Kal
Whispers
- Intent: Weird alien energy weapons for the Open Market.
- Image Source: ANOMALY by Min Guen
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Greystone Mercantile
- Affiliation: Greystone Mercantile
- Market Status: Open-Market
- Model: Nizros-pattern Starlance Projector
- Modularity: Limited; variable size.
- Production: Minor
- Material: Components.
- Classification: Exotic Energy Weapon
- Size: Average
- Weight: Average
- Ammunition Type: Reactor
- Ammunition Capacity: Average
- Effective Range: Average
- Rate of Fire: Average
- Damage Output: High
- Recoil: Average
- Starlances are unusually versatile energy projectors; a trio of distinct firing modes is their primary advantage over comparable weapons.
- Disintegration: While not necessarily more powerful than a comparable laser or turbolasers, Starlancers function differently; rather than inflict damage through heat or explosions, they disintegrate the target in a manner comparable to disruptors, see the art.
- Tech-Incapacitation: Much like ion weapons, this mode has the potential to disrupt or incapacitate technological systems.
- Organic-Incapacitation: Much like null-burst projectors, this mode may be able to render organics unconscious.
- Flexible Approach: Starlances are able to cause physical destruction, disable electronics like an ion weapon, or even knock out organics in a manner comparable to null-burst projectors. They can fire sustained beams or shorter bursts and are able to fire independently much like your average laser cannon or join together for a single fell beam - or lance - in the same way composite-beam lasers and scythe weapons do.
- Unlimited Power: Starlances run on a ship's reactor, not their own reserves; a centralised power supply may well be more practical.
- Unlimited Power: Starlances are designed to draw directly on a central reactor - a major issue if power fluctuates or is disrupted in combat.
- Weakest Link*: Starlances are only as powerful as their ship, the only real difference is a focus on power output over the usual gun count.
A strange new weapon sprung from the ingenious mind of Greystone's Chief Artificer, Zahra Teph, the first Starlances were designed specifically for an ongoing project, namely the Nyxrazi Spherecrafts. In order to satisfy the idiosyncratic preferences of her Shadow employers, the weapons were made in such a way as to be able to rapidly cycle between drastically different firing modes, increasing flexibility without "adding excess guns".
While not inherently superior to your average Mass-Produced, single-purpose weapons system when all was said and done, this flexibility did make it a favourite of certain unconventional shipwrights - the weapons are purchasable through shady contacts and untraceable HoloNet hubs.
*Versatility notwithstanding, this submission is mostly just flavour. It is not objectively better than normal weapons.
