Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a highly modular starfighter-scale mass driver cannon for Lucerne Labs's product line-up
- Image Source: here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi Concord, Lucerne Labs customers
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: Juyo-class Ripper Cannon
- Modularity: Ammunition; mounting devices
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Dallorian alloy barrel and internal components, typical ripper gun components
- Classification: Mass Driver / Blaster Cannon
- Size: Average
- Weight: Average
Blaster Cannon Mode Autocannon Mode Long-Range Mode Ammunition Type: Power Cell / Gas Canister Power Cell / Gas Canister / Projectiles Power Cell / Gas Canister / Projectiles Ammunition Capacity: Average Average Low Effective Range: Personal Average Battlefield Rate of Fire: Very High Average Very Low Damage Output: Low Average High Recoil: Average Average Average
- Ripper (Energy-Propelled Slugthrower): The Juyo is a type of Ripper weapon, which uses energy to rapidly launch projectiles with exceptional shield-piercing qualities. As with previous Lucerne consortium ripper weapons such as the Stormshard rifle, the Juyo uses laser ablation propulsion by using a small blaster cannon housed in the weapon's rear to ignite the rear of the projectile along with extra blaster gas to turn it into plasma which then propels and envelopes the projectile as it leaves the barrel. Due to the projectile's encasement in plasma, these projectiles are unusually effective at penetrating through shielded targets compared to many projectile weapons.
- Variable Fire Modes: While the Juyo is typically used as a projectile autocannon, it can focus more on its kinetic or energy nature to get different effects. The blaster cannon mechanism at the rear of the weapon can be used solely by itself without projectiles, which despite the rifle's side, is only as powerful as most civilian blaster cannons but it does afford the user a high rate of fire. Alternatively, the Juyo's chamber can be flooded with extra blaster gas. This extra fuel provides additional velocity to make the projectile rounds travel significantly faster, allowing them to deal greater damage at a longer range at the cost of a significantly lower rate of fire.
- Laser Cannon Equivalent: The Juyo is designed and scaled to be roughly equivalent to the typical laser cannon for starship construction purposes, making it easier to retrofit older craft with these weapons. Unsurprisingly, in autocannon mode its rough performance is also very similar to that of most common laser cannons.
- Modular Projectiles: Like many projectile cannons, the Juyo is capable of accepting a wide variety of ammunition types, allowing it to use custom ordnance for a variety of purposes from simple kinetic shells for general use to ion rounds to disable electronics and incendiary rounds to ignite easily combustible targets or clear landscapes.
- Dual Feed: The Juyo's chamber has projectile feeding mechanisms from both the left and the right side which each are fed by their own magazines. The operator can control which magazine is currently feeding the gun or even select alternating feed. This means that the Juyo can effectively carry two different types of projectile ammunition into battle, though many users do only use a single ammunition type.
- High Rate of Fire (Blaster Cannon Mode): The Juyo can spit out an impressive volume of fire when used as a basic blaster cannon, making it an ideal weapon for use against enemy ordnance or striking down light targets such infantry and battle droids.
- Long Range (Long Range Mode): The Juyo's long-range mode gives it excellent reach across the battlefield, allowing it effectively compete with many railguns like the HR-0C as a fighter-grade "sniping" weapon.
- Versatile: The Juyo is an exceptionally versatile weapon, capable of using a variety of specialty ammunition as well using different firing modes.
- Low Damage Output (Blaster Cannon Mode): As with many basic blaster weapons, the bolts of the Juyo are rapidly formed and discharged, making it noticeably weaker than the more formed and powerful bolts of a typical laser cannon.
- Low Rate of Fire (Long Range Mode): The amount of blaster gas and cooling time drastically limits the rate of fire for the Juyo when used in a long-range mode, giving it roughly the same rate of fire as many starfighter-grade railguns.
- Projectile Weapon: While largely being a projectile weapon makes it unusually versatile for a fighter weapon, this technology also brings up drawbacks of its own. It usually takes greater skill to use effectively because of ballistic drop in the presence of gravity fields and it tends to be more inaccurate at longer ranges in the atmosphere due to friction and other atmospheric phenomena.
As always, military technology is constantly evolving, and Lucerne Labs realized that while the successful introduction of the Vaapad-class Laser Cannon had partially modernized their starfighter weapons technology, many of their starfighter designs were using near ancient rail gun technology like the HR-0C Slingshot that dated from the Cold War era of the Old Republic. While perfectly serviceable weapons even in modern times, these railguns did not provide the flexibility that Lucerne Labs is characteristically known for. To that end, Lucerne Labs revisited laser ablation technology first pioneered on their Seure Cannon and later refined into the much smaller Stormshard rifle before returning that technology to a starfighter scale to make the Juyo-class Ripper Cannon.
Unlike the Seure, the Juyo actually does use Ripper technology to not only propel the projectiles, but to also encase the projectiles within a sheath of plasma which helps aid the projectiles in penetrating through shields. Like the Seure and Stormshard, Lucerne engineers took advantage of the blaster priming mechanism that provides the basic functions of laser ablation to include a secondary blaster cannon mode - which while low powered and short range provides a useful volume of fire weapon. But unlike these two previous weapons, the Juyo's chamber was designed to accept supplemental blaster gas pumped directly behind the projectiles. When ignited, this provides the projectiles with addition fuel for thrust leading to a greatly increased velocity, making projectiles longer ranged and more damaging. But kinetic energy is only part of how the Juyo deals damage. While the Juyo does use simple solid slugs, Lucerne Labs offers a wide variety of projectile payloads for the Juyo, most of which are roughly equivalent to a micro-grenade or a wrist rocket in terms of payload power:
Solid Slug: This shell is composed of depleted baradium encased in a durasteel jacket. The high density of depleted baradium makes this projectile wellsuited for piercing through armor, though it has a relatively narrow cross section of attack compared to either laser cannons or explosives. It does tend to produce shrapnel to fly around where it penetrates however. Because of its relative cheapness and inability to explode within the carried craft, solid slugs tend to be the default ammunition for most users.
Explosive: This shell consists of a thin durasteel jacket which is filled with detonite. Thanks to detonite's property of exploding on impact, this shell does not need a detonator which also makes relatively cheap and reliable. When used in autocannon mode, these shells tend to operate as omnidirectional explosives, dealing relatively low amounts of damage with a high blast radius, making it reasonably useful against light targets such as groups of infantry and light vehicles. Conversely, when hurled at the much higher velocities found in long-range mode, it acts more like a shaped charge, trading ominidirectional blast radius for a smaller cone of effect but with much increased penetration capabilities, making it useful in punching through the thick armor plating found on many heavy military ground vehicles and many small starships.
Ion: This shell is essentially an micro ion grenade encased in a durasteel jacket but with a detonite-based ignition primer. Upon impact, the detonite explodes and activates the ion charge, making an ion blast that extends for several meters. While a single shell is likely only to be effective against a person-sized droid or two, sustained fire from this weapon can effectively turn it into a reasonable facsimile of an ion cannon, allowing to be used to disable enemy starships and vehicles with some work.
Thermal: This durasteel-plated shell contains a mixture of baradium and ytterbium to mimic the effects of a Thermal well. In autocannon mode, this is often used to conduct incendiary attacks on ground targets and foliage, though it can be reasonably used against most enemy vehicles. In long range mode, it very nearly replicates the performance of the Incinerator Railgun, creating high amounts of heat that can be equally be damaging to shields and physical armor.
Cryoban: With the specific thought of the Bryn menace still in mind, the Juyo can also use a durasteel shell filled with cryoban. The relatively small blast radius of several meters makes it most useful in autocannon mode to saturate light targets such as enemy infantry, though some thought was given the design so that the tip is slightly thicker to allow it better penetrate through the thick hides of some Bryn'adul warbeasts and constructs, especially in long-range mode.
Wrist Rocket: This shell is little more than a hollow durasteel tube designed to hold a wrist rocket with added ablation material at the end of the tube. While nearly any type of wrist rocket can be fitted into this sleeve, the most commonly used are cheap buster rockets for use against light vehicles and heavier battle droids, but sometimes more esoteric choices are used, such as mini rockets for precise, homing anti-personnel use or Type-12B rockets to incapacitate enemy organics. As individual wrist rockets are more expensive than the basic shells normally used by the Juyo, wrist rocket shells tend to be used fairly rarely and typically as a method for specialized payload delivery against smaller targets.
While the Juyo can carry two different projectile types into battle thanks to its dual feed system, it's not uncommon for the Juyo to be fed with only a single ammunition type usually to keep costs down or to prevent accidental firing of the wrong ammunition type. The most carried combination is solid slug and explosive shells, followed shortly by solid slug and ion shells. The Juyo is likely to become a common secondary armament on many future Lucerne Labs starfighters and ground vehicles. While it cannot match the ease of use or convenience of the common laser cannon, its sheer versatility is enticing to many operators, especially in multi-role designs.
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