Whitehall Workshops Experimental Energy Weapons pt 3/???
Tesla Driver
More portable and lighter than more common EM-Rail platforms & far more accessible to the armchair gunsmith in you, the Tesla Driver was devised for defense against big game animals like Yao-Guai & Mirelurks. As with most arms from the Whitehall Workshops family, the Tesla Driver’s design has in mind availability of ammunition as well as weight & ammunition management when dealing with high-power civilian weaponry. It fires steel ball bearings from a small top-mounted magazine rigged with a tiny electric motor usually from toy cars or Giddyup Buttercup limbs—which are also a great source of the weapon’s ammunition along with the array of robots roaming the Commonwealth.
A corded pre-war hand drill makes up the receiver and electric generator to power the firing mechanism, with the power cord braced into an energy cell caddy located under the drill’s handle. Steel and copper hull pieces are scavenged from wherever possible, while the drill motor’s function is reworked to draw more power from the weapon’s fusion core & store it until the trigger is released. A battery of six accelerator coils with one stabilizer under the weapon’s muzzle send the Driver’s payload downrange at an enormous velocity—enough to punch through a charging Yao-Guai’s skull at short range. Some settlers report that the projectiles even carry some electrical charge with them as they leave the weapon, causing additional harm to targets.
Whipstitch Whitehall, Western Transplant & Settlement Leader.
Im embarrassed that I haven’t posted all my new fallout characters yet…this is Whipstitch Whitehall, from Vault 49 out in OK originally, but she’s made her way through to the Commonwealth & has made a living setting up small communications relays between settlements in the northern Commonwealth. She’s got a little arms dealing business on the side but that’s for later, details under the cut!
Vault 49 was established under a private airstrip used for politicians & eccentric billionaires living in the Four Corners region of the pre-war western United States. With a focus on preparedness and wilderness training, Vault Tec’s plan for 49 was to initially shock the well-to-do political class into a proverbial state of “freeze-fight-or-flight” following the inevitable nuclear apocalypse. Herded into Vault 49 alongside these social elites were a selection of local farming families chosen by a quad-state area Super Duper Mart raffle, who would be dispersed throughout the same living quarters as their former governors & elected officials. Intermarrying was highly encouraged, and living standard incentives were even instituted in the early phases of Vault Tec’s V49 Overseer Agenda to establish families of mixed parentage; results were mixed for several short generations, but Vault 49 eventually came to be known in the middle territories as one of the more successful experiments surviving into the new post-nuclear landscape.
Much of the senatorial & gubernatorial class died out in the first few decades; pampered lifestyles with extensive robotic assistance led to a group that could not handle the stressors of Vault life. Those few hardier families who could handle themselves mingled with the general population & within 2-3 generations Vault-Tec Overseer reports would have been full of rigorous training regiments, roll call counts, test scores and biometric data. The program for V49 dictated that all inhabitants be trained in extensive wilderness preparedness (akin to pre-war Eagle Scout programs) for the first 150 years after initial sealing—after which control over the vault’s main door would be relinquished to the current Overseer via a Vault-Tec official password transfer. With the Overseer’s discretion the main door would be allowed to open whenever necessary, and a system of scouting parties would be established shortly after. Phase 2 of Vault-Tec’s program would come into effect here.
Whipstitch’s parents were both particularly talented community leaders; her mother was head technician in the V49 Water Processing Plant, and her father was on the Science & Exploration Board for several years before they had little ‘Stitch. She grew up as a talented target shooter, an excellent swimmer, and with a propensity for tinkering which carried her through V49 “Blue Ranger” training; a gauntlet designed to harden potential scouting party members. Whipstitch took her chance when she could to leave the vault and see the greater world, only bits of which she’d seen previously from others’ scavenging hauls—and never came back. She feels pangs of guilt from time to time when the skies hang red with radiation storms, reminding her of the dusty prairie sky back in O-Kay. Stitch took all those skills from V49 and trained up her people skills along the way, managing to gain some small notoriety as a handy builder/engineer & quite nifty with small energy weapons.
First one uses 2 energy sources for ammo; a Small Energy Cell powers the gamma chamber towards the front of the weapon, bombarding plasma as it’s fired from the central reactor. Microfusion Cells power the plasma reactor & a battery of scavenged plasma pistol injectors.
Second one is a one-handed energy weapon filling the role of an SMG, which is extremely niche considering how slow plasma bolts travel compared to lasers. This weapon would be powered by Small Energy Cells as well, with more salvaged parts to boost stability under sustained fire. The weapon glows purple instead, using a different crucible material to be ‘injected’ with plasma, producing a slightly more flame-like projectile from a charged cloud of particles surrounding the muzzle.
I got bit by the bug again & have booted up my console Fallout 4 files, which means the Wacky Weapons Workshop is back in my greedy little hands. Here’s some more ideas for arms that might come out of the various settlements being half-run by my Vault 49er, Whipstitch Whitehall.
Gamma Defender Mk I
Gamma Defenders were ideated as a solution to handmade energy weapons being able to carry a payload beyond traditional energy damage from lasers or plasma reactors. Parts were sourced from relatively common sights; glass tubes & hose connections from prewar Corvega engines, broken down Gamma Guns from scavenging the outskirts of the Glowing Sea, and any rusted-out revolver frame that still has a working trigger and cylinder hinge. The traditional revolver magazine is converted into a hinged energy cell caddy, and electrical components replace much of the revolver frame forward of the magazine.
Unfortunately, the weapon was quite clumsy and not easily transported over long distances, as it couldn’t fit into traditional chest or hip holsters. Another problem arose from the unstable radiation sinks installed around the “barrel tube”, which required operators to handle the active weapon strictly with lead-lined gloves. To accommodate this, a late-stage modification was added to the Mk I’s blueprints—an extended trigger guard to more-comfortably accept lead-lined gloves. With its long list of manufacturing nuances the Mk I saw minor use defending small settlements across the northern stretch of the Commonwealth. After a few short years however the availability of other Whitehall Workshop weapons like the Salvaged SynthLaz & the LACS began overshadowing the Gamma Defender Mk I, and its blueprints soon cluttered the shelves of many an isolated workshop.
