Atomic Bolt

A product of Atomo-Dyne Labs, the Atomic Bolt is designed based on a standard in-system rocket technology that the Toba use to flit from moon to moon in the Aluza system - from Quantum Prime to Hyperdax and back again - but scaled down to fit a Rocket Dog. Powered by uranium and other radioactive elements mined from the moon Caldera Chaos, the compact fission pile inside each Atomic Bolt is used to flash small amounts of simple water to super-heated steam, thus providing the reaction mass to quickly accelerate a Rocket Dog to stunning speeds.

The Atomic Bolt may look like something from humanity’s 1950s, but because the Toba have had centuries and centuries of technological development, the Atomic Bolt is no experimental, unsafe reactor prone to meltdowns or explosions. The micro-pile is not only fail-safe by design but is wrapped in layers of shielding and protective structures, so even if a Rocket Dog is disoriented by a competitor hitting him with a NGMI, or if he Gets Rekt!, the worst case is that the Atomic Bolt will safely shut down for a moment, before rebooting.

Because the Atomic Bolt is based off standard Toba technology used on thousands of in-system craft, Atomo-Dyne has no problem at all mass-producing units and is readily available. It’s common in a Rocket Dog race for two or more Rocket Dogs to be using the same stream-lined space-age rocket - and when the technology is tied winning a race comes down to natural instinct, tricky use of traps and weapons, and sheer competitive instinct.