Sound Retention Technology
Creating a completely transparent field that only blocked sound proved to be a more difficult task than anticipated, during the technological boom that gave rise to the first shields and their fast widespread use. Developed sometime after, sound-retention fields require considerably more power to sustain for a much finer manipulation of particles through a current that temporarily alters their structure on a subatomic level. This activated web essentially becomes a fully transparent bubble, through which physical objects, including living organisms, weapon projectiles and liquids, can safely pass, without being impeded. Everything, except for any sound, audible or inaudible to human or Feli. Depending on the amount of power applied to it, the cohesion of the field can be fine-tuned to merely mitigate audio or completely block it.
Not surprisingly, one area of application is in Sound Deprivation Therapy, particularly favored by Feli, whose genetically enhanced hearing had previously prevented them from fully benefiting from treatments prior to the invention and perfection of the technology. The technology is as delicate as its application and sustained use requires careful power-management. Commercially it is only affordable for individuals who can either pay for the upkeep or if they can lessen the cost by being tech-savvy enough to establish and maintain their own generators.
Current era bows are a blending of the traditional longbow and a crossbow, magnetically locked to an omniframes forearm, with an automated nocking mechanism reloading its ammunition from a built-in quiver equipped with a three-dimensional fabricator. The twin forked limbs are made of and ultra-high strength thermoplastic carbon fiber composite. The four motorized strings, an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber, 15x stronger than steel, are automatically drawn back and the arrow is made ready to be loosed.
Not quite as fast as bullets or energy bolts, though still faster than even the individual micro-missiles of a swarm, the "arrows" are actually telescopic javelins with subatomically condensed boron-nitride tips, harder than diamond, with their first half left hollow to allow for different payloads. They are being printed and fed directly into the quiver from where they are rapidly assembled and drawn to their full length as they are nocked. A multipurpose detonator in the arrowhead's joining-threads triggers a delayed reaction able to set off any of the possible payloads, once it has penetrated the target's body, causing extreme internal damage or opening areas on more thickly armored enemies, making them more susceptible to further attacks.
Apart from giving the arrows in flight a spin, the unfolded helical vanes are also steering wings, made of flexible carbon-fiber sheets with an integrated circuit and micro-servos, able to guide the arrows to a target that is constantly being painted by a telemetric laser-array built into the bow's front. Using common quantum-entanglement data-exchange, the terrain is mapped, recorded and transmitted to the navigation system inside the tail-segment, without any lag. This guidance-system, when manually switched on, makes the projectiles semi-homing, with minimal loss to their speed and penetration, useful when both the user and their target is constantly on the move and there is no moment to line up a precision shot.
One of the weapons strength's lies in the arrows themselves. Even without any modifications adding a chemical, elemental or explosive payload, their sheer size and penetrating ability ensures they can cause considerable damage, even through armor and to shields, able to lacerate organic targets. When modified, if the released substances are acids, incendiary, cryogenic or carrying an electric coil, they can apply their effects for considerably longer, given their method of delivery into the target's body. This provides for even longer additional damage done over time than any other weapon, compensating for the bow's low rate of fire.
Another quality to consider is the subtlety of the weapon, as it is almost completely silent, by itself. Though sound-retention technology exists, its application is limited by its considerable power-draw, especially when installed on omniframes. Not a concern for someone opting to use the most modern example of a bow. Using one in conjunction with Sound Retention Fields and an Optical Stealth System can grant any omniframe short periods of silent, even invisible, movement, perfect for hit-and-run tactics or to make an escape. Even without portable cloaking-fields or the use of natural cover, detection can still be reduced, enabling lighter frames to effectively move on unsuspecting targets for a discreet take-down, as long as their energy-reserves allow them to keep blocking the noise from their servos.
Though mechanized bows had been almost exclusively used by hunters on multiple colony worlds, some for recreational purposes, some simply for "population control", the weapon will undoubtedly be seeing more use where stealth is necessary. Based on recent field-tests, frames, particularly lighter types, could remain hidden from a group of enemy combatants, their position only being revealed through visual, and not auditory, sighting, after most of the targets had already been eliminated and the remaining ones had time to estimate the shooter's location, the direction of the shots being based on where the bodies had fallen from their kinetic force.
@Grummz @Ronyn
Now, the use of the different payloads/ammo-types could be either a consumable (like the way elemental ammo was handled in e.g.: Mass Effect Andromeda) giving the next few rounds their particular properties or it can be an ability that when activated would essentially do the same and load the next arrow or several arrows with the chosen payload.
The bow was primarily inspired the "Ballistica" from WARFRAME.
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Pandagnome
