Technology Project: Auger Torpedo

## General Information

* Faction: United Commonwealth of Planets, Oblivion Verdict
* Location Developed: Devil's Ruin
* Discharge Speed: Once every 3 seconds
* Maximum Range: 3 million kilometres

## History

The Auger torpedo is a rare phasing weapon created in the secluded labs as a joint project between Sly Lunamonde and Laekada Davaxi of the Oblivion Verdict, a specialized torpedo formed from the experimentation of Eternium phasing biomatter. By infecting the Eternium with Vah'kohran crystal growths and controlled by a central memory crystal, the biomatter was able to be forcibly taken control of and programmed, giving an opportunity at initial experiments with phase technology.

At first the initial tests was considered an abject failure, rapidly unphasing and rephasing unevenly to the point where it was often dangerously close to self-destructing outright, and to make matters worse, this unstable phasing phenomenon also affected other materials it came to contact with, one scientist losing their hand on contact with the matter as it forced *only* their hand out of phase, severing it entirely.

Realizing that such destructive potential also had uses, the experiments were allowed to continue in a different direction, attempting to destabilize the phasing property even further, and forcing durable materials into contact with it, which resulted in several plates of duranium having random chunks of it phase out, only to rephase back in at the wrong location, causing the testing lab to have to undergo repairs from the unexpected reappearance of matter intersecting other matter to a dangerous degree.

Escalating safety parameters, the unstable phase matter was to be encased in an multiphasic containment capsule, forcing the material to be held in place by a multiphasic forcefield to prevent its accidental escape from the vessel. Afterwards, the containment unit was refitted into a torpedo casing, and was tested once more, firing the entire assembly at a derelict ship. Details are inconclusive, but the derelict seemingly suffered a mass-displacement of much of its matter, the resulting interior resembling an uncanny aberration of misplaced parts and components fused into other components and walls.

In a battle against Umojan vessels when the U.S.S. Claidheamh Mòr went to Devil's Ruin to extricate Laekada Davaxi from an undisclosed research facility on Devil's Ruin, the phased matter torpedo was fired at one of the lead Umojan vessels. Upon impact with the vessel's shields, the multiphasic containment of the torpedo's payload immediately failed and sent the unstable phasing matter hurtling forward through the shields, fragmenting partially from the impact through the shields. Almost immediately after, it was registered the vessel had suffered catastrophic structural failures, each fragment of phase matter fragmenting further throughout the hull and rapidly phasing random components of the ship as they tore through its hull, causing the components to rephase directly inside of other components, amplifying the structural crippling of the vessel even further. This went on until the payload completely *overpenetrated* the vessel, causing a large spaw of interior bulkhead fragments to spray out the other side of the Umojan ship, causing mass-explosive decompression which ejected the debris into other Umojan vessels behind the initial one, catching them in a veritable hail of metal from the initial target.

Dubbed the "Auger Torpedo" for its terrifying penetration power, the resulting torpedo was solidified as a nonexplosive "Anti-material" structural displacement device meant for use against heavily reinforced vessels to bring an immediate crippling to their internals, using its unstable phasing property to bypass conventional defenses. Due to requiring Eternium biomatter in their construction, these torpedoes are primarily sourced from Devils Ruin, making supply of them problematic due to the contention often encircling the dead Eternium worldship.

Albeit never tested, it's theorized due to its payload constantly phasing and unphasing, this torpedo could potentially be effective against phased targets as much as unphased targets.