M-96 Avenger / M-97 Viper

The M-96 Avenger marksman micro-scale mass accelerator, more commonly known as the Avenger sniper rifle, is a scaled down, Infantry variant of a conventional mass accelerator developed by Hahne-Kedar Industries using micro-scale mass accelerator technology, with it's successor, the M-97 Viper being developed by Rosenkov Materials. The M-96 was the standard issue sniper rifle used by special forces and marksmen of the Alliance Navy, before being replaced by the M-97.

This rifle is popular with military snipers, who appreciate a long-range gun that can snap off multiple shots in the blink of an eye.

Measuring 83 cm in length and made of high-density ceramic, the weapon is extremely durable and lightweight. When combined with it's automated collapsible designed when holstering, the weapon is highly portable without restricting movement.

The weapon features a long, thin design with many of it's components sitting flush. It's primary components consist of an electromagnetic barrel, an ammunition block made of ferric titanium alloy inside the grip, A powercell below the stock. An eezo core. The cooling system is housed below the barrel. All electronic components are housed in the main body behind the barrel, including the smart-targeting computer, holographic ammunition and temperature displays and an electronic scope on top of the weapon. It can also be fitted with a variety projectile modification modules inserted below the muzzle to give certain affects to the rounds, such as a plasma injector for incendiary ammo, a Bose-Einstein condensate injector for cryo ammo or electrical capacitors connected to the power cell to create disruptor ammo.

The ammo block is a 500 gram block of ferric metal made primarily of titanium and iron with several other metals added to improve it's effectiveness as well as it's resistance to heat and air friction. Microlasers shave off small amounts of the metal comparable to the size of a grain of sand. The exact size of the metal shavings vary from target to target. On average, a 500 g block can supply around 4 000 rounds. Variations in the alloy properties and composition could also change the effects of the projectiles. Alloys with a higher tungsten percentage would be better at armour penetration, while ammo blocks treated with a biotic field could warp their targets when fired.

When the trigger is pulled, the sniper rifle's smart targeting computer examines the target and after a quick calculation, shaves off an appropriately sized slug -- about the size of a grain of sand -- off of the ammo block, lightens it with a mass effect field, then accelerates it down the barrel at high velocity. This all happens in milliseconds.

Both the Avenger and Viper fire sand grain-sized slugs at 83 km/s with a fire rate of 4 round per second.

The excess heat generated by the action of firing is transferred to the cooling system to prevent the barrel from melting. On the M-96 Avenger, the gun used an air-cooling sysem that vented the air directly from the gun, however, this method wasn't very efficient as the gun would generate more heat than it could disepate. If the Avenger fired 10 rounds in quick succession without giving the weapon a break, the weapon could burn out.

This problem was solved in late 2183, thanks to reverse engineered geth technology. The solution was to use disposable heat sinks to capture excess heat. "Thermal clips" were implemented across the galaxy in 2184, with thermal clip based weapons completely replacing air-cooled weapons in only a few months.

The M-97 Viper was launched in April 2184 and swiftly replaced the Avenger as the Alliance standard issue sniper rifle. The Viper was identical in every way except for it's cooling system. Rather than vents below the barrel, it instead featured breach mechanism to eject and insert thermal clips. The rifle can fire 12 rounds before the thermal clip is maxed out, at which point a safety kicks in, preventing the gun from firing until a new thermal clip is inserted.