Codex for Mass Effect: Alternativiti
A/N: This is a Codex for the story Mass Effect: Alternativiti and provides a more in-depth view of the universe. Sometimes the information within can help to understand the story better.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or any of its characters, but all OC's and original content is mine, if you want to use it please PM me, though I doubt I'll have a problem.
Geth Pulse Rifle
This geth-built assault rifle fires charged protons instead of ammunition. The phasic rounds generally do less damage than standard slugs but do high damage against shields and one or two rounds in a few can bypass them entirely.
Various manufacturers had tried to copy the powerful weapon since the Geth uprisings, some of them succeeded. Most companies, however, couldn't make profit off of the weapon. Developement projects were abandoned centuries ago, but perhaps the return of the geth would spark new development.
M-89 Grenade Launcher
This heavy weapon launches rather slow-moving explode-on-impact projectiles at its targets. Mass effect fields stabilize the explosive balls, no more than a centimeter across, causing them to fire in a straight line with no arc at all.
The M-89 is more like a mass accelerator weapon than a traditional grenade launcher. It contains an ammunition block within that houses enough explosive material to last several missions. But like all heavy weapons it requires battery power and doesn't have a particularly good capacity.
Geth Plasma Shotgun
The plasma shotgun is a very unique weapon. It fires three balls of plasma and can be charged for maximum efficiency. It generates the plasma by super-heating air via electrical fields.
This might represent a problem in space or worlds with no atmosphere. There are a lot of theories but the most feasible is that the weapons can project oxygen and somehow super-heat it before it disappears into the vastness of space. This is likely achieved by using the same mass effect fields that keep the plasma in projectiles.
This weapon is particularly effective against armor and a danger even to shielded targets. Kinetic barriers stop most of the plasma from reaching its target, but can't stop all of the thermal energy. Biotic barriers fare slightly better against the plasma, the same holds true for tech armor. Of course a shot that hits a vital organ will likely cause death, which is not unlikely to happen because the three bolts don't move away from each other and the weapon is there for the most accurate shotgun in history.
A normal bolt maintains its size as it travels but a charged shot is not only three times as powerful out of the barrel, but increases in size as it smashes into more air. It is an effect similar to a snowball rolling down a mountain. The bolts can't grow indefinitely however since the electrical charge carried inside the bolt will eventually deplete and the projectile will stop growing. At maximum size the bolts can be almost as large as a person and can take out a tank, it has to be fired from rather far away to reach this size. A charged shot, however, drains a lot of battery power.
The most prominent of the few disadvantages the plasma shotgun has it that, like a heavy weapon, needs battery power to function because it projects very powerful electrical fields. It is much more efficient than almost all heavy weapons though.
These shotguns are usually carried by hunters, elite geth platforms that use cloaking technology to sneak up to their victims and turn them into goo.
Entrionic Grenade
This geth-built explosive is a very dangerous weapon in more ways than one.
When it detonates electrical sparks are deployed in a three meter radius around the device. The sparks heat the air around it to thousands of degrees - so hot it becomes plasma. All of this happens in less than half a second after detonation. The ball of super-hot air cools after several seconds and isn't that dangerous if you keep your distance.
However, about three too four seconds after the initial detonation, the grenade deploys a secondary attack. An electronic shockwave, similar to an EMP, is deployed over a thirty meter radius. It overloads shields, overheats weapons, and generally disables most tech.
The weapon has claimed many lives in its brief know existence.