In the claustrophobic corridors of the Inner Sphere's hive cities or the overgrown fungal choke-points of the Frontier, precision is a liability. Whirling Swipe is the signature technique of "Breacher" units—Soldiers who don't clear rooms by checking corners, but by ensuring there are no corners left to check.
To a Sider Stratiotes veteran, this move is known as "The Harvester." It relies on the sheer kinetic mass of heavy industrial melee weapons—rocket hammers, mono-edge greatswords, or rift-charged glaives. The Soldier doesn't aim for a gap in the armor; they become a localized centrifuge of violence, letting centrifugal force and momentum turn their weapon into a blur that breaks bones and shatters ceramic plating indiscriminately. It is the physical embodiment of the phrase: "I'm not trapped in here with you; you're trapped in here with me."
Whirling Swipe Feat 1
Source Player Core pg. 155
(two Actions)
Requirements You’re wielding a two-handed melee weapon.
You swipe your weapon in a wide swing to create a deadly arc. Your weapon gains the area (burst 5 feet) and unwieldy traits until the end of the turn. If your weapon has reach, the burst radius becomes the reach of your weapon. Area Fire with the required weapon, centering the burst on a corner of a square you occupy. You’re excluded from the burst. If you’re using a weapon with the backswing or sweep trait, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to the save DC of the attack. If you have the primary target class feature, the primary target Strike you make is a melee Strike, rather than a ranged Strike.
Non-Combat Applications
Rapid Demolition: When a team needs to clear dense vegetation, weak structural supports, or a wall of debris quickly, a Soldier using Whirling Swipe acts like a living industrial thresher.
Crowd Dispersal: In a riot or panicked stampede, swinging a massive weapon in a wide, calculated arc (perhaps using the flat of the blade for non-lethal damage) creates an immediate "exclusion zone" that no one dares enter.
Environmental Clearing: A Soldier can use this technique to clear hazardous sludge, sweep away swarms of non-combatant vermin, or shatter a room full of glass/containers to create a distraction or difficult terrain.
Societal Impact
The prevalence of Whirling Swipe has influenced the architecture of high-security prisons and military checkpoints. "Soldier-Proof" corridors are now designed with narrow baffles and low ceilings specifically to prevent the full extension required for this technique. In the gladiatorial pits of the Outer Sphere, fighters who master this style are crowd favorites, known as "Cyclones," though they rarely live long due to the sheer exhaustion of fighting as a human gyroscope.
Adventure Hooks
The Zero-G Blender: The party is fighting in a micro-gravity environment where recoil makes ranged weapons dangerous. The Soldier, anchored by mag-boots, becomes the team's primary offense, using Whirling Swipe to catch drifting enemies who cannot dodge the 360-degree arc of destruction.
The Invisible Swarm: The party is attacked by camouflaged or invisible stalkers. Unable to target them individually, the Soldier uses Whirling Swipe to "recon by impact," hitting every square around them to reveal the location of the attackers through the spray of blood and sparks.
The Living Propeller: During a vehicle chase, the Soldier stands on the roof of a skiff. Using a reach weapon and Whirling Swipe, they act as a defensive perimeter, batting away boarding drones and leaping enemies before they can touch the vehicle.
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