The CDP-9 generates a toroidal electromagnetic discharge — a stable plasma ring approximately forty centimeters in diameter — that travels along a line-of-sight trajectory at roughly 180 meters per second. The ring is self-sustaining for approximately 0.4 seconds of flight time, giving it an effective range of seventy meters before field coherence collapses. On contact with a target, the toroid destabilizes and releases its stored electromagnetic energy in an omni-directional burst pattern, simultaneously burning exposed tissue and overloading unshielded electronics within a half-meter radius.

The weapon's distinctive characteristic is its interaction with metallic implants and subdermal augmentations. The discharge preferentially conducts through high-density metallic structures, meaning heavily augmented individuals suffer disproportionately severe secondary effects — internal burns along augmentation pathways, fried neural bridges, and in extreme cases, explosive pressure buildup in sealed implant housings. Against baseline humans, the Sunburn is painful and disorienting; against a chrome-heavy street soldier, it can be catastrophic.

Arcturus Defense Solutions originally developed the CDP-9 as an anti-augmentation crowd control platform for use in labor disputes at high-automation facilities. The implication — that the weapon was designed specifically to punish workers with industrial implants — has made it deeply politically charged. Its appearance in the hands of corporate security forces reliably escalates tensions, and several documented deployments have triggered full-scale riots.