LEGALITY RATING 2 MACHINE PISTOLS Colt Peacemaker Elite .45 ($700, Ver, Cr, 3d, SS 10, Acc 8, 1/2 180, Max 2,000, Wt 3.5, RoF 10*, Shots 30, St 9, Rcl -2) Reliable, powerful, accurate and deadly, the Colt Peacemaker Elite is the number one choice of professionals the world over. A solid all- rounder, this is the official machine pistol of United States government special ops teams as well as being a favorite of criminals who can afford the pricetag. Know-nothing impoverished streetpunks will go for something cheaper. SUBMACHINE GUNS Orion Rata 4mm (Cased) ($200, 16, 4d, SS 13, Acc 6, 1/2 240, Max 1,950, Wt 5, RoF 10*, Shots 40, ST 9, Rcl -1). On a malfunction, roll twice on the malfunction table. Yes, it really is possible to produce a submachine gun that retails for only $200. But do you really want to use one? Some say that the Orion corporation have a genius for producing things at prices below what any other arms manufacturer can match. Others say that Orion corporation simply has the gall to sell things so badly made that no other corp would try to get away with it. Whatever the truth of the matter, the Orion Rata is quite simply the worst submachine gun in the world - some say the worst submachine gun imaginable. Naturally, when gangers can get them on the black market, they sell like hotcakes. Furthermore, getting hit with even the world's shoddiest submachinegun is still a good way to win a one-way trip to the organ-banks. Camillo Soldati 4mm (Cased) ($400, Crit, 4d, SS 11, Acc 9, 1/2 300, Max 2,400, Wt 5, RoF 12*, Shots 40, ST 9, Rcl -1) In a bid to produce an inexpensive submachinegun without sacrificing quality, the Italian / American corporation Camillo modified their esteemed Valentine model to fire cased ammunition, reasoning that as submachinegun combat tends to be a short, intense affair, a huge magazine capacity is not a high priority. The result is the Camillo Soldati 4mm. A favorite for gangland slayings and drive-by assaults, it's impressive rate of fire is maintainable for three seconds only, with a four round burst possible on the fourth second if desired. Many professionals agree that if you haven't achieved your kill(s) in three seconds of submachinegun fire, its time to make a tactical withdrawal anyway. GYROC PISTOLS Gemtex Urban Renewer ($400, Crit, Spl, 8d(2), SS 14, Acc 2, 1/2 1,450, Max 2,000, Wt 4, RoF 3-, Shots 3/3/3) On Malf, make 2 rolls on table. Inaccurate and dangerous when it malfunctions, the Urban Renewer's selling points are that it is cheaper than most of its competitors and that as a gyroc pistol, it can blow the hell out of things. Intended originally for infantry to use in house to house combat, it has become a favorite with underfunded city police departments in the United States. The Urban Renewer is a bulky, mean-looking weapon. Yosho-Noshi Gabriel ($1,200, Ver, Spl, 8d(2), SS 11, Acc 7, 1/2 2,700, Max 3,750, Wt 4, RoF 3-, Shots 3/3/3) The Gabriel is the sort of weapon that the Yosho-Noshi corporation got its reputation for. It is quite simply a magnificent piece of work. Expensive though it is, it has an accuracy that has never been topped in a gyroc launch pistol and remains accurate to almost three thousand yards. Moreover, no corners have been cut nor design-principles sacrificed to achieve such precision. Many professionals firmly believe that the Yosho-Noshi Gabriel is quite simply the best gyroc pistol on the market. With deadly efficiency, this is the gun that put the Art back into State of the Art. Samurai's delight. HEAVY LAZER PISTOLS Sunland Jupiter ($900, Ver, Imp, 2d, SS 10, Acc 6, 1/2 270, Max 720, Wt 3, RoF 4*, Shots 12) While the inherent accuracy and flesh-frying nature of heavy lazer pistols has made them widely feared, they have remained exotics rather than familiar standbys. Too powerful for civilian defence, too expensive for military sidearms, its ecological niche lies in special operations, either government, corporate, or criminal. Even so, its expense and newness makes it rare. The Sunland corporation of Arizona have thus attempted to popularize the heavy lazer pistol by producing something relatively inexpensive yet still perfectly functional and reliable. The result is the Sunland Jupiter, both less sleek and less accurate than many heavy laser pistols, but also a good deal more affordable. The weapon grows more popular with street samurai all the time. COMPUTERS "No feeling is more awful than that you have when you find that some hackerboy has been rummaging around in your computer. Its ten times more personal than finding someone rummaging around in your underpants" - Mr Fixit. APPLE EXECUTIVE: $1,000 C2. Slots: 2. Phase Length: 8,000. 2 lbs. For many people, when they think of personal computers, they think of the Apple Executive. Competent, affordable and well supported, this no- frills package has been widely adopted both for business and home use. Not much of a status symbol, it is more than adequate for the word- processing, accounting, games and net-surfing for which personal computers are generally used. The Apple Executive is everywhere. I.B.M. MANHATTAN: $15,000 C3. Slots: 3. Phase Length: 4,000. 60 lbs. The I.B.M. Manhattan is an enormously successful minicomputer. It is found at the heart of small businesses and of departments of large businesses throughout the world. Having one of these at home has become something of a status symbol for up and coming middle class executives, even though it would generally make more sense simply to login to the office system. Netrunners encountering one of these systems have been saying "I'll take Manhattan" for so long that nobody laughs anymore. APOLLO HAWKINS: $40,000 + $2,000 per user. C4. Slots: 4. Phase Length: 2,000. 400 lbs. The single most popular microframe in the world, the Apollo Hawkins is a standard fixture in medium sized businesses. This system is the final proof that if the western European computer industry is not yet ready to demolish silicon valley or the far east, it must nevertheless be taken seriously. The fact that I.B.M. lawyers tried to have the Apollo Hawkins declared illegal for sale in the U.S. due to perceived copyright violation only served to convince the American public that there must be something good about these machines. Named for Stephen Hawkins, the 20th century physicist, the computer is sometimes known by its nickname, the "Apollo Workhorse". CYBERDECKS "Tune in. Turn on. Get yourself a million dollars" - anon. HYDRA: $27,500 C2. SI 1. 3 Slots. Phase Length: 8,000. The design philosophy behind the Hydra is relatively simple - no matter what the skill of a netrunner, if he can't load his icebreakers quick enough, he's toast. For this reason, the Hydra sports a 50% increase in the number of ROM slots installed in a standard complexity 2 cyberdeck - i.e. it has three slots instead of two. The addition of a single ROM slot may seem like dubious grounds for the system to be awarded the name of the multi-headed monster of Greek mythology, but the significant edge that the third slot gives the Hydra has been proved again and again on the battlefields of cyberspace. A popular cyberdeck, it has also inspired more jury-rigged copies than any other deck.