Dralkyria Lance

"The damage that thing did on it's test fire was downright unholy. I refuse to use such a weapon against anything living, even one of the human's food animals." Seldragia Bles test-firing her Dralkyria Lance for the first time.
A Dralkyria Lance is a powerful, infantry-portable, energy beam cannon manufactured by the Ancient Dragoians and used solely by Dralkyria. The Dragoians would also later make reverse-engineered examples.
==Overview==
Often considered the apex of Ancient Dragoian infantry weapon designs, the Dragnite-powered Dralkyria Lance rivalled much larger weapons in terms of firepower and focused that firepower into a much smaller area than a larger weapon typically would, but also remained just about wieldable by the comparatively small Ancient Dragoian species, albeit only one with artificial enhancements to counter the Lance's immense weight.
The Dralkyria Lance was a uniquely heavy and cumbersome weapon with a typical weight of over 4 metric tonnes. It's weight and bulk was such that it could only be easily lifted into combat viable positions by the genetically enhanced Dralkyria, as not even a Heavy soldier's strength-increasing implants could allow for practical wielding of a Dralkyria Lance.
Despite it's crippling weight and general bulk, the Dralkyria Lance's incredible firepower for a weapon it's size more than made up for it's user inhibiting bulk by allowing a single elite soldier to have access to more firepower than most small vehicles in a very precise weapon. Whenever a Dralkyria Lance was used in anger, those on the receiving end, even the comparatively large Androgians, quickly learned to both respect and fear the concentrated power that the Dralkyria Lance possessed.
The symbolism of the Dralkyria Lance dates back to the early days of the Dralkyrian Order, with the majority of Dralkyria Lances throughout recent Ancient Dragoian history serving mainly symbolic and ceremonial roles and rarely being used for combat.
==Genetic Lock==
Each Dralkyria Lance uses a "genetic lock" on it's handle to ensure the weapon cannot even be powered up unless held by the Dralkyria who owns it. This "genetic lock" scans the holder's DNA and then powers up the weapon if the DNA matches, but leaves the weapon inert if the DNA does not match. The functionality of the "genetic lock" is built into the core functionality of almost all components of the Dralkyria Lance, to prevent the weapon being re-engineered easily.
The "genetic lock" was added to Dralkyria Lances to prevent accidental use by non-Dralkyria, as well as by a Dralkyria who was not trained in this particular lance. Such a lockout was determined early on in development to prevent the weapons from being misused in the unlikely event they were obtained by a non-Dralkyria.
==Uniqueness==
Every single Dralkyria Lance is shaped and weighted slightly differently, as some Dralkyria may choose to have a stubby lance if their operations take them into confined spaces often where a long lance would be awkward to use, while some Dralkyria like to have a longer more stylish lance if their operations take them into heavily populated, but otherwise open, areas often where showing off is more of a priority than actual fighting.
Balance is also chosen by the owner, as some Dralkyria like a perfectly weighted lance, some prefer a lance that has a heavier tip than it does counter-weight, etc.
As a result, no two Dralkyria Lances are ever exactly the same, although some may be extremely similar.
==Firing And Accuracy==
A Dralkyria Lance uses highly compressed Dragnite crystals as fuel for a powerful Dragnite-based energy beam weapon. These compressed crystals pack incredible power, but are notoriously difficult and expensive to make. As a result of the power core, the firing mechanism was made highly efficient to ensure the Dralkyria Lance should never have to be refuelled, even under heavy use, meaning the mechanism had to be considerably more dense and complex than typical Ancient Dragoian beam weapons to support both the extremely compact firepower and high efficiency, leading to the Dralkyria Lance's considerable weight. The reasons for the excessive weight did work, giving the Dralkyria Lance nearly 100% efficiency resulting in there being no recorded cases of a Dralkyria Lance needing a new power core, although Dralkyria Lances which saw heavy combat usage, such as those used by the Dralkyria during The 300 Year Conflict, were known to be nearing a point where their power core was nearly drained.
Firing is achieved by the means of a small lever on the handgrip, which fires once the lever is pushed down and then released. The longer the lever is held down, the more powerful the blast upon release. This system does reach a maximum safety threshold relatively quickly, no more than 5 seconds, that ensures the Dralkyria Lance does not cause a catastrophic overload in it's unique power cell. While the trigger lever can be held after the safety threshold is reached, the Dralkyria Lance does not continue charging it's blast.
A weaker, but sustained blast can be achieved by forcing the trigger lever further open than it's neutral position, with positions further from neutral being a more powerful blast. This firing option is often discouraged due to the significant strain it puts on the lance's firing mechanism and only sees use for ceremonial purposes such as carving a slain non-sentient dragon. However, it has been used in anger during The 300 Year Conflict.
Accuracy is pin-point accurate and is down to the steadiness of the Dralkyria's hand to ensure it hits exactly where it's blast is needed.
==Final Flame==
All Dralkyria Lances pack a third firing mode, known as the Final Flame. This is activated by breaking the firing lever and forcing it beyond the maximum limits of sustained fire. Doing this shuts off the sustained blast and starts the Final Flame's firing sequence. To ensure that a damaged Dralkyria Lance didn't start this sequence by accident, the genetic lock refuses to power to lance up if the firing lever is in it's Final Flame state before the Dralkyria who owns the lance holds it.
Once started, the Final Flame's blast is charged by charging the firing matrix with as much energy as it can physically hold from the compressed Dragnite crystal, this is typically the remaining energy in the crystal due to the nature of a Final Flame being the absolute last resort of a Dralkyria. Once charged, the Final Flame needs one last action to trigger, a sudden jolt to the firing mechanism. This is done by spinning the Lance so the point of it faces downwards, and then shoving the Lance as hard as possible into the ground.
Once triggered, the name Final Flame becomes very apparent, as the Lance detonates with immense force, annihilating pretty much anything in a roughly 25 mile radius. The only thing known to resist a Final Flame's force are the powerful shields on starships.
The Final Flame has never been used outside of testing due to it's extremely large and devastating blast radius, although some Dralkyria considered using it during the Soul Dragon Invasion of Dragoia, but decided against it due to noticing the Soul Dragons weren't attacking the Humans or Dragoians and realised it would be better to lose one of Dragoia (Planet)'s 3 intelligent species, rather than all 3, which would've been likely had multiple Final Flames detonated.
==Appearance==
The Dralkyria Lances are all styled to look mystical so that they can be shown to the technologically primitive Dragoian species on Dragoia (Planet)'s surface without causing panic as well as solidify the idea that the Dralkyria are godlike. The lance-like shape of the Dralkyria Lance can be traced back to early weapons used by the Dralkyrian Order, with the symbolism of a Lance as their weapon being important to the identity of the Order.
==Reproduction==
The Dragoian species has long tried to reproduce a Dralkyria Lance without the genetic lock. Even with extensive records recovered from Ancient Dragoian bunkers, this was only managed by the early 1900s. Reproduced lances are often called "Artificial Dralkyria Lances".
Power supply and technological refinement were the two main issues with reproducing a Dralkyria Lance, with even the most current Dragoian Dragnite refining methods being incapable of creating a compressed Dragnite Crystal powerful enough to fully power a Dralkyria Lance for any length of time. However, manufacturing technology would advance to a point where a replica firing matrix, albeit one that was even bulkier and considerably less graceful than original lances, could be made in the early 1900s, but even these prototypes suffered power supply issues and also suffered reliability issues, being prone to burning out components.
Weight has always been a crippling factor for both modern Lances and the original Lances, with even a strong male Dragoian struggling to lift an authentic Lance into a firing position with both hands, while a typical male Dragoian is barely able to lift a modern Lance at all. However, with the cloned Dralkyria made in 1800, the weight argument went away now that there was a being strong enough to lift a lance.
Regardless, work went on, culminating in the Dralkyritank's giant lance which bypassed the weight, fragility and power-supply issues by being mounted onto a massive Heavy Tank chassis, and 2 variations of hand-held Artificial Dralkyria Lance, one made by the Dragoian Empire for Dragyia Agthe, and the other made in secret for Klaxvour Leral.
=== Dragyia's Artificial Lance ===
This ADL is considered a Hybrid Lance owing to parts of it being salvaged from an authentic lance (notably the counterweight and power core), while other parts were manufactured in modern times to replace the damaged parts of the authentic lance (notably the firing matrix and trigger). The modern components of this lance are proportionally lighter than the original parts and only come close to being balanced due to the stubbiness of the original lance and the noticeably longer modern firing matrix.
While this ADL functions identically to a normal Dralkyria Lance it doesn't quite pack as much firepower due to it's notably less refined firing matrix, with this firing matrix also being prone to burning out under load. 
This ADL was manufactured from the damaged lance that provided Dragyia's DNA and crucially uses the ancient hyper-compressed Dragnite crystal as it's power source and not a modern one.
Dragyia considers this ADL an impractical weapon of last resort, with it's considerable bulk and fragile firing matrix making it impractical to wield in battle, but makes a habit to carry it with her when she enters combat in the Dralkyritank.
=== Klaxvour's Artificial Lance ===
Klaxvour's ADL does not function the same as a normal Dralkyria lance, requiring external power from a backpack mounted generator (which also carries wireless transmission pylons to receive external power) travelling through heavy cables into the lance to provide power. While this is a rather noticeable downside, it does allow for a more regulated power output to be channelled through the lance than Dragyia's ADL. Despite having 6 power ports, Klaxvour's ADL is most stable when using just 4 of the power ports, easily packing the power to devastate normal tanks and even heavily damage Heavy Tanks at this power level all without burning out the internals of the ADL.
This lance was made from modern materials and is noticeably heavier than an authentic Dralkyria Lance even without it's power systems. It has also suffered malfunctions throughout it's early, less refined life, ranging from the internal components burning out to the cables burning out. During the Dragoian Civil War as this lance was extensively field tested, many of these problems were ironed out. Unlike authentic lances, this ADL packs two firing modes, a powerful blast meant for anti-armour duty of set power determined by how many power cables are attached, and a considerably weaker short-duration pulse which is much more fuel efficient, but is only powerful enough to pierce infantry armour and be lethal to infantry, with even non-armoured vehicles being enough to absorb and dissipate the energy of the shot.
This ADL will consume Dragnite fuel at an alarming rate due to the small and inefficient backpack generator and can only fire max (6-cable) power blasts around 5 times before running the backpack's fuel dry, resulting in external power supplies from tanks to be considered the primary energy supply, and the backpack's own supply as an emergency backup.
Category:Dragoians
Category:Ancient Dragoians
Category:Ancient Dragoian Weapons
Category:Weapons
Category:Dralkyria