Rydberg Service Pistol

From Hyfenwiki

The Rydberg Service Pistol (often simply referred to as the Rydberg) is the personal weapon of Field Marshal Zeth Holt.

First Deployed: April 2261 (Baseline)
Classification: Standard Service Pistol; Special Weapons Permissions Units
Length: 46cm
Weight: 4.5kg
Effective Range: 700m
Optimal Range: Approx. 20m
Rate of Fire: 680 shots/min
Fire Modes: Single Shot, Two-Round Burst, Five-Round Burst, Full Automatic

Overview and Function

There is currently only one prototype Rydberg Service Pistol, which Field Marshal Zeth has taken for personal use. Whether or not there will be further productions and enhancements to this weapon is currently unknown, and the plans for the actual production of the weapon are under security lock by the Marshal.

It functions using ultracold plasma as opposed to the overused hot plasma that can be found in any number of other energy weapons. Ultracold Plasma is produced inside the gun itself using common elemental gases found in the environment around it and an atomic energy cell that is clipped into the pistol. Once this has been achieved, the ultracold plasma is launched in a similar fashion to the plasma used in the C-19, though the method is altered some to ensure that the plasma remains as an ultracold variety after release.

The reason this is effective is due to the fact that anything that the ultracold plasma comes in contact with is super cooled to the point of a few mK (milliKelvin) and becomes to brittle and weak to stand up to the near FTL speeds that the plasma is traveling at. The targets often shatter completely when shot at optimal range (20m), but will still blast large chunks out of whatever it hits in effective range (700m).

Another useful feature of the use of ultracold plasma as opposed to hot is that it extends effective range a good bit farther than your traditional pistol. The ultracold properties of the projectile allow it to shift the temperature of any atmosphere or other similar things that would disturb the range of traditional pistols to much lower degrees. Some gases will revert to liquid form upon having the heat energy lost when contacted by the almost imperfect vacuum around the plasma, and drop out of the way. Other gases and particulates are caught in the mini-convection winds caused by the differences in temperatures. It is not a perfect system, but it might as well be for the purpose it is suited for.