The Accipiter

Model:	RG-TR1506 Accipiter
Mass (loaded):	7kg (1 kg sarium-krellide battery pack)
Total Length:	0.9m
Battery Pack Endurance:	~2 minutes' sustained fire at maximum rate
Railgun Muzzle Velocity:	5500m/s
Effective Range:	8km
Sighting:	Exographic targeting sensor, tetryon target designator, backup iron-sights
Safety:	Fingerprint scanner, biometric scanner in grip; retinal scanner in scope

The RG-TR1506 Accipiter was an advanced projectile rifle that hailed from early 25th century technology. 5 examples of these weapons were recovered from the cockpits of destroyed Reavers after the last battle between the USS Calamity and the USS Theurgy in early 2381. They were not distributed on the Theurgy without consent of two members of the senior staff.

The first Accipiter was recovered from the Reaver that Evelyn Rawley landed in the hangar after the escape from Theta Eridani IV, but due to its biometric safety measures it was useless until Thea could derive the code that restored the weapons to their factory settings. Obviously, the Accipiter was meant as a heavy support weapon and not TacCONN pilot standard issue, but for the holograms in the Reavers, the weight and bulk of these weapons were not a disadvantage, and so had been issued to the pilots in order to overwhelm any opposition they might have encountered on the ground.

Technical Specifications

The Accipiter featured a modified railgun system as its method of projectile propulsion. A replicator capable of high-volume energy-to-matter constitution created a 7mm tritanium carbide bullet, which was fed into a rapid-collapse subspace field produced by paired miniature 15-milicochrane generators. The bullet, virtually weightless inside the subspace field, was accelerated by a magnetic field and was capable of reaching 5.5km/s. Once it left the barrel, the subspace jacket around the projectile would dissipate and the resulting change in mass would add considerable impact energy to the bullet due to conservation of momentum, without rendering the weapon nonviable because of excessive recoil.

In theory, the weapon was capable of 1500 rounds-per-minute in sustained fire, though this would overheat the weapon in short order and heavily ionise any surrounding atmosphere - both of which could endanger the user and any surrounding personnel. There were regenerative cooling conduits that captured some of the wasted heat energy and fed it back to the power cell, but they were designed to fail before the rails could get hot enough to carbonise, as a fail-safe.

An onboard computer aided targeting by collating sensor data and the user's input in order to automatically adjust for relevant atmospheric conditions, intervening obstacles, and target movement, and could be set to utilise the firing pattern that produced the best chance of a successful hit on any given trigger-pull if the user so chose. A coaxial tetryon laser was used to 'paint' targets both for Accipiter acquisition and potential external tracking methods.

Methods Of Use

The rifle could be fired in a single-shot pattern or in a variety of programmed bursts that could fire a desired number of projectiles in streams of up to one second. Full-auto sustained fire was possible, but recommended only for limited periods and with adequate time to allow the weapon to cool. Generally, the most common patterns included but were not limited to:

• Single shot
• 3-round burst
• 10-round burst

Given the weapon's size and weight, it was not suited to close-quarters fighting and it was highly recommended that any designated user also be equipped with at least a sidearm in case of attack.

In testing it was found that the weapon could be fired 'dry' - that is, without a projectile launch. In these instances the subspace jacket would be formed and fired as normal, though only in single-shot, and the concussive energy could be used to break up debris or shove objects out of the way that might otherwise be too massive for the user to move on their own. However, this stressed the field generators and risked warping the gun rails, and so was not recommended during normal use. User discretion applied.

The combination of the weapon's tetryon designator and exographic scope meant that targets could be tracked and engaged even after line of sight had been broken, as long as the user could successfully paint the target with the tetryon beam before loss of contact. In addition, the tetryon silhouette would linger for some time and so could be used for reconnaissance as well as target destruction.