[Hierarchy] Twilight of the Organ Grinder

Twilight of the Organ Grinder

Hiral Calgomis, Safety Off Weekly

It's the end of an era. Just ten years ago it would have been unthinkable, but after months of deliberation, representatives of the Turian Hierarchy have announced that they would not be ordering a new version of a legend. Known to generations of turian recruits as the Bruja, and to much of the rest of the galaxy as the Organ Grinder, the Armax LHM-17 and its predecessors have been the Hierarchy’s go-to squad automatic weapon for centuries.

The Organ Grinder’s nickname spread through the Terminus Systems like wildfire after being coined by human Relay 314 veterans, due to the unmistakable sound of its pre-fire wind-up. It will be fondly remembered for its reliability, as countless jokes immortalize its capacity for firing even when jammed and out of ammo. Every time new designs threatened to unseat the king of suppressive fire, a new, better version would be produced, maintaining its supremacy.

However, nothing lasts forever. Bruja’s design, proven and reliable, would ultimately be its downfall, as the limiting factor in weapon power became heat capacity. Successors increased the power of each shot to deal with advancements in kinetic barrier and armor technology, and heat management simply could not keep up. The LHM-17’s once-immense capacity diminished, making it less and less suited for its intended purpose. Modifications have been attempted, but the time-tested design proved as resistant to innovation as it was to wear and tear.

The final nail in the coffin was the introduction of the current Phaeston standard assault rifle, which, thanks to the use of heat clips, was capable of firing more and stronger shots than the designated squad automatic weapon. This became more evident during the Reaper War, with the Phaeston used throughout the galaxy by anybody able to get their hands on one, while the Organ Grinder lacked firepower to deal with Cerberus or Reaper creations.

Thus, after decades of faithful service, the king will finally retire. But fret not! Hierarchy officials have announced an invitation to tender its replacement in the standard assault weapon role. Notable companies have already announced joining the race for the Bruja’s legacy, with an Armax Arsenal spokesman going so far as to call it “holding onto the Primarch’s seat.”

Even Haliat Armory has dared to compete alongside the big boys, but it's not the only unusual contender. For the first time, as a gesture of goodwill, the Hierarchy will be accepting offers from client- and allied-race companies. Volus-based Elkoss Combine and the human Rosenkov Materials corporations have already declared joining the race, though it’s not known what they’ll be putting forward.

With weeks to go until the final offer date, one has to wonder: who, if anybody, can match the Old King of squad-level firepower?

Phaeston? Stronger shots? Bruja must have had fucking shit impact.

I'm not familiar with automatic weapons, but I'm familiar enough with tech standards to make a prediction:

Prepare for ten years of grongards complaining that you never should have switched over.

Fuck that gun.

Welcome to the age of technology, where over a century of quality by last week's standards doesn't mean shit by today's.

In basic I remember two types of people - the ones that could work magic with that thing, and the ones that prayed before bed each night we'd be encouraged to specialize in a different weapon.

My pistol ought to tell you which camp I was in.

Darn, I'm going to miss it, if only for the jokes. My favorite went like this: Late one night a Turian outpost came under attack by some Blue Suns raiders. One soldier managed to get up, grab his grinder, and rush out just before a rocket blew the whole barracks. Alone and outnumbered, he hunkered down and, after three hours of fighting, managed to fight off the Suns long enough for reinforcements to arrive and finish off the last few. After the battle the soldier realized the most startling thing: not only did he forget to slap an amo block in the thing, he'd had the safety on the whole time. Now that's a reliable gun.

One contradicts the other.

I sell maintenance kits for these and they go well with the my turian clientel.
Once in a while I am asked to do a custom mod job on one of them. The first three or so I did take, but there wasn't much I can do to meat the demand. The gun is indeed at its peak, so I can alter a few details here and there, but it won't change anything that many people would notice. Either that, or the trade-off isn't worth it.
Without a complete overhaul of the design it just isn't up to todays standarts as hierarchy_dad pointed out.

Well, if there is one tehme among turian small arms then it is large capacity with low recoil, so I figure any successor chosen by the turian military will exhibt those qualities.

However, seeing that there is market demand for more "battle rifle" style guns (as a reaction to the toughness of the reaper forces and merc outfits increasingly fielding heavy body armor) I think there is a chance for less conventional replacement. I mean those Mattock and Raptor replicas are selling really well and maybe the alliance wasn't that wrong with introducing the Valkyrie to the marines as a replacement for the Avenger.

pfff

like that contract is going to go to anyone else but Armax

One of the few good memories of boot:

We're standing at attention and some drill instructor comes up to us with an Organ Grinder and dumps it in a garbage bin.

"If you know how to press the trigger, you pass your competency test. Now, let's teach you how to use weapons that you might actually hit your targets with."

The Bruja had its uses. Like getting the enemy to lie down and hold still.

That makes a sniper's job a lot easier.

We had a lot of Bruja, scavenged from the battlefields or stolen from armouries. The abuse those things can take is legendary. I knew a guy who buried one in a cache in a muddy riverbank for over three years, then dug it out, dunked it in the river, put a clip in it and started firing, and it worked.

That's part of the joke.

Oh man, I hated this gun. Personally I try to avoid shooting - the Kilinius Oath and all - but damn, when I do I don't want the whole neighborhood hearing my gun go "whrrrrrrrrrrrwhrrrrrrrbraparparppaprpbrpbparpba" like a damn cake mixer. I'm glad to see it dead! I'm glad to see a lot of dead things! But mostly this! I hope its lungs bleed while it is slowly buried! Just kidding, guns don't bleed. But if they did... If they did...

oh man I loved this gun, don't get me wrong it's kinda shit in the open 'specially if ya be picky 'bout the targets

inside 'specially in a hallway or other confined space, just have a light barricade going on and use this gun and ya be guaranteed no bootlickers sob is getting through the door ya aiming at

and they're super easy to repair, if they break down which almost never happens, ya just wack them against the wall a few times nad it fixes them nine out of the ten times

Ah, that old gun. Wise still has one lying around in his old apartment on Omega I think, probably a nice surprise for the next renter (if the place wasn't leveled). Something to be said for the classics at times, but really, the best suppressing fire is the kind that you can hit people with.

Damn, goning to miss this. But yeah, it's an outdated thing. Admittedly, that's probably why we had more than a few second hand ones up until recently. I don't think anyone will miss the weight of the damn thing though.

Now, for anyone dissing the Phaeston: It's pretty much in every way a better gun than the avenger, just that the higher "ranked" versions of the avenger are more easily obtained.

I came across this gun a few times during my escapades. Truly, it was quite a reliable weapon. Not my specialty however.

But it can now serve me as another source of income. A wonderful weapon truly.

As someone who was a machine gunner before I got my Service Chief chevrons I'm going to come out and say to all you folks saying 'oh but you can't actually hit someone with it ' one thing. You're wrong. Those of you who did military service-were you not paying attention when they explained the concept of suppressive fire and why LMGs exist?

Suppressive fire is meant to suppress, to scare the enemy sop he hunkers down and you can keep him pinned. And there's nothing better than an LMG to do that because they spit out a helluva lot of shots and they're loud.

If you hit the guy, that's great but you don't need to to fulfil an LMGs purpose. In fact the majority of bullets fired by professional soldiers never hit someone. The Organ Grinder didn't need to be accurate. It's not a bloody marksman rifle.

... not saying it has to be that accurate, but the only time I had one at a range it just left me with a bad impression. I'd shot LMGs before, and even a crew-served medium machinegun on a bet (and regretted it immediately afterwards despite my cybernetics), but I never felt so annoyed that I couldn't hit a target.

Maybe it was just me though.

well duh, ya dumb shit

you was usin' it at a range

Yyyyyeah but you know that's kinda par for the course and not really a bad thing when you think about it. Means that the gun/tech in question was decent enough to get at least a few diehard fans (even if they should just accept it and shut up 'cause Christ nobody wants to hear about your "classic tech" hardon anymore).

Just sayin'.



Not really the turian's style man. Massed firepower. That's their thing.


...Okay I don't mean to be, you know, a cock or anything but

mercs

'kay sorry just needed to get that out of my system. Like, I'm sure he didn't mean to, but even Dwick gets it and everything you need to know about what you're saying can be summed up with those four words. 1stSgt King said it all basically, LMGs are designed to keep the enemy in cover, usually so that the guys with the actually accurate rifles can identify the contact's position, advance (sort of) safely to within effective range, and then put them down.

I mean, I get why the biotics and engies don't like them; they're heavy and inaccurate. Weighs you down, makes it harder to provide MA field/tech support and generally throwing out your (expensively) trained specialists as the distraction is kiiiiinda bad. But, I mean, what's your excuse?

Sorry if that came out a bit dickish but seriously girl. This is basic stuff.


Kid, please put it away before we all get put on a watchlist.