Southwest Ape

SW-APE

A joint venture of Stysor Arms and the Westin Corporation, the SW-APE was designed to be a portable alternative to heavier squad support weapons such as repeating blasters. Effectively reinventing the blaster rifle, Stysor redesigned the blaster chamber's prismatic crystal housing and galvern pattern to boost the static pulse output from the weapon's actuating module. Westin contributed a microprocessor engineered to refocus and cool the crystal filter to prevent overloads in the static pulse field. The resulting rifle had greater power and superior range to standard rifles. Due to a complex design and need for high quality crystals in the blaster housing, the SW-APE proved to be prohibitively expensive and the Old Republic cancelled the contract before mass production could begin.

However, several prototypes found their way into the black market where a few canny gunsmiths reverse engineered the weapon and began constructing their own, using the closely guarded secrets of its design. Nicknamed "Southwest Ape", the SW-APE became popular with mercenaries and assassins who could afford the expense of the rifle's construction.

Although the SW-APE is not currently mass produced, SoroSuub is said to have begun incorporating many of the APE's advancements into their latest designs, notably the custom built blaster carbines of elite Imperial Stormcommando units.

• SW-APE

Model: Stysor & Westin Advanced Particle Emitter Blaster Rifle

Type: Blaster Rifle

Scale: Character

Skill: Blaster: Blaster Rifle

Ammo: 100

Cost: not for sale (original list price: 2500)

Availability: 3, R or X

Range: 3-50/150/400

Damage: 5D+2

Game Notes: Aside from the rarely seen prototypes, the SW-APE is more accurately a modified blaster rifle. Although the rifle's exterior housing may appear much the same, the SW-APE's interior is a different story, having been almost completely rebuilt to house the modifications. Therefore no two APEs are exactly the same, each individualized by the parts used in construction and the skill and artistry of the gunsmith doing the work. The process is delicate and the cost for parts runs around 3000 credits (including the rifle shell); the gunsmith's time tends to cost at least as much if not more. The construction requires two successful TEC skill rolls: the first is a Difficult Blaster Repair roll for the physical modifications and the second is a Very Difficult Computer Programming/Repair roll for the microprocessor that controls the prismatic crystal housing.