World Building: Long Road Home

Technology Subject: Ammunition

The world of “Long Road Home” is set in 2013, after several slight deviance in our time line. It is the edge of tomorrow with World War Three and the Second American Civil War advancing technology as war always seem to do. I will be doing a series of journals to get outside options on the world building process.

This journal will focus on Ammunition, bullets, grenades and also several alternatives to gunpowder.

First the topic of Caseless Ammunition.

At first I was a fan having, had a G11 and other caseless guns in several modern style RPGs, but as I came to understand more and more it just doesn’t work in my option.
This excerpt from CYBERSTYLE: BANG BANG PDF (Pg 2 sidebar) for the OGL/3rd Era system sums it up best.

Why not caseless ammunition?

Despite the predictions of both professional and amateur firearms enthusiasts, caseless ammunition never became the “wave of the future” for firearms.
Even in the best of caseless weapons, such as the Heckler & Koch G11, the ammunition has problems with obturation (jamming). Also, it tends to build up heat much more rapidly than standard, cartridge ammunition, causing the ammunition to uncontrollably combust in the magazine “cook off”. (In standard firearms, the expelled casing of a round carries heat out of the weapon. Not so in caseless weapons.)
Caseless ammunition must be constructed in a factory and tends to cost five to ten times as much as cartridges. Unlike cartridge ammo, it cannot be reloaded after use. When the performance benefits of caseless ammo are compared to standard (i.e., slightly better penetration, higher ammunition capacity), the cost and lack of reusability make it a poor economic choice. Finally, many countries and corporations have invested heavily in stockpiles of standard ammunition for their security and military forces. Converting to caseless ammunition would make these stockpiles obsolete, exacting a painful cost to convert to an unreliable technology that offers few benefits.

All who read please feel free to give your option that is what this is here for. Just remember “Edge of Tomorrow” style setting.



Other small arms ammunition types being considered are listed below with a description for clarity.


Armor-Piercing Saboted:

These rounds use a high-density depleted uranium or tungsten-carbide penetrator encased in a much larger plastic sheath-the “sabot”-which is designed to fall away as the round leaves the barrel. This gives a flatter trajectory and a much higher velocity to the smaller, sub-caliber bullet.


Flechette Rounds:

Bundles of tiny, razor-sharp aerofoils. When fired they expand similar to a shotgun loaded with shot, maximizing the damage area. Though the areofoils lack real penetrating power, they cause a majority of damage due to blood lose, nerve and muscle damage , rather then serious internal injuries. The aerofoils also loss momentum more quickly then a normal slug.


Accelerated Energy Transfer (AET):

These are bullets with a jacketed skin, a dense tip, and soft core. When an AET round hits the target, the penetrator punches deep, while the core expands.


Shotgun Sabot:

Similar to a slug, a sabot is a solid, bullet-like projectile fired from a shotgun. However, its flight is fin-stabilized, making it very accurate over long distances.


H/V:

Hyper velocity is armor piercing and the damage done to armor is greater by the sheer force delivered. Really has no stopping power as these bullets will pass through an unarmored target with very little wound trauma. Firing full auto may cause the gun to over heat and jam, possibly even blow up.


HESH Rounds:

High explosive squash head ammo acts like an explosive hollow point round and it delivers incredible kinetic impact.


Delayed Fuse Explosive Rounds:

These are designed to explode after penetration.
Used for assassinations these rounds are extremely deadly, very few people shot with these live.

Plasma coated Rounds:

This is an armor piercing round that has been treated with a special material that when fired the friction causes a chemical reaction which a plasma reaction when fired. Due to the intense heat the bullet will simply pass through any soft armor or flesh...often cauterizing the wound.


TRACKING ROUND:

These bullets are treated with a harmless radioactive isotope that allows the bullet to be found by a Geiger counter, the isotope lasts 5 days, and even if the bullets passes through the target enough residue will be present in the body to allow tracking.
The isotope is sprayed on comes in ten ounce cans, any type of bullet may be sprayed but if used on the plasma coated rounds it will be burned off.


X-stun shells:

When fired these rounds spread out into a large x delivering massive amounts of kinetic energy upon impact.


Busy Bee Shells:

When fired these shoot 4 little devices that upon contact will send a send a current through the victim’s body rendering him completely immobile. Worse effects on power armor and cybernetics.



Powered Glass Shells:

These are quite possible the most evil things ever created. A true horror weapon as the spray will rend flesh from bone. When fired this round emits a large cloud of fine glass, while this round won't normally kill instantly its after effects are horrendous, initially the glass will rip the skin to shreds, if a head shot occurs then the target is most certainly blinded for life, but the nastiness doesn't even start here. The powdered glass doesn't show up on X-RAY and is too small for the surgeons to go digging. The miniscule pieces of glass soon begin to itch horribly, scratching might dislodge some of the glass, but is more likely to cause an infection. Any movement in an area hit by this round will cause severe pain and itching. 30 percent of the people shot with this round who have lived have gone insane. The shot itself might not kill you, the infection might not even kill you, but if you’re hit with this round you will wish it had.


Fragmentation Grenade

Fragmentation grenades are very basic. They explode when thrown, showering the enemy in shrapnel. It's not elegant, but it's definitely effective.


Shrapnel Grenade:

Similar to a standard fragmentation grenade, the shrapnel grenade uses aerodynamic metal shards housed in directional tubes to be controlled and far more lethal then the pop and spray chaos of fragmentation grenades.


Sonic Grenade:

These grenades explode loudly, but the majority of their effect is delivered in disorienting frequencies the ear can barely perceive, even as it is damaged.


Ion Grenade:

These grenades emit an extremely strong burst of energy devastating to any unshielded electronics caught in the effect.


Cryo Grenade:

A cryo grenade releases a super cooled liquid that freezes on contact, causing intense pain and damage to victims caught in the effect.





Adhesive Grenade:

These grenades cover the target area in a gooey bio-adhesive that traps anyone caught within the effect. It quickly degrades, allowing allies to soon pass unhindered.


Super adhesive Grenade:

Think weaponized superglue! Unlike the standard adhesive grenade, this actually hardens almost instantly and takes far longer to degrade. Unless you are willing to wait till it is brittle enough to break out, you need solvent, or someone you trust to cut or burn you out.


Concussion Grenade:

This type of grenade explodes in a concussive wave of force that disrupts the senses of both organic and inorganic targets in the area of effect.


Fireflash Grenade:

Fireflash grenades contain a chemical compound that combusts immediately on contact with oxygen. Upon detonation it produces a geyser of flame that fills about a 10 foot radius and ignites any flammable material it comes in contact with. Has been know to “cook off” ammo that is too close.


Plasma Grenades:

Plasma grenades are a rare and devastating weapon. Intentionally engineered small to be controlled and limit collateral damage. Use can always be recognized by the hemispherical craters they leave behind.


Liquid Propellant:

Replaces gunpowder with an electrochemical propellant that is ignited by a short, but massive shock to the cartridge rather then a firing pin. The propellant converts to a white-hot plasma with a smoother, more powerful expansion then gunpowder. Resulting in a considerably higher muzzle velocity then gunpowder. The slightly higher recoil is not enough to throw off anyone familiar with these weapons.


Binary Propellant:

Binary propellant systems use a liquid propellant and an oxidizing solution that are kept separate until they are both introduced into the reaction chamber of the firearm to propel the bullet down the barrel. The simplest system reduces components by one third by using a projectile that is mated with the dry oxidant. The advantage of this system is the reduced number of components to be carried into the field by a soldier or
other forces using the weapon system. However, this design uses the amount of dry oxidant required to fire the round at the maximum setting of a variable setting system. Whenever the weapons is used below this power level, some oxidant is not consumed and remains in the barrel of the firearm. Thus, this system is more prone to fouling than some earlier models, but is much simpler to load. Generally, the oxidant leftovers are insignificant, and routine cleaning is more than sufficient to maintain the system.

This is I would say a short list, using references of D20 Modern, GURPS, Cyberpunk DATAFORTRESS 2020, BlackHammer Firearms, and CYBERSTYLE: BANG BANG.

Please leave your thoughts and any other possibilities you can suggest.

Thank you for reading and remember options wanted!