See Also - Armaments of the Colonial Pact

The ALP-57U 'Kraus' is a polymer encased asynchronous linear chem-rail pistol employed by the Colonial Pact as a standard issue sidearm to its military and civil security forces. Its large magazine and programable output have made the weapon popular across all walks of Pact society, helped along by the general availability of parts and its ease of use. Designed as a foundation up replacement for a long line of venerable reliable conventional sidearms the Kraus is the first such chem-rail system to be applied to pistol systems. The simple matter was that chemical rounds where continuing to be less effective against more advanced forms of personal body armor. While increasing the velocity was a stopgap the issue of recoil and size made the weapons that resulted unwieldy, thus creating the desire for applying miniaturized rail technology to firearms.

While this had been done on a number of rifle or carbine systems the Kraus was the first pistol to be designed with this hybrid chem-rail setup, allowing for a higher velocity round without increasing the powder charge on the projectile. Additionally it allowed for various mechanisms including an EM buffer to be installed which reduced recoil to well within the mean average shooters capability while maintaining the needed armor piercing velocities. This combined with a myriad of other programable features has made the weapon popular among all who've come to carry it on their hip.

A sleek if grey weapon with the standard layout of most combat sized handguns; key features include red coated tritium high rise night optics, its integrated charging handle, and its under barrel rail mount. Unlike most handguns it features a flash suppressing compensator that can mount a screw on suppressor. Like other chemrail weapons it features a status screen on the both sides of the weapon and a general display on the back.

Below are listed and described the various mechanisms and interface systems of the Rudd compact chem-rail pistol system.

The following is sales and weapon issue information for the (weapon name here).

• (weapon name here) - CC