Verpine sniper rifle

Verpine Sniper Rifles were specialized weapons based on the Verpine's shatter gun design. The weapons were completely silent yet extremely lethal.

The Verpine Sniper Weapon System was arguably one of the most versatile and deadly weapons in the galaxy. The long-range weapon's special feature was its ability to utilize multiple types of ammunition and also multiple calibers. The Verpines created this in order to sustain the sniper's save position and prevent it from being compromised by obvious and easily noticeable traces of glowing blaster bolts. You could choose any kind of ammunition - including armor piercing ammunition, explosive ammunition, 2 stage explosive ammunition, smart grenades, smoke grenades, laser dissipating aerosol canisters, EM dust tags, tracking devises, EMP grenades, acid rounds, poison rounds, frangible ammunition, and even rocks, nuts or bolts, and rivets could be used if nothing else was at hand -, as long as it could fit into the electro-magnetic (EM) chamber. The weapon system allowed nearly unlimited combat usage, with super accelerated particles at a speed of 3000 feet per second, making even a handful of dust, ice or even water considerably lethal ammunition at close range.

The weapon system's EM coil allowed for the option of silent firing with subsonic settings for ammunition according to the size and mass of the round. However, this had a variable effect on long range accuracy, depending on the planet's atmospheric make up, gravity, and weather.

The optics housed a barometer that compensated and applied changes to scope settings, what could also be adjusted by the shooter manually. The optics had multiple filters allowing the marksman to scan for targets in various light spectrums, and the EM filter could visually detect radio wave, and hyper wave transmissions that could be used to narrow down a target otherwise invisible to visual and other light spectrums. The EM filter could also work successivly with the other filters, allowing the shooter to track tagged targets while observing the target area in the most practical spectrum for the current mission. The rangefinder and compass could be slaved to a GPS or alternative global tracking system to provide coordinates for pinpoint accuracy for ground, naval, and orbital artillery batteries. The ARD (anti reflective devise) on the objective lens kept light from the internal workings of the scope bounce back to the target, and thus further concealed the shooter. Using no active targeting systems to aim at or acquire targets, the Verpine Sniper weapon system keept the shooter from being detected by EM scanners.

The weapon's stock was also as functional as the rest of the weapon's features and could be customized to fit the shooter's dimensions and preferences, and its 30 cm barrel and collapsing stock made it concealable and light weight.

The Verpine Sniper weapon system was so delicate in that, if it was banged around or jolted enough, the slightest miscalibration would impede the weapon's effectiveness at extreme ranges. It would still work effectively at close range but the marksman's sniping abilities would be compromised. The weapon could be hardened against EMP, and slightly armored against kenetic shock but that comes at heafty upgrade costs as well.

Behind the scenes
The image shows a custom-made Verpine Sniper Rifle with a bipod, made by the U.S. soldier Raymond Ramirez, a fan with a special connection to Karen Traviss and Star Wars. He made a Verpine Sniper Rifle on Karen Traviss's request which she posted on her livejournal.com blog - the entry has, unfortunately, been deleted, but an image of the weapon can be found here:. Ramirez's blog "Mando'ade and their toys" has been featured on starwars.com, where a smaller image of the Verpine Sniper Rifle with bipod can be found. One of his blog entries goes deep into the weapon's functions, but it is unconfirmed whether this data has been approved by official sources - the content of this entry is written down in the article's non-canon-section.

Appearances

 * Republic Commando: Triple Zero
 * Odds