018: AK-2047

ENTRY 018: AK-2047

The AK-2047 is the characteristic personal weapon of the Khangs, a militant survivalist sect that was too hardcore in their paramilitary socialism for even the Autonomist Alliance to handle, and the vacuum-adapted kinetic weapon exemplifies their group ideals of reliability, adaptability, durability, and lethality. Tracing a long and oftentimes undistinguished design heritage back to the Avtomat Kalishnikova, the contemporary AK-2047 is the inheritor of centuries of modifications, upgrades, redesigns, and reimaginings. The most basic model is little more than an automatic rifle adapted to fire in vacuum, whose rather simple design allows it to be easily manufactured or repaired from a wide variety of materials while remaining relatively accurate and workable.

Vacuum-adapted kinetic weapons are a rarity, not so much because they are difficult to design or manufacture than because they are of limited utility; if not properly braced, the recoil of firing the weapon in zero or low gravity can weapon and combatant flying. Most planning combat in a vacuum at a distance therefore prefer more powerful railguns or recoilless beam weapons to kinetic weapons—but the AK-2047 is not without its advantages. The gun can be manufactured piecemeal on most makers without arousing suspicion, and assembled rather quickly. Aside from the chemical traces for the dry lubricants and accelerants used in the ammunition, which are easily disguised in a workshop, the weapon has no distinctive chemical or electronic signature that registers with the majority of habitat sensors—and, if need be, they are sturdy enough to be used as melee weapons in hand-to-hand combat.

The Khangs are the primarily manufacturers of AK-2047s. Their social protocol has replaced the family unit with a paramilitary organization, or as one Extropian transanthropoligist put it “the Spartans by way of the Khmer Rouge,” with children raised in military clades. They work as mercenaries across the system; they tend to travel light and build what they need once they arrive from locally available materials. For the Khangs, the AK-2047 is a weapons platform, the base model which they adapt to each environment they find themselves in. The Khang database contains blueprints, maker instructions, and directions for thousands of modifications, upgrades, and accessories, allowing them to produce weapons customized to local conditions—sometimes in a matter of minutes. Spare weapons are happily sold to outsiders, though access to the Khang database itself is more guarded.

Mechanics

Firearm	Armor Penetration (AP)	Damage Value (DV)	Average DV	Firing Modes	Ammo	Cost
AK-2047	-5	2d10+4	15	SA, BF, FA	30	Low

Slightly less-powerful than the standard assault rifle, the AK-2047 makes up in adaptability what they lose in terms of force, able to fire effectively in most environments, including complete vacuum or when submerged. The standard model is completely mechanical (no electronic firing, smartlink, mesh inserts, etc.) but also incredibly cheap, reliable, and easy to manufacture and modify.

The AK-2047 is a two-handed weapon that uses the Kinetic Weapons skill to fire, or the Clubs skill when used as a melee weapon (when used as a club, use stats for a club, Eclipse Phase, pp.334-5) The cost of any accessories or upgrades is one category lower.