4. Describe a favorite possession in detail. It can be anything — a weapon, a commlink, a talisman, a keepsake, an article of clothing, a false identity, whatever. What's the story behind it? Why is it important to you? What makes it unique?
'Runners and their toys: a topic sure to produce a series of posts that will make the reader simultaneously envious and frightened. It's weird mix to experience: salivating over somebody else's bleeding-edge wiz weapon/gear/ride/spell/etc. while also facing the prospect of being "outgunned" by it. Speaking of guns, some of you kiddos know that old man Rake is fond of his firearms. I won't deny it, but I would also like to to share more of my hard-earned perspective on all things firearms by discussing one of my favorite guns. Pay attention, chummers, you might even learn something!
First, let me produce it for you. [A video window opens, displaying a live feed of a man's hands through image-linked cybereyes. Seemingly out of nowhere, a matte-black non-metallic palm-sized hold-out pistol jumps into Rake's right hand.] Whoa, there, omae! No need to get twitchy; haven't you seen the workings of a hidden arm-slide before?
Yeah, that's right: I sent a wireless command via my implanted 'link to the slide, which popped the gun into my hand. I keep the slide strapped to my forearm, hidden under my shirt sleeve - there's also an extra magazine clipped on just behind the gun, since these little pistols don't carry many rounds. Slides like these are faster than a quickdraw holster and provide the added bonus of even easier concealment for your smaller guns.
Hoi chummer! What do you mean by "elf-gun"? You think this is small and non-threatening, huh? Small, yes. Non-threatening, not exactly. There aren't a lot of guns that pass through most active security measures undetected, yet still provide a good shooter with sufficiently deadly capability on the other side. Read on and educate yourself before you go loud-mouthing about the panacea quality of your favorite SMG. Don't know that fancy word? Look it up with your Fetch agent, kiddo, while I stare at the university degrees on my wall here.
Dictionary time over? Good. Ready to pay attention? Even better.
As I was saying, this particular gun started life over almost 20 years ago as a brand new Morrissey Élan. It was a gift to me by my late fiancee, who thought it was more appropriate for my (then) new role as a corp sarariman. Despite my military-indoctrinated preference back then for heavy pistols, I recognized the solid design of the Élan and (perhaps more importantly) the concealability and acceptability (in high class circles) of such a weapon.
Later, as my initial dips into the shadow community taught me a few things the hard way, I decided to work with my armorer buddy to tune up my trusty Élan. Non-metallic and highly concealable is a great starting point, but the metal in the bullets is easier to detect and the lack of a smartlink represents a missing edge that might get a chummer geeked, you scan me? Also, hold-out pistols are not designed with standard gun accessories in mind, so there's no off-the-shelf way to silence one. Hence the armorer buddy: we're headed into Weapon Mods 101 class here.
Keep that in mind as you take a closer look at my Élan. [Rake holds it up close on the video feed, dialing in a slight magnification through his cybereyes.] First up, the micro-camera aligned coaxial to the barrel is the most obvious clue to the internal smartlink modification we installed. Next, you'll note the slightly extended barrel with the wider end - that's the tell for a silencer modification. More expensive than a normal silencer accessory, but the only way to quiet your hold-out.
Now let's look back here at the grips, up close and personal through this magnified view. See that "fuzzy" surface on the grip? That's gecko coating, which means you'd have trouble prying this gun from my cold dead fingers; also useful for sticking the gun to anything, anywhere. Those strange contours in the surface? Those are essential to the custom-fitted personalized grip, a feature I like on all of my weapons. On guns, it helps with recoil, and it's not a bad upgrade for your favorite melee tool, either. One more thing that you can only see with a bit of magnification is this tiny interface here, which is one of several for the skinlink system. Installing a skinlink and setting your smartgun's default connection to it deters wireless hacks of your weapons.
Finally, let's zoom back out to look at the ammunition situation. [Video feed reverts to the unmagnified view as Rake reorients the weapon and ejects the clip.] You might notice that the clip is small, holding only 5 rounds, which is a common situation for a hold-out. Upgrading to an extended clip won't buy you much capacity at these small sizes, so it's better to just have a spare one full and ready on the back of your arm slide. Yes, those bullets are different than normal. Remember that part about making things hard to detect? These are Hi-C rounds, made of MAD-scanner-invisibledensiplast (slug and case). They lose power at long range, but that's a fair trade when you're in a hold-out situation. They also kick hard due to the higher propellant load, but the personalized grip helps control against that extra recoil.
Put all that together, and you have a small, yet still quite threatening package. Still don't think it's threatening? Imagine going to a "secure" meet, "knowing" that the other party (whom you intend to double-cross) will be left unarmed, only to be very surprised by the sudden appearance of a gun like my Élan here in close proximity to your unarmored face. Not feeling so null sheen anymore, omae? Didn't think so.
In the end, I guess this old Élan of mine is a sort of "favorite". Of course, I have a stable of customized guns for a variety of applications, and I still pack the latest Ares Predator (a stalwart heavy) as my primary pistol when more direct action is expected. Still, knowing that my Élan is always there as the ace up my sleeve is a small bit of assurance in world of rapidly-changing circumstances.
-Rake