Aliens: Bug Hunt by Jonathan Maberry & Heather Graham

Author:Jonathan Maberry & Heather Graham [Maberry, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Publisher: Titan
Published: 2017-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

EPISODE 22

BY LARRY CORREIA

SAGA OF THE WEAPON, SEASON 1, EPISODE 22

THE M41A PULSE RIFLE

The M41A is one of the most successful combat rifles in history, and has become a potent symbol of American military might, not just on Earth, but into the furthest reaches of space. It has seen battle on every continent and dozens of worlds. It is beloved by those who use it, and feared by their enemies.

However, the adoption of the Pulse Rifle was controversial, and the story of its evolution is filled with tragic errors that cost many Colonial Marines their lives.

Join us now as we discuss the history of the legendary M41A Pulse Rifle, on Saga of the Weapon.

There’s nothing like the sound of a Pulse Rifle. It’s like a maniac is running a jackhammer on a steel drum. That’s the sound of freedom.

—Lance Corporal Chris Johnson, USCM

Today’s Colonial Marine takes having a reliable and potent rifle for granted, but it wasn’t always so. When the USCM was formed in 2101, their standard issue infantry weapon was the Harrington Automatic Rifle, with one Weyland Storm issued per squad.

Marines now don’t realize how good they have it. Back in my day, you had basically two choices. Have a handy little rifle that ran slicker than snot—the HAR—but bounced its feeble little bullets off your enemies’ body armor, or have a rifle that would put them down no matter what, but only when that complex hunk of junk wasn’t broken down or hopelessly jammed because a speck of dirt got into the action. You ever pull the side plate off a Storm? It looks like an old fashioned clock in there. When Marines talked about something working like clockwork, we sure as hell didn’t mean the Storm.

—Staff Sergeant Mike Willis, USCM

Personally, back in the ’60s I carried a HAR, because I’d rather know it would go bang every time I pulled the trigger, than have this super advanced killing machine that could track enemies across the battlefield from a satellite feed, but was so fickle that if you looked at it funny it would crash. Nothing sucks more than waiting for your rifle’s operating system to reboot while a thousand Swedish insurgents are shooting at you.

—Corporal Cheryl Clark, USCM

After the battle of Kochan and the long campaign on Miehm, there was a clear need for a next generation infantry weapon to arm the United States Colonial Marines. It needed to be rugged enough to survive the rigors of combat in a wide variety of planetary ecosystems, and fire a potent enough round that it could defeat newer forms of advanced body armor. The 6.8mm armor piercing round of the beloved HAR was simply too anemic, and the Storm was just too fragile. After many campaigns with inadequate equipment, the USCM put their foot down. Enough was enough.

I was there when General Phillips threw a fit in front of Space Command. He said that if his men were going to fight against the insurgents, what did he expect

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