"Outlander" was not the first of the Necromunda novels I read ("Fleshworks" was) but it is the shortest analysis-wise. It wasn't a bad novel, wasn't a great novel either. But it did have a few tidbits. I still foudn some of the others more illuminating/entertaining (like Junktion or Back from the Dead).
You may ask why I bother with the Necromunda novels at all. I answer because it gives us a glimpse at 40K in a non-military way, at the way its people can live in places like the Hives. This can impact many other ways (Hive gangers tend to make up alot of the conscripted Guard forces, so how they fight, how they are, what equipment they use and such can be important for determining their capabilities.) Hives can also be places of sopihisticated tech, ,and a glimpse into those is also useful (Necromunda is particularily industrial and high tech, much in the same way Armageddon is.)
Anynhow.. on eiwht the show.
Page 14
- the "Outlander" (later known as Jurgen) is equipped with a number of bionic enhancements, including his left eye and his repsiratory system. They're considered to be "well made" if worn, but clearly superior to underhive bionics. The respiratory bionics allow him to survive out in the Ash wastes/storms of Necromunda (outside in a Hive World, which is highly uninhabitable.)
Page 15
"A bionic eye like that is trained to a sight, and this pistol doesn't have one. He's hiding something."
...
.... a mere stub gun, yet this one did indeed sport a laser sight, no doubt the one Lakatos was sure must be relayed directly to the bionic eye.
Jurgen has a stubgun equipped with a laser sight providing targeting data to his gun, much like the Necromunda sorucebook describes infrasights and monosights working.
Page 24
- Jurgen claims to be a forger who worked for guilders. He is also apparently able to construct message documents where the true message is hidden (even if overlaid by other messages) - basically invisible ink it would seem. The ink only comes visible when made wet.
Page 68-69
Pulling open the thick black jacket in which the body was clothed, Morden was quite surprised to find it armoured. Competently made - if unspectacular - flak armour covered the chest, and the arms as far as the elbows. Pattng the legs, Mordedn was certain the same armour extended over the thighs as well: a pretty useful suit.
Bounty hunters wearing nearly full-body flak. Note that it seems to be fairly easily concealed under the body and flexible enough to wear over joints.
Page 106
- Bionic leg constructed of adamantium. Its not just for starships and tanks anymore,
Page 106-107
In this fashion he lurched out the door and gazed out across the tangled mess of metallic walkways that ran for hundreds of meters in front of him. Track was kneeling down by the doorway, his gun pointed purposefully out into the dome, providing cover for Scarr who was already far up ahead, picking his way over the gantries in pursuit of some half-glimpsed enemy.
the walkways run for "hundreds" of meters. Important more for the latter incident as it implies range.
Page 107-108
Up ahead, Scarr lurked behind a broad, ,circular pillar at the center of a hexagonal platform that formed a hub in the dome's centre from which six walkways radiated at every level. Scarr waved his hand in a downward motion and it was clear to Coyne that their attacker was lurking somewhere on the level below.
Scarr is now around the end of the walkway, and seems to have been attacked. The "cover" mentioned above again implies that lasguns have ranges of "hundreds" of meters.
Page 110
A bullet wound punctured his thigh. The wound was burnt black at the edges, though not nearly neatly enough to be a las-blast. Scarr had been hit by a solid shell; nothing fancy.
Las-weapons implied here to leave puncutre wounds similar in diameter to bullets which can be useful in calcs. For example, vaporizing a wound channel equal to a .50 diameter bullet (non expanding, non tumbling) round would require at least some 50-100 kilojoules, not including cauterization of surrounding tissue. (as a note the weapon causing this was either a bolt or stub pistol, so we can safely assume a fairly high-calibre bullet.)
Note also, curiously, that the "bullet hole" also seems to have resulted in little bleeding and "black,burnt" edges, suggesting some cauterisation (though less than a las-weapon.) The bullet would therefore have to have some thermal element to it (hot enough to cauterise despite the brief passage through flesh.)
Page 111
Coyne just rose up, hauling Scarr up by his hood to follow, and ran down the gantry as fast as he could, his laspistol unleashing shots into the darkness ahead. Scarr followed and Coyne hoped that this weight of fire would be enough to open up the way ahead.
Fifty metres of agonising stagger and he reached the elevated doorway that led out of the dome.
laspistol range implied here to be fifty meters at least.
Page 112
He lay face down, his hood covering his face, but torn wide open at the back where a fist-sized hole piercecd cloth, flesh and skull alike. Dum-dums: nothing else could have left a hole in his head like that, not without a blast.
The bullets most likely came from a stub gun (a bolt pistol perhaps, but they weren't rocket propelled and as noted below, they were ricochets.) Again, the lack of blood or bleeding may suggest cauterisation along the lines of the previous incident. Also note that a lasgun probably could cause similar damage, albeit with more cauterisation (and probably with blast, due to localized explosive vaporisation.)
Page 112
- The bounty hunter hunting Coyne and his men (whom we learn has a stubgun (pistol) and a bionic eye) is able to ricochet stubgun rounds off of walls at range and make fairly accurate kills - a testament to the sighting system he is employing. Moreover, he's probably achieving this at ranges similar to what the weapons above exhibited (at least fifty meters, probably more.) which implies a very powerful round as well.
Page 112
The burn marks around the wound on Scarr's leg was from a solid shot.
Again "burn marks" accompanying the impact of a bullet.
Page 145
- stub guns can fire virtually any bullet that will fit in the chamber.
Page 167
Up ahead of him, Berzel dissolved into a mass of smoke and flame. The lascannons mounmted in the windows had grumbled into life, swung about and cut Berzel down at the junction of their scything beams.
This strongly implies the lascannon vaporized the guy (no bloody or burnt bits noticable - vaporizing the body can create smoke as a result of cremation, and the body's own flammable elements burning can contribute any fire. This implies las cannon have a minimum energy output of hundreds of megajoules, givent hat they apparently rapidly vaporize the guy without being noticably stopped.
Page 220
- one of the gangers is assembling a man porrtable autocannon (he's obviously a Heavy, big burly guys noted for carrying the heaviest weapons.)
Page 228
The toxstick was nothing more than an affectation, anyway. The implants in his neck filtered out the toxins just the same as they did any other, and by the time the inhnalant reached Jurrgen's lungs it was nothing more than fresh air.
Jurgen's bionic implants can protect him from the harmful effects of what is probably a cigarette if not worse.
Page 229
It was hard to gauge distance out here, but he could tell instantly that Karman had advanced perhaps a hundred metres further ahead and was already far too close to the approaching bounty hunters.
...
Galamb watched in horror as a flash of light pulsed out form the cloaked figures, tearing through the ash-laden air and dropping Karman's silhoutted figure to the ground without a sound.
...
On instinct, he opened fire with his own pistol, unleashing two, three, four autogun rounds at the bounty hunters, though at this range, and in this visibility, he didn't stand a chance of hitting the,
Guy fires with his autopistol on targets at least 100 meters away, though in the range and visibility he can't gurantee hits.
Page 237
The sight offered no magnification as such, but squinting and concentrating on them as intently as he was, Morden gave pause and drew his finger back from the trigger.
Lasgun with a scope. If gangers can afford s cope even without magnification the Guard ought to be able to (despite what the uplifting primer implies.)
Page 239
Rubik felt the searing heat of a las blast pass by..
"close blast" from a las weapon can generate a noticable thermal effect - this is probably due to the heating of the air surrounding the beam. Given las-weapons penetration underwater they probably don't interact all that much with the air and thus lose very little energy. (This also means the beam probably also passes fairly close to the guy's face.)
Page 241
Morden rose in front of Rubik and fired off a handful of lasblasts, his gun held lazily at his hip. With his non-firing hand free, Morden waved the others backwards,
Guy can fire his lasgun one-handed. Obviously has very little recoil.
Page 249
Lakatos followed their approach for a few more seconds. They weren't coming directly for him./ Rubik's body was still sitting upright fifty metres away and the bounty hunters were closing on it, perhaps unaware that it was nothing more than a corpse.
..
At last, just as the bounty hunters closed in on Rubik. Lakatos reckoned he had a mark and opened fire.
..
He couldn't gurantee fatal shots from thsi range...
Lakatos' bolt pistols don't have a range of more than fifty meters or so, though we don't know the quality or kind of ammo he has. (Ammo for bolt weapons is rare in the underhive supposedly, and bolt weapons hard as hell to maintain.)
Page 250
He had been hit square in the knee by a las-bolt. He couldn't stand on it at all.
Knee incapacitated by las-blast, but not enough to blow said knee apart. Presumabily it was cauterised at least and therefore still destsroyed.
Page 252
- One of the Cawdor was wearing infrared goggles over his eyes (admittedly a leader, but the Cawdor are relatively low tech underhive gangs. The Delaque, by contrast commonly have such devices at their disposal.)
And, what low level gangers can get, the Guard from a sufficiently-teched world can probably also grab.
Page 253
The [bolt] pistol backfired spectacularly. The explosive bolts it fired each contained its own propellant and its own charge, and as Lakatos squeezed the trigger the top round propelled itself backwards into the rear of the magazine, detonating as it struck the rear of the barrel and sparking offa n explosion that covered Lakatos' right hand side in a gout of flame. He felll to his knees, roaring in pain.,
...
His right arm was in pieces. Gristle and bone were visible down its length, and it was horribly twisted and murged with the burned skin and singed cloth of his clothing. The whole limb hung lifeless by his side, and shrapnel lay embedded in dozens of bloody welts across Lakatos' chest, neck and face.
Three bolter shells from Lakatos' pistol effectively pulverize his hand and some of his arm. Not easily quantified, however, but hisarmseems cauterised since its not gushing blood. Implied at least a kilogram or two of flesh doing so, which suggests those several bolts had a couple megajoules of energy total.
