The Electron Flux Gun, or ELF Gun, has undergone a great deal of change from its origins as a powerful Herc-mounted weapon. Military historians remember the dagger-shaped Electron Flux Whip discharging blasts of controlled lightning at a target. The original ELFs were definite energy hogs, but ones capable of knocking down shielded targets quickly.
A handheld version of this weapon was produced as early as 2734, although it never made it past the prototype phase of testing. For centuries, attempts to miniaturize the ELF failed for two reasons: the enormous power requirements and the excessive amount of shielding required to prevent the injury or death of the shooter.
Sometime before the Sixth Firetruce, a workable variant began to see use on the battlefield. The old weapon was essentially "lightning in a bottle," a massive, barely-controlled electrical discharge. This new version was more of a finesse device; creating a resonance effect. When fired, the ELF bathed the target in a wide emission of electromagnetic energy. A microcomputer in the weapon analyzes the feedback from the initial burst and shifts the next discharge to a resonating frequency. This process takes only milliseconds and is ongoing.
Against a shielded target, the effect apes the use of sound to shatter a glass. The target's shields will falter, then fail. Against another tribal, the resonance effect not only knocks down powered armor shields, but causes an energy drain that renders the armor jets and energy-dependent weaponry useless.
This functionality comes at a price. The ELF Gun has only a very short range, and does not cause immediate damage to an armored and shielded target. The sensation of being hit by an ELF has been described as "like putting a battery to your tongue, but with your whole body being one big tongue." Painful but not excruciating, the ELF can produce fatal results if directed at a person long enough, generally around eight to twelve seconds. It does so by draining armor energy and then causing the unshielded human target to go into cardiac arrest. Some electrically insulating armors have managed to blunt this effect, but the supplementary insulation adversely affects armor performance in other ways.
I've heard reports that this weapon is commonly used as an interrogation tool. Evidently with a little ion-gel rubbed on extremities, the pain of a low-level ELF discharge is enough to crack all but the strongest wills.
Most of the tribals I interviewed regarded this weapon with distaste. They acknowledged its place on the battlefield on disabling enemy turrets, but few were eager to carry one. "It's as accurate as a bull with a blindfold," one wag told me. Still another warrior told me the ELF was his favorite weapon in close quarters.
The Scorpion turret mounts a larger version of this weapon. This variant is far more powerful and inflicts greater damage but does not drain energy as rapidly, and can be considered a close "cousin" of the original ELF, essentially a lightning whip.
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