062. SPOTLIGHT ON: Kalamus Devastator

[At the request of the Queil Empire, this article is being withheld until its source can be verified.]

A highly experimental piece of military hardware developed by the Empire of the Queil, capable of inflicting damage to organic matter to an unprecedented degree of both potency and scale.

The Kalamus resembles an unmarked, octagonal box with eight anchor points designed to secure the device in place. When activated, a cylindrical core extends from the top surface of the device, revealing a launch system for multiple waves of nanometrically-sharpened needles, each of which contains a core of radioactive material. Using a complex magnetic propulsion method, the Kalamus rapidly ejects these needles in a 360-degree arc covering up to a ten-metre radius. Though the needles themselves are capable of [INJURY DETAIL REDACTED], the true danger comes from the radioactive cores which, once deposited in an organic body, will almost certainly [INJURY DETAIL REDACTED] within a few days.

High volume payload weapons such as the Kalamus Devastator have understandably been outlawed under the terms of the Trifold Union. Centurion 67 determined that the Kalamus was being developed by the Queils in a covert facility on the planet Yvyr. The unnamed facility was reportedly absent from any official Queil records, but appeared to be drawing inspiration from the planet’s constant nuclear blizzards which are anathema to biological beings.

The research facility was destroyed immediately following Centurion 67’s visit. It is unknown whether the Kalamus Devastator is currently in use by Queil military forces.

SEE ALSO:

• Tempest [Star System]

• Queil Diplomatic Codes [Technology]

• Glass Needle Syndrome [Disease]