Pulsers, bullets, plasma, energy weapons...

George J. Smith wrote:

Dauntless wrote:not quite the same thing but Victor chachet uses a very small pulsar, which he often hides up his sleeve, so in theory it is doable

"Holy Black holes batman"

Couldn't resist

dammit i sat that error and was sure i'd fixed it. ah well

The E wrote:Guys, lethal pulsers can be made small enough to fit inside a cybernetic hand without interfering with the primary function of that hand. I'm going to guess that Derringer-style weapons are definitely a thing, and that they're far more dangerous than they ever could be in our world.

If a standard civilian pulsar dart is 3MM X 25MM than honors 40 round pulsar magazine would be AT A MINIMUM 7 cubit centameters. That works out to 1" (25MM) by 1" by 1/2" (12MM)

a 100 round magazine for a military grade pulsar (4MM X 37 MM) would be AT A MINIMUM 45 cubic centameters. That could be 1.5" deep (37MM) 1" wide (25MM) and 2" long (50MM)

edit: Honor had to remove her uniform tunic to eject the magazine, which would indicate the magazine was in the wrist or forearm. I suspect that most of the working of the pulsar are also in the forearm, with only the "barrel" in the hand and finger.

The E wrote:Guys, lethal pulsers can be made small enough to fit inside a cybernetic hand without interfering with the primary function of that hand. I'm going to guess that Derringer-style weapons are definitely a thing, and that they're far more dangerous than they ever could be in our world.

IIRC Andrew LaFollet had what could be considered a Derringer or a hold out piece in FoD.

Kytheros wrote:A pulser derringer or equivalent would have a fair amount of stopping power. It would probably also be loaded with anti-personnel darts, probably of the fragmenting variety, rather than solid darts.

Pulsers rely on kinetic impacts though, so having a frangible round defeats the whole point of using a pulser as a Derringer.

You can draw a few parallels between Honorverse and Mass Effect, you're throwing tiny chunks of (presumably) metal at downrange ultra-high speed and just letting the impact alone be the weapon.

If you need more 'kill potential' than simple slugs, darts, shavings then you're upgrading to the tri-barrel which is just a gatling gun that works on the same principle of Kinetic Impactors doing the work. And if a tri-barrel/gatling gun isn't enough, you're upgrading to a full-up crew served plasma weapon or grenade launcher. As we saw in that one space station with Matheos (think I got his name wrong) with Abigail assaulting the Gendarms the grenade launcher in Honorverse is pretty damned variable in rounds.

And then if any of those weapons are "too small" for killing your enemy, you're gonna need to suit up into full powered armor for the strength to carry anything heavier, or you're calling in a pinnace or assault shuttle to do aerial bombardment.


But I've moved off the point, that pulsers literally cannot be firing a frangible round, if you need to keep what you're shooting at intact, you only have the choice of using the future shotgun, the fletchette rifle. Those have a variety of rounds, but generally speaking can't penetrate anything for crap, making them ideal for boarding parties and storming anywhere that has computers you need to capture (and not just blow the **** out of)

Somtaaw wrote:

Kytheros wrote:A pulser derringer or equivalent would have a fair amount of stopping power. It would probably also be loaded with anti-personnel darts, probably of the fragmenting variety, rather than solid darts.

Pulsers rely on kinetic impacts though, so having a frangible round defeats the whole point of using a pulser as a Derringer.

You can draw a few parallels between Honorverse and Mass Effect, you're throwing tiny chunks of (presumably) metal at downrange ultra-high speed and just letting the impact alone be the weapon.

If you need more 'kill potential' than simple slugs, darts, shavings then you're upgrading to the tri-barrel which is just a gatling gun that works on the same principle of Kinetic Impactors doing the work. And if a tri-barrel/gatling gun isn't enough, you're upgrading to a full-up crew served plasma weapon or grenade launcher. As we saw in that one space station with Matheos (think I got his name wrong) with Abigail assaulting the Gendarms the grenade launcher in Honorverse is pretty damned variable in rounds.

And then if any of those weapons are "too small" for killing your enemy, you're gonna need to suit up into full powered armor for the strength to carry anything heavier, or you're calling in a pinnace or assault shuttle to do aerial bombardment.


But I've moved off the point, that pulsers literally cannot be firing a frangible round, if you need to keep what you're shooting at intact, you only have the choice of using the future shotgun, the fletchette rifle. Those have a variety of rounds, but generally speaking can't penetrate anything for crap, making them ideal for boarding parties and storming anywhere that has computers you need to capture (and not just blow the **** out of)

There is several types of pulser darts. The military uses two.
"""House of steell""" a solid, non-explosive, antipersonnel round"""

which would be used against marine skinsuits and

"""House of steell""" a superdense, explosive round designed for antiarmor or general suppressive fire."""

The main difference between a pulser and a chemical firearm is the muzzle velocity. The pulser "pistal" would have a muzzle velocity approximately equal to that of a chemical rifle, the pulse rifle would have a velocity 5-10 times faster , and the tribarrel would have a velocity 10-20 times faster.

it would not surprise me to find that other types of rounds exist, such as a hollow core or a frangible round, even if the military dosen't use them. I am not aware of anything that says that such is not possible.

Yes, Lady Harrington had a Derringer in her finger.

But she "executed" a .45 Smith & Wesson as a Derringer that she pulled on Warnecke. Well, she didn't exactly pull it from under her skirt but it did come out of her lap. May as well have come out of her arse as far as Warnecke knew.

Only the Salamander can deploy a .45 like a Derringer.

Nothing up my sleeve... BAM! BAM! BAM!

My bad...

A .45 in closed quarters is more like BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

darrell wrote:it would not surprise me to find that other types of rounds exist, such as a hollow core or a frangible round, even if the military dosen't use them. I am not aware of anything that says that such is not possible.

One of the short stories makes mention of a 'shredder pulser dart' type banned by "all civilised nations" including Silesia(which still trades it. Go figure). Single shots apparently take out clusters of people.

The E wrote:Guys, lethal pulsers can be made small enough to fit inside a cybernetic hand without interfering with the primary function of that hand. I'm going to guess that Derringer-style weapons are definitely a thing, and that they're far more dangerous than they ever could be in our world.

Until antibiotics became available what made Derringer-style weapons feared was the possibility of a lethal infection. Even with the removal of the bullet the wound infection rate was high.

munroburton wrote:One of the short stories makes mention of a 'shredder pulser dart' type banned by "all civilised nations" including Silesia(which still trades it. Go figure). Single shots apparently take out clusters of people.

Getting your stories mixed up.

Flechlett guns are perfectly legal. Kill multiple people. It is nothing more than a Honorverse Shotgun

Nullfield guns, still sold in Silesia, were banned. That is the gun Honor got nailed by in HotQ.

cthia wrote:Yes, Lady Harrington had a Derringer in her finger.

But she "executed" a .45 Smith & Wesson as a Derringer that she pulled on Warnecke. ...

Honor's .45 is a copy of a Colt M1911A1.

At the range Honor used her .45 on Warnecke and friends, this would have been more lethal -- although she would have needed three of them to double-tap three villains:



That's a Remington Double Derringer in .45 Long Colt. The same basic design can be found in everything from .22 Short to .223 Remington/ 5.56 NATO.

Other modern "Derringer" designs feature four or five shot capacity/barrels and are long enough to use .410x1.5" shotgun shells as well as .45 LC or .44 Magnum.

Inside their intended range (of 25-50 feet), Derringers are as lethal as anything that can be carried as a concealed weapon.