Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) by Chris Hechtl

made in
space on dedicated platforms and has other uses so there is high
demand. Also storage is an issue so no unit had more than a few
thousand rounds each.”
    “ Which means
they got royally screwed in the early days of the war,” Schultz
said nodding. The Grizzly stood at attention where he was until the
gunny motioned for him to rejoin the ranks.
    “ The navy has
first call on antimatter. If you can't hold the high ground it's no
use for a bunch of grunts to have antimatter toys. They'll just get
flattened when someone in orbit drops a rock,” the gunny
grinned. The platoon shared looks among themselves. The bear nodded.
    “ Which is
pretty much what the corps generals had in mind when they declined
antimatter weapons in favor of the old tried and true. Old doesn't
necessarily mean bad. Let that be a lesson. The simplest things are
sometimes the best.”
    He turned and
grimaced as he juggled the weapon. He got it up and then fired it.
The round tore down range tearing apart a paper target. “Snipers
are the staple of any long range unit. They will lay cover fire for
units as they move or counter sniper fire when needed,” he
said. He had a feeling the panther, wolf, and the leopard would fall
in love with it. He turned and handed the weapon to Jefferson.
    The Corporal broke
the weapon down and then replaced the scope and barrel with a new
one. “As you can see the weapon system is modular, meaning we
can break it down into different configurations. That means you can
take one weapon into combat, use it as an assault weapon and then
swap parts for sniper missions on the fly.” He nodded to
Jefferson as the Corporal finished and held the weapon up.
    “ All of you
have achieved marksman with the basic assault rifle and tactical shot
gun. Both have their uses. Here is something else.” The gunny
pulled a cloth off a bunch of shapes on the table behind him so they
could see. He picked up the first.
    “ Here is a
basic needler, an NR-501. It fires tiny needles of depleted uranium
sheathed in a ferrite jacket down range at a target using the rail
gun. It can fire them rapid fire. Needlers are great against flesh,
the kinetic energy and hypersonic shock wave in atmo will tear a body
apart. They are dick all against armor or hard solids like stone or
brick.” He turned and fired down range. A melon exploded. He
fired a second time and they could just make out silvery needle
shapes bouncing off the temporary metal wall behind the melon.
    “ Needlers get
their stopping power by their velocity, and by having some sort of
high density material in the center of a ferrite jacketed needle. The
longer the barrel the greater the speed and accuracy but the heavier
it is and harder it is to use,” he said and then grimaced. “But
take note, the longer the barrel the harder it is to maneuver in
close quarters. Needlers are spray and pray weapons. We try to avoid
them.”
    “ The other
problem with this and any weapon that uses rail guns is that they use
one hell of a lot of superconductor magnets.” He turned so they
could see his prosthetic arm was magnetized to the gun. A few
recruits started to snicker but a single lifted lip from the gunny
and they quieted fast.
    Corporal Jefferson
came over and helped to remove the arm. He slid it across the
magnetized surface until it came off. “A cheap unshielded rail
gun on automatic fire will magnetize anything it is near. It will
also screw up your electronics, which include your communications,
sensors, and your implants so keep on single shot,” he looked
around letting them digest that.
    “ We don't like
to use needlers, they don't have the punch and the automatic fire
problem is a liability we just don't need in combat. Not only does it
mess you up, the flare tells the other side exactly where you are,”
he grimaced a little. “Exit speed depends on a lot of factors.
Barrel length, emitter coil strength, the type of round you are
firing, and the atmo you are firing in.