When I think of machineguns, they're typically serving one of two purposes:

Purpose 1: Provides a hail of bullets for covering fire.

Purpose 2: Takes a target and turn it into the molecular equivalent of an abstract painting.

Within GDS, both are very much valid usages, though we often teeter towards the second option. The usual squad level use for a machinegun is to handle a large group of threats all at once. For a Vanguard squadron, that involves a Heavy Vanguard laying down a shitload of fire with a Tectonic rattler.
By suppressing any advancing enemies, they allow other members of their squadron to get up and take their shots while taking minimal return fire from their targets.

Outside of that use case, our machineguns are built under the guiding principle of putting as much harm downrange in as fast a manner as physically possible. I preach accuracy like someone who has been directly mandated by God, though there are plenty of scenarios where we want devastation and dead bodies in as fast as manner as possible. When my boys and girls breach into a base and their orders are to leave nobody alive, they’re not going in with Frostpicks.
They’re each getting a Gale Burster and told to keep their fingers on the triggers the moment the breaching charge takes down the wall. I want them rapidly mowing down people, vehicles, defense drones and goddamn gunships all with the same weapon platform.

Our machineguns are meant for both suppression and destruction, and they can serve both functions no matter what model you pick. Some are great against people, some are great against tanks, and others are great against anything that has an unfavorable physical reaction to being hit by 45,000 PTT rounds in a matter of seconds. And in some situations, we find them invaluable for swarm and horde control.

Anyhow, delivering the invoices for ammo costs to Iza always gives me a wonderful stirring feeling in my gut. Here’s the classes we have when it comes to machineguns:

- FrW Nahli Lok-Riveria