Aspartux Systems
At one time a major player in Gallente industry, Aspartux Systems is today but a shadow of its former glory. Now a private security consultation firm serving clients in the Placid and Solitude regions, three hundred years ago Aspartux commanded a prince's share of the Federation's weapons market. One of the company's greatest successes was a line of personal firearms widely adopted by the Gallente military during the Federation's long war against Caldari secessionists. By its affiliation with that period of great struggle, Aspartux and its weapons were elevated to a nearly sacred status among soldiers and political hawks. Although the men and women who fought in that war are gone, the image of the N-31 railgun still evokes sentiments of pride, anger, and resolve in those inclined to such feelings.
Aspartux Systems was a pioneer of biofacture, a technique that is today ubiquitous in Gallente engineering and is used in both spacebound factories and planetside industrial parks across the cluster. Often misunderstood, biofacture does not mean that the product of the fabrication is a living thing, but rather that living things--or more appropriately, the patterns of living things--were part of the construction. Although they were by no means the only company to adopt the technology, Aspartux was one of the first able to apply it to mass fabrication of small parts. This gave them an edge and enabled Aspartux to create higher-quality components at a faster rate than any of their competitors. A flood of Federal military contracts followed a demonstration of the company's products and production systems in 23151 (YC-197).
One of these contracts was for the Personal Magnetokinetic Weapon System (PMWS), the railgun prototype that would become the A-3, A-12HB, and N-31 weapons of the Federation Army and Navy. The Navy variant, the N-31, first launched itself into the public consciousness in a news broadcast that took place shortly following the attack on the Gallentean city of Nouvelle Rouvenor. In the broadcast, a group of Federation Navy troops on a training maneuver are seen commenting to a reporter about their eagerness to strike back at the Caldari. Asked if they were afraid of the personal dangers that open war with Caldari Prime would bring, one of the troops hoisted his N-31 to his shoulder and explained, "Hell no."
During the war, the N-31 was reissued and upgraded several times. By 23190 (YC-158) it had reached what would become its final configuration as a military firearm. Called the 'Venn-Dilante' N-31F after the two R&D officers who led the project, this model was considered the pinnacle of long-range hybrid small arms in its era. Light yet durable, the weapon's furniture was elegant and its power plant and driver components both efficient and reliable. Its fire control suite interfaced with the trooper's combat data systems to make extreme long-range marksmanship easier. Of course, actual close combat was rare after the first years of the war, and as advanced as Aspartux' small arms became by the end of the conflict the later models were almost never fired in anger.
As the flame died out of the Gallente-Caldari conflict, so too did Aspartux' star begin fall. By the end of the war and the coming of the CONCORD era, Aspartux was no longer the sharply-led industry leader it had been. The company had become addicted to the government's money, dependent on huge long-term contracts and open-ended R&D deals. Although some reinvigoration of the weapons industry followed in the wake of the campaign against Sansha Kuvakei's Nation in the YC30's, by the middle of that century Aspartux was facing a complete collapse under the weight of its bloated staff and idle infrastructure. The company entered a protected status in YC52, and emerged two years later as a much different organization. A great deal of what had been the "Aspartux Empire" was eventually bought by ChemalTech and Duvolle Labs.
The 'Venn-Dilante' N-31F railguns, however, remain a collector's item in the Federation and beyond. It is said V. Salvador Sarpati once paid an enormous sum to acquire one of the only remaining specimens to have been used in combat. Replicas and toys based on the weapon are commonplace in such markets, and small arms designers consider the model to be a crucial benchmark for future development. In the Federation military, they can still be found in the arms lockers of Navy honor guard units, highly-shined and polished for parade show.
Perhaps the best demonstration of the Venn-Dilante's importance comes from an anecdotal account about one of the last surviving Navy veterans of the war. In his late nineties and dying of Ubio's Disease, his doctors found an old N-31 in his home, kept there illegally as a memento since the end of his service. When they tried to take it, he became belligerent, snatching up the gun and loading its battery pack. The police arrived to defuse a "possible shooter situation" and found the old man on his porch, half-blind but pointing the N-31 at anyone approaching too closely.
The officer in charge of the responders called out to him, "Put the weapon down and step away. It is against the law to possess a firearm on this continent."
The old veteran lowered his weapon and shouted back, "I fought for you boys. I stood up and did my part. Now I ain't long for this world. So you want my old rail, you come and take it."
The police officer was clearly conflicted. After a moment he called to the old man, "Won't you see reason, sir?"
Arming the N-31, the veteran simply replied, "Hell no."
He was allowed to keep the weapon until he died.
'Venn-Dilante' N-31F Railgun
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Topic: Aspartux Systems (Read 1608 times)