[Hierarchy] The Primarch of Firepower is Dead, All Hail the Primarch - A Retrospective

The Primarch of Firepower is Dead, All Hail the Primarch - A Retrospective

Hiral Calgomis, Safety Off Weekly

The galaxy (or at least the important, firearm aficionado part of it) is still reeling from the surprise reveal of the Bruja’s successor. Haliat Armory’s entry into the tender was considered something of a joke at first, and few expected their Squall to come out the victor. Already the extranet is full of voices raised in outrage, damning the choice and praising their favorite’s qualities, some going as far as to cry foul and invoke political favoritism.

And let’s face it, the Squall is not the best at everything. It does not throw firepower downrange like the JAKOBS, it’s not as accurate as the Abroholos, or as beautiful as the Zealot, but it doesn’t have to be. Commentators with more than a bit of experience and knowledge, such as SAMC quartermaster Jason Roost, or Executor (ret.) Parahax, admit to the Squall’s shortcomings, but praise its lightweight, robust construction, the ability to be fully serviced in the field with nothing more complex than a basic omni-tool, and the intimidation factor of a noisy, high rate of fire and capacity weapon.

But what of the runners up? We here at Safety Off Weekly reached out to manufacturers and bidders to find out just that.

First considered a sure winner, Armax Arsenal’s Grinder may never actually see the light of day. Designed from the ground up to serve as the Organ Grinder’s successor, its development was marked by setback after setback. A surprisingly poor showing from a company that was one of the greats... in another, pre-war age.

Rosenkov Materials’ JAKOBS (a licensed modification of the N7 Typhoon) was a strong contender, but even despite its immense firepower, it proved simply too heavy and unwieldy to be practical, and its proprietary cooling system would add another few links to the Hierarchy’s already overburdened supply chain. However, all might not be lost - the JAKOBS-H, an experimental variant with an active cooling system, meant to be mounted on armored vehicles, has raised enough interest for the company to look into putting it into production.

The Zealot-B will remain part of the armament of the Asari Republics’ armed forces. Though an efficient weapon, the Reaper War more than demonstrated just how vulnerable it was to wear and tear, and how reliant on unbroken supply chains. Sources within the Republic suggest that a replacement may be sought for eventually, but given the recent issues, likely not in most of our lifetimes.

Confederacy Arms Manufacture’s XAR/2H Abroholos raised eyebrows and doubts when the prototypes were demonstrated. There was, at one point, a joke that CAM misheard the requirements and provided a full auto sniper rifle. Then came the production, “Mark 2” model, even more accurate, even more ammo efficient, and with the bipod redesigned to double as a secondary front grip. Eventually rejected for reasons undisclosed but speculated to be unintuitive use, it will soon be put into use in the Confederacy’s armed forces. Unfortunately, CAM does not currently intend to sell any version of this weapon on the open market.

As for the Revenant, it remains a solid choice, just as it remains practically legally impossible to acquire, but we’ve already said more than enough about the legal headache that is its Fabrication Rights Management.

And lastly, a honorable mention for Elkoss Combine’s Terminator-H which, even though never considered a real contender, is making a quiet killing on the free market, its initial reputation as a weaker Revenant equivalent quickly replaced by one of a fairly reliable, slightly weaker version of the Revenant... with a much lower price tag.

It wasn't Armax?

Amazing.

...This is what I would have picked.

WHEN DID THE HIERARCHY, START BECOMING SUNDOWNERS?!

I'll probably still use the Bruja until the day I die. Auxiliaries used the old MR-33 Thunder in the war when every turian was given an Avenger or Bruja, and from what I've heard that practice hasn't changed.

Probably around when they ended up fighting an overwhelming force over a prolonged period of time with little chance of resupplying in many cases.

Makes sense to me.

Curiouser and curiouser. Never felt that strongly one way or another about the old organ-grinder---officers don't get issued machine-guns, after all---but this certainly seems like it'll raise a few brow ridges. Gunners tend to be rather vocal sorts. We'll know soon enough how the rankers feel about the new issue.

I support the choice. Like they said, it may not be the best in any one way, overall, it's quite the weapon. And when it's that easy to work on with a simple omni-tool, I can only imagine what one could do with a full shop.

It seems like a pretty logical choice to me, you don't want an overspecialized, hard to maintain weapon to become standard issue for the military. Still, it is a surprise that Armax didn't make the final cut, I thought they were the top suppliers for the Hierarchy (bet a few heads at that corporation are rolling after the announcement).

Hate to admit it, but I haven't heard of most of the weapons on this list. Aside from the Revenant and Grinder I've heard of the JAKOBS, and I only know that one because of the ad; "If you had to use more than one thermal clip, you weren't using a JAKOBS."

Another reason Armax probably lost was because they and the pre-war generation of Hierarchy bureaucracy were in a bit of a [TRANSLATION ERROR: did you mean "good ol' boys?"] club. Although Armax was still considered the best arms manufacturer pre-war, they hadn't done any completely bottom-up redesigns of their equipment in quite some time. They were basically revenue-neutral and sitting on their asses.

Haliat's been hungry and running lean and mean for some time now; they just didn't have the friends they needed in the Ministry of Armaments to get any of the sweet contracts. Their new CEO is very similar to Victus: ambitious go-getter whose mantra is "high-quality K.I.S.S.", and the vids of her giving pep-talks to Haliat's engineering and design teams on GalaxyTube are hilarious. Lots of "go sit on your bayonet" trash-talking directed at Armax, but she's got a lot of brains in addition to the hot air.

Sure could use a JAKOBS in my line of work, but I can already imagine the wails of quartermasters over accepting new gear like that to their chains of supply.