Mutineer Gun

As a relic of a bygone era, the proliferation of the primitive firearms knowns as ‘mutineer guns’ can be attributed to their popularity with the Nalstros and their cheap methods of manufacture. The mutineer gun is almost admirably rudimentary in its design, consisting of a firing pin, grip and a snub barrel usually constructed out of recycled metal pipe. The mutineer gun can only load one round at a time: a high calibre buckshot shell often as cobbled-together as the weapon itself. Despite its short effective range and necessity to be reloaded after every time it is fired, an on-target shot from a mutineer gun boasts immense stopping power and is capable of killing even heavily armoured opponents at close range. The mutineer gun is outmatched by more sophisticated defences, such as military-grade energy shielding, but this is a rarity among the typical quarry of Nalstros piracy expeditions.

The mutineer gun’s moniker comes from a Nalstros ritual whereby recruits’ mettle must be tested before they are formally inducted into the clan’s armed ranks. Known as the Trial of the Mutineer, the recruit’s superior typically admonishes the recruit on their failings and issues an ultimatum whereby they must shoot their superior with the mutineer gun. A recruit who cannot or will not fire is discharged but one who does attempt to fire quickly learns that the gun is unloaded and they were being tested on their strength of will. A similar practice has been adopted by alien pirate bands with varying results – particularly when those not entirely learned in the practice forget to unload the gun first.