Heavy Weapons
Heavy Weapons within the Engineers’ domain are legendary constructs. Oversized, experimental instruments of destruction that embody equal parts brilliance and recklessness. Designed to push the limits of portable firepower, each heavy weapon is a unique marvel, born from an Engineer’s willingness to risk life and limb in pursuit of raw explosive potential. These devices blur the line between innovation and catastrophe, and their existence reflects the Engineers' unshakable belief that progress is worth a few scorch marks… or craters.
Utility
Heavy Weapons serve one purpose: overwhelming firepower. Engineers create them to address threats too large, too armored, or too numerous for conventional weaponry. Their misuse is legendary: accidental building fires, unintended craters, premature detonations, and one infamous case where a prototype vaporized an entire Scorchbringer practice range. They are used sparingly in combat but often showcased in demonstrations, where they tend to provide as much entertainment as destruction.
Manufacturing
Building a heavy weapon is a multi-stage process involving scavenging pre-Fall components, machining custom housings, debugging unstable power systems, and meticulous stress testing. Sometimes involving sacrificial mannequins, sometimes involving volunteers with questionable judgment. Final assembly happens in reinforced workshops equipped with blast shields and fire suppression systems engineered to withstand catastrophic events. No two Heavy Weapons share an identical production method.
Social Impact
The introduction of Heavy Weapons shifted Camp Hope’s view of engineering from “useful tinkering” to “controlled chaos with benefits.” They gave the Scorchbringers unprecedented defensive capability, but also created fear among civilians who associate the tech with explosions, property damage, or unexpected concussive blasts during breakfast. Despite the risk, heavy weapons bolstered Camp Hope’s defenses and became symbols of the Engineers’ audacity and talent.
The first heavy weapon is widely attributed to Tess Varnum , who attempted to condense a pre-Fall plasma turbine into a shoulder-mounted launcher. The resulting explosion flattened her workshop and launched a molten core into the street, but enough of the device survived for others to replicate and refine the design. Though she refuses official credit, history recognizes her as the mother of all portable catastrophic firepower.
These weapons are technically accessible to anyone with enough barter and poor enough judgment to purchase one. Engineers routinely build and sell Heavy Weapons, though most buyers either never return for upgrades… or return missing a few limbs. While not illegal, they are rarely used due to their volatility, weight, and the reputations of the people who wield them. Most citizens of Camp Hope consider them "Engineers’ toys," and stay far, far away.
Heavy Weapons push the technological boundaries of what a single Human can feasibly carry. They often incorporate rediscovered pre-Fall components such as energy cells, accelerator coils, micro-reactors that are then fused with modern salvaged machinery and experimental alloys. Their construction requires advanced understanding of power flow, structural stress, explosive physics, and the fine Art of not dying. They are dense with moving parts, redundant safeties (many optional or ignored), and power systems refined to barely-controllable extremes.
Heavy Weapons were not discovered so much as repeatedly survived. Each one is an individual breakthrough, crafted by an Engineer bold or foolish enough to attempt harnessing maximum destructive energy in a handheld form. Their creation involves trial by fire, often literally, as weapon prototypes have been known to detonate during early testing. Every heavy weapon is a testament to those who stared into the explosive unknown and decided to add more power anyway.
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