Drakeian GPW

"Weak, little to no recoil, at least it packs a little more punch than that pathetic pistol." Drakni complaining about the weapon during her first encounter with it.
The GPW, or General Purpose Weapon, is a standard issue primary weapon used by the Drakeian species. Those used by the nation of Draknia also mount a beam weapon under the railgun barrel.
==Overview==
The GPW is a common Drakeian firearm with examples from Draknia mounting an underbarrel beam weapon in addition to the railgun. Even within Draknia, the weapon was just a variable power railgun until the discovery, and subsequent hiding of, a crashed Ancient Dragon starship containing intact personal weapons and personal shield units. The beam weapon modification was only added to Draknia's weapons intended for use on their starships for several years, being completely unknown to the other Drakeian nations.
The weapon's effectiveness is most noticeable at medium range on any power setting, due to a long barrel and a detachable scope. The weapon can fire long range on high power settings, although the scope is not high powered enough to make the GPW an effective sniper rifle at long ranges. The weapon has a variable power setting (controlled by rotating the button on the left side of the grip), lower power settings increase fire rate, but decrease accuracy and hitting power, while higher settings decrease fire rate, but increase accuracy and hitting power. Most Drakeians use a middle setting, balancing firepower and accuracy with fire rate. Much like other Drakeian weapons, the GPW uses a block of segmented metal as it's a clip, which the gun shaves off a solid chunk from and fires out of the barrel using rails made of Drake Metal. The use of such blocks came along with the development of the railgun as the sheer velocity of the railgun made the need for the pointed bullets of the typical DragonKin firearm less required and allowed for weapon designers to create a single ammo supply for all firearms in the arsenal that had no waste, meaning less to carry.
GPWs within Draknia within Draknia have an additional setting which involves pressing the button on the guns left side grip, which activates the beam setting. As with the railgun setting, the beam has a variable power setting, accuracy is never impaired, so low settings mean a solid constant beam of weak power, while high settings result in a short but powerful bolt of energy being fired. On higher power settings for both beam and railgun, the powerpack(s) (grey half-cylinder between the beam and clip for the beam, the two grey half-cylinders on either side of the weapon above the grip for the railgun) must be replaced to continue firing after only a few shots, so much so that with the higher power railgun setting, it is often common to replace the powerpack before replacing the clip. The beam weapon consumes more power than the railgun but is a cleaner weapon that if on the correct settings will not cause collateral damage. Unlike the Combo Pistol, the GPW uses a different powerpack for it's two weapon modes, this is primarily to not effect the prized versatility of the GPW but also partly because the designers of the beam weapon addon were unsure how the beam emitter would perform during a battle with two powerpacks feeding it as internally the beam emitter was the same unit fitted to the Combo Pistol.
Draknia offers additional safety tips on using the weapon, one of them states 'When in tight confined areas such as a ship, the beam function should be used to minimise collateral damage and risk of self injury'.
==Firing and Accuracy==
The GPW's railgun is well liked by it's users as the weapon is very accurate on higher power settings and can perform almost as well as a sniper rifle with the scope being the main limiting factor. While if the power setting is low, the shots will fly around anywhere making it perfect for a spray and pray approach where fire rate is more desired than high firepower. The Combo Pistol's beam weapon is pinpoint accurate inside it's effective range at low settings, while on high settings the bolt of energy can wander slightly due to recoil.
Category:Drakeians
Category:Drakeian Weapons
Category:Weapons