...All right, what Sergeant Kadai had in her hands was less a shotgun than some kind of deranged hand cannon. Supposedly, it was the brainchild of an engineer at the Tulong Arsenal, a devastating weapon that could be manufactured in a small workshop. The difficult part wasn't the gun itself, though. It was the ammunition.
The tiny steel balls used as ammunition were fired by air pressure, so of course they didn't have much range, and they were of limited use against armor. The problem was that each one contained crystal explosives, which detonated as soon as they hit a target—or traveled twenty meters from the barrel.
Against unarmored or lightly armored enemies, they weren't merely lethal. They were downright vicious. Even against enemies in heavy power armor, they could wreak widespread havoc on external equipment and interfere with their sensors and communications.
Of course, a weapon that detonated twenty meters from the barrel could easily catch its own shooter in the blast. But the Thirty-Eighth Division troops, who were using it for the first time, had nothing but praise for it—especially the Sandfolk warriors.
...Maybe these hot-blooded lizardfolk had spent so long living in the desert that they just loved shotguns that sprayed a wide swath with every pull of the trigger.
Sergeant Max didn't want to use one. Not a chance. But his Sandfolk comrades gave it two thumbs up, and had even managed to reach a hundred percent proficiency with the things.
By now, the Imperial armored grenadier's upper body had vanished behind a ball of searing flame.
Taking advantage of the moment, Sergeant First Class Dodoro charged in, swinging his warhammer. Before he did, though, he tossed an impact grenade over as well.
That was just dirty, Sergeant Max thought. But his hands reflexively turned the