HI All Ok, so my party are moving on after a successful Naming party with the Scum space marine octopi of Starsea, and their next destination in the Stars Swarm is the hacker haven of Thoughtcrime. So where to get a drink and a quiet word with dangerous types... -- 'No Sudden Moves' - a tekmerc bar, nosurv-zone and neutral meeting point run by FSSS is the public drinking hole on ThoughtCrime. A speed-gated antique sentry gun is mounted on the bar in pride of place and as bouncer - it will swivel and track all objects moving faster than a walk, and fire if targets exceed a pre-set(but closely guarded) speed. The bar is popular with the few Ultimates found on the Swarm fleet, who enjoy the challenge of moving just slowly enough at the bar's somewhat-battered ping-pong table, while the Thoughtcrime's resident hackers enjoy trying to trick the gun into engaging rivals - shooting the drink out of someone's hand is a favourite stunt. (Given that the gun is milspec hardened, fully autonomous LAI, physically and logically stand-alone, unmeshed and very paranoid about all external input, especially orders to fire, this is quite hard to achieve.) The bar tables contain built-in hardened servers implementing full 'Roach-Motel' private negotiation protocols, see Arenamontanus's http://www.aleph.se/EclipsePhase/Roach%20motel%20protocols.pdf The tables require physical linkage, and are not on Thoughtcrimes mesh or dark nets. The bar's signature cocktails are the 'Chain-gun Smile' or 'Spinner Red Mist Special'. Sidebar ------- 'Spinner'- street name for cheap & nasty multi-barrel rotary SMG knock-off's, often based on the classic Calico M-960 helical magazine SMG retrofitted with short triple or quad rotating barrels. They have very high fire rates and are difficult to control when fired full auto, even with two hands, but they are popular with gang members for intimidation(the barrels must be spun up, with an ominous rising whistle, as a quick action before firing). Frequently the weapon of choice in drive-by shootings, punishment executions, blockwar and gang turf clashes, they are widely illegal, and are even frowned on in lawless autonomist areas, due to the high chance of collateral casualties. While they can fire the usual range of caseless ammo, they tend to burn through it too fast for anything fancy. The spinning barrel unit is difficult to silence, but other attachments are available, with gyrostabilisers being useful to improve control. A typical model, the 14K Triad's 'Pai Gow Triple Fist' SMG has 3 short spinning barrels and a 100 round magazine, and fires 10 round bursts or a full auto blast of 30 shots. This 2000 rpm fire rate coupled with the loose-tolerance snub barrels makes both burst and full auto fire effectively Cone attacks, so an extra +1d10 damage at short range, -1d10 at long & extreme, 2 adjacent targets at medium, 3 at long. A firer using both hands and the telescoping stock can fire 2 bursts or 2 FA each phase, while using 1 hand only allows a single burst or FA spray, unless gyro-stablised. Stats: 'PGTF' Spinner SMG: AP -1, DV 3d10+2(burst) or 5d10+2(full auto), modified by cone range so at short range that is 4d10+2/6d10+2, long or extreme 2d10+2/4d10+2. Range is 0-20/21-50/51-90/91-150m. Ammo 100, Cost High. ------ This is a bit of foreshadowing, since my party are about to start the 'Mind the WMD' scenario. ------ Thoughts, comments? DX