Wavefront Bomb

*These used to be harvesting tools, but these days they're a pirate's weapon. Useless against any universe with anywhere near proper defenses. Overkill against anywhere that doesn't. But it can be easily whipped by someone with access to enough Protean Husks and a Breacher Drive.*

Minsa - Reality Engine Architect

The wavefront bomb is a type of Void based mining tool for the extraction of universal resources. In the times past Tor, however, it has also become a weapon commonly used by pirates and raiders (albeit mostly by those that trade and associated with established powers).

## History

The wavefront bomb begun as a resource harvesting tool for civilisations to destroy universes so as to collect what is left behind in the Void. Researchers early in Weave's history found that a self-expanding Void storm could be created by using a Protean Husk structure to cycle the Void protoplasm back into the universe. Finding potential in the research, multiple multiversal powers invested into these projects to create technology derived from such.

Among the technologies developed was the wavefront bomb. A relatively simple device consisting of a Breacher Drive and a Protean Husk that destroyed universes to reveal resources that might have otherwise remained inaccessible. Following this, the design was sold to many universal mining corporations as a cheap and easily mass produced way to access otherwise unreachable resources by destroying universes that hold them.

After the collapse of the Weave, the wavefront bomb has also found use as improvised weapons. While completely ineffective against any universe with an embedded reality engine or anchor of any strength, the mining tool serves as a way to threaten vulnerable groups into obeying warlords or outlaws. While exceedingly simple in construction by Weave standards, the bomb takes a considerable amount of Protean husks to build; in the current era, the device is a significant investment to most groups and individuals outside those of professional militaries and established heavy industries. The beings who most use it in the context of military applications, however, tend to be pirates and outlaws (especially those affiliated with established powers), utilising it to perform 'dirty work'.

## Mechanism

The wavefront bomb utilises a Protean Husk shell over its Breacher Drive. Such a configuration usually takes the form of an iridescent sphere over a small helical device.

Once activated, the breacher creates a tiny hole in the fabric of reality to let in some Void protoplasm, which expands into the shell. Once the protoplasm reaches the shell, the shell explosively expands outwards, exponentially accelerating in velocity as it cycles the protoplasm back into the universe and creating a chain reaction. This causes the fabric of reality becomes erased in the locations where Void protoplasm has saturated space-time. As the reaction utilises Void protoplasm, the resulting explosion ignores the standard rules of causality and expands into the past, present and future, whereupon the universe is erased from existence.

The device itself is fundamentally vulnerable to manipulation from outside sources, be it from those of Transcends or Old Brethren, or from reality engines and anchors. Before and in the early stages of the explosion, it is trivially easy for such entities to interfere with the Protean husks or breacher that sustain the chain reaction or start it respectively, causing the explosion to burn out before doing any significant damage, or prevent such an explosion from happening at all. For this reason, the device is completely useless in any areas with a functioning reality engine or anchor, or in the same universe as most acausal beings.