Velok the Younger
When I Was A Young Warthog
Intent: TO REVOLUTIONIZE NAVAL WARFARE. But mostly just to give Fringe another option for main-battery guns to consolidate barrel count.
Development Thread: If necessary, but it's just two spinning rings of canon weapons.
Manufacturer: Iron Crown Productions
Model: Hellbore Cannon
Affiliation: Fringe Confederation
Modularity: No
Production: Minor
Material: Energy torpedo launchers, alusteel, durasteel, condensed-matter composite (vibration reduction)
Description: The Hellbore is the thematic inverse of the HELIX warhead. Where the HELIX is a missile that shoots guns, the Hellbore is a gun that shoots missiles. So to speak. Fundamentally, of course, it's nothing more than an attempt to deal with the very lengthy recharge time of energy torpedo projectors. Once every thirty seconds, a light energy torpedo projector fires an unguided packet of energy, equivalent to a concussion missile, at 20% of lightspeed (usually written as 0.2c). The energy packet retains coherence for one minute, for an effective range of roughly ten times the distance between an average terrestrial planet and an average moon. This puts the standard energy torpedo significantly beyond the long-range turbolaser in terms of range, and into true interdiction ranges.
This is not a standard energy torpedo launcher. Well, it is, but it's several of them, serving as a capital gun equivalent. Where warhead launchers function as support weapons rather than main batteries in almost all cases (the painfully obsolete Kandosii notwithstanding), this projector array is designed to serve as a main battery. Fundamentally, a Hellbore is a Gatling gun, with an energy torpedo projector in place of each barrel. To counteract gyroscopic effects on aiming and mounting stress, the projectors form two concentric rings, spinning in opposite directions. Each projector fires, in turn, through a single slot-like barrel, tall enough to permit fire from both rings. The barrel uses a galven circuitry variant to add precision to the weapon's long-range aim. When not lined up with the barrel, redundant safety interlocks and durasteel armor prevent the other projectors from being fired. Should those interlocks be disabled and the projectors discharged inside the assembly, blowback from the perpendicular durasteel plate would vaporize the rings. However, their slow rotational velocity would minimize damage, as would the second-greatest advantage of energy torpedos: Unlike explosive warheads, they are not susceptible to sympathetic detonation as such. The outer ring has thirty-five projectors, and the inner ring has twenty-five. The average of the absolute magnitudes of their rotational velocities is two rotations per minute. The resulting weapon can fire two light energy torpedos per second, drawing directly from the main reactor.
Weaknesses are, of course, substantial. Apart from the collateral damage risk imposed by an unguided projectile at 0.2c, Hellbores must draw from the main reactor, causing significant drain comparable to batteries of long-range turbolasers. This reduces shield recharge rate and slows the ship's speed/maneuverability rating by 0.5, for the duration of fire. As such, this weapon is only suitable for vessels which can support that kind of power drain. Generally, this means the weapon is restricted to Light Star Destroyers and above, although a specially engineered smaller capital ship (such as a cruiser or heavy cruiser) could theoretically mount and fire a Hellbore by sacrificing other weapons capabilities. A non-specialized ship could carry this weapon as part of its armament at 1100m; a specialized ship could carry it at 500m, by sacrificing all other capital-grade weapons capabilities.
Drawing from the main reactor also creates the possibility of a dangerous feedback effect. As a result, the Hellbore's power draw is routed through a one-way plasma fuse, a very large component which would need to be manually replaced in the event of a significant feedback event, including (but not limited to) a serious, direct ion strike.
In terms of damage per second, a Hellbore is equivalent to 30 capital batteries. This allows large capital ships to consolidate a small but significant fraction of their firepower into a proportional main gun. A Hellbore, for various engineering reasons, is never turret-mounted. It is either fixed or semi-fixed, capable of minute aiming adjustments across a twenty-degree arc, loosely comparable to a Separatist deck gun. Due to gravitational lensing and atmospheric interference, but especially planetary magnetospheres, this weapon is not suitable for a ground-based long-range mount, or would be comparable to a normal planetary turbolaser in range.
Classification: Capital ship energy weapon
Size: Ship-mounted
Status: Military
Length: 30m
Weight: 40 tons
Ammunition Type: Energy projectile
Ammunition Capacity: Feeds directly from main reactor
Effective Range: 3,597,504 km (1,000,000-1,500,000km if firing through atmosphere)
Development Thread: If necessary, but it's just two spinning rings of canon weapons.
Manufacturer: Iron Crown Productions
Model: Hellbore Cannon
Affiliation: Fringe Confederation
Modularity: No
Production: Minor
Material: Energy torpedo launchers, alusteel, durasteel, condensed-matter composite (vibration reduction)
Description: The Hellbore is the thematic inverse of the HELIX warhead. Where the HELIX is a missile that shoots guns, the Hellbore is a gun that shoots missiles. So to speak. Fundamentally, of course, it's nothing more than an attempt to deal with the very lengthy recharge time of energy torpedo projectors. Once every thirty seconds, a light energy torpedo projector fires an unguided packet of energy, equivalent to a concussion missile, at 20% of lightspeed (usually written as 0.2c). The energy packet retains coherence for one minute, for an effective range of roughly ten times the distance between an average terrestrial planet and an average moon. This puts the standard energy torpedo significantly beyond the long-range turbolaser in terms of range, and into true interdiction ranges.
This is not a standard energy torpedo launcher. Well, it is, but it's several of them, serving as a capital gun equivalent. Where warhead launchers function as support weapons rather than main batteries in almost all cases (the painfully obsolete Kandosii notwithstanding), this projector array is designed to serve as a main battery. Fundamentally, a Hellbore is a Gatling gun, with an energy torpedo projector in place of each barrel. To counteract gyroscopic effects on aiming and mounting stress, the projectors form two concentric rings, spinning in opposite directions. Each projector fires, in turn, through a single slot-like barrel, tall enough to permit fire from both rings. The barrel uses a galven circuitry variant to add precision to the weapon's long-range aim. When not lined up with the barrel, redundant safety interlocks and durasteel armor prevent the other projectors from being fired. Should those interlocks be disabled and the projectors discharged inside the assembly, blowback from the perpendicular durasteel plate would vaporize the rings. However, their slow rotational velocity would minimize damage, as would the second-greatest advantage of energy torpedos: Unlike explosive warheads, they are not susceptible to sympathetic detonation as such. The outer ring has thirty-five projectors, and the inner ring has twenty-five. The average of the absolute magnitudes of their rotational velocities is two rotations per minute. The resulting weapon can fire two light energy torpedos per second, drawing directly from the main reactor.
Weaknesses are, of course, substantial. Apart from the collateral damage risk imposed by an unguided projectile at 0.2c, Hellbores must draw from the main reactor, causing significant drain comparable to batteries of long-range turbolasers. This reduces shield recharge rate and slows the ship's speed/maneuverability rating by 0.5, for the duration of fire. As such, this weapon is only suitable for vessels which can support that kind of power drain. Generally, this means the weapon is restricted to Light Star Destroyers and above, although a specially engineered smaller capital ship (such as a cruiser or heavy cruiser) could theoretically mount and fire a Hellbore by sacrificing other weapons capabilities. A non-specialized ship could carry this weapon as part of its armament at 1100m; a specialized ship could carry it at 500m, by sacrificing all other capital-grade weapons capabilities.
Drawing from the main reactor also creates the possibility of a dangerous feedback effect. As a result, the Hellbore's power draw is routed through a one-way plasma fuse, a very large component which would need to be manually replaced in the event of a significant feedback event, including (but not limited to) a serious, direct ion strike.
In terms of damage per second, a Hellbore is equivalent to 30 capital batteries. This allows large capital ships to consolidate a small but significant fraction of their firepower into a proportional main gun. A Hellbore, for various engineering reasons, is never turret-mounted. It is either fixed or semi-fixed, capable of minute aiming adjustments across a twenty-degree arc, loosely comparable to a Separatist deck gun. Due to gravitational lensing and atmospheric interference, but especially planetary magnetospheres, this weapon is not suitable for a ground-based long-range mount, or would be comparable to a normal planetary turbolaser in range.
Classification: Capital ship energy weapon
Size: Ship-mounted
Status: Military
Length: 30m
Weight: 40 tons
Ammunition Type: Energy projectile
Ammunition Capacity: Feeds directly from main reactor
Effective Range: 3,597,504 km (1,000,000-1,500,000km if firing through atmosphere)
