Standard Infantry Equipment

Chinese Small Arms and Equipment

QLB-85 'Helix' Assault Cannon
The 'Helix' is designed for full conversion cyborg bodies or battlesuits, as even a mobility-suited soldier risks injury trying to fire the heavy, 32 kilogram weapon. Fed from a pair of 45-round helical magazines and using a revolver-cannon system to maintain a high rate of fire for effective burst fire, the 'Helix' fires 32 x 70mm projectiles using a magnetic launch system. Most soldiers load it with a combination of smart gyrojet and thermobaric ammunition for a combination of fire support and all-range firepower. Equipped with a smartlink, the Helix is an advanced and incredibly powerful weapon which has seen service with both the PLA, many expanse powers, and ZOCU.

Type 92 Assault Rifle
China's premier infantry weapon, the Type 92 was only deployed en masse before the start of the ZOCU-Core war, and has shown some of the optimizations which have come along with it. Firing a 5mm penetrator round or a 32mm projectile, the Type 92 is one of the few Core standard-issue arms to use ETC propulsion, an unusual design characteristic which, on the other hand, reduces its battery drain. The long-term savings in cost in discarded battery packs may slightly reduce its combat efficiency but the Type 92 is possibly the most cost-effective weapon fielded by the great powers.

EU Small Arms and Equipment

Heckler und Koch G94
The standardized infantry rifle of the EU, the G94 is the baseline to which most infantry rifles are compared. With a 6.5mm AP component for pure kinetic energy delivery and a 6-round, 25mm coilgun capable of firing either gyrockets, nonlethal ammunition, or fragmentation, as well as an excellent electronic sight and multiple mounting rails for various components, the G94 has only become more popular after the end of the war, and the EU paratrooper holding a G94 is one of the most recognizable sights for the ZOCU war. If there are faults with the weapon it is that it is somewhat more expensive and somewhat heavier than it could possibly be.

Independent Powers' Small arms and Equipment

Avalon Armaments M72
Much like Kalashnikov was synonymous with "cheap" in the late 20th and mid-to-early 21st centuries, the M72 has become the weapon most commonly used by space pirates, poor rim worlds, and criminals with black market connections. Originally designed as a low-cost military solution for Valera's budding military, the M72 was too primitive to get much headway, despite its low cost. However, for worlds which would make up the League or other poor rim worlds, the design was excellent. Low-maintenance, still a credible threat, and easily reverse engineerable, the design was bought by several powers, and soon after knockoff copies were found just about everywhere. Using a 30 round magazine of 6.8mm AP rounds fired from a coilgun, as well as a single-shot breech-loading 35mm gyrojet launcher, the M72 is powerful but heavy, somewhat inaccurate, and lacks ammunition capacity.

Orion's Arms A4 Suppressor
Minowskan infantry tactics mainly center around boarding and zero-G operations, and as such a recoiless weapon was desirable. Designers considered energy weapons but rejected them for being too power hungry, and their heat production, only inconveniencing in atmosphere, could be dangerous in vacuum for a prolonged fight. The A4 Suppressor fires large caliber (~35mm) shaped charge gyrojet munitions, with very little recoil due to the weapon not giving the rounds the "kick" that most other small arms do. This reduces the weapon's range, but its heavy shaped-charge and guidance systems make up for it. Minkowskan space marines have complained about the weapon's low magazine capacity and bulk, but attempts to replace it have stalled in favor of additional warships.

Kismet Techsystems PIG-2
Arguably the most lethal manpack weapon outside of a nuclear grenade, the Kismet Techsystems Plasma Infantry Gun-2 is one of the few manportable energy weapons to see service outside of special forces. A heavy, cumbersome and entirely unsubtle weapon, it uses an array of augmented delta-fusors to generate a unidrectional fusion explosion capable of destroying an entire building, earning it the alternative nickname 'Blockbuster'. Unsurprisingly, weight and backsplash keep it solely in the hands of powersuited infantry.

PACT Small Arms and Equipment

EM12 Assault Rifle
The EM12 is logistically designed to be compatible with the EM56, firing the same 25.4x108mm guided munitions that the EM56 uses as standard as its primary component, with 5 and 8 round magazines available. As a secondary component the EM12 is modular, capable of supporting various systems from sensors packages, nonlethal energy weapons, or kinetic energy modules. Standard issue for the PACT soldiers was a 3.7mm kinetic energy component, designers judging that the low firepower would rarely be a problem and the light ammunition would allow soldiers to carry more guided munitions. The EM12 was reasonably effective, although not as enthused over as the G94.

EM56 Smartgun
Where the EU's EM weapons technology was some of the most advanced in the Sphere, the PACT had superior electronics and guidance systems to most, and preferred accuracy to hitting power. The EM56 is a gyro-braced, exoskeleton mounted squad support weapon using AI target and tracking acquisition to eliminate targets with a brace of 25.4mm guided rounds. Although heavy and cumbersome, and sometimes maintenance problematic, veterans of the USMC in the ZOCU war have spoken loudly about its strong points-incredible accuracy, above average ECM resistance, and high rate of fire.

Adharan EM49 Carbine
Adhara has been a center for research and development since its 'liberation' from the previous government and although mostly uninvolved in the ZOCU war, it has still been advancing its military technology quite heavily. The EM49 has only recently been introduced in 2192, and is a successor of sorts to the EM12. Firing a 20mm guided munition from a high velocity coilgun, the EM49 lacks the secondary component entirely, allowing it to use a helical magazine to increase its ammunition capacity as well as additional sensors. The lack of a suppressive fire solution could be problematic, but the increase in firepower is potentially desirable.

XM350 Variable-Rate Pulse Laser
A rare weapon issued solely to Adharan full conversion cyborg shocktroopers, the XM350 VRPL is designed to adjust pulse rate, pulse power, and focus to maximize effective range and usability against all targets. Capable of effectively engaging light vehicles, battlesuits, and even, with a skilled operator, enemy projectiles, the VRPL pays for this by being immensely expensive and massing over 85 kilograms-nearly 50% more than the next heaviest battlesuit support weapon. It is for this reason that it has only seen very limited trial use by the PACT proper and is mostly restricted to Adharan service.

ZOCU Small Arms and Equipment

Londinium Metals AR-2164
Unlike the other powers, ZOCU did not standardize its infantry weapons, and often ended up with logistical problems in ground battles due to it, which its transgenic soldiers did not fully compensate for. The Londinium Metals AR-2164 was the standard weapon for Londinium and nearby powers at the start of the war, which combined a 15mm coilgun firing gyrojet, solid, or airbursting rounds with a 4.5mm coilgun firing APPF (armor piercing pre-fragmented) rounds. Ammunition Although lightweight, accurate, and low cost, matched against the EU G94 it suffered from inferior range and stopping power, a key problem in early ground battles against EU soldiers.

Harawayian IW-45 Standard Individual Weapon
The Harawayian IW-45 was one of the several common infantry weapons that ZOCU used. The more transhuman Harawayians settled on a heavier secondary round, with the potential capacity to knock down or wound EU soldiers via kinetic energy alone. The IW-45 looked great on paper, with a 20 round capacity for its 8.5mm tungsten penetrators and a capacity of 4 25mm gyrojet munitions, but the weapon's bulk and high energy draw and low magazine capacity made it unpopular with the soldiers in the field, and despite its improved stopping power and the accuracy of its transgenic users, the 7.5mm penetrators were still insufficient to penetrate infantry armor without a good hit against EU armor at close range. In 2190 Haraway modernized its small arms, going to the IW-48, reducing the power of its secondary component to increase ammunition load for its primary gyrojet.

New Mercian Royal Arms Type 90 Man Portable Mega-Particle Projection Cannon
The Royal Arms Type 90 was revolutionary when it debuted at the very end of the ZOCU-Core war, a (vaguely) man-portable mega-particle weapon. Massing approximately 45 kilograms with its backpack cyclotron, the cumbersome weapon could barely be used by an armored infantryman, but was effective against many vehicles. Only a handful of prototypes were produced before war's end, but have proven their worth against EU armor, and in one case, a gunship. Updated versions have somewhat reduced its mass and bulk but even the most recent designs still require the backpack cyclotrons.

New Mercian Achilleus Infantry Combat System
The most capable and eventually the common infantry combat armor of the ZOCU powers, the Achilleus class of combat armor was built around standard lines, an armored mobility suit with an exoskeleton that had attachment points for armored plate. Unlike the competing designs, the Achilleus combined mobility, durability, sensors, and cost-effectiveness into a robust package the equal of the EU Cuirasse de combat. Entirely proof against the G94's KE component past 120 meters and capable of deflecting the G94's munitions dispenser on a glancing hit, while equipped with an advanced and powerful sensors suite combining IR, visual, sonar, lidar, and wall-penetrating radar, the Achilleus is still in New Mercian operation even today, only somewhat updated from its original status by the addition of somewhat heavier protection due to the updates on the mobility suit.

Alshain Medical Atlas Mobility Suit
The suit that the Achilleus was built around, the Protector is Alshain Medical's sole military product, the majority of its income at that time being from prosthetics and light exoskeletons for the elderly and infirm. Armored against limited small arms fire (modern pistols or non-AP loads for modern rifles) and capable of reducing the user strain by up to 60% for a 150 kilogram total combat load, as well as fully integrating a nanocomputer network running the latest Redberry Solutions RedOS-M military software suite, the Atlas became a runaway success with the adoption of the Achilleus, to the point where knockoff copies are found in much of the Expanse, identifiable by their distinctive round exoskeleton interface plugs.