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Ship Weapon Systems

Ships need weapons, the war hasn’t been over for long (compared to the length of the war and the increased lifespan of modern humans) so bushfire wars still break out occasionally within faction controlled space, worse though are the pirate groups that have formed to prey on the abundance of new pilots created by the ATF program and given the size of space effectively policing such pirates is virtually impossible, so you need to defend yourself if you want to venture far beyond the protection of the factions major spaceports. There are three main types of weapon systems, Energy, Projectile and Self-contained munitions (missiles), different ship classes can use different combinations of these weapons.

Energy

Energy weapons are basically weapons that produce large amounts of energy then fire that in a coherent beam at a target, there are basically two types of energy weapons

• Laser – Lasers are almost a class unto themselves, through visible light to infrared,ultraviolet,x-ray and microwave, all lasers work in the same manner (if not the same wavelength) they amplify and concentrate radiation into a tight powerful beam or pulse that burns through anything it hits.
• Plasma – Plasma weapons could conceivable be concidered projectile weapons since they actually accellerate matter to high speeds, then convert it to a plasma state before it leaves the barrel, however due to the large amounts of energy required to plasmarise the projectile this weapon is classified as an energy weapon.

Projectile

Projectile weapons are weapons that fire solid projectiles, there are basically three types of projectile weapons.

• Chemical Charge – These you an explosive chemical charge to provide the impetutus the projectile needs to reach it’s target, although effective these weapons are less popular due to the volatile nature of the chemical charges and the relatively low velocities such weapons can achieve, however they require very little power to operate and make good turret weapons.
• Railguns – Railguns are a strange looking weapon, two long parallel rails are used to accellerate a projectile to high velocities very quickly, since the projectiles require no charge of their own to launch projectiles are cheap and can be made out of just about anything.
• LAC Cannon – LAC Cannons (or Linear Accellerator Cannons) are the big guns, probably the most powerful weapons in the galaxy, they are slow to reload and have to be aimed by turning the entire ship, however the effects of a direct hit from just one shell can be devestating, typically collapsing the shields of any ship hit and continuing through the ship itself and often out the other side. This power comes at a major cost however, LAC cannons are massive, the smallest LAC cannons are over 20 meters long, ships literally have to be built around these cannons, they also require large amounts of power to drive the linear accellerators they use to accellerate the shells to their top velocities (upto .05c for the largest LAC cannons), LAC shells tend to be made from junk wrapped around a ferrous core (normally iron, occassionaly steel) to allow the linear accellerator to properly launch them, the smallest LAC shells weight in the region of 5 tonnes, the largest commercially available weight 25 tonnes, there are rumours of ships with even bigger LAC cannons that can fire super massive LAC shells that can totally obliterate smaller ships and cause irreperable damage to virtually any ship or station in the galaxy.

Missiles

Missiles are having a bit of a renassiance in recent years, old missiles used to be slow and unmaneuverable, they had trouble keeping up with even the slowest ships, but advances in propulsion has allowed missiles to make a return as a viable weapon system again, there are basically three types of missles.

• Low Yield Load – Or even no yield, simply smashing a missile into the shields of a ship can produce a large energy spike that can collapse shields, faster than High yield (due to being basically 100% engine) these can hit with a lot of energy, but dont have much explosive power.
• High Yield Load – High Yield load missiles are fast and maneuverable, but relatively short range, they pack a massive punch however since they cannot get through shielding they are unlikely to done any physical damage to the craft they’re fired at, but can often help overload the shield generators due to the rapid  release of energy.
• Shield Missiles – A Little advertised feature of shield generators is that when two shields with the same polarity overlap they reinforce each other and expand the overall shield bubble, shield missiles are expensive since they have their own shield generators, however these missiles can fly straight through the shields of other ships to hit the hull directly, many ships can quickly switch the polarity of their shields to try and prevent this, but more expensive shield missiles can detect and counter this move. Given the cost of sheild missiles these only tend to be of use if all else fails, and even then a shield missile is not guarenteed to hit.