Fligs

Also known as:

• Magnetic Accelerators
• Metal Accelerators
• Flingers (early Belter only)
• Fling Guns (shortened to Fligs)

Devices that throw metal accelerated by an induced magnetic field have been around for a long time, but until the human race started to venture into space, no real hand held versions were developed.

In the early Belter days, regular chemical guns were the preference, as they were relatively cheap. However, the supply of ammunition in the belt became sporadic, leaving some to feel exposed. Also, the guns had a tendency to punch a hole in important life support, or even the hull, creating trouble for even the shooter. Additionally, the chemicals produced as gasses could not escape the environment causing additional problems, and a smell that would last weeks.

As Belters were largely self-sufficient, with a preference to over produce rather than under produce, electricity became incredibly cheap. Note that anyone who couldn't generate electricity wouldn't make it as a Belter. Early developments came from mod groups of enterprising belters, who starting by reusing spent bullets, effectively doubling their ammunition stocks. Fligs could also fire any metal and the energy cell in the handle could be continually replaced without affecting the barrel. They were known as flingers by the tinkerers who first created them but as it was felt that the name sounded stupid, people began calling them fling guns which quickly got shortened to fligs. The use of fligs really took off in 2051 with the invention of Superamic, which allowed the safe use of very powerful magnetic fields.

Another feature that helped change people’s use from chemical guns to fligs, was the aditional control of the speed of the projectile. A flig could instantly switch from amour piercing to bruising without even changing the ball bearing in the barrel. Fligs have the additional benefit of being able to be modified to not actually fire the ball bearing but instead just produce the field required to act as a stun gun. Primarily though, ball-bearings were very, very cheap and often easily made from the slag smelted from asteroids. The flig is the standard armament of the combat suits, built into an arm (right or left arm can be chosen by the soldier), which allows them the full range from stun, to armour piercing. Some people use the developed shotgun style of flig but these people are generally considered to be crazy. The shotgun flig is therefore used in Anarchismit manga, such as by the character Rip Jack.