Starship Radiation Weapons

[Valiens Nantaris]

I was looking to create a new weapon for use in fleeting which is a missile which releases radiation into the target ship once it penetrates. This would be useful for disabling ships, causing panic, and especially against the interior of Vong ships which are all alive.

Naturally such a weapon would be utterly useless against shielded vessels and if it doesn’t penetrate the hull it would be ineffective.

However, I noticed that neutron bombs are banned weapons. Does this include all radiation weapons?

I can understand (and agree) with why it was done for PVP fighting. Obviously it’s a super weapon on the ground. However, in space we have proton cannons, HVCs, even turbolasers which can turn a whole down into a crater with a single shot. My point being that at any moment a PC could be vaporised by something with the power of a small sun, but isn’t. Rather it’s mook NPCs which get killed.

With this in mind, and limiting it strictly to fleeting, would a radiation missile be allowed?

Figured I should ask before I start work.

 

[Boethiah]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

I just asked this question a few days ago (On Skype tho)! Following topic to see if I can't get an answer.

 

[Ellie Mors]

I think the idea is good, but I have a feeling someone is going to get any decision made on this reversed the moment someone takes advantage of a loophole in this idea to launch such a bomb into a ship and have it crash into a planet. Or simply have the ship carrying the weapon get sent planet-side. I think it could potentially be possible, but the amount of radiation would need to be limited enough to ensure that it doesn't instantly kill everything within the ship or affected areas. (Beyond the initial blast radius, of course).

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

If you're not looking to make a nuclear bomb, however, I'm sure something that leaks radiation (like a radioactive bullet [which exist]) would be perfectly fine.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

This reminds me of outbound flight where Thrawn used Radiation bombs to kill -everyone- on outbound flight. So I'ma go ahead and say no, radiation bombs are super weapons.

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

I would argue that most ships have some degree of radiation shielding considering how many stars they have to pass through during hyperspace travel slash the radiation produced from their various power systems (Hypermatter reactor I'm looking at you)

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Gilamar Skirata"]
Indeed, but not inside the ship except around the reactor. Whereas this would need to penetrate the armour to disperse the payload.

[member="Alric Kuhn"]
As it would be a replacement for a warhead launcher, we’re not talking wide scale. If the effect was restricted to say 10 metres of impact would that be passible?

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Probably more so than a huge area of effect as you'd just have another variant of Concussion missile. Except like Gilamar said, Starhsip hulls are protected against pretty much every form of radiation. In Outbound Flight they had to penetrate through the hull to use the bombs.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Alric Kuhn"]
Which is what this’d have to do. It’d be entirely useless against shields or the outer hulls. It would need to penetrate into the hull to have any impact.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Yeah. That's not all that difficult either though. Just have a the radiation be a secondary charge. Though i would suggest being extremely clear about limitations.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Alric Kuhn"]
OK, will do.

Thank you for your advice.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Could have it so the bomb simply cannot detonate within the atmosphere of a planet. Like the Ozone or something just cancels it out

This is, of course, completely impossible in a scientific standpoint, but hey, an idea to make sure people can't use it on a planet.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Darth Ferus"]
I think that restricting large scale radiation weapons is a good idea, but small ones like the one I have planned shouldn't be too game breaking.

 

[Darth Ferus]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"] oh I wasn't saying not to go for it, but you said to have it be in space only aye? Why not think of a reason it wouldn't work in an atmosphere to prevent any abuse?

Or something. It's late for me x3

 

[Raziel]

Limiting the internal radius of effect would seem sensible, yes. The starship layouts seemed to involve a lot of layers of metal which will shield to an extent. We don't know how well durasteel, quadranium, etc absorb gamma radiation and neutrons

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Raziel"]
Agreed, probably enough.

I'd imagine it'd be effective against the Vong bio-ships though.

 

[Raziel]

That said, if radiation is doing anything, it's being absorbed.

 

[Raziel]

(which means every bit of energy is doing damage, but it might still be relatively local in a huge ship depending on energy deployed)

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
That wholly depends. We're talking about ships that travel by stars just as normal ships do. Obviously Star Wars isn't incredibly set on following real-world logic (otherwise living ships would make no sense unless the ships somehow lived on radiation in a manner similar to Photosynthesis) but if we can conclude that normal ships shield those onboard from radiation due to such unmentioned things, then one can reasonably say that a Yuuzhan Vong ship does the same. I'm sure the amount of radiation and the concentration of such would make a difference, of course, but it likely isn't on the same level as it would be to a human on Earth when exposed to, say, Chernobyl.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Silara"]
Which is why I said...and keep saying...that said hypothetical weapon would be entirely useless unless it breaches the hull of the target. Space ships of all kinds regularly encounter massive amounts of radiation, but the inside of the ship isn't as well shielded.

So yeah, we'll see how it goes.

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
I was referring to Yuuzhan Vong ships, not so much regular ones.