Ares Alpha CQBS

Written by: Ripshot

Now don't get me wrong, the Ares Alpha's a damn fine assault-rifle, and I'd rather have a grenade-launcher on my rifle than to not have one. Thing is, in cities like Raleigh it's kind of hard to make full use of one, 'cause this city is a lot of things, but 'spacious' ain't one of 'em. Can't clear an apartment with a 'nade launcher, no matter how hard you try or how much you think you can, omae.

Presented without comment to any of you living in floor 70 of the Juno wondering where your door went, and your food.

— Null Kit

Seems like, Dragoon's goons agreed with me though, 'cause they called up Ares Arms and asked 'em if they could give their HTR guys an Alpha that had something more suited for close-quarters shenanigans. Woulda thought they'd replace it with an underbarrel shotty, but instead they gave us the Ares Alpha 'CQBS', an assault-rifle with a shield...?
Specifically, it's got a collapsible plate of some fancy transparent bullet-resistant polymer stuck to the front of an Alpha with it's grenade-launcher removed, with a little cutout for the barrel and sights. It won't hold up to anything stronger than pistol-caliber rounds and the occasional flechette shell, but it's still enough to give a breach-team that little extra slither of survivability that's got Dragoon and a couple other corpsec groups slathering over it.
As of right now, Ares is only doing made-to-order runs of this fella, which also means any that fall into the black market are gonna get tracked and hunted down pretty fierce. That said, other corps are begining to sell the ballistic shield as a stand-alone accessory to varying degrees of success, so unless you're really looking to get one, you can afford to be patient chummer.

Item type

Weapon, Ranged

Rarity

13F

Weight

4.6 KG unloaded

Dimensions

14.5" barrel length, 33" total length

Base Price

2,750¥

Type

Assault Rifle

Accuracy

5(7)

Damage

11P

AP

-2

Mode

SA/BF/FA

RC

2

Ammo

42(C)

Standard Upgrades

Smartgun System (Internal), Ballistic Shield

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The Ballistic shield increases the concealiblity modifier of a weapon by +1 (to a total of +7 for the Alpha CQBS), takes up bottom and both side slots, and provides a +1 bonus to the user's armor. It can also be purchased as a stand-alone mod for firearms with all compatible slots for 800¥ and an availability of 13R