Trying to think of what aliens use for personal weapons between the "Bows and swords" and "Lasers and mass drivers." I'm thinking spring launched flechetes in pre-loaded cartridges which are wound in a factory.
human taboo against chemical weapons is unusual. glass orb full of volatile poison would be a super-effective ranged weapon using a cross-bow or slingshot deliever system.
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Yeah, poisoned flechettes are probably the alien anti-infantry weapon. Esp if they have advanced bio-nano technology. If you can armor against them, you are probably mounting directed energy weapons.
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interesting dynamic with directed energy countermeasures, right? a really good fog generator would totally nerf the range on any kind of coherent beam emitter. kevlar armor messes up flechettes. you really might be in hand-to-hand combat a lot.
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Well, if a flechete gun is one handed (much less recoil and no need for a long barrel) then you can carry a sword in your other hand (assuming a biped with two arms)
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Actually, if aliens never invent rifles and think bows are obsolete, then gunblades suddenly make a lot of stupid sense. The flechetes are in spring loaded cartridges that can be mounted onto any weapon.
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A warrior mounts one onto their melee weapon, and mounts the rest in their shield and body armor.
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Another weapons development route that humans mostly forgot about is sling stones. A trained slinger can throw stones fast enough to penetrate metal armor. A warrior alien with stronger arms might do even better with porcelain bullets and grenades.
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Alien round: bullet sized drone. Senses proximity and deploys a parachute to minimize impact, deploys legs, crawls through armor and delivers poison.
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Defeated by laser point defense, also fully automated. Unless it's traveling fast enough that any sort of parachute delivered payload is either impossible or impractical. At high energy levels it's a contest between lasers and mass drivers.
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