Shot and BBs
With fligs, bullets are no longer required as magnetic acceleration can throw mass cleaner and faster; and of course ball barings are considerably cheaper. Originally "BBs" was the name for the bullet sized ball bearings with "shot" for the smaller ones that are found in shotgun cartridges, however, being correct didn't stop these definitions from failing real use. As BB guns had small plastic pellets, some Starlers naturally thought the BB's were the smaller ones, while the ones they generally shoot were the larger ones. Also, the military, trying to project strength, didn't like the mental image created by referring their soldiers as being loaded out with BB's. The option of using ‘balls’ was offered but it didn't last five minutes as no one could keep a straight face when referring to shooting their balls. From it's inception, the military flipped the definitions so bullet sized ball barings are called shot. It is also ok to refer to shot as bullets but it sounds old fashioned.
Armor Piercing
Very hard shaped shot, and in this form looks nothing like a ball baring. Some are spherical with a shaped core surrounded by slug metal designed to transfer as much kinetic energy as possible. Shaped shot will tessellate to maximise clip space.
BBs
Used for a shotgun effect, it is eather a collection of small shot that are universally thrown out of the flig, or a very thin shell that breaks on firing creating the same effect.
Canon Ball
Very large shot that is too heavy to be fired by individuals and generally fired by ships. They are not fired from canon but the name is a very old and much loved one.
Chaff
Chaff is a shot that on firing, disintegrates into a cloud of metal that acts as a decoy to the actual target. Generally it is used as an electronic countermeasure although if fired into an electrical system it may destroy it, disrupt it or have no effect.
Dummy
Similar to softs in that they are non-lethal, but they are intended for war games and not crowd control, and so do no damage at all. Typically they are made with red paint.
Dust
Still experimental, but the idea is that the flig melts the metal dust into the needed size and shape before firing, theoretically maximising carried ammo. In reality, time is lost in the formation of the shot and it exits hotter than ideal, making the ammo softer than expected. Nobody serious uses dust and no one who uses dust is taken seriously.
Electronic
Very hard shell with super robust electronics. These are designed to be fired into an electronics unit (such as low quality amour) and disrupt the electronics around it with batter powered inference. The EMP variant produces a powerful but localised electromagnetic pulse on impact.
Flairs
Flares are not shot but are worth mentioning here as they can be fired by fligs. Flairs are a HydrOx product.
Frangible
Shot that splits on impact and act like shot with wide dispersal and limited penetration. They are meant to be lethal but not to anyone behind the target.
Hard
Hard shot do not deform on impact at typical velocities. They transfer a lot of kinetic energy very effectively through a narrow but long corridor. Hard shot are therefore ideal for destroying machinery.
Shells / Incendiary
Shells are made of two very hard metal containers, typically two hemispheres together as a sphere, with one half containing hydrogen and the other containing oxygen. On impact shells explode so they can also be regarded as exploding shells. True shells have a fuse, generally a percussion fuse as opposed to a primitive time fuse, however the shell casing generates the same effect on impact. To this extent, shells are also incendiary.
Shot
The replacement for bullets and have the same mass and metal. Fired shot and a fired bullet have the same effect. Shot can be referred to as bullets but is is incorrect and sounds old fashioned.
Slugs
Traditionally made of lead as it was cheap and easily mouldable, slugs now mean any soft metal shot. Lead is in fact never used as it is toxic. At high enough acceleration, slugs are glowing molten balls and can be used to temporarily patch holes. Hot slugs are also tracer rounds. They can be used to physically put someone down, who is in armour without hurting them. Large enough concentrations of fire will also gunk up the movement of armour.
Softs
Like rushoter bullets, softs are designed to deter without being lethal or to break the skin. When they hit you they feel anything but soft. All stellars have been hit by these in training so they know what effect they are using.
Writers Notes
I’ve ignored a singular or plural standard, and instead used the noun most commonly used by people. Although slug is technically the singular along with dummy; people only really talk about loading slugs and dummy rounds. Softs are my invention.