Ala Crescent
Director, Special Projects
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
As mass driver weapons had become more popular, rail guns had become favored among many users for their simplicity and power. Their operation is dead simple - an electric current runs through a pair of conductive rails, creating electromagnetic fields that accelerate a projectile (fitted in some kind of armature) to high speeds. To increase the destructive output, a more powerful current and/or long rail can be used. However, the mechanics that made rail guns so powerful were also a hindrance, as the rails undergo severe stress after each use, warping and quickly breaking down. This problem is only exacerbated in larger rail assemblies where the conductors were not so easily replaced. One solution was to segment large rail assemblies into several removable modules that could be replaced individually, but it was still quite a lengthy process that required a lot of downtime, especially as alignment of conductor modules became an added concern.
Fresh off experimentation with tensor weapons, KSA devised a solution that saw the conductor rails removed entirely. In their place, plasma leaders were used.
These plasma leaders were made by use of mini tractor beams circulating refined tibanna gas in loops much like a lightsaber containment field. When energized with electricity, the gas becomes highly conductive plasma columns that can channel much more powerful currents than their solid counterparts. They also required very little maintenance with no physical conductors that needed to be produced. As an added bonus, the plasma leaders could be easily extended dozens or even hundreds of kilometers while the largest physical railguns currently top out at a few kilometers in length. Future developments could see smaller ships punching well above their weight with compact but extremely powerful platforms that rival the main guns of destroyers or battlecruisers, ideal for smaller planetary forces that cannot field such behemoths.
The first application of this technology are the Agni, which serve as replacements to standard warhead launchers. These are attractive solutions as even their base slugs have similar destructive output to standard warhead launchers using nothing but pure kinetic energy, but with projectile speeds much higher than a standard torpedo the slugs have a much higher chance of circumventing point defenses before intercept.
- Intent: Providing a creative spin on a classic sci-fi weapon.
- Image Source: N/A
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Kiribian Systems Armory
- Affiliation: Closed-Market
- Model: N/A
- Modularity: Yes, programming and sensor/targeting solutions can be modified.
- Production: Minor
- Material: Common Materials
- Classification: Plasma Rail Gun/Mass Driver (Standard Warhead Launcher Equivalent)
- Size: Large
- Weight: Heavy
- Ammunition Type: Slugs and other projectiles
- Ammunition Capacity: Average
- Effective Range: Battlefield
- Rate of Fire: Low
- Stopping Power: High
- Recoil: High (N/A when mounted as intended)
- Can fire a wide range of projectiles, from basic slugs and fléchettes to shells and missiles, as long as they can accept plasma foil armatures for acceleration.
- Low maintenance in comparison to classic physical rail guns.
- High range, velocity, and stopping power.
- Has excellent penetration potential against shields, including multi-layer shields, especially when the appropriate projectiles are used like vibro-fléchettes
- Low rate of fire.
- The high energy plasma columns created are easily detectable even within environments of high interference/jamming.
As mass driver weapons had become more popular, rail guns had become favored among many users for their simplicity and power. Their operation is dead simple - an electric current runs through a pair of conductive rails, creating electromagnetic fields that accelerate a projectile (fitted in some kind of armature) to high speeds. To increase the destructive output, a more powerful current and/or long rail can be used. However, the mechanics that made rail guns so powerful were also a hindrance, as the rails undergo severe stress after each use, warping and quickly breaking down. This problem is only exacerbated in larger rail assemblies where the conductors were not so easily replaced. One solution was to segment large rail assemblies into several removable modules that could be replaced individually, but it was still quite a lengthy process that required a lot of downtime, especially as alignment of conductor modules became an added concern.
Fresh off experimentation with tensor weapons, KSA devised a solution that saw the conductor rails removed entirely. In their place, plasma leaders were used.
These plasma leaders were made by use of mini tractor beams circulating refined tibanna gas in loops much like a lightsaber containment field. When energized with electricity, the gas becomes highly conductive plasma columns that can channel much more powerful currents than their solid counterparts. They also required very little maintenance with no physical conductors that needed to be produced. As an added bonus, the plasma leaders could be easily extended dozens or even hundreds of kilometers while the largest physical railguns currently top out at a few kilometers in length. Future developments could see smaller ships punching well above their weight with compact but extremely powerful platforms that rival the main guns of destroyers or battlecruisers, ideal for smaller planetary forces that cannot field such behemoths.
The first application of this technology are the Agni, which serve as replacements to standard warhead launchers. These are attractive solutions as even their base slugs have similar destructive output to standard warhead launchers using nothing but pure kinetic energy, but with projectile speeds much higher than a standard torpedo the slugs have a much higher chance of circumventing point defenses before intercept.
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