en Lives and Legend (Salusa Secundus Morgan and Sharak) Harah Memoirs of a Sietch Woman tr Steewan Duunalazan (Topaz Carolus UP) MAULA PISTOL 374 MAULA PISTOL A weapon designed solely for interpersonal combat The maula pistol was a spring-loaded handgun which fired poisoned darts accurate up to 40 meters A popular weapon for assassins and guemlla fighters, it was small and lightweight (measur ing approximately 15 cm from the back of the grip to the end of fas muzzle and weighing between 125 and 150 grams), it made little noise on firing, and, if used by a skilled shot, it could breach a personal shield The maula pistol was invented by Jen Malthenn a native of Bezel n la 3741, but the technology which led to its invention can be traced directly to the visit paid that planet by the Butlenan Jihad in 192 B G Bezel II was an example of the Jihad's earnest excesses Jehanne Butter's horde leveled every industn al facility the world possessed and then car ned out a second wave of attacks which destroyed most of the civilian housing Fully eighty percent of the population of Bezel II was killed, leaving the shaken survivors to consider how best to avoid a repeat engagement with the Jihad's fleet which sometimes returned to interdict worlds believed to have indulged m technological backsliding The Bezehans decided their best defense lay m outdoing the fanatics at their own speciality When investigative scouts, sent back to check the sector of which Bezel II was a part, made planetfall on that world in 180 BG, they discovered that die natives had completed their work for them on all of Bezel II, no device more complicated man a windmill was m evidence Planetary law forbade an individual to build or possess machinery which exceeded stringent anti technological guidelines The/ scouts returned to the fleet with gtowmg reports concerning the Bezel lans's aewfound orthodoxy The maula pistol during its earliest centu nes of production followed the guidelines to a nicety The components were machined by hand or by the simplest sort of shop equipment and the guns were assembled in factories which could most charitably be described as cottage industries The pistols manufactured during this fame were not those which would later gam popularity m the Impenum these were heavier, less accurate models most of ten used in hunting calboc the animal most nearly resembling a marsupial deer which provided the Bezehans with the bulk of their meat supply So deeply ingrained were the habits ac quired after the Jihad that it was not until 6783 that restrictions on import of more advanced technology were loosened It was the work of another full millennium to bnng Bezel II to a par with its neighboring worlds so far as manufacturing practices and maten als were concerned In 7891 the first modem maula pistols entered the interplanetary market They proved to be one of the few Bezelmn exports which sold well Most of the Impenum was suffi ciently recovered from