Lobic Arms/Blastech Eviscerator
Weapon Type: Compressed gas weapon
Scale: Character
Skill: Blaster: Eviscerator pistol or rifle
Ammo: 4 (8 for rifle)
Availability: 3, R or X
Body: 1D
Range: 3-4/8/12 (3-7/25/50 for rifle)
Fire rate: 1
Damage: 8D (but see below)
Cost: 1,200 (pistol), 1,800 (rifle), 100 (pistol clip), 125 (rifle clip)
Capsule: The Eviscerator was first designed by Lobic Arms for use on Donnin in order to shoot the local animal life without causing large explosions (see the entry on Donnin for more details). The idea behind the design was simple: the weapon would propel highly condensed gas wrapped in an energy cocoon. When the cocoon hit a target it would have enough energy to penetrate the target, but the act of penetration would use up the cocoon, allowing the compressed gas to expand. This would result in an extremely messy, but flameless explosion of the target. The methods used to compress the gas worked so well that the gas comes very close to being in a solid state inside the energy cocoon. This means that the resulting explosion when the cocoon is dissipated is extremely violent. The weapon has a few quirks, however. First of all the energy cocoon can only travel so far before it dissipates on its own without hitting anything (this is the maximum range given above). At this point the cocoon fails, and the gas expands. This causes an extremely loud boom, and anyone within 2 meters of the failed cocoon suffers 3D stun damage from the shockwave. Another quirk is that if the cocoon hits a hard target (wood, metal, any type of armor, basically almost anything but cloth or flesh) it will dissipate without penetrating the target. If this occurs then the target will not take 8D damage, but will instead take 4D stun damage from the shockwave (as above anyone within 2 meters of the hard target will take 3D stun damage). Note that stun damage from the shockwave does not occur if a soft target is hit, since the shockwave is mostly absorbed by the target. If a soft target is hit, the weapon can be heard up to 1 km away, and if a hard target, or no target is hit, then the weapon can be heard up to 3 km away. The Eviscerator is not a subtle weapon. It should be noted that special clips must be purchased for both the rifle and pistol version, and these are often all but impossible to find.
    Lobic Arms contracted the Eviscerator design to Blastech, but they charged a flat fee rather than a percentage of Blastech's profits arising from the weapon. This has turned out to be a wise move since the Eviscerator design has not sold terribly well, due to its limitations. The fact that the weapon is useless against armored targets means that the military has passed on the weapon design, except for use by certain commando groups (in this situation the weapon's shockwave is often used as a signal when conventional means of communication over long distances are rendered useless). Certain terrorist groups, and assassins have found the incredible noise that the weapon makes to be effective in invoking terror, not to mention the gruesome mess that the weapon makes if it hits an unarmored target (in one notable case an assassin known as Mad Jakaby shot a politician while he was making a public speech in a auditorium. Everyone in the auditorium had to take a long shower afterwards, and work crews were scraping pieces of the politician's ribcage from the ceiling for weeks). Some big game hunters who aren't picky about getting a clean trophy have taken to the Eviscerator as well, but more than one such hunter has regretted his choice of weapon when faced with an armored beast of some sort. The Eviscerator has been mildly successful in its intended market on Donnin, and the planet is one of the only places in the galaxy where ammunition for the weapon is fairly easy to find.