Portfolio: Hedeby Gunworks

This portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 7.9.
Altruis Hedeby hesitated before the roaring flame of the furnace. The hunk of metal he was about to destroy was an old weapon unlike any he had seen before. Despite years of neglect and rust, he found a certain beauty and grace in its distinct double-barrel design. He spun the weighty gun in his hands, noticing engraved flourishes atypical of the cheap, mass-produced weapons found across Asura.

Hedeby crossed the foundry floor to show the weapon to his supervisor, who generally considered anything that didn’t function to be furnace fodder. She was less than impressed and gave him two options: melt it with the rest of the scrap or keep it, with the cost coming from his wages. Under her watchful gaze, he returned to the furnace and, with a heavy heart, tossed it into the flames. He immediately regretted the decision, but it would come to change his life.

The care and craftsmanship put into that weapon inspired Hedeby to uncover its history. The journey sparked an obsession into unique and antique personal weapons that led him to found Hedeby Gunworks – a weapons manufacturer unlike any other in the universe.

THE EAGER APPRENTICE
Hedeby desperately wanted to keep the unusual old weapon, but his family needed every credit to survive. Born in the Ferron system in 2884, he was the oldest of five siblings. His parents struggled to keep the family fed under Tram’s tough economic conditions and, at the age of fifteen, Hedeby abandoned his Equivalency studies to support his siblings. He lied about his age to land a job at a foundry that collected scrap and melted it into cheap, everyday items sold at stalls across the city. Hedeby immediately took to the foundry floor, never feeling more alive than when the flames from the furnace almost licked his skin. His heat tolerance and enthusiasm for the work quickly elevated him from scrap sorter to furnace operator, which is where the strange weapon landed in his hands.

Despite destroying it, Hedeby became fascinated with the simple elegance of the gun. He constantly sketched it from memory, trying to get the dimensions and details just right. He also did extensive research, which didn’t lead to an answer, but began an obsession with antique firearms. At work, he pestered longtime employees with questions about metalworking until someone recommended that he talk to Chae Ekstrom, a local smith with a small shop on the industrial outskirts of Tram. Inside, he found Ekstrom hand-repairing the hull of an old drone and became captivated by the artistry of the detailed metalwork. Hedeby offered to buy Ekstrom a drink in exchange for a few questions. While Ekstrom couldn’t identify the mysterious weapon Hedeby described, he was impressed by the teenager’s unbridled enthusiasm and offered him an apprenticeship.

For the next decade, Hedeby juggled his job at the foundry with learning metalworking under the master smith’s tutelage. He worked at the foundry during the day and assisted Ekstrom in repairs and custom work at night. On the weekends, he turned his new-found skills toward his true passion of gunsmithing. Although he had never finished school, he discovered a new love of learning, pouring over whatever texts he could find and testing out techniques on leftover scrap metal. It took him six years of trial and error but, eventually, Hedeby crafted his first working weapon – a double-barreled pistol inspired by the one he found in the scrapyard so many years prior.

While he loved learning forgotten techniques, Hedeby found his true creative inspiration in Ekstrom’s training. Raised in Banu space by a metalworking souli, Ekstrom had studied a variety of techniques not commonly used in the UEE. Ekstrom explained that Banu were always eager to utilize new techniques and methodologies, but only when they were proven to be better. The result was a style of metalworking that was simultaneously classic and cutting-edge. It was this combination that had allowed Ekstrom to excel at repairing older tech and what inspired Hedeby to incorporate bolder designs into his attempts at recreating the expertly crafted weapons of the past.

Eventually, Hedeby offered gunsmithing services from Ekstrom’s shop. At first it was merely repairs, but he soon began experimenting with making existing weapons better. Ekstrom considered some of these mods unsafe, but they became quite popular. When one such modification caused a weapon to explode and seriously injure a patron, Ekstrom demanded that Hedeby stop due to the liability it placed on his business. This rift would prove to be one that could not be mended. Hedeby left to start his own forge so only he would be responsible for the success or failure of his future experiments.

FORGING THE FUTURE FROM THE PAST
Hedeby scavenged materials from Tram’s abandoned factories and set up a small forge in his backyard in 2921. He undertook gun repair work and hand-engraving to pay the bills while continuing to experiment with new designs and attempting to master old techniques. Word quickly spread about his operations and it wasn’t long before Hedeby Gunworks had more work than he could handle alone. Eventually, he moved the forge to a larger location, where he hired and trained apprentices to handle the repair work so he could focus on designing weapons.

While his traditional pistols and rifles became popular with locals, Hedeby was eager to put his mark on the field and craft a weapon in the Banu-style, albeit in a way that would be uniquely his. After numerous attempts to improve the designs of the past, a new weapon came to form. The Salvo started as a normal pistol but evolved into something new when Hedeby added a freezing primer to mitigate overheating and wound up with a supercooled casing that could be shattered into a deadly spray of high-velocity fragments. The first time he fired the gun, the unexpected explosion and thunderous boom knocked Hedeby off his feet. He knew that he had something special. Hedeby made and tested modifications before personally forging ten Salvo pistols. He sent one to Ekstrom and gave the rest to his most loyal customers.

Orders for the Salvo soon overwhelmed the gunworks and investors lined up to fund its expansion. Hedeby took time to weigh his options and develop more unique gun designs. Meanwhile, Hedeby’s growing reputation among collectors and gun enthusiasts made the brand increasingly popular. The company’s slow and steady expansion ensured that its signature style and unique production techniques weren’t compromised. Even to this day, every weapon follows a specific manufacturing process established by Hedeby himself that blends hand-forging and machining.

Years after sending Ekstrom one of the first Salvo pistols, Hedeby still hadn’t heard from his former mentor. One day, Ekstrom walked into Hedeby Gunworks carrying a crate. Inside was the weapon Hedeby had tossed into the furnace. It took decades to track down, but Ekstrom had discovered the Doussaint, a failed weapon prototype with both ballistic and energy fire modes. The design proved to be so dangerous that most Doussaints exploded during testing, leaving only a few left in the universe. Together, Ekstrom and Hedeby painstakingly refurbished the weapon. Though they never fired it, it is prominently displayed near Hedeby’s workbench as a reminder of his origins and as motivation to remain original.

Dieses Portfolio erschien ursprünglich in Jump Point 7.9.
Altruis Hedeby zögerte vor der tosenden Flamme des Ofens. Der Brocken Metall, den er zerstören wollte, war eine alte Waffe, wie er sie noch nie zuvor gesehen hatte. Trotz jahrelanger Vernachlässigung und Rost fand er eine gewisse Schönheit und Anmut in seinem ausgeprägten Doppellaufdesign. Er drehte die gewichtige Waffe in seinen Händen und bemerkte eingravierte Verzierungen, die untypisch für die billigen, massenproduzierten Waffen in Asura waren.

Hedeby überquerte den Boden der Gießerei, um die Waffe seinem Vorgesetzten zu zeigen, der im Allgemeinen alles, was nicht funktionierte, als Ofenfutter betrachtete. Sie war nicht sonderlich beeindruckt und gab ihm zwei Möglichkeiten: Schmelzen Sie sie mit dem restlichen Schrott oder behalten Sie sie, wobei die Kosten von seinem Lohn abgezogen werden. Unter ihrem wachsamen Blick kehrte er zum Ofen zurück und warf ihn schweren Herzens in die Flammen. Er bedauerte diese Entscheidung sofort, aber sie würde sein Leben verändern.

Die Sorgfalt und das handwerkliche Können, die in diese Waffe investiert wurden, inspirierten Hedeby dazu, ihre Geschichte aufzudecken. Die Reise entfachte eine Besessenheit für einzigartige und antike persönliche Waffen, die ihn dazu führte, Hedeby Gunworks zu gründen - einen Waffenhersteller, der im Universum seinesgleichen sucht.

DER EIFRIGE LEHRLING
Hedeby wollte verzweifelt die ungewöhnliche alte Waffe behalten, aber seine Familie brauchte jeden Kredit, um zu überleben. Er wurde 2884 im Ferron-System geboren und war das älteste von fünf Geschwistern. Seine Eltern kämpften unter den harten wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen der Tram darum, die Familie zu ernähren, und im Alter von fünfzehn Jahren gab Hedeby sein Äquivalenzstudium auf, um seine Geschwister zu unterstützen. Er log über sein Alter, um einen Job in einer Gießerei zu bekommen, die Schrott sammelte und diesen zu billigen, alltäglichen Gegenständen schmolz, die an Ständen in der ganzen Stadt verkauft wurden. Hedeby begab sich sofort auf den Boden der Gießerei und fühlte sich nie lebendiger, als wenn die Flammen aus dem Ofen seine Haut fast leckten. Seine Hitzetoleranz und sein Enthusiasmus für die Arbeit ließen ihn schnell vom Schrottsortierer zum Ofenbediener aufsteigen, wo die seltsame Waffe in seinen Händen landete.

Obwohl sie zerstört wurde, war Hedeby von der schlichten Eleganz der Waffe fasziniert. Er zeichnete sie immer wieder aus dem Gedächtnis und versuchte, die Maße und Details genau zu treffen. Er führte auch umfangreiche Nachforschungen durch, die nicht zu einer Antwort führten, sondern eine Besessenheit von antiken Feuerwaffen auslösten. Bei der Arbeit belästigte er langjährige Mitarbeiter mit Fragen zur Metallverarbeitung, bis ihm jemand empfahl, mit Chae Ekstrom zu sprechen, einem örtlichen Schmied mit einem kleinen Laden am industriellen Stadtrand von Tram. Im Inneren fand er Ekstrom bei der Handreparatur des Rumpfes einer alten Drohne und war fasziniert von der Kunstfertigkeit der detaillierten Metallarbeiten. Hedeby bot Ekstrom an, Ekstrom für ein paar Fragen ein Getränk zu kaufen. Obwohl Ekstrom die mysteriöse Waffe, die Hedeby beschrieb, nicht identifizieren konnte, war er von dem unbändigen Enthusiasmus des Teenagers beeindruckt und bot ihm eine Lehrstelle an.

Im nächsten Jahrzehnt jonglierte Hedeby seinen Job in der Gießerei mit dem Erlernen der Metallverarbeitung unter der Anleitung des Schmiedemeisters. Er arbeitete tagsüber in der Gießerei und half Ekstrom nachts bei Reparaturen und Maßarbeit. An den Wochenenden wandte er seine neu gewonnenen Fähigkeiten seiner wahren Leidenschaft, dem Büchsenmacherhandwerk, zu. Obwohl er die Schule nie abgeschlossen hatte, entdeckte er eine neue Liebe zum Lernen, indem er alle Texte, die er finden konnte, überflutete und Techniken an übrig gebliebenen Metallresten ausprobierte. Es dauerte sechs Jahre des Ausprobierens, aber schließlich stellte Hedeby seine erste funktionierende Waffe her - eine doppelläufige Pistole, inspiriert von der, die er so viele Jahre zuvor auf dem Schrottplatz gefunden hatte.

Während er es liebte, vergessene Techniken zu lernen, fand Hedeby seine wahre kreative Inspiration in Ekströms Training. Ekstrom, der im Raum Banu von einem Metallverarbeitungs-Souli aufgezogen wurde, hatte eine Reihe von Techniken studiert, die in der UEE nicht üblich waren. Ekstrom erklärte, dass die Banu immer bestrebt waren, neue Techniken und Methoden zu nutzen, aber nur dann, wenn sie sich als besser erwiesen. Das Ergebnis war ein Stil der Metallbearbeitung, der gleichzeitig klassisch und hochmodern war. Es war diese Kombination, die es Ekstrom ermöglicht hatte, sich bei der Reparatur älterer Technik auszuzeichnen, und die Hedeby dazu inspirierte, kühnere Designs in seine Versuche zur Nachbildung der fachmännisch gefertigten Waffen der Vergangenheit einzubeziehen.

Schließlich bot Hedeby Büchsenmacherdienste aus Ekströms Laden an. Zuerst handelte es sich lediglich um Reparaturen, aber er begann bald damit, mit der Verbesserung vorhandener Waffen zu experimentieren. Ekstrom hielt einige dieser Mods für unsicher, aber sie wurden recht beliebt. Als eine solche Modifikation dazu führte, dass eine Waffe explodierte und einen Gönner schwer verletzte, verlangte Ekstrom, dass Hedeby wegen der damit verbundenen Haftung für sein Geschäft aufhörte. Dieser Riss würde sich als einer erweisen, der nicht repariert werden könnte. Hedeby ging, um seine eigene Schmiede zu gründen, so dass nur er für den Erfolg oder Misserfolg seiner zukünftigen Experimente verantwortlich sein würde.

DIE ZUKUNFT AUS DER VERGANGENHEIT SCHMIEDEN
Hedeby plünderte Materialien aus den verlassenen Fabriken von Tram und richtete 2921 in seinem Hinterhof eine kleine Schmiede ein. Er nahm Reparaturarbeiten an Waffen und Handgravuren vor, um die Rechnungen zu bezahlen, während er weiterhin mit neuen Designs experimentierte und versuchte, alte Techniken zu beherrschen. Seine Tätigkeit sprach sich schnell herum, und es dauerte nicht lange, bis Hedeby Gunworks mehr Arbeit hatte, als er allein bewältigen konnte. Schließlich verlegte er die Schmiede an einen größeren Standort, wo er Lehrlinge für die Reparaturarbeiten einstellte und ausbildete, damit er sich auf das Design von Waffen konzentrieren konnte.

Während seine traditionellen Pistolen und Gewehre bei den Einheimischen beliebt wurden, war Hedeby bestrebt, dem Feld seinen Stempel aufzudrücken und eine Waffe im Banu-Stil herzustellen, wenn auch auf eine Weise, die einzigartig für ihn war. Nach zahlreichen Versuchen, die Designs der Vergangenheit zu verbessern, nahm eine neue Waffe Gestalt an. Die Salvo begann als normale Pistole, entwickelte sich aber zu etwas Neuem, als Hedeby eine eiskalte Zündkapsel hinzufügte, um die Überhitzung zu mildern, und ein unterkühltes Gehäuse erhielt, das in einen tödlichen Sprühnebel aus Hochgeschwindigkeitsfragmenten zertrümmert werden konnte. Als er die Waffe zum ersten Mal abfeuerte, wurde Hedeby durch die unerwartete Explosion und den tosenden Knall von den Füßen gehauen. Er wusste, dass er etwas Besonderes hatte. Hedeby machte und testete Modifikationen, bevor er persönlich zehn Salvenpistolen schmiedete. Er schickte eine an Ekstrom und gab den Rest an seine treuesten Kunden weiter.

Die Bestellungen für die Salvo überwältigten bald das Geschütz und Investoren stellten sich in einer Reihe auf, um ihre Expansion zu finanzieren. Hedeby nahm sich Zeit, seine Optionen abzuwägen und einzigartigere Geschützdesigns zu entwickeln. Unterdessen machte Hedeby's wachsender Ruf unter Sammlern und Waffenliebhabern die Marke immer beliebter. Die langsame und stetige Expansion des Unternehmens sorgte dafür, dass sein unverkennbarer Stil und seine einzigartigen Produktionstechniken nicht beeinträchtigt wurden. Auch heute noch folgt jede Waffe einem spezifischen, von Hedeby selbst festgelegten Herstellungsverfahren, das Handschmieden und maschinelle Bearbeitung miteinander verbindet.

Jahre, nachdem er Ekstrom eine der ersten Salvenpistolen geschickt hatte, hatte Hedeby noch immer nichts von seinem früheren Mentor gehört. Eines Tages kam Ekstrom mit einer Kiste in die Hedeby Gunworks. Darin befand sich die Waffe, die Hedeby in den Ofen geworfen hatte. Es dauerte Jahrzehnte, sie aufzuspüren, aber Ekstrom hatte die Doussaint entdeckt, einen gescheiterten Waffenprototypen mit ballistischem und energetischem Feuermodus. Die Konstruktion erwies sich als so gefährlich, dass die meisten Doussaints während der Tests explodierten und nur noch wenige im Universum übrig blieben. Ekstrom und Hedeby überholten die Waffe gemeinsam in mühevoller Kleinarbeit. Obwohl sie sie nie abgefeuert haben, ist sie in der Nähe von Hedeby's Werkbank an prominenter Stelle ausgestellt, als Erinnerung an seine Ursprünge und als Motivation, originell zu bleiben.

This portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 7.9.
Altruis Hedeby hesitated before the roaring flame of the furnace. The hunk of metal he was about to destroy was an old weapon unlike any he had seen before. Despite years of neglect and rust, he found a certain beauty and grace in its distinct double-barrel design. He spun the weighty gun in his hands, noticing engraved flourishes atypical of the cheap, mass-produced weapons found across Asura.

Hedeby crossed the foundry floor to show the weapon to his supervisor, who generally considered anything that didn’t function to be furnace fodder. She was less than impressed and gave him two options: melt it with the rest of the scrap or keep it, with the cost coming from his wages. Under her watchful gaze, he returned to the furnace and, with a heavy heart, tossed it into the flames. He immediately regretted the decision, but it would come to change his life.

The care and craftsmanship put into that weapon inspired Hedeby to uncover its history. The journey sparked an obsession into unique and antique personal weapons that led him to found Hedeby Gunworks – a weapons manufacturer unlike any other in the universe.

THE EAGER APPRENTICE
Hedeby desperately wanted to keep the unusual old weapon, but his family needed every credit to survive. Born in the Ferron system in 2884, he was the oldest of five siblings. His parents struggled to keep the family fed under Tram’s tough economic conditions and, at the age of fifteen, Hedeby abandoned his Equivalency studies to support his siblings. He lied about his age to land a job at a foundry that collected scrap and melted it into cheap, everyday items sold at stalls across the city. Hedeby immediately took to the foundry floor, never feeling more alive than when the flames from the furnace almost licked his skin. His heat tolerance and enthusiasm for the work quickly elevated him from scrap sorter to furnace operator, which is where the strange weapon landed in his hands.

Despite destroying it, Hedeby became fascinated with the simple elegance of the gun. He constantly sketched it from memory, trying to get the dimensions and details just right. He also did extensive research, which didn’t lead to an answer, but began an obsession with antique firearms. At work, he pestered longtime employees with questions about metalworking until someone recommended that he talk to Chae Ekstrom, a local smith with a small shop on the industrial outskirts of Tram. Inside, he found Ekstrom hand-repairing the hull of an old drone and became captivated by the artistry of the detailed metalwork. Hedeby offered to buy Ekstrom a drink in exchange for a few questions. While Ekstrom couldn’t identify the mysterious weapon Hedeby described, he was impressed by the teenager’s unbridled enthusiasm and offered him an apprenticeship.

For the next decade, Hedeby juggled his job at the foundry with learning metalworking under the master smith’s tutelage. He worked at the foundry during the day and assisted Ekstrom in repairs and custom work at night. On the weekends, he turned his new-found skills toward his true passion of gunsmithing. Although he had never finished school, he discovered a new love of learning, pouring over whatever texts he could find and testing out techniques on leftover scrap metal. It took him six years of trial and error but, eventually, Hedeby crafted his first working weapon – a double-barreled pistol inspired by the one he found in the scrapyard so many years prior.

While he loved learning forgotten techniques, Hedeby found his true creative inspiration in Ekstrom’s training. Raised in Banu space by a metalworking souli, Ekstrom had studied a variety of techniques not commonly used in the UEE. Ekstrom explained that Banu were always eager to utilize new techniques and methodologies, but only when they were proven to be better. The result was a style of metalworking that was simultaneously classic and cutting-edge. It was this combination that had allowed Ekstrom to excel at repairing older tech and what inspired Hedeby to incorporate bolder designs into his attempts at recreating the expertly crafted weapons of the past.

Eventually, Hedeby offered gunsmithing services from Ekstrom’s shop. At first it was merely repairs, but he soon began experimenting with making existing weapons better. Ekstrom considered some of these mods unsafe, but they became quite popular. When one such modification caused a weapon to explode and seriously injure a patron, Ekstrom demanded that Hedeby stop due to the liability it placed on his business. This rift would prove to be one that could not be mended. Hedeby left to start his own forge so only he would be responsible for the success or failure of his future experiments.

FORGING THE FUTURE FROM THE PAST
Hedeby scavenged materials from Tram’s abandoned factories and set up a small forge in his backyard in 2921. He undertook gun repair work and hand-engraving to pay the bills while continuing to experiment with new designs and attempting to master old techniques. Word quickly spread about his operations and it wasn’t long before Hedeby Gunworks had more work than he could handle alone. Eventually, he moved the forge to a larger location, where he hired and trained apprentices to handle the repair work so he could focus on designing weapons.

While his traditional pistols and rifles became popular with locals, Hedeby was eager to put his mark on the field and craft a weapon in the Banu-style, albeit in a way that would be uniquely his. After numerous attempts to improve the designs of the past, a new weapon came to form. The Salvo started as a normal pistol but evolved into something new when Hedeby added a freezing primer to mitigate overheating and wound up with a supercooled casing that could be shattered into a deadly spray of high-velocity fragments. The first time he fired the gun, the unexpected explosion and thunderous boom knocked Hedeby off his feet. He knew that he had something special. Hedeby made and tested modifications before personally forging ten Salvo pistols. He sent one to Ekstrom and gave the rest to his most loyal customers.

Orders for the Salvo soon overwhelmed the gunworks and investors lined up to fund its expansion. Hedeby took time to weigh his options and develop more unique gun designs. Meanwhile, Hedeby’s growing reputation among collectors and gun enthusiasts made the brand increasingly popular. The company’s slow and steady expansion ensured that its signature style and unique production techniques weren’t compromised. Even to this day, every weapon follows a specific manufacturing process established by Hedeby himself that blends hand-forging and machining.

Years after sending Ekstrom one of the first Salvo pistols, Hedeby still hadn’t heard from his former mentor. One day, Ekstrom walked into Hedeby Gunworks carrying a crate. Inside was the weapon Hedeby had tossed into the furnace. It took decades to track down, but Ekstrom had discovered the Doussaint, a failed weapon prototype with both ballistic and energy fire modes. The design proved to be so dangerous that most Doussaints exploded during testing, leaving only a few left in the universe. Together, Ekstrom and Hedeby painstakingly refurbished the weapon. Though they never fired it, it is prominently displayed near Hedeby’s workbench as a reminder of his origins and as motivation to remain original.