Teslablade

The Teslablade is a Soviet-designed piece of technology first appearing in the Foundation Period and soon becoming ubiquitous throughout Mars and the Main Belt. A portable Tesla Coil combined with a source of power and a grounded piece of metal, the Teslablade is an extremely potent self defense melee weapon. It is capable of arcing electricity at distances up to two and a half meters from the tip of the weapon, and of course coursing high voltage power through whatever the surface of the blade makes contact with without harming the user. 
Originally designed as a portable Tesla Coil for applications in arc welding, wireless telegraphy, photography, video display, and certain medical uses, the device was quickly modified in it's first several generations to resemble the weapon that it is in the First Trilogy. In the FTE, most are produced in Soviet factories on Krasnygrad, Mars.
The weapon takes considerable skill to wield and is potentially dangerous to the user if not wielded correctly. 
Along with a magnegun, most Main Belters are armed with one as a matter of precaution. They are designed to be immediately lethal, moreso than the less powerful electrostaff.
Curiously, by the Second Trilogy that had mostly fell out of favor with the general public and were sometimes kept as ancient relics, weapons of the a more glorious age of the past.
Category:Technology