Switch-AX image - Natural Selection 2

When all else fails, and it comes down to hand to claws combat, what better to have in your possession then the new combat approved 2.Sec Switch-Ax?

To better describe this new and improved melee weapon, we've taken an excerpt from the TSA Field Manual:

The 2.Sec Switch-Ax

The Switch-Ax has replaced the knife as standard issue. Nomenclature "2.Sec" describes the elapsed time from deployment to burying it in someone's (or thing's) cranium. Some marines have also said the sound it makes from button push to lock sounds like "two...Sec!" In compact form, the blade's edge folds into a nanoscopic substratum which converts matter debris into an oily substance. The 2.Sec never sticks -- in fact, the more you use it, the better it works. The blade's edge is very slowly consumed as well. It's getting sharper while it hangs from your belt.

The 2.Sec was deployed after field data confirmed two things:

1. Non-Combat tasks, especially time-critical ones, usually involve severing materials just at or over the knife's capabilities, or opening jammed or locked containers -- a function that can easily result in damage to a knife. The Switch-Ax is rated to cut steel cable, and makes short work of the standard shipping or storage crates. The Ax's edge is still sharp enough to friction-cut lesser substances such as cloth or rope with sufficient precision for commonly reported tasks.

2. Most combat uses are against Kharaa, who are tough skinned, and frequently biologically armored in ways that grant high resistance to surface wounds. While the Switch-Ax cannot deliver successive strikes as quickly as the knife, its first blow is of comparable speed, and the piercing, weight driven concentration of force delivers greater aggregate damage-per-second against alien hostiles. Of course, melee combat with the Kharaa is still strongly discouraged. The 2.Sec, however, is superbly effective against Kharaa tactical growths, quickly hacking past the fibrous flesh to pulp sensitive internal or