Gyrojet Pistol
"MB Associates" of Terra (MBA on Core Prime) put on the market the first Gyrojet Pistol and Carbine around A.D. 1960. Today's version is remarkably unchanged from the original. The extremely lightweight and inexpensive weapon is extremely, (perhaps laughably) simple. It strikes the readied bullet, (or provides an electrical discharge,) gets out of the way, and moves the next round of ammunition into place. Nothing more. Smooth bore - no rifling. Nothing.
As the reader has probably already deduced, all of the "magic" is in the extremely expensive bullet, which is in fact nothing less than a fueled solid rocket motor of either 12mm or 13mm caliber, appearing very similar to a conventional caseless anti-aircraft round, (sometimes steel-tipped for piercing armor). Yes, a tiny solid rocket motor. Since the rounds are so large, both the pistol and carbine variety usually only hold 6 rounds. As one would expect, all of the accuracy and penetrating power depend on high-quality rounds.
The 2 grams of fuel/oxidizer in the round (sealed against water/humidity intrusion) is unharmed by 50 years of storage, but when ignited, it rockets forward, leaving the chamber at a snail-like 50-feet per second, producing its own gyroscopic stabilization (spinning), with little recoil and little sound, and accelerating to around 1250-feet per second at 15-60 feet, depending on the design, at which speed it is capable of severely damaging standard body armor without the steel-tip improvement. The round is considered lethal up to 300 feet. Also, it operates in any atmosphere from hard vacuum to underwater.
Recent improvements:
Only the most expensive mercenaries and assassins can afford the microelectronics involved in the target-seeking improvement, which of course must be built into each round and is destroyed upon impact. A more affordable improvement involves rigging the nose of the round to explode any remaining fuel/oxidizer on impact, generating razor-sharp shrapnel, which compensates for the lack of penetration at point-blank range.
Item type
Weapon, Ranged
