Particle Cannon

## Introduction

The **Particle Cannon** is the standard superweapon of all USA generals except Granger. It is basically a particle cannon that fires upwards and can be reflected back to the ground for precision weapon strikes.

## Overview

Since the revival of the Strategic Defense Initiative, this WMD has been accompanying the USA Military to successfully take down enemy bases like God's Heat-Ray. The Particle Cannon is a surface-orbit-surface tactical particle energy-based weapon of mass destruction site which is placed in a rather odd circle and square structure connected via a small rectangle. It is divided into two parts: the control room and the firing port. The control room controls all the activity of the weapon, connects with the reflector satellite and runs systemic checks to ensure the weapon is in good condition. The firing port houses a giant particle cannon blaster that fires a concentrated particle beam in which it will later be reflected by the reflector satellites heat-resistant panels back to a designated target, The satellite can be moved around to chase any escaping units with ease. Thanks to its quick heat dispersal system, the superweapon can quickly reload in just under 5 minutes in order to be used again. For Ironhand, it can also provide an upgrade to make his drones stealthed when not attacking.

The Particle Cannon's origins can be traced back to the 1980s during the Cold War. the President of the United States back then, Ronald Reagan, was particularly against the Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D) doctrine. Thus he called upon the scientists and engineers of the USA to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete. This resulted in the Strategic Defense Initiative being formed in 1984.

A wide array of advanced weapon concepts, including lasers, particle beam weapons and missile systems were studied, along with various sensor, command and control, and high-performance computer systems that would be needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the entire globe.

But in 1987, the American Physical Society concluded that the technologies being considered were decades away from being ready for use, and at least another decade of research was required to know whether such a system was even possible. After the publication of the APS report, SDI's budget was repeatedly cut. By the late 1980s, the effort had been re-focused on the "Brilliant Pebbles" concept, which involves using small orbiting missiles not unlike a conventional air-to-air missile, which was expected to be much less expensive to develop and deploy.

By the 1990s, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse and the perceived threat changed to short-range missiles. Pebbles was modified, but doing so raised its weight and cost; the original design called for around 10,000 missiles and would cost 10 to 20 billion dollars but by 1990, the cost for just 4,600 of these BMDs had ballooned to $55 billion. Fighting in the Congress through the early 1990s led to Brilliant Pebbles project's cancellation in 1993.

Time has passed till the 2010s, and the world started to experience a Century of Disorder as warfares and chaos started to occur such as the 9/11 Terrorist Attack and the subsequent Iraq War, including the Taiwan Conflict which is quickly suppressed by General Shin Fai's peacekeeping units. This was also followed by many world leaders starting to mobilize their nuclear weapons in greater numbers than before. The United States, which was debt-ridden from previous conflicts, have decided to respond to such trends by authorizing the now-defunct SDI which is renamed as Domestic Missile Defense Project. Miraculously, the DMD Project gave birth to a directed-energy weapon that fires a hot beam of light that is powerful enough to blast through metal plates. Further research developed a slim structure housing the weapon as a prime missile defense structure to shoot down enemy ICBMs coming into American territory. As the weapon has to be in a fixed position, a specialized satellite was invented to reflect the beam to a target.

The birth of the Particle Cannon wasn't really opposed when it was publicly unveiled,instead,it was mostly viewed a symbol of the advancement of human technology and a common joke by military enthusiasts that USA acted contrary to other nations in terms of nuclear issues as United States did not increase its nuclear stockpile but built the PC and being naive of not thinking that other nations will give the nation a quick,unpredictable pre-preemptive strike in case of an nuclear war or develop hypersonic ICBMs to outrun PC's targeting systems.

Not long after the GLA's terrorist attack on Beijing, the US Congress has passed a law to allow USA Armed Forces to install particle cannons en masse on US homeland and its overseas territories to build an anti-ICBM network. Worldwide speculation went wild as the medias hypothesized that the USA was preparing for a potential nuclear war defensively during the period. However, the Particle Cannon's time-consuming recharge and incapability to shoot down missiles up close (cannot engage missiles that have flown less than 1100m from the firing spot or it will accidentally cause friendly fire) have proven to be its fatal flaws, especially when it missed a missile launched by the GLA, causing mass civilian causalities on US soil. Subsequent nuclear mobilization by China caused the United States to develop the SDI Cannon as a second line of missile defense for neutralizing enemy missiles that are missed by the PC. Today, the Particle Cannon is the first line of USA's missile defense line and the tactical WMD in skirmishes.

The Particle Cannon is, oddly enough, the superweapon which isn't used to cause large scale destruction. It is more often used to destroy high-value targets and act as an ultimate "full range artillery defense structure" which is also equally effective against aircraft. One of the tactics using the Particle Cannon is to move the beam opposite to an enemy battalion's direction/move from the enemy units' side or make a temporary deadlock on an entry point so that the enemy can't get close. Offensively, the beam can be used to make a giant hole on enemy defense lines or knock out a row of power plants to render them powerless. Multiple PCs can even at least destroy half of a base if used correctly. The beam can be forced to move faster by double clicking anywhere in the map so that it could overrun faster units. The beam leaves a fire trail after leaving, which is very useful to finish off GLA's buildings by burning the GLA Hole off. It also has the advantage of having the fastest recharge time alongside Tomahawk Storm: 4 minutes reload time per use.

However, the Particle Cannon does not have a wide area of effect, so unless the player has several of these, the weapon's strike will not deal significant damage to an enemy base. Plus, in case the weapon is being captured or should your main base go offline all of a sudden, the particle beam will diminish as the weapon system's safety fuses are rigged to avoid accidents (the beam will also not continue firing even when the power is restored). Besides, compared to the vanilla edition of the Particle Cannon, the *Contra* version is notably less powerful, most likely done in order to balance out the weapon's short reload time.

Alexander, staying true to her defensive doctrine, upgraded the Particle Cannon to make it even more powerful and as available as Rank 3 due to her need for effective defense rapidly. Ironside requested that advanced version for his own use as well.

General Leang also has her own variant of Particle Cannon thanks to the technology sharing between the USA and China. It works just like the original PC but with Chinese Aesthetics and a red beam.

## Upgrades

**Drones Invisibility** - All drones become stealthed when not attacking (Ironhand only).

## Assessment

Pros:

* Strong against anything.
* Particle Cannon can be moved while retaining its firepower.
* Can overrun enemy units even the MiGs and Raptors when double clicked.
* Leaves a trail of fire that deals moderate damage for some time.
* Does not cause collateral damage and can be safely used to defend against giant waves of incoming units.

Cons:

* Very expensive (around 4,000$).
* Long build time.
* Consumes quite much power (8pts).
* Very small area of effect.
* If the base power is down when the particle cannon is still active, it will automatically cancel itself with no resuming even after the power is restored.

## Trivia

* The superweapon is obviously referring to the Strategic Defense Initiative, a proposed anti-ballistic plan announced by President Ronald Reagan during the Cold War (see overview for information).
* General Townes originally was going to have a Laser Uplink Cannon which was weaker than the Particle Cannon but with a longer duration, and it was going to be available earlier in game, when an Airfield is built. It was replaced by the Particle Cannon in the original game. However, some mods, like *Shockwave*, restored the Laser Cannon (Contra does not have that variant).
* While the particle weapon's existence itself would be perfectly possible, the way it is described in the game - surface-orbit-surface weapon - is completely unrealistic. It is impossible to reflect a particle beam by "mirrors" on satellite; while charged particle beams could be reflected by magnetic fields, electrostatic repulsion of equally charged particles make the charged particle beams disperse fast in space, thus limiting their use for atmospheric-only conditions. And neutral particle beams could not be used in atmosphere, being strictly vacuum weapon. On the other hand, a surface-space-surface array is perfectly suited for lasers.

## Gallery

General Leang's Particle Cannon, with a notable Chinese aesthetic design.Particle Cannon's EffectParticle Cannon cameo