Bricks and Bags

Legatia wrote:

first :^)

nuh uh :P

Second.
And I nuh uh myself too at the same time. ; p

(crossposted from NOGS)

This came up in Joseon's thread and I kind of want to get into it more, I suppose.

Melee weapons are a fun little topic. Not exactly my specialty, but I like thinking about them, sometimes. In particular, I like melee weapons that stem from a specific niche in everyday life - big knives, war-scythes, etc. Which does mean that strictly speaking, I actually think about melee weapons more in FT than MT. This is for 2 reasons:

1) Most of my FT "ground combat" is station-sieges. This means a mixture of both long-ranged combat involving heavy ordnance/fires along large transportation corridors and also CQB/room clearing in smaller side corridors and maintenance shafts.
2) Most of my FT societies are frontier societies where daily usage of industrial/mechanical tools are commonplace or at least are recent in cultural memory. If I did for MT what I did for them I'd be stuck with hitting people with pens and laptops.
2.5) Not that I want to be clocked across the face with a laptop, mind.

Common Melee Weapons of the Bagverse:

System-Republics, Independent Stations, and Station-Networks(inc'l Pruswald): Sledgehammers, crowbars, large industrial wrenches, heavy-duty flashlights, and short/folding utility knives.
Explanation: Anything sharp or heavy with an actual industrial use. Crowbars in particular are much-beloved; reasonably handy and highly useful for maintenance work while also working as a metal club capable of shattering the visors of an EVA suit or blinding the sensors on power armor.

BGA: Halligan bars, utility knives, and naval cutlasses and sabres.
Explanation: Swords arise from cultural attachment to Terran nation-states and in particular their navies due to a high prevalence of former warship-spirits converted to spaceship-spirits. Halligan bars also make for very good breaching tools - a step above crowbars, if you can nullify the mass and heft concerns with higher-quality exoskeletons of the sort BGA (used to have) access to.

Aztlan/Lantian/other non-PHL planet-centric societies: Hatchets, tomahawks, entrenching tools, handaxes, sword bayonets, various utility/fighting knives.
Explanation: The equivalent of wrenches, crowbars, and sledges for these societies. Less steel bulkheads, more woodland and dirt. Dedicated sword-bayonets also become somewhat more viable if you're not cramped for space the way that stations are.

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PHL: Battering rams; crowbars; utility knives; snub shotgun/grenade launcher hybrids; straightstick batons.
Explanation: The Pan-Human League regards it's enemies as barricaded hostage-takers and it's troops as, legally speaking, police. Therefore they're going to make use of much of the same equipment as police when it comes to breaching buildings - and also have an interest in pummeling "suspects" into submission so they can take them in alive.
Side note: The shotgun thing is something of an in-universe joke about a particular variety of shotgun used by the PHL. Normally weapons used by the PHL are stupidly complex and advanced; beltfed automatic railguns with computerized sights linked into a company-level BMS, for example. In contrast this thing is two tubes and a trigger, usually painted to prevent cold welding.

Chekbria: Spike bayonets, longswords, serrated sword-bayonets.
Explanation: Feudal LARPire; Enough said.

Saoraja: Extendible batons.
Explanation: Most actual Saorajan "troops" are low-level security troops meant to maintain internal order and cohesion - actual violence, crime, and insurgency is very rare. In this context an extendible baton is preferred - since it does most of the things a straightstick does but is easier to carry.

Notes:
- These aren't hard and fast assignments. BGA issues out crowbars a lot because they're lighter and easier to carry than a Halligan bar. Stationers will issue out firemen's axes if that's what the situation demands. Chekbria makes frequent use of PHL-surplus battering rams; ditto with Saoraja. The PHL will use sledgehammers if that's what they have on-hand or if the situation is some weird niche where they can't deploy a power-armored dude with a batttering ram. Noone except maybe Chekbria issues swords in actual combat situations. These are more what's generally culturally associated with each faction/group.
- Noone uses katanas.
- No, not even Saoraja.
- I have excluded factions made by my cowriters for now since they're not on NOGS - I'll repost this on the SEA RMB with those included once NS is back.