Taser

Lore & Background

The Company doesn't care how you get the scrap. It cares that you get it, that you come back, and that the invoice at the end of the month balances. A Taser costs a fraction of what a rifle round does, and in the dim, rust-eaten corridors of a decommissioned processing plant, that fraction is the difference between a profitable shift and a write-off. The Company's procurement office sees it as a stopgap: a tool for the worker who needs to buy five seconds of breathing room without committing to a full firefight.

In practice, crews develop a superstition around it. The Taser's arc is loud in a way that a bullet isn't—a sharp, crackling snap that echoes off concrete and steel. In the quiet of an empty warehouse at 0300, that sound carries. A well-aimed shot stuns a Scaper mid-lunge and drops it to its knees, legs twitching, giving you time to back away. A missed shot, or one that only grazes, does nothing more than enrage whatever you just pointed at, and now it's faster, angrier, and you're out of your one cheap trick.

Veteran workers treat the Taser the way a miner treats a flare: you don't light it until you're sure the tunnel is going to cave, and you light it at the exact right moment. It's not a weapon you bring to a fight. It's the thing you pull when the fight is already happening and you need it to stop, right now, for ten seconds, so you can get to the exit.

In Their Own Story

The corridor smelled of wet rust and something older, something organic that the ventilation had never quite scrubbed out. Mara's headlamp cut a pale cone through the dust and she could see the Hound's ribs expanding, contracting, that wet clicking of its jaw. It was maybe eight metres away. Maybe less. She hadn't brought a rifle—couldn't afford the rounds after last week's write-off—so her hand found the Taser clipped to her belt, its plastic housing cold and slick with condensation.

She stepped forward. The Hound's head snapped up, eyes catching her light. She raised the Taser, braced her elbow on her thigh, and squeezed. The arc spat out in a blue-white thread, and the Hound's whole body locked, legs buckling, a high keening shriek tearing from its throat. Three seconds. Four. It hit the concrete floor, twitching, and Mara was already backing down the corridor, headlamp swinging, boots scraping on oil-stained tile. She counted to ten. Eleven. Twelve.

Behind her, the clicking resumed. She didn't look back. She had two charges left and a very long way to the extraction point.

Reader's Guide

Taser – A short-range stun sidearm that fires a brief electric arc to temporarily incapacitate a hostile target, buying you seconds to disengage or reposition.

- Range: a few metres (point-blank to close range) - Charges: limited (small number of uses per unit) - Effect: non-lethal stun; target is immobilised briefly - Cost: low; one of the cheapest equipment items available - Weight: negligible; clips to belt or pack

Tactical note: The Taser shines in one specific situation—when an enemy is close, you're out of ammo, and you need it to stop moving for ten seconds so you can get to cover or an exit. It is NOT a substitute for a rifle. Do not plan your entire shift around it. It has a handful of charges and once they're gone, you're holding a very expensive paperweight.

Common rookie mistake: Wasting a charge on a Vulture or a distant Scaper that was already turning to flee. The arc is short; if you're more than a few metres out, you'll miss or barely connect, and you've just made the target angrier while burning a charge you can't get back. Save it for the moment a Hound is in your face and you need it on the floor, NOW.

Did You Know?

• The Taser's stun effect is non-lethal: the target recovers after a short window, so it buys time rather than delivering a permanent kill.
• Because it costs far less than a full firearm loadout, it's a popular budget pick for early-game shifts when the Company's invoice is still stinging.
• The Taser's electric arc produces a distinctive loud crackle that carries in enclosed spaces, meaning a used Taser can alert nearby fauna to your position.
• It has a very short effective range, making it essentially a last-resort, point-blank tool rather than a ranged weapon.