Krait V-Blade
By all accounts, the then-new GuardCorps' UnS-65 Stormer Tactical Zeoform drew considerable criticism during the field assessment stage for the variety of armaments available to it. While the versatile Stormer was capable of choosing between a wide (some critics implied excessive) array of ranged weapons, only the Brutus Quadshot was particularly suitable for close-quarters fighting.
Even then, in the event of truly close-quarters brawling—an all-too-common occurrence in a hostile encounter with agile Pact zeoforms—a Stormer was reduced to attempting point-blank shots and slams with its hull and limb actuators, a far from satisfactory state of affairs.
The fledgling Stormer's reputation teetered precariously for a time due to this oversight, with some teams decrying it as an over-complex design created without reference to actual battlefield conditions. Indeed there was some substance to the criticism when the venerable Soldat could fulfill the same utility of being a ranged weapon carrier at a fraction of the cost.
It can be imagined that lights burned long into the night at Unitas' design bureaus until a simple, indeed somewhat elegant, solution was approved in the form of the Krait V-blade.
The Krait V-blade is nothing less than an oversized version of the GuardCorps’ trooper V-blade. This knife-like close combat weapon is formed of compressed graphene sheets gripped by a resonance field. Upon meeting resistance along the edges or point of the blade, the resonance field calibrates to agitate the graphene's ionic bonds into shearing forces at an atomic level.
A V-blade with time and enough pressure behind it can cut through almost anything that doesn't have its own active resonance field. Fortunately, the excessive thermal energy produced as a byproduct of the process is considerably less problematic for a zeoform than a human.
The simplicity and light weight of the Krait made it simple to issue one to almost every Stormer in addition to their usual armaments, and pilots soon learned that their prior basic training in GuardCorps V-blade fighting could readily translate to wielding a Krait when piloting a Stormer.
One of the most respected analysts, known both for highly detailed breakdowns and post-engagement evaluation as well as more informal “pop” texts is “Drew Chambert” (a nom de plume). Little is known about this writer except it is evident they are or have been a zeo designer, possibly even a pilot at some point, and have some quite deep connections into both Pact and GuardCorps operations. Their writings and audiocasts are available across all one hundred heliospheres to a greater or lesser extent.
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