Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6B Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle

The Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6B Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (abbreviated W/AV M6B G/GNR), also known as the Spartan LASER, is the UNSC's premier ground-based, man-portable, anti-vehicle, directed energy weapon. It is the strongest infantry weapon that the UNSC has. The B model has a number of technical improvements to its power system and technical systems over it's predecessor.
==History==
PROJECT: GUNGNIR began in 2513 as a development of experimental Free-Electron LASER Technology. Developed by the think tank 'BLACK LIGHT', better known as the ALPHA-2 Division of ONI Section 3, who had a history of developing ineffectual energy weapon systems, GUNGNIR was the last ditch hope of BLACK LIGHT. To aid in the development, they even brought in a independent UAE Systems researcher who had a history of developing FEL weapon systems. With their funding on the verge of being cut, they leveraged one idea to then Rear Admiral H. M. Stanforth. At the time, the Insurrection was a raging conflict, and a hyper accurate weapon capable of accurately engaging ground based forces in 'one hit-one kill' scenarios, without fear of directly striking civilians was a ideal prospect. Stanforth sunk large amounts of funds and researchers into the project, using what was left of 3's budget from Project: MJOLNIR and PROJECT: SPARTAN. By 2520 a working prototype was operable and was deployed on a improvised air platform against Terrorist cells on the ground, with some degree of success. The weapon was pulled back for additional development when in 2525 the colony of Harvest fell. The development of the weapon was sped up, causing a rush in the design. By 2531, the weapon saw its first mass deployment in the field on the AV-49B Sparrowhawk, Gremlin Support Vehicles and deployed amongst special forces in a limited capacity. The weapon saw continual deployment for several more years until it was pulled from service again in 2539. By now the few XM6s left in service were worn out and near unserviceable. GUNGNIR went back into development, with eventually the weapon being cleared for mass production as a infantry anti-tank weapon in 2549. By 2552 it saw widespread deployment, with at least one being issued per Marine Company and reporting devastating numbers of casualties on enemy forces. The weapon was highly favoured by Marines who operated the weapon and became a major force multiplier, simply through firing it. Not only was the tremendous beam a great morale booster to Marines, but it served to shock and awe Covenant Forces, who had thus far developed no protection against the system. By the end of the Great War, it was seen as one of the most important weapons of the war.
==Free Electron LASER==
The M6B, like its predecessor, operates a Free Electron LASER, a adaptable and powerful beam weapon capable of a wide variety of operations in differing enviroments. The Free Electron LASER works by accelerating a beam of electrons to relativistic speeds. The beam passes through an FEL oscillator, commonly called a 'undulator' in the form of a periodic, transverse magnetic field, produced by arranging magnets with alternating poles within a laser cavity along the beam path which forces the electrons in the beam to assume a sinusoidal path. The acceleration of the electrons along this path results in the release of a photon. Since the electron motion is in phase with the field of the light already emitted, the fields add together. Instabilities in the electron beam, which result from the interactions of the oscillations of electrons in the undulating FEL Oscillator and the radiation they emit, leads to a bunching of the electrons which continue to radiate in phase with each other. The wavelength of the light emitted can be readily tuned by adjusting the energy of the electron beam or the magnetic field strength of the undulators.
The weapon uses a an electron accelerator with heavy radiation shielding. This requires a high voltage supply, which consumes around 2/3rds of the actual energy charge. The electron beam is maintained in a vacuum.
This weapon technology allows the powerful beam to be tuned to the necessary wavelength for operation in the current environment, the beam adjusted by the 'guiding beam', which is emitted prior to release of the primary beam. This, along with technical systems on the weapon, allow it to adapt to almost any atmospheric condition, enemy optical impairing counter measures and objectives. However, much of the 'charge up' time is donated to not only adjusting the beam but also powering up the magnets to the required levels. The weapon operates in the range of visible spectrum light, particularly in the 620-750nm range (Red light), which is the optimum beam for standard atmospheric conditions.
The weapon's most important feature is the reactive tune system. The returns from the 'targeting beam' allow the weapon to be readily adjusted for atmospheric conditions, such as cloudy weather, mist, fog or sand storms (reducing output by 2-10%), however the weapon cannot be adjusted for rain without losing some output (25%). The RTS will adjust the adaptive optics and wavelength of the beam to give it optimum attack in current conditions, allowing it to some degree, negate enemy optical counter measures as well. It can even be pretuned to defeat ablative armour, while losing only 13% of its total output. This reactive tuning system is applied to all the sister weapons of the Spartan LASER.
The LASER, on impact, causes immense amounts of kinetic and thermal damage, with the kinetic and thermal damage being in excess of similar gauss and plasma weaponry, respectively. On impact, the armour is vaporized at a rate exceeding the speed of sound, tearing and damaging the surrounding armour plating. The armour becomes a superheated jet of metal, akin to a HEAT charge, with the armour becoming the penetrator. This means, the tougher the armour, the more deadly and effective the LASER becomes. The adaptive optics allow the LASER to avoid typical vapour defences designed to block them and continue to cause massive damage with the tank's own armour.
==Power Improvements==
Thanks to improvements in the power packs that fuel this monstrosity. The new packs have significant improvements over the older versions, allowing them to power the beam for up to six shots. The power back has been modified so it can be charged while still in the weapon or be removed and plugged directly into the charger. The charger can be equipped with its own stand alone battery packs, which make it heavy, or plugged into any conventional power source, including, but not limited to, combustion engine systems, electrical power supplies, fusion power supplies, plasma power supplies or anything else the adapter socket can be fitted to.
==Additional Technical Systems==
The weapon now has three primary firing modes. The first is a 'dazzle' beam, in the 1 megawatt range, that will permanently blind unprotected organic optical sensors (eyes) and burn out enemy thermal, night vision and optical sensory gear, rendering vehicles (and Necros Mechanical forms) blind. This is a continuous beam that will expand 1/6th of the power (1 shot) in around two minutes. The second is a 'low generation' pulse which uses about 1/12 of the power and is a 'infantry' kill pulse, with enough power to penetrate standard issue shield and body armour of most factions and punching inside the body, melting them internally, effectively flash frying them in milliseconds. Lastly, the main power setting, which can penetrate thick armour plating. The peak energy is difficult to measure but goes into hundreds of megawatts, usually peaking at 450 megawatts, though later iterations upgraded via Project VULCAN reached a peak of 1350 megawatts. It has the necessary power output to generate impulse shock at upwards of 7000 metres, instantly vaporizing heavy duty ceramic materials at the speed of sound and causing high temperature blowouts inside the target vehicle, instantly cooking the crew alive at temperatures usually found inside stars, if only for a fraction of a second. It's sister weapons also preform this functionality, allowing them to cause significant damage to tanks and warships.
Outside of that, the weapon's other features include a shroud opened and closed by a electronically driven hydraulic system.
The Weapon is augmented with a WYRD IV Optical Suite. The Optical Suite is on a flip out LCD panel that displays weapon status and is smart linked to three scopes. The primary scope is a 1x display that links directly to the display, then a variable 3x digital zoom optical scope and 3x digital zoom cryogenically cooled thermal scope. The multitude of scopes gives the user a wide variety of tactical options for engaging enemy armour. On top of that, the user can link to the weapon via a fibre optic cable and project it's vision systems on their HUD at will. The scopes feature integral smart target selection and prioritising capacity, projection of firing mode, current charge and distance. This is supported by a iron site, just in case of system failure. A fire selector switch on the left side above the pistol grip, which can be operated by the operator's thumb.
==Trivia==
*The weapon is named after its creator, Johan H. Grindell, who developed and created the weapon at Israeli Defensive Labs, a part of UAE, based in Galilee in the Unified Israeli States on Earth.
Category:UNSC Weapons