BOOK OF STONE: OA-93

For April, Stone Soldiers.info is celebrating the A to Z Blog Challenge with daily letter-themed entries detailing the people, places and things of the Stone Soldiers universe.

OA-93

First Appearance: Brothers in Stone (Stone Soldiers #2)

Description:  Submachinegun 

Summary: Built by Olympic Arms, the OA-93 is a scaled down version of the AR-15/M16/M4 used by the U.S. Military and forces around the world.

Firing a 5.56mm rifle cartridge, and using AR-15/M16/M4 compatible magazines, the weapon weighs in at a little over 4.5 lbs. It has been featured in a number of films and is actually intended as a two-handed submachine gun, rather than a handgun.

Two other, similar weapons were made by Olympic Arms, the OA-96 and OA-98.

In the Stone Soldiers series, the OA-93 is often the primary sidearm of choice for Colonel Mark Kenslir. 

From the Author: What do you give the supersoldier who can kill men and monsters with his bare hands? Guns for supersoldiers is definitely a tough choice that many a writer has faced. In Hellboy, the titular character fires a particularly large-caliber revolver that would make any muscleman's arms sore.

The implication in choosing a big gun is that the reader/viewer sees ho strong the character is. Big guns = big muscles. 

For Stone Soldiers this isn't really the goal. By Book 2, readers know how tough Colonel Kenslir is. Instead of a big gun, the Colonel needed weapons that would make sense. Why would a super soldier need a gun? Well, fists only go so far. Engaging an enemy at distance is a long-standing military concept. One even a super soldier would adhere to.

Rather than go the unique, one-of-a-kind, don't-lose-it-or-Q-will-be-pissed weapon, I opted instead for weapons that could be used in extraordinary circumstances in extraordinary ways.

The two big issues for any soldier going into the field are recoil and weight. No one wants to lug around a heavy gun and heavier spare ammo. A super soldier doesn't have that concern. Of course, 5.56mm is not exactly a heavy round. And the M4 has an integral recoil absorption mechanism built into it, aiding in its accuracy. Of course, even with two hands on a full-length M16, it's hard to fight the recoil and keep the weapon on-target in full-automatic fire.

For Colonel Kenslir, the OA-93 offers a compact, full-sized rifle-calibered submachinegun he can fire on full auto all day long without breaking a sweat. If he's deployed with conventional forces, he doesn't have to worry about one-of-a-kind ammunition. And, in the event he loses or breaks his weapon, while not a common firearm, he can get another OA-93 without too much fuss.