M28 Davy Crockett¶
The M28 Davy Crockett is a decommissioned man-portable tactical nuclear recoilless rifle with a W54 warhead, supplied to Kurt by his arms-dealer contact Carter and fired by Huell at the glowing creature in The Summer Service finale.
| Type | Item (weapon) |
| Aliases | Davy Crockett; W54 warhead; the nuke; the bomb; Little Feller II; M29; Kurt's heavy weapon |
| Holder | Kurt Larson, later fired by Huell Kendrick |
| First appearance | Summer Service 03 (requested); delivered in Summer Service 04 |
Description¶
The launcher arrives in a crate about seven feet by four feet by four feet, packed with metal tubes and smaller boxes and topped by two booklets, a range table and a manual. Every part is stamped "decommission". Carter has welded an aftermarket coincidence rangefinder to the side of the tube, filing off the numbers and rewriting them in Sharpie to match the weapon. The weapon is a tube that should be mounted on its tripod, with a charge cylinder, a firing rod, a screw-on projectile and a 72-foot firing cord. It can be shoulder-fired but weighs over a hundred pounds (Summer Service 04).
Properties¶
- The manual gives a maximum range of 1.25 miles and a yield of 0.2 kiloton (Summer Service 04).
- The W54 warhead weighs roughly 60 lb, "surprisingly light", and is man-carriable (Summer Service 04, Summer Service 05).
- In the finale Andre corrects the players' guess of half a megaton to half a kiloton. Firing it kicks hard, and a wide, braced stance matters (Summer Service 06).
- Andre gives the real weapon's code name as "Little Feller II" (Summer Service 04).
History¶
- Ordering it. After the dive, Kurt phones an old contact from experimental weaponry for something big enough to kill the "glowy ring". The Preparedness roll is a 10 at -1 forward, so a 9, a mixed success. The contact promises a deniable weapon in a day or two with the serial numbers filed off (Summer Service 03). In Summer Service 04 Andre reveals that the contact is Carter, a former CIA fixer who left the agency at the same time as Kurt after Iran-Contra and became an overseas arms dealer. Dante burns a Luck point so that Kurt gets "a really good weapon"; without that burn he would have received a Scorpion (Summer Service 04).
- Delivery. A courier in a military-surplus armored truck delivers the crate beside the RV at the post office. He says Carter sends his love, that this is the last one, and that afterward they are even. Kurt tells the others what it is: a tactical nuke. The warhead is wrapped in Kurt's poncho and bagged, and stored in his room at the inn, where Jester warns them not to leave "whatever that is" (Summer Service 04).
- Mobile artillery. Kurt and Huell spend three to four hours mounting it on the Biz's Buick (Summer Service 04).
- The siege. The team passes the 60 lb warhead down through the bathroom window while police climb the stairs, and the weapon rides in the modified car afterward (Summer Service 05).
- The finale. Kurt tells the radio contact that the team has "a W54 and the means to launch it". The contact does not recognize the model name, saying, "It might be different where I'm from." Kurt teaches the team to fire it from the back seat of a commandeered car. Huell and the Biz play rock-paper-scissors for the honor, and Huell's paper beats the Biz's rock. Huell rolls a 7 and Zack burns a Luck point to turn it into a success. Huell starts to slip backward but braces his foot as Kurt advised. The blast knocks everyone flat, topples part of the fence of the nuclear power plant and ignites distant trees. The creature survives and is later killed by Andrew's flashlight (Summer Service 06).
- Aftermath. Whatever remained of the launcher was left behind. A Guard officer later remarks that someone used a tactical nuke at the plant and that it will be hard to keep out of the news (Summer Service 06).
Trivia¶
- In Summer Service 06 Andre cannot remember the designation and says it is "the M28 or M29"; Dante replies that those are the launcher and that what it launches is the W54. In Summer Service 04 Dante calls it the M28 Davy Crockett after looking through the manual.