Hirogen Weapons

As accomplished hunters, the Hirogen are familiar with a wide variety of weapons; the interiors of their vessels often feature wall-mounted displays of bladed weapons, such as knives, swords, and halberds, which are displayed alongside the bones of their prey.  The Hirogen have also been known to carry small, discreet handguns, but in the hunt they normally favor a powerful and bulky rifle.  Hirogen rifles area a little over one meter in length, and appear to be fabricated from monotanium, a silver-gray alloy from which Hirogen space vessels and armored uniforms are made.  Like the suits, the rifles have a vaguely organic look to them, and function in a wide variety of environments.

The rifle is made up of a series of tubes arranged along a central axis, with a pistol grip at the rear, and a flat pad behind the muzzle that provides a grip.  A flat, curved stock is fixed behind the grip; this can be tucked into the crook of the arm when the rifle is carried at waist height, or rested against the shoulder when the rifle is aimed at eye level.  A powerful torch with a white beam is fitted below the rifle's large-bore barrel.  Hirogen hunters do not appear to need high levels of illumination to see - as evidenced by the dim interiors of their starships.  However, the torch is used to track the prey in near darkness and serves to illuminate the Hirogen't target at the moment of attack, dazzling it before the final, fatal strike. The rifle's central core is a cylindrical tube, with a wide muzzle that conceals a very powerful energy-emitter grid.  The discharges from the rifle are blue-white in hue, and appear to have properties similar both to plasma bursts and disruptor blasts, inflicting explosive damage and burns on its victims.  The Hirogen's hunter-killer mentality means that once they have cornered their prey they will often discard their rifles and kill their victim with a knife or by hand.