Hand-held weapons in Vorkosigan Universe

[jack]

Bujold is really wonderful at giving enough information everything makes sense, and hinting at more things behind the scenes, while actually leaving the details unspecified, so there probably isn't an exact answer to my question. My question is, in Vorkosigan-verse

* a plasma arc is a military-grade weapon that destroys everything
* a nerve disruptor is a military-grade weapon that destroys people
* a stunner is (?) shorter range and stuns people (which is not safe, but safe enough)

What is a needler? Physically, is it a flechette weapon? What is its defining features? My guess is that it's the state-of-the-art handgun or machine-gun equivalent, less effective than a plasma arc or nerve disruptor, but safer to use in areas filled with people or flammable things, and possible to miniaturize to carry concealed, and the weapon of choice by people who are not quasi-military. Does that sound reasonable? Alternatively, is it the best weapon in more specific circumstances, eg. more spread or more penetration?

There's half-a-dozen quotes, but I won't try to enumerate them yet as they'll be minor spoilers. ETA: Warrior's apprentice: Bothari is described as smuggling a "compact" needle gun into Betan customs. That seems to imply non compact needle guns. I don't know if that's like derringer/pistol or pistol/machine gun.

Diplomatic immunity: Miles describes a work suit from engineering, paraphrased "stunner and nerve disruptor fire will pretty much bounce off. Needler spines wouldn't penetrate immediately. Even plasma fire would take a couple of seconds to burn through."

Diplomatic immunity: someone is described as having gone beserk in Hassader square with an auto-needler. Is that more auto than a normal needler, or just a normal amount of auto. Is a needler better for that than a plasma arc, or just more readily obtainable.

Vor game: plamsa cannon "not normally an indoor toy, it would stop a charging suit of space armour". Which implies a nerve disruptor or plasma cannon wouldn't.

Comments

[angoel.livejournal.com]

My impression is a hand-held flechette weapon, shooting out needles. But I admit I've never considered the matter deeply. It's advantages, I suspect, are relative cost. And, I suppose, not being affected by nerve-disrupter shielding ;)

Googling seems to support this.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That's about what I assumed. I added some quotes above. But I'm not sure if it's more like a pistol or a machine gun, or if it's a pistol-sized machine-gun-equivalent, or there's both.

I'm not sure about armour. Obviously nerve-disrupter shielding was new in vor game. Before that was battle armour vulnerable to nerve disruptors? Apparently not. So nerve disruptor shield nets must be intended for people in uniform or space suit but not battle armour. I wonder if one could imagine a consistent tactical situation.

(The other thing Bujold does very well is envisage a changing tactical situation, which (a) is more interesting (b) lets you sweep away inconsistencies and (c) lets you have whichever tactical situation best supports whatever plot you want :))

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

My impression is that a needler is a compact, low-accuracy, high-RoF antipersonnel weapon, uncompromisingly lethal to unarmoured targets but largely ineffective against targets in full armour.

[http://users.livejournal.com/vitriol_/]

I too had always envisioned a needler as something some specific than a generic term for a projectile weapon; I seem to recall a scene in Mirror Dance where some goons in very high-spec armour burst into a room and Bujold enumerates the things the armour's proof again - I'll look once I get home and see if it mentions needlers seperately.

Alternatively, and completely differently, the setting also include 'needle grenades', which feature prominently in one of the later books for very spoilery reasons. It's portrayed as some sort of anti-personnel style RPG, designed to kill even heavily armoured enemies. It's not impossible that a needler is a gun that fires needle grenades, which would make it very different from how I've always envisiged it, since it'd presumably be relatively large, bulky and with a slow rate of fire.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I found that quote, and added it to the post. I'm not sure quite what implies, I think that (a) arguably, needlers were an unlikely weapon to face in battle (b) plasma arc was definitely the most penetrating. (I'd wondered if nerve disruptors would be the best choice against armour, but it seems not. Though I may pretend that to myself internally, as it seems like a good trade-off.)

I agree with you about more specific: I hadn't meant to say that "needler" meant any projectile weapons, just that needlers were the choice/only projectile weapons used.

anti-personnel style RPG, designed to kill even heavily armoured enemies.

That sounds about right. I'd definitely not considered needle-gun=needle-grenades, and wonder if it could be, but I think the quote above suggests not, or needlers would be used a lot more.

[http://users.livejournal.com/vitriol_/]

Yeah, context definitely seems to suggest that needlers aren't related to needle grenades.