NEMA Weaponry

*“It’s bad enough that those d-bee amazons are copying our stuff! It’s bad enough that they pointed the raisin-heads at us! But now we have hordes of Squilb showing up armed and armored ‘like their ancestors in the days of the Great Darkness’ eager to join us! Why’d the damned Shemarrians have to show us up like that!?”*

*---Major Elisa Thompkins, Republican Special Forces*

*“How’s this for irony? The box-in-a-brain’s FINALLY benefiting the people of America...or at least his production lines are. Thing is, those production lines are in the hands of somebody else now. Damn think-box lost us even that.”*

*---Thaddius Michaels, Official Repubican HQ Historian*

*“I don’t care about the history of this laser rifle, its lineage, or its godsdamned legacy. There’s better and more expensive weapons out there, but there’s also cheaper and shoddier. No, what matters is that this weapon is HERE, in my hands, and it WORKS, and works well! It stops a charging rhino-buffalo, vaporizes a walking dead, kills a slaver, it’s good by me!”*

*---Paddagan McKenzie, village militiaman, Shemarrian Nation, Wolf’s Path steadings.*

*“Really? This thing’s something the Americans that used to be around here used? No matter, sir, I don’t know if it’s really an ‘LGR-360’, I just know it as what I use to reach out and touch somebody HARD.”*

*---Templar Evans, NeShemar Rajeshar , Shemarrian Nation, Blood Riders*

*“Only a warrior people would give a weapon a name like ‘Pinky’.”*

*---Lovis Pinchot,*
Scholar, New Lazlo University

## NEMA Weaponry in Shemarrian Service

A recent flood of NEMA small arms (see Rifts Chaos Earth, pgs 54-61), post-Shemarrian Civil War, can be traced to the Reformed Shemarrian Nation, where many NeShemar auxiliary troops have be observed carrying apparently new NEMA-style weaponry. While the EShemarrians had previously been equipping their cyborg, bonded, and assimilated troops with salvaged or outsourced weaponry, or examples of their own rather heavy small arms, post-War saw them gain access to a more standardized array of weaponry. It is widely believed that one of the peace dividends of the conclusion of the SCW was the discovery, or unsealing, of a large stockpile-cache of NEMA weapons. In fact, the truth is that the new weapons are new manufacture, mainly produced at the Factory/Temple-9 site (all the Tribes have smaller batch-production capability through their hidden Assembly Forges). Both original configuration and stylistically-altered versions of the NEMA small arms are produced there and distributed to the various Tribes and their affiliates. Remodeled versions differ primarily in having their external casings resculpted to a more Shemarrian visual aesthetic, and being able to be powered/recharged by induction by Shemarrian gynoids, androids, and cyborgs.

Besides the second-echelon troops and NeShemar, these newly-issued weapons are commonly carried by the Shemar themselves as secondary weaponry.

The remodeled equipment are known as the following:

### Weapons

#### NEMA PLP-20 “Police Special” Laser Pistol

EShe-NLP020 “Shemenikarpal” (aka ‘Shemar’s Little Finger” or ‘Pinkie’....a reference to Shemarrian laser vambraces and laser finger implants). The Silvermoons have an improved variant, the NLP020Sm, with a range of 1,250 ft.

#### NEMA MIP-21 “Crime Stopper” Maxi-Ion Pistol

EShe-NIP021 “Nipper” (from its anglicized acronym). The Silvermoons have a variant, the NIP021Sm, which generates explosive ablation on its target, resulting in a concussive contact explosion that effectively does knockdown; human-sized targets must roll or surpass, on a d20, the shooter’s ‘to strike’ roll, or be knocked off their feet and back 1d4 ft, and lose initiative and 1 APM. This latter variant has been nicknamed the Niktor (“Knocker”) after a ritual gavel-like instrument used in Shemarrian judicial proceedings. The KIP-22 is also based on this weapon, and very similar with a few improvements.

#### NEMA LSR-250 “Sharpshooter” Laser Rifle

EShe-NLR-250
‘Shrier’ (“Sunbeam”). The Silvermoons produce an upgraded version, gaining in popularity, using improved optics: the NLR-250Sm has an effective range of 3,750 ft. The Darkwaters have a variant, the NLR-250Dw, with variable frequency capability, nicknamed ‘Masskyra’ (‘Paintbrush’) owing to the fact that the varying beam frequencies can actually be distinguished by the Shemarrians’ advanced optics.

#### NEMA LGR-360 “Terror Stopper” Laser Grenade Rifle

EShe-NLR360 “Trazzer” (“Thunder+Lightning/Thunderclap/Thunderstroke”). A Silvermoon-made version, the NLR360Sm, has an effective laser range of 2,250 ft.

#### NEMA PR-470 “Hot Seat” Plasma Rifle

EShe-NPR470 ‘Nidus’ (“Igniter’. Also ‘Mega-Zippo’ amongst humans). The Blood Riders have a variant, the NPR470Br, which has a ‘scatter fire’ mode, doing 4d6 MD to a 10 ft wide area, at a range of 800 ft.

#### NEMA PR-476 ‘Incinerator’ Plasma Cannon

EShe-NPR476 “Volcus” (‘Firespitter’). A weapon incorporating both a plasma projector and a mini-missile launcher is something of a novelty for the Shemarrians. Ironically, several of these weapons were sold by the Blood Riders to Greater New England’s Paladin Steel, who created and marketed an upgraded, modular, multi-mode variant of their own, the PSPPR-25 ‘Flashburn’ Plasma Rifle, before the Blood Riders could produce a variant of their own, similar to their NPR470Br.

#### NEMA GLR-540 “Thunderer” Grenade Launcher

EShe-NGLR540 ‘Chunda” (‘Bonecracker”). Missile weapons, until the end of the Shemarrian Civil War, were rather rare, and something of a novelty for the logistics-strapped Shemarrian forces. After the SCW’s end, and the establishment of secured weapons production and supply, grenade and missile launchers really came into vogue. The Chunda is seeing a great deal of experimentation with various different grenade loads.

#### NEMA ML-557 “Destroyer” Mini-Missile Rifle

EShe-NML557 “Denikker” (‘Fire Bow”). This weapon is beginning to appear in numbers throughout the Shemarrian Nation and is seeing the same sort of experimentation with different warhead types as the grenade launchers.

#### NEMA R-660 “Striker” Rail Gun

EShe-NRG660 “Scava-shron” (‘Scava-lite’). Terran-made infantry rail guns are generally regarded as inferior the traditional Scava rail rifles of the Shemarrians. At best, they are named and treated as ‘lesser cousins’, and assigned to second-echelon troops and vehicles. The Ne’R’Mar are often seen sporting these weapons, though many outsiders assume that they are scavenged and refurbished original NEMA weapons. Among the Ne’R’Mar, NRG660s and NRG670s are jokingly nicknamed ‘Spira’ (‘Drill’) or ‘Punchatta’ (‘Jackhammer’).

#### NEMA R-670 “Lightning” Rail Gun

EShe-NRG670 “Scava-sutek” (‘Scava-little sibling’). A little more respected as a weapon, but still regarded as fit for support troops and rear echelon defense.

#### NEMA Body Armors

The Shemarrians have also figured out how to use the factory facilities to create body armor materials similar to those used in NEMA body armors. The SN doesn’t produce new suits of NEMA EBA-130, however, but a stylistically-different model (generally referred to as SheGEBA-01) that more closely resembles the Male Shemarrians’ body armor, only with more coverage. Main body MDC of 120, and -5% to climbing, -10% to prowl, swim, and acrobatics. Each Tribe produces slightly aesthetically-different suits of armor for the troops, auxiliary forces, and community militia in their respective regions. More enhanced/augmented suits may be issued to specific individuals or specialized units.

### Republicans

Republican-designed weaponry (Rifts Sourcebook One, revised, pgs. 135-136.) is NOT replicated by the Shemarrians (the templates used were retained by the Republican hackers and ARCHIE-3 doesn’t have any memory of the specifics of the revamped weapons). The EShemar COULD reverse-engineer them easily enough, but have not, honoring an agreement with the Republicans over the repatriation of the Thirty Thousand and their equipment.

The Republicans now openly mass-produce their own designs at the Factory/Temple-7 complex that they control. Still, the Republicans aren’t exactly happy that brand-spanking new NEMA weaponry, even if of an older pattern, is showing up in the ranks of the Shemarrian forces. To the Republican high command, it’s a reminder that not all of the NEMA equipment (i.e. the HQ-ECC and associated factory complexes) has been repatriated to their hands. The Shemarrians have either held onto stockpiles that rightfully (in the Republicans’ minds) belong to the heirs of NEMA, or else unlawfully continue to control the factories producing new weaponry.

Another group not pleased with the resurgence of the NEMA weaponry is the Splugorth Minions, some of whom are long-lived enough to remember the last time those weapons were in abundance, And this time around, as much as they’d love to re-enact the smashing and enslavement of the last group that used them, there are too many groups along the American Eastern Seaboard with the means of making any such attempt too costly for the Splugorth, short of pouring in huge reinforcements from offworld.