Inhibitor Cannon

## Description

Nearly a century ago, a Remnant scout exploring space north of the Ember Waste came under fire from an alien fleet armed with weapons that interfered with the scout's engines. The story says that the Remnant captain calmly told her crew, "We aren't going home until we steal that weapon." That alien technology became the basis of the Inhibitor Cannon.

Although the Remnant appreciated the original weapon, they were disappointed that it was too big to fit on most of their ships. Instead of letting their effort go to waste, they instead opted to put their newfound knowledge to use creating a weapon suitable for their more nimble craft. Thus, the Inhibitor is excellent at controlling engagement distances, keeping targets at range by both pushing them backward with the impact of each shot while also slowing their approach by interfering with their engines.

## Location

The Inhibitor Cannon can be purchased in Remnant space at the following ports. Purchasing the Inhibitor Cannon requires a Remnant License.

* Aventine, Pantica
* Viminal, Arculus
* Caelian, Cinxia

## Information

The Inhibitor Cannon is one of two primary weapons of the Remnant (the other being the Thrasher Cannon and Turret). While it fires slower and deals less damage per second than the Proton Gun, it has better range and firing rate than the Particle Cannon as well as the same accuracy. It is also lighter than both guns, allowing it to be installed on fighters and drones, or en masse on larger ships.

Inhibitor Cannons have the advantage of combining a good damage-per-second per outfit space with a very good range (864). In terms of shield damage per second per outfit space, it gets 120 dps for 16 outfit space (7.5), which is better than the Electron Beam for 144 dps for 21 outfit space (6.857), meaning that this gun, en masse, not only outranges the Electron Beam, it also outdamages it. Its major drawback is that you need a lot of gun ports to maximize its potential.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the cannon, however, is the slowing effect it imparts on targeted ships, similar to the Korath Detainer, causing them to move and turn more slowly. While the effect is not as strong the Detainer's, it can add up quickly with multiple guns, and a skilled pilot with enough Inhibitor Cannons can pin down a target and fly circles around it, keeping out of the line of fire for the enemy's fixed guns until it is disabled. The steering interference combined with the hit force it deals makes it harder for enemies to escape combat by preventing them from coming to a stop and jumping away.

The slowing effect in particular combines well with its great range to make it a good kiting weapon, as enemies being kited are also slowed down. This weapon also has a mild hit force, meaning enemies being hit are also pushed back slightly, and it has a mild firing force, meaning your ship will slightly accelerate backwards while firing Inhibitor Cannons. All these sum up to an excellent kiting weapon: it slows down enemies, pushes them back slightly, mildly accelerates you away from them, and outranges most other weapons, meaning you can keep slowly moving away from your opponents while you shoot at them at a distance that greatly reduces the risk of getting damaged.

Of all weapons with 650 or greater range, the Inhibitor Cannon is the third-highest shield damage per second per outfit space, with the first being the unobtainable Drak Antimatter Cannon and the second being the Heliarch Bombardment Cannon, whose major drawback is a very low accuracy which practically makes its effective range much lower than its rated range. This makes the Inhibitor Cannon the best practical kiting weapon, and one which can be acquired without angering an initially-peaceful race and without Jump Drives.

A viable design for a solo ship challenge (i.e. no fleet, just a single ship) would be to use a warship with lots of fixed guns, such as an 8-gun Shield Beetle or 12-gun Kestrel (More Weapons), fill them up with **Inhibitor Cannons**, one or two Banisher Grav-Turrets, and maybe a Point Defense Turret. Add a Salvage Scanner. Kite a target, then face them and slowly push forward until the target is slowly approaching you (use the tactical scanning to check that the distance to target is slowly decreasing). The Inhibitor Cannon outranges many other energy guns, so you can usually hit the opponent without taking any return fire yourself. If the target gets too near the Banisher pushes them back, and the Inhibitor Cannons themselves will slow down the target further. You can then slowly whittle down the opponent, and when they turn to flee you surge forward to push them with the Banishers to prevent them from jumping away.

## Trivia

* The Inhibitor Cannon may be based on the Korath Detainer, as the Korath are known to raid Remnant space, and the Inhibitor resembles a scaled-down version of the Detainer and has similar properties.