter for each pull of the trigger. Upon leaving the vacuum chambers of the weapon, the anti-matter begins to react violently with its environment, releasing immense levels of heat and energy as matter and anti-matter change form on an atomic level. Upon hitting the target, the blast of anti-matter collides with mass proportions of matter and an implosion occurs, eradicating both the anti-matter and the matter it collided with. Because of this, blast rifles are effective against a vast array of enemy targets.

Technical Specifications
The MK I Blast Rifle, one of the only types of blast rifle made, weighs approximately eight pounds. The rifle is powered by an energy cell, which is inserted like a magazine on the left side of the rifle, and contains enough energy for twenty-five shots before it's depleted and needs to be replaced with a fresh cell. Upon leaving the weapon, the blast of anti-matter begins to react violently with the matter in its surroundings; because of this, the blast rifle is limited to an effective range of two-hundred meters. Beyond two-hundred meters, the anti-matter exponentially fades into the environment, rendering the blast useless. The internal workings of the weapon are sealed shut and are impervious to external environmental conditions, but can be opened up by engineering personnel behind friendly lines with the proper tools in the rare case of a malfunction. A holographic red dot reticule serves as the sighting system for the rifle, and is attached to the front of the weapon via quick-detachable magnetic clamps; as a precaution, emergency flip-up "iron" sights are built into the top of the rifles as well.

Weaknesses
Whereas a standard vaporizer rifle can be fired about 100 times before having to be reloaded, the massive ammounts of power required to convert ionized matter into fully refined anti-matter limit the rifle to only 25 shots per energy cell, only 25% as much as a standard vaporizer rifle can fire. Once these 25 shots have been fired, a fresh, or recharged energy cell needs to be inserted into the rifle. Also, a vaporizer can be fired on full-auto, whereas a hand-held MK I blast rifle can only be fired in semi-auto configuration to prevent overheating. One pull of the trigger will send one shot downrange. The blast rifle can be fired as rapidly as the operator can pull the trigger, but the cooling ducts required to fire blast weapons on full-auto are too cumbersome for an individual rifle.

Use in Warfare
The MK I is the standard blast rifle of the Mrcillian armed forces. Almost all ground troops carry this weapon into combat. The standard Mrcillian combat outfitting provides the troop with eight energy cells, enough for 200 discharges of the weapon. Once expended, these energy cells can be discarded or can be recharged using a fusion reactor. Blast rifles are most often used to eliminate enemy troops and armored targets. Blast rifles tend to ingnore energy shielding because the actual projectile being shot out of the weapon is neither energy or matter, but the absence of both. The blast fired from the weapon is not energy, but it looks like energy because of the reaction with matter around it as it flies towards its target. The only defense against anti-matter weapons like the blast rifle is thick, heavy, dense layers of solid matter. Theoretically, this will not indefinitely stand up against anti-matter weapons, but heavy fortifications provide more protection than anything else in a firefight. The more solid, dense mass between you and the blast rifle, the better. Unfortunately, this is of little relief to the foot soldier that is ordered to charge a position that is guarded by men with blast rifles, or to the soldier who is having the wall he is hiding behind blown apart piece by piece by a MK I.