Bajoran phaser rifle

A Bajoran phaser rifle

A Bajoran phaser rifle (2371)

The Bajoran phaser rifle was a type of directed energy weapon, a hand-held phaser weapon modified into a rifle stock configuration of use in combat by the military forces of the Bajoran Provisional Government, both in the Bajoran Resistance and the subsequent Bajoran Militia. (DS9 episodes: "Ties of Blood and Water", "The Way of the Warrior")

Specifications

Based on the standard Bajoran phaser pistol, this phaser rifle adaptation used the same phaser pistol technology used in the smaller weapon has similar adaptations as other Bajoran weapons, foregoing a prefire chamber and instead using six pinpoint energy beams that precede the weapon blast as a prefire matrix, focusing the discharge after it leaves the weapon. This is the main dissimilarity between Bajoran weapons and their Federation Starfleet counterparts that utilize a built-in prefire chamber.

Bajoran phaser weapons use a rechargeable isotolinium ampule as a power battery, although some units of this type have been retrofit with sarium krellide energy cells in order to be used with Starfleet chargers. Early models of the rifle unit, besides being ruggedized, also utilize a sensor that acts as a seeker/tracker, using infrared radiation and biogenic profiling to discriminate fire against Cardassian lifesigns, in order to cut down on friendly fire against Bajoran comrades. After the end of the Occupation of Bajor, this feature fell into disuse.

Aboard Starbase Deep Space 9, Bajoran phaser weapons are regulated by the space station computer to setting 3, heavy stun, in order to prevent personnel violence and also to avoid damage to the station hull in case of misfires or abuse. (DS9 reference: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual)

History

Bajoran soldiers form a firing squad

Bajoran phaser rifles were used in a firing squad incident at Prison Complex 187 in the year 2368, in which a majority of a group of escaping condemned prisoners were killed, shot from behind as the war criminals tried to steal a Bajoran prison shuttle. (DS9 comic: "Turn of the Tide")

The Shakaar resistance cell used these phaser rifles to protect their camps during the Occupation of Bajor in the mid-24th century. (DS9 episode: "Ties of Blood and Water")

In 2356, at the age of just thirteen, Kira Nerys knew how to operate the rifle and became involved in an ambush of Cardassian soldiers. She later recalled that during the mission, she continued firing until the power cell was completely discharged. (DS9 episode: "The Darkness and the Light")

Militia troopers used these rifles when hunting down Shakaar Edon and the Shakaar resistance cell in the Dahkur Hills after the Shakaar associates resisted the authority of the government in 2371. (DS9 episode: "Shakaar")

Bajoran rifles were used to defend the Promenade when the Klingon Empire assaulted Deep Space 9 in 2372. (DS9 episode & novelization: The Way of the Warrior)

Major Kira armed with a Bajoran phaser rifle (2372)

Later that year, Major Kira equipped herself with a Bajoran phaser rifle during a mission to locate the crashed Cardassian freighter Ravinok, that was carrying Bajoran prisoners. (DS9 episode: "Indiscretion")

As part of the Federation Alliance mission to retake Deep Space 9 from Dominion forces in 2374, Constable Odo assembled a security team comprising deputies with phaser rifles to combat Cardassian and Jem'Hadar troops on the station. During one engagement, his team rescued Major Kira and Rom after they had been pinned down by weapons fire, much to their welcome surprise. (DS9 episode: "Sacrifice of Angels")

Iden with a Bajoran phaser rifle (2377)

In 2377, the USS Voyager encountered an Hirogen outpost that had been modified using holographic technology given to them by Captain Kathryn Janeway three years prior. The outpost served as a "hunting ground" where Hirogen hunters could seek out holographic programs to satisfy their desire to kill. As the holographic technology given to them was of Federation origin, it was capable of simulating many Alpha Quadrant species. Iden, a Bajoran hologram, used the Bajoran phaser rifle during a fight against Hirogen hunters. (VOY episode: "Flesh and Blood")

In 2377, as a part of The Doctor's holo-novel Photons Be Free, Captain Jenkins had a Bajoran phaser rifle mounted on the wall behind her desk in the ready room of the fictional USS Vortex. (VOY episode: "Author, Author")

Appendices

Background

The Bajoran phaser rifle was designed by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine production artist Jim Martin.

The rifles seen in DS9 comic: "Turn of the Tide" may represent a variation in design, they had extended upper barrels and were gray, rather than the characteristic rust color of canon appearances of the weapon.