From Star Frontiers Network

by Bill Logan

The Pulse Rifle is an air cooled, fully automatic, short to mid range combat rifle. Made of light alloy plates, it fires Armor Piercing slugs from a 99 round U-bend magazine in either semi automatic, four round burst, or fully automatic rates of fire.

The armor piercing bullets cause +1 point of damage, over and above what a normal bullet causes within the Alpha Dawn rules. For example: a single bullet causes 1d10+1, while a fully automatic burst causes 5d10+5.

The Pulse rifle has a small battery powered digital readout screen that displays number of rounds left in the magazine; the battery is located in the handgrip and often lasts the service lifetime of the weapon. With a retractable stock and an underslung grenade launcher, this weapon can be used as a carbine and an assault rifle.

• In Semi Automatic mode, the gun fires one single bullet each time the trigger is pressed. Up to three bullets per turn may be fired in this manner. Each bullet does 1d10+1 damage and the player rolls to hit for each bullet fired.
• In Burst Fire mode, the gun fires four bullets each time the trigger is pressed. The firer receives a bonus of +10 to hit, and causes 3d10+3 damage. The bullets are too tightly packed to aim a small burst at a crowd. The weapon can fire up to 2 four-round bursts per turn, each targeted independently, at the same or different targets.
• In Full Automatic mode, the gun sprays bullets wildly. It’s not professional, as it wastes bullets. But this rifle has a lot of ammunition and when panicking, many soldiers are reduced to this option. Players mark off 10 bullets at a time and aim with a single attack roll that receives a bonus of +20. If struck, a target takes 5d10+5 damage. This mode of fire can spray crowds of people, as per standard automatic rifle.
• There is also a pump-action grenade rifle mounted under the barrel of the main weapon. It fires special cartridge fragmentation grenades that must be loaded individually (there is no quickload clip). Only four may be loaded at one time into the rifle. The grenades cause 8d10 damage in a 3 meter radius, as per a normal fragmentation grenade, half that with an RS roll.