Directorate Officer
Caption: A Cometburst firing its shrapnel and proton grenades
Image Source: Asuran Satellite Weapon, originally found here
Intent: To add an anti-starfighter mine to Lucerne Labs products
Development Thread: If necessary
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: Cometburst-class Space Mine
Affiliation: Open Market
Modularity: None
Production: Mass-Produced.
Material: Carboplas shell, various electronics
Classification: Mine
Size: Ship-Mounted
Length: 2 meters
Weight: 300 kilograms
Ammunition Type: Shrapnel, 7-PrG proton grenades
Ammunition Capacity: 50 kilograms of shrapnel, 50 7-PrG proton grenades
Effective Range: Starfighter
Rate of Fire: Single shot
Special Features:
Microthruster
Strengths:
Starfighter deployable: The Cometburst's shell is based on that of the SJ-62/68, and thus can usually be deployed by certain bombers or other craft that have some flexibility in their ordinance payload.
Mobile: The Cometburst has a trio of microthrusters that not only allow it properly orient itself towards its target, but also travel very slowly towards targets.
Weaknesses:
Single-shot: This weapon is single use only, unlike the widely used Mine Type A, Mine Type B, or Defender Ion mines.
Indiscriminate: As a basic area of effect weapon, the Cometburst's attack is just as likely to destroy an enemy target as a friendly starship in close-quarters combat.
Description: The Cometburst is an anti-starfighter mine that combines the concepts of a traditional mine along with the concept of the anti-starfighter Cluster bombs successfully deployed by the Rebel Alliance. The Cometburst uses a basic FST and EPR sensor package to identify a target and begins to use its microthrusters to orient to and near the target. Once the target is in range, depending on if it is being remotely controlled by an organic operator or is running on an area denial protocol, it may or may not fire. Its firing sequence activates a bomb thruster, which propells a cloud of shrapnel and magnetized proton grenades at the target or into its flight path.
The fast-moving cloud of shrapnel not only can cause minor damage to lightly armored and shielded targets, but instead acts primarily like chaff from a Caltrop-5 chaff gun. The cloud of metal briefly obscures vision for pilots in the area of effect and leads to temporary sensor fluactuations. The primary goal of the shrapnel is thus to disorganize and cause confusion to groups of starfighters.
As this occurs, the magnetized grenades make contact with and cling to any substantial metal target in the area, whether friend or foe. Roughly five seconds after making contact with the vessel or ten seconds after drifting through space, they explode. Since the 7-RpG is a shaped charge, its effects vary quite significantly from minor to critical damage. If it is attached to a wing, if may blow a hole through the wing, but otherwise leave the craft unhamred. On the other hand, the grenade may attach and explode into a craft's missile magazine, causing a catastrophic explosion that utterly destroys a small ship. While Cometbursts are generally used to disrupt massed starfighter attacks, they also can be used as an anti-missile and anti-space trooper defense, especially when remotely controlled by its carrier vessel. These mines can also be used to attack capital ships, but they tend to be less effective that most dedicated anti-capital ship munitions. Against a warship, the 7-PrG proton grenades generally lack the ability to punch through thick armor, but their EMP pulse may damage nearby computers and other electronics.
Primary Source: N/A
