Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a very heavy capital ship gun with versatility in Lucerne Labs product line-up
- Image Source: here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Affiliation: Silver Jedi, Directorate, Closed-Market
- Model: Ragnarok-class Heavy Gun Battery
- Modularity: Ammunition
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Dallorian Alloy Barrel, Durasteel internals, Quadanium steel armor plating, Agrinium tanks for holding Deutrium-Baradium Nitrate propellant, ultrachrome-based magnetic levitation mounting, Kyber crystal-based laser, various electronics and hypervelocity gun components
- Classification: Very Heavy electrothermal-chemical gun
- Size: Extremely Large
- Weight: Extremely Heavy
Cluster Fire Mode Rapid Fire Mode Composite Laser Mode Ammunition Type Shells / Deuterium-Baradium Nitrate Shells / Deuterium-Baradium Nitrate Deuterium-Baradium Nitrate Ammunition Capacity Average Average Average Effective Range Extreme Extreme Average Rate of Fire Average Extremely High Very High Stopping Power Extreme High Extreme Recoil Average High Low
- Equivalent to 200 turbolasers for shipbuilding purposes and rough terms of power
- Multi-barreled: Each Ragnarok has at least four barrels (additional barrels do not change effects)
- Electrothermal-Chemical Gun: Each Ragnarok gun barrel uses a high-powered Kyber crystal-based laser to start a combustion reaction that will propel an inert physical munition by igniting a liquid Deutrium-Baradium Nitrate propellant with a laser. This liquid turns into rapidly expanding plasma which pushes the munition out of the barrel. Because the liquid fuel is not part of the munition itself, and it is pumped in separately, it does not need have an ejection or extraction equipment. This both somewhat simplifies equipment design and removes a frequent point of failure from conventional slugthrowing weapons. From a physical performance standard, the expanding plasma tends to generally apply more uniform pressure while the projectile travels down the barrel, leading to enhanced exit velocity comparable to that of typical hypervelocity cannons and improved accuracy.
- Multiple Firing Modes: The Ragnarok can fire all of its barrels simultaneously with a set, converging point of impact or in rapid sequence, depending on if the user wants enhanced penetration or an area of effect. Alternatively, it may not even use projectiles and instead dial up its priming lasers and combining it with a set convergence point to form an almost continuous, composite laser.
- Variable Munition: Like many projectile cannons, Ragnarok can fire a vast variety of ammunition types. As its operating system does not effect onboard munition electronics (unlike electromagnetic guns like railguns or coilguns which exert a high-powered magnetic field on the munition), it can fire some very sophisticated and large munitions, including Starlance-class Assault Missiles.
- Expanded Range(Cluster/Rapid Fire modes): The Ragnarok hurls physical projectiles at extremely high speeds thanks to using large amounts of high-powered propellant, giving it the practical effect of having a very long range.
- Superior Firepower(Cluster Fire/Composite Laser modes): In these modes, all of the barrels are simultaneously active, allowing it to precisely channel power equivalent to hundreds of turbolasers.
- Rapid Fire(Rapid Fire/Composite Laser modes): In Rapid Fire mode, each barrel is fired in rapid sequence while the others reload. As it does not have a case (and thus anything to extract), this sequence is faster than many traditional slugthrowers. In Composite Laser mode, the lasers stream almost continuously with only brief breaks needed for cooling.
- Size: The Ragnarok is a very large and complex weapon that requires designs to be built from the ground-up in order to be used, especially because of its complicated feeding system. Its huge size often leads to other design limitations, especially its very large power draw that by itself dwarfs the armament power available to some frigates.
- Delayed Firing: It takes about one minute for the Ragnarok to change its firing modes or switch to a different munition type as both the feeding mechanism and propellant are reconfigured for the new ammunition type.
- Poor Tracking (Cluster/Rapid Fire Modes): Ragnarok's projectiles impart massive amounts of recoil compared to many smaller weapons. In these modes, it cannot effectively use its magnetic levitation tracking because of this recoil, leading to relatively poor tracking against small ships and/or fast targets.
The Ragnarok is a culmination of years of weapons development by Lucerne Labs, incorporating elements of a variety of previous weapons systems ranging from its cutting edge Scythe-class Homing Laser to the age old mechanics of its Trident-class Autocannon. But most people immediately notice the Ragnarok's impressive size, with the gun battery emplacement itself being bigger than most corvettes and some frigates. Unsurprisingly then, this extremely heavy multi-barreled weapon system typically hurls starfighter-sized projectiles across the vast void of space towards enemy targets thanks to the combustion of liquid Deutrium-Baradium Nitrate propellant ignited by a large laser containing a kyber crystal. Because the liquid fuel is not part of the munition itself, and it is pumped in separately, it does not need have an ejection or extraction equipment. This both somewhat simplifies equipment design and removes a frequent point of failure from conventional slugthrowing weapons. From a physical performance standard, the expanding plasma tends to generally apply more uniform pressure while the projectile travels down the barrel, leading to enhanced and more consistent exit velocity. The Ragnarok's barrels can be fired simultaneously or in rapid sequence, allowing the user some tactical flexibility.
In cluster fire mode, all of Ragnarok's barrels fire simultaneously. The individual barrels in the battery can make some minute adjustments, allowing Ragnarok to have its fire converge on the target a single, precise point to enhance penetrative effects against heavily defended targets. Conversely, the barrels can diverge slightly from a central point, allowing them to increase their spread, such as when targeting a general area, such as a cloud of smaller ships. In either aiming mode, cluster fire allows the Ragnarok to rapidly concentrate a great amount of firepower at a long range target. In contrast, rapid fire mode trades this concentrated firepower for a much more rapid rate of fire, which can be more useful against targets that have greater evasive abilities or when fighting multiple targets at once. It accomplishes this by firing each barrel in rapid sequence, almost like a gatling gun. After each barrel fires, it promptly begins the reloading process. This allows the Ragnarok to almost fire continuously. In either mode, Ragnarok depends on some advanced ordinance to achieve its full potential, mostly in the form of shells, most of which are the size of a large starfighter:
Kinetic Shell: Ragnarok's kinetic shell is composed mostly of neuranium that has undergone the molecularly bonding armor process, making it extremely dense and durable and almost perfect for piercing through shields and armor. Almost uniquely, each shell also contains a gravitational field disruptor set on reverse. Upon firing and achieving maximum velocity, this field disruptor activates and greatly increases the shell's already considerable gravitational field. Combined with neuranium's natural gravity-warping effects, this leads not only to a high degree of kinetic damage, but also several fluctuations in the target ship's own locus of gravity, causing additional structural stress on the target's frame and adversely affecting the target ship's own artificial gravity systems.
High Explosive: This durasteel shell is filled with copious amounts of Nergon-14, making it a typical high explosive shell. It can use a proximity, timed, or contact fuse.
Electro-Proton Shell: This shell is essentially a large Electro-Proton Bomb, but with a proximity, timed, or contact fuse. Contact-fused shells are typically used to disable enemy ships or installations, while proximity fuses are typically used against clouds of enemy starfighters or warheads. Timed shells are typically used in pre-planned patterns to effectively execute time on target attacks against a broad area.
Plasticene Thermite: This shell is mostly filled with plasticene thermite gel mixed with liquidified oxygen along with a detonite charge. On impact, the gel spreads out across the target while the detonite ignites due to the physical impact. The Plasticene Thermite gel consequently ignites to 5000 °C, which allows it burn through many materials. This is typically used to defeated composite armors made out of layers of material, or to cause widespread destruction of external subsystems, such as weapons and communications antennae, while leaving the insides of the target intact.
Warhead Sabot Shell: This shell is sabot for any number of types of warheads. As a simple durasteel sleeve, warhead sabots are available for almost any type of existing warhead. A sabot might be only able to carry a single, large warhead like the Starlance-class Assault Missile, or it might carry dozens of small starfighter-grade missiles like Starcore-class Concussion Missiles. Typically, a sabot shell will travel as a single unit for most of its travel distance, only separating its armored sleeve from the warhead payload until shortly before it reaches the target. Once the sleeve falls off, the warhead(s) ignite and jet off to their target. This essentially provides warheads with extended range and some protection from interception from anti-warhead countermeasures.
Minelayer: This is essentially a specialized version of a Warhead Sabot Shell. This shell carries a payload of dozens of space mines (typically Cometburst-class Space Mines, Fracture-class Gravity Mines, Starstreak-class Space Mines, etc) or stationary drones (such as E-45 Interdictor Drones, SRG-87 Railgun Drones, Stoic Missile Sentry, etc). A detonite dispersal charge with a timed fuse it used to spread out the mines or drones when the shell reaches the target zone. This essentially allows the Ragnarok to deploy mine fields from a long range.
Chaos Shell: This shell contains dozens of Void-7 seismic charges and heavy ion charges suspended in condensed nagnol gas along with a detonite dispersal charge. When fired, a timer or proximity sensor triggers the detonite charge, which then flings out the rest of the shell's components. Nagnol gas floods the immediate area, blinding nearby sensors in the cloud while the unusual explosives briefly spread out before detonating in a haphazard storm of ion energy and explosive shockwaves. As the name suggests, this is designed to create chaos in the target area, especially against formations of smaller ships like starfighters, subcapital ships, and corvettes.
Boarding Shell: This shell is a mostly hollow container composed predominantly of a mirrsteel and tekonite frame which encapsulates a passenger compartment filled with shock-absorbing thermal gel and a shield disruptor. Each shell can carry almost twenty individual wearing heavy armor or another equivalent. Ideally, the shield disruptor allows passage of the shell through shields while the frame and gel fluid provide protection to the passenger to withstand the impact. This construction typically does not allow the boarding shell to penetrate through a hull or otherwise damage the target vessel, but rather gets the passenger on top of the hull. Because this is an exceptionally hazardous mode of travel, most passengers are disposable battle droids, though exceptionally foolhardy or desperate organics have been known to use the shell from time to time.
While Ragnarok is primarily designed as a projectile-based weapon system, the kyber-enhanced lasers that serve as the propellant igniters in each barrel can have their own power boosted to allow the group to effectively act as a composite laser, streaming long and steady pulses of deadly emerald light. This weapon consequently has exceptional power and an almost continuous fire rate, but unlike the Ragnarok's other modes, has a fairly average effective range. While it does not have the tactical flexibility of projectiles, this mode has some other benefits. The recoil of the weapon is significantly less in comparison to the projectile modes, allowing it to make full use of the battery's magnetic-levitation based tracking, making it much better at tracking - this allows the Ragnarok to be effectively track small capital ships like large corvettes and small frigates, or sweep through formations of strikecraft. Additionally, as it is laser weapon, the local particle shields can remain activated when the weapon is firing, which makes the using ship less vulnerable to projectile and missile attacks by enemy strikecraft or warships while in use.
The Ragnarok is an extremely large weapon system, which each battery emplacement being larger than smaller frigates. This limits the weapons mounting, especially on smaller warships such as cruisers, though star destroyers and battlecruisers can often mount the Ragnaroks in full-fledged turrets with little difficulty. The large size of its ammunition also provides some practical limits on its use in smaller vessels, especially in terms of ammunition variety. While its entirely possible for each barrel to have multiple feed systems to supply different ammunition types, it also becomes more bulky and consequently space consuming. In general, the smallest ships that can use Ragnarok can only carry two different types of projectile ammunition, while larger battlecruisers and super destroyers may be able to support up to five types of ammunition for an emplacement. Unsurprisingly then, Ragnarok is most frequently used as the main battery weapon on star destroyers and battle cruisers.
