Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
DESCRIPTION
As part of Project Vanguard, Lucerne Labs delved deeply into the research of biomechanical starships, eventually stumbling on incomplete records of the famed Teljkon Vagabond. Without complete data or the physical Vagabond to study, they attempted to recreate a smaller version of the Vagabond's famed scythe through conjecture and the limited sensor data from the New Republic naval records found on Hast. Initial experiments led by the duros engineer Gai used a laser from an old CIS OG-9 Homing spider, whose parts were slowly swapped out with biomechanical or biotechnology components. The resulting weapon is not nearly as powerful in scale as the Teljkon's scythe, but it is almost as impressive.
The base Scythe is a large chemical laser which is fed an organic liquid, dye lasing medium which is then energized by an separate electron laser which acts as the reaction priming mechanism. The photons produced by this reaction are then funneled and concentrated through a series of magnetic fields and mirrors before exiting the weapon's barrel. Most Scythe beams appear as a meter-wide incandescent blue stream, but their color can also vary to light cyan or dark purple depending the lasing dye used and the frequency used by the priming electron laser. This beam travels out almost instantaneously to strike the target. The concentrated energy can oftentimes overwhelm shields or bore through thick armor plating through superheating or vaporizing the target. Sometimes the Scythe's power is intentionally primed downwards to use a minimum amount of power to effectively destroy smaller targets without wasting energy. The frequency is also sometimes adjusted, typically to make it less physically powerful and to radiate more photons when it strikes the target. This causes a visual blooming effect which can overwhelm visual sensors with stimuli, effectively jamming visual sensors and people's eyesight like a dazzler weapon.
Most Scythes are used as long-range weapons, acting almost as oversized and more powerful versions of long-range turbolasers or proton beams. While most Scythes are used as individual weapons, they can also be fire-linked, such as in batteries, to emulate the Teljkon's weapons, combining their beams to strike on a single point to pierce through formidable defenses. This typically only occurs on the largest and slowest moving targets, such as star destroyers, because it takes time to completely coordinate the wavelengths, focusing, and tracking as more and more Scythes are added to the process. Scythes are also sometimes used to 'sweep' a battlefield with their beam, much like the Homing Spider's weapon, which allows them to damage multiple targets in a single pulse. Aside from use as weapons, Scythe Lasers are also used as mining and excavation tools, especially in asteroid belts.
Intent: To provide the Silver Jedi with their own lore-specific equivalent of a proton beam
Image Source: N/A
Canon Link: N/A
Restricted Missions: N/A
Primary Source: N/A
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: Scythe-class Homing Laser
Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Closed Market
Modularity: None
Production: Minor
Material: Duravlex casing, Biolux-series Organoform Circuitry, Calor series Bio-computers, various laser components.
Classification: Ship-to-Ship Laser
Size: Capital Ship-Mounted
Length: 12 meters
Weight: 3000 kilograms
Ammunition Type: Energy, Dye Lasing Medium
Ammunition Capacity: Unlimited for practical purposes
Effective Range: Long-range Capital Ship
Rate of Fire: typically one 10 second pulse with 20 second cool-down, can be run for somewhat longer or shorter of periods of time with proportionally equivalent cool-down times.
Counts an extreme emplacement (20 guns) for shipbuilding purposes
Long-range: Like the Telkjon Vagabond's Scythe, Lucerne Lab's version is exceptionally long-ranged.
Variable Frequency: The Scythe is a massive electro-chemical laser which can change its chemical dye or its concentration to tune its wavelength frequencies to create different effects. This is most commonly performed to efficiently scale energy output (damage) to the target, so as not to waste energy. Another use is to make a low-power weapon for blinding or jamming visual sensors on a starship by overstimulating them.
Sustained Pulse: The Scythe is typically used as a sustained fire weapon, which makes it particularly effective at boring through defenses designed to only absorb fire in brief spurts, such as superconducting armor. This effect also allows it to be used like the Homing Spider's weapon to “scythe” through formations of craft.
Defense in Principle: Biolux Organoform Circuitry do not use electricity to function. Instead it uses pulses of chemically generated light to transmit data. Consequently, area of effect electromagnetic pulses generally do not affect this circuitry's ability to function. Prolonged direct fire from ion weapons can penetrate the system's silicon-sturdiplast insulation to electrocute the organisms inside. This tends to be a very gradual process, since ion weapons usually aren't optimized to electrocute organic material, but it is eventually capable of disabling this circuitry given enough time.
Self-Healing: Both the Calor biocompuers and the Biolux organoform circuitry can slowly heal themselves if damaged as their organic colonies rebuild their numbers, assuming that they are given enough time, nutrients, and energy. This is a process that usually takes hours to days depending on the amount of damage sustained.
Short Atmospheric Range: The very wavelengths that make the weapon so long-ranged in space are also very suspectible to being blocked by weather phenomena such as clouds, fog, etc. This typically means that a Scythe cannot be used for orbital bombardment except at very close ranges (within a kilometer or two).
Poor Short-Range Tracking: The Scythe is not optimized for tracking small or fast targets at close range, such as against corvettes and frigates making hit and fade strikes at close quarters. It goes without saying that regardless of range, if it hits something smaller than a corvette, it is usually by luck or simply by a high concentration of targets (like a swarm of fighters).
Long Cool-down: It takes time for the laser to cool-down after a sustained pulse. The amount of time needed for cooling is dependent on how the laser was previously fired for.
Environmentally Fickle/Living: Organoform circuitry cannot withstand the same environmental changes that many modern circuits can, such as vacuum, and have a lower range of temperature variances in which they can work. As a living thing, it is also susceptible to viruses and diseases. Because it is composed of living organisms, Biolux is also particularly susceptible to local and concentrated radiation weapons, such as radiation grenades or T-33 Plasma Torpedoes.
Difficult to Repair: Whereas a typical blown circuit can be pulled out and replaced with an identical model fairly quickly, the same is not true for Biolux. Not only is it harder to locate the exact point of failure, but damaged sections have to be sliced out and new sections must be grafted to the older section. This grafting process takes time during which the circuitry is either inoperable or works at a much reduced capacity in terms of both speed and information capacity as its host organisms grow and adapt to their surroundings.
DESCRIPTION
As part of Project Vanguard, Lucerne Labs delved deeply into the research of biomechanical starships, eventually stumbling on incomplete records of the famed Teljkon Vagabond. Without complete data or the physical Vagabond to study, they attempted to recreate a smaller version of the Vagabond's famed scythe through conjecture and the limited sensor data from the New Republic naval records found on Hast. Initial experiments led by the duros engineer Gai used a laser from an old CIS OG-9 Homing spider, whose parts were slowly swapped out with biomechanical or biotechnology components. The resulting weapon is not nearly as powerful in scale as the Teljkon's scythe, but it is almost as impressive.
The base Scythe is a large chemical laser which is fed an organic liquid, dye lasing medium which is then energized by an separate electron laser which acts as the reaction priming mechanism. The photons produced by this reaction are then funneled and concentrated through a series of magnetic fields and mirrors before exiting the weapon's barrel. Most Scythe beams appear as a meter-wide incandescent blue stream, but their color can also vary to light cyan or dark purple depending the lasing dye used and the frequency used by the priming electron laser. This beam travels out almost instantaneously to strike the target. The concentrated energy can oftentimes overwhelm shields or bore through thick armor plating through superheating or vaporizing the target. Sometimes the Scythe's power is intentionally primed downwards to use a minimum amount of power to effectively destroy smaller targets without wasting energy. The frequency is also sometimes adjusted, typically to make it less physically powerful and to radiate more photons when it strikes the target. This causes a visual blooming effect which can overwhelm visual sensors with stimuli, effectively jamming visual sensors and people's eyesight like a dazzler weapon.
Most Scythes are used as long-range weapons, acting almost as oversized and more powerful versions of long-range turbolasers or proton beams. While most Scythes are used as individual weapons, they can also be fire-linked, such as in batteries, to emulate the Teljkon's weapons, combining their beams to strike on a single point to pierce through formidable defenses. This typically only occurs on the largest and slowest moving targets, such as star destroyers, because it takes time to completely coordinate the wavelengths, focusing, and tracking as more and more Scythes are added to the process. Scythes are also sometimes used to 'sweep' a battlefield with their beam, much like the Homing Spider's weapon, which allows them to damage multiple targets in a single pulse. Aside from use as weapons, Scythe Lasers are also used as mining and excavation tools, especially in asteroid belts.
