Small weapons are small one-handed implements no larger than a baton or knife. These weapons are easily concealed in normal clothing, and can even be kept Readied up sleeves or in tailored pockets. Many can be thrown at a range up to 10 meters.
A primitive weapon is simply one of ordinary metal or wood, with no high-tech augmentations.
Primitive weapons are often unable to harm targets in powered armor.
Shock Damage
Shock damage represents the inevitable cuts, bruises, exhaustion, and terror of close combat.
Shock damage is only inflicted on a melee target if the hit roll fails, and it only applies if the target has an AC equal or less than that listed for the Shock.
Shock damage always includes the wielder’s attribute modifier and any bonus damage granted by weapon mods, foci, advanced tech, or other damage bonuses. An actual hit with a weapon never does less damage than Shock would otherwise inflict; if the user somehow rolls less damage, use the Shock damage instead.
Thus, if you had a Strength score of 14 and were swinging an oversized alien battle axe at a target with AC 13, you would inflict 3 points of damage on a miss; 2 from the weapon’s Shock, plus 1 from your Strength modifier. If you hit, you’d do at least 3 points.