As humanity expanded into space and further, to the stars, it encountered a number of challenges in different environments which needed a more vigorous response than overtures of peace. Hostile aliens, rogue humans, battle droids and automated defences left by long-gone civilisations in forgotten wars all threatened explorers at one time or another.

It became clear that there was a need for a standard self defence weapon to be carried by those venturing into dangerous situations, and so the Multiphase Array Plasma (MAP) gun was developed by human scientists and engineers working for the Hong-Kershaw corporation. Although it had many rivals, including from advanced versions of ancient chemical projectile weapons, the clear advantages and robust construction of the MAP gun eventually led to it becoming the de facto standard firearm in the following decades and centuries. It remains the galactic standard to this day.

The core concept behind the MAP gun is simple, a flexible gravity chamber upon which are focused many coherent plasma projectors, which compresses enormous energies in the chamber and expels them through varying frequencies depending on the setting. The simplicity of the design also makes it very tough - with no moving parts in an almost completely sealed case, it needs no maintenance and can withstand enormous punishment.

Normal MAP guns have particulate antimatter energy packs which can last for many years without being especially dangerous, the amounts involved are too tiny to cause anything more than a few sparks on contact with matter, but they do provide long lasting focused power.

The settings of a standard MAP gun include:

• Single fire beams
• Pulsed fire autobeams
• Continuous beam fire

These settings can be combined with the following options

• Plasma beams set from sunburn to smelt
• Particle beams which actually form a solid slug at the front from cooling accumulated matter
• Hose plasma which sprays a wide slew of superheated, sticky material in front of the user, this can also be set to non-sticky to form a dazzling impromptu shield
• Reactive beams which explode on contact with solid matter, the detonations can be tiny or expand to a radius of fifteen meters, especially devastating on continuous fire settings
• Needlebeams which can penetrate steel at ranges of up to twelve kilometers, but needing a precise shot
• Stealth beams which are similar to plasma beams but are invisible and undetectable without specialised equipment, also less damaging
• Negative energy beams suitable for use in flammable or unstable environments
• Starbursts which create blinding flashes of light or persistent flares
• Wither beams which set off a chain reaction in normal matter at the atomic level causing partial or full disintegration
• Stun beams which manifest as plasma shock waves where they hit, unharmful but creating a concussive effect, especially useful if set on autobeam with alternating starbursts

All of these options can be changed to a variety of different spectra, and as added advantages the MAP gun has very little recoil and produces almost no sound on most settings. Overheating is rarely a problem since the effects are entirely contained with the gravitometric reaction chamber which produces the weapons.

The MAP gun has proven its efficiency in the howling storms of gas giants, on airless moons and asteroids, in the depths of oceanic trenches and on frozen methane moons, and remains the weapon of choice for human adventurers in deep space.