Technology Profile: Slugthrowers and Kalashes

By far the most common weapons in the galaxy are slugthrowers. A primitive technology, the slugthrower's origins date from before the Ash Winter, and many slugthrower designs have remained unchanged since that era. The most popular form of slugthrower is the kalash, the term used for all automatic rifle slugthrowers. Some major galactic powers, such as the Citizens' Alliance and the Duzhonev Imperium, continue to use slugthrowers, although their designs are modern and can compete with the modern rail and energy weapons used around the galaxy.

The operation of a slugthrower is dependent on using a chemical propellant, most commonly black or smokeless gunpowder, to propel a metal slug at reasonably high speeds toward a target. Slugthrowers themselves are simple machines, merely requiring a mechanism with which to ignite the gunpowder. This is often through a firing pin, but more primitive designs use matchlock and flintlock systems. Apart from that, a slugthrower can be of almost any size and shape. Some are the size of pistols, while others are large enough to dwarf city blocks. A common feature on slugthrowers is rifling: the addition of helical grooves in the barrel of a slugthrower, making the slug spin as it leaves and improving the accuracy of the weapon.

The most common slugthrower design is the kalash, an ancient weapon used during the Ash Winter. Durable, cheap and easy to use, kalashes have been a common sight for all of human history. The kalash's durability - a product of its simple, rugged design - is famous throughout the galaxy; kalashes have been known to function after being abandoned for millennia. This has made many kalashes ancestral weapons, passed from father to son as a rite of passage, across many galactic cultures. Countless designs for kalashes exist, from the primitive to the ornate and complex. Many manufacturers make many kinds of kalash parts, so they can be disassembled and customized with ease.

Slugthrowers suffer from many limitations. Due to the limitations of gunpowder, a slugthrower can never fire a metal slug at the same velocities as a railgun or coilgun, and thus a slugthrower will always be weaker than a rail weapon of the same size. Placing more gunpowder in a slugthrower will not solve the problem, as it will simply cause the slugthrower to explode from all the pressure to which it is subjected. Unless specially designed to do so, slugthrower slugs will not operate in low-oxygen or vacuum environments, limiting their use to terraformed worlds and human-friendly environments. While gunpowder comes with its own oxidizer, only certain designs, such as a kalash, have mechanical systems which can operate reliably in vacuum. Materials science has long rendered slugthrowers obsolete on a proper battlefield, as even the soldiers of the Solar Federation had body armor that could reliably stop any slugthrower. Slugthrowers also suffer from recoil, unlike energy weapons.

Despite their limitations, slugthrowers persist as the most common form of weapon on the galaxy. This is mostly due to the ease of their manufacture; only the most primitive of metallurgy and machining is necessary to create a slugthrower. No electronics are necessary, nor are focusing crystals, modern power packs, or magnetic propulsion systems. Unlike modern weapons, galactic governments are not threatened by slugthrowers, and allow anybody to own them. As a result, slugthrowers are extremely common and cheap, and often found in the hands of farmers around the galaxy. Slugthrowers are also very reliable, easily able to withstand punishment that would break a laser weapon. Despite the recoil, slugthrowers are still very easy to use. Further, despite the ineffectiveness of slugthrowers against modern forces, most threats that slugthrower users expect to fight against do not wear modern body armor. Due to the commonality of slugthrowers, galactic governments often manufacture them to arm rebellions around the galaxy.