The CDP-2 fires a pressurized micro-bead of piezoelectric gel approximately 4mm in diameter. The bead does not penetrate tissue in any conventional sense — it deforms on impact and releases a precisely calibrated piezoelectric pulse that propagates through soft tissue along the path of least electrical resistance, which in the human body invariably means blood vessels and nerve clusters. The result is widespread capillary rupture throughout the impact zone and a radius of roughly 8–12 centimeters of internal hemorrhaging with no external wound beyond a small contusion. Against unaugmented targets, a single shot to the torso is incapacitating within seconds and fatal within minutes without medical intervention.

Helix Biosystems designed the CDP-2 ostensibly as a 'non-lethal' crowd suppression tool, leaning on the absence of a penetrating wound to argue for a reduced lethality classification in regulatory submissions. This classification was accepted in three jurisdictions and rejected in eleven. In practice, the weapon is lethal at standard charge settings, and operators are trained accordingly. A 'reduced charge' mode exists and does produce genuinely non-lethal effects — severe bruising and disorientation — but the charge selector is small, unlabeled, and requires deliberate manual adjustment that most operators never bother with in the field.

The CDP-2 is physically unremarkable — it resembles a compact semi-automatic handgun with a slightly oversized barrel and a faint blue tint to the grip housing where the piezoelectric charge pack is seated. It produces almost no sound when fired, just a soft click and a faint static discharge smell that dissipates quickly. Bodies killed with it display no obvious cause of death to a casual observer, which has made it the preferred weapon of professional eliminators across GLMZ.