Arch Hammer: Overview

A high caliber, extreme range anti-material rifle that’s used by both Vanguard Marksman and Heavy Vanguards alike, the Arch Hammer is the most powerful rifle a normal Vanguard squadron can bring to the fight. When fielded against enemy armor, the Arch Hammer is capable of penetrating the front armor of even the most modern battle tank, whereupon it will shred through the body, set off the ammunition, and then blow through the engine before existing out the back. The shrapnel, plasmatic matter, and sheer force of the hit is often more than enough to kill the crew of any vehicle in a single shot.

God I love this gun.
While the Double Tap was a happy accident from our work on a new anti-material rifle, the Arch Hammer is the big bitch… boss… fuck I can’t think a good word that rhymes with bitch.
_{Have you considered not doing that and writing like a professional? – Hansuke}

After hearing about how some exo-suit armor stopped a PTT round, I started wondering how the hell that happened. I sent off a question about it to the Science Legion department that handles body armor, and they gave some way too long answer about “various unknown factors” that could lead to a PTT round being stopped.
I once shot a PTT round through the side of a fucking APC, don’t give me that shit about “various unknown factors”, there was some bullshit at play here. But they said they’d look into it when they had the time, which is code for “Go away”.

With that not being exactly helpful, I asked the Intelligence Legion about it. Should’ve been my first stop honestly, because they leapt right into finding out more. We never recovered the exo-suit after that engagement, so we had nothing to work on but they seemed more than confident about being able to figure it out.

Lo and fuckin’ behold, I get a report four weeks later from Nax that had a pleasant tone to it for once. After I’d brought this up to the Intelligence Legion’s attention they investigated, did stuff I can’t talk about, talked to people I can’t mention, touched stuff they weren’t supposed to, and found out something we’d never thought possible.
That exo-suit was stolen from a Unified Kingdoms blacksite, and was part of ongoing research into how to counter plasmatic weaponry. Those motherfuckers were taking ballistics samples from conflicts we’d been involved in, studying them, and were working on materials that could resist our weapons.
The exo-suit managing to stop the round wasn’t a fluke, it was an indicator as to how much progress they’d made.

Thanks to yours truly bringing it to the attention of our resident weirdos, that’s no longer an issue for us going forward. _{The implication here is more than enough to compromise their work, remove this. – Ye-Jun
Nahli, what does any of this have to do with the Arch Hammer itself? – Hansuke
I’m fine with it. I really appreciate the work and initiative she took to help us solve that problem. – Iza}

Now with that solved, I figured we needed to ensure it never happened again. But in a way that really aligns with the guiding principles of the Vanguard Legion.
Gun did not work?
Make bigger gun.

Work on the Arch Hammer started with a few requirements.

· Armor penetration that’d make you question your own mortality just by seeing it in action.

· High destructive capability.

· Extreme range and precision.

· Squadron portable.

· No Nerve Harness required.

I dressed up real pretty, got my best mannerisms prepared, shit I actually shaved my armpits for once like a refined young woman, and sauntered on over to Iza’s office to ask for money. I even said please when I asked. C’mon look up my picture in the directory, you know I got my way without a problem.
_{You showed up in your usual ripped up uniform, kicked open my door, and said “Wassup big bitch, your favorite whore needs some cheddar” you undomesticated sow. – Iza}

Usually when you send in for a weapon design you gotta write up a proposal, provide the use case, give examples, and a whoooooole lotta other shit I don’t got time for. Instead, just like with my other requests, I showed up at Frostfall’s weapons lab with a bottle of something nice, the promised cash to make it happen, and like a page of notes on what I was looking for. My method works 100% of the time, cause within two weeks I was being regularly invited to check on the progress and sit in on test firings.

A few weeks later, we had the 5 ^th version of the Arch Hammer ready to go.
For a demonstration to the other Vanguard officers, I’d asked Desmond if he had any 100% broken down tanks we could use as a target. We’d tried the weapon on all manner of armor types during the testing phases, but we’d never tried it against a fully built Zephatun hull. Turns out that no, the Mechanical Legion keeps literally every vehicle we have alive and kicking no matter what. But he did say there were some Hard Iron hulls that had some manufacturing defects and couldn’t be used, so I grabbed three of ‘em just to have some extras on hand.

The demonstration was gonna be how the Arch Hammer can absolutely bust through any armor it comes across, so I was gonna have one of my girls put a hole through body armor, exo-suit armor, concrete blocks, aircraft armor, and then the front facing armor of a Hard Iron hull. Ideally this would show that even if someone tries to get cute with making PTT resistant armor, it’d all be for shit since we have a response to that.
_{The original issue was that a 7.62 PTT round was resisted. Creating a goddamn .90 caliber rifle doesn’t solve that problem, and no shit that it’s gonna turn enemy troops into a cloud of organic fog. – Dr. Baddarick}

I was expecting the shots to pierce the armor.
What I wasn’t expecting was how goddamn violent it was gonna be. The first shot through body armor caused the entire thing to explode like a grenade, so we all got covered in plate shrapnel. On the second shot through the chest armor of an exo-suit, it also exploded and one of my officers got hit in the chest with an arm, broke like two of his ribs but he downed a few beers and was fine while we waited for a Combat Surgeon to arrive.
Third shot, the concrete blocks were also turned into frag grenades and gave everyone a shitload of cuts and bruises. _{And yet, you fucktards kept going? – Dr. Baddarick}
Fourth shot into aircraft armor put a person-sized hole through the middle and caused it to fly off into the distance about 500 or so meters. Final shot into the front of the Hard Iron hull sent out a shitload of plasmatic sparks, punched all the way through and out the back, and caused the hull to go tumbling backwards about 50 meters. I checked on my marksman afterwards and she was still in one piece, so the recoil exhaust system was working as needed. Unlike the fucking Nerve Knife. _{That was fixed in later versions, and you failed to follow directions. – Dr. Baddarick}

Passing marks all across the board, we sent it off for mass production and soon every armory we had would keep at least five Arch Hammers in stock at all times. The after action reports I got from that point on, at least ones that involved employing the Arch Hammer, were an absolute delight to read through. I saw mentions of three tanks being wiped out in as many seconds, opponents in exo-suits being obliterated with a single shot, and fuck I saw one about how this beautiful maniac shot down an enemy gunship by punching a .90 caliber shell straight through the cockpit and out the back.
For the sake of not being hemmed up for it later, this is a reminder that it’s “generally inadvisable” to shoot weapons like the Arch Hammer into the air since if you miss that PTT round to come down somewhere, and with our luck it’ll end up being a children’s hospital or some shit.

When you shoot an Arch Hammer it is an absolute spectacle of violence.
There’s an enormous plasmatic fireball at the front, a visible shockwave all around the shooter, and a sound so explosively loud it ensures anyone without ear pro is gonna be visiting the med boys for hearing loss treatment. But all of that comes with a bit of a warning, which is to stay the fuck back when one of your squadron members is using an Arch Hammer. We’ve seen cases where some chucklehead will take up position beside the gun to provide covering fire, and then catch a blast wave to the side of the head for their trouble. It ain’t gonna kill you if you’re in full gear, but even with all the protection of our helmets it’s gonna scramble your brain for up to a minute.

Otherwise, if you find yourself using an Arch Hammer, have fun~.

-FrW Nahli Lok-Riveria