Kinetic Weaponry

**Kinetic weaponry** is a class of armament that uses projectiles, propelled at extremely high velocities through the use of magnetic or gravitational force. While remarkably successful against most shields and armor, they have a limited effective range. They are a common form of armament at all sizes throughout the Voidbourne universe, and they were heavily used by human factions such as the Terran Alliance before they switched to photonic weapons.

## Types of kinetic armament

### Railguns

**Railguns** are the most common type of kinetic-based artillery in the Voidbourne universe, extensively used by almost every faction at some point or another in their development. The technology relies on a set of rails and a sliding armature, and can accelerate projectiles up to a significant speed - some have projectile velocities which must be measured in fractions of the speed of light. This was the main form of artillery in use with the Terran Alliance before they switched to the use of photon (laser) weaponry.

A rarer form of this weapon is the **plasma railgun**, which utilizes plasma and/or hot ionized gases accelerated to significant speed in place of a physical 'slug' (inert solid shot) or shell.

### Gauss cannons

**Gauss cannons**, sometimes called **Gauss rifles** and properly known as **coilguns**, are a type of projectile accelerator that uses electromagnetic coils arranged around a barrel to drag a projectile forward at high speed. Unlike a railgun, there are no moving parts- the 'rifle' name is derived from the shape of the coils, which spiral forward as in a traditional gas-driven rifled gun. They can accelerate projectiles up to a significant percentage of the speed of light.

#### Needle cannons

**Needle cannons**, variously known as **shard cannons, shard rifles, needle rifles** or **sliver cannons** and **sliver rifles**, are a kind of advanced coilgun employed exclusively by the Kitsunai Diarchy and the Rostov Empire. Accelerating sub-calibre crystalline shards (known as variously shards, needles, or slivers) to near-lightspeed for unparalleled armour piercing and post-penetration performance, they can additionally utilize 'energized' versions to achieve ion cannon performance.

### Beam cannons

**Beam cannons** are derived from the principles behind particle accelerators, utilizing atomic (and sometimes subatomic) particles accelerated to high percentages of the speed of light to cause damage. Straddling the line between directed energy weapons (DEWs) and kinetic artillery, they are typically defined by exceptional range compared to most artillery systems and an extremely high level of accuracy, as well as significant damage-dealing capabilities, but they do not have infinite range due to cohesive erosion with distance.

#### Electron beam cannons

The principles behind the acceleration of electrons with magnetic fields has been known since ancient times; due to their small mass, a stream of electrons must be accelerated to extremely high speed to serve as an effective weapon, and range is more limited due to the negative charge they carry, causing them to repel themselves from one another and the beam to lose coherence more rapidly. They are also vulnerable to strong magnetic interference, such as that of stars.

Electron beam cannons were the main form of point defense armament aboard Alparan starships.

**Positron beam cannons** work along the same principle as electron beam cannons, but use the positron, an antiparticle - these were the main form of point-defense armament aboard Mara starships.

#### Proton beam cannons

The **proton beam cannon** is a more powerful version of the electron beam cannon - primarily due to the greater mass of the proton. However, it shared the suboptimal range and accuracy issues of the electron beam cannon and its derivatives, due to the positive charge carried by all protons causing them to repel one another.

#### Neutron beam cannons

**Neutron beam cannons** are the upgraded form of most magnetic accelerator cannons; while electrons and protons are accelerated through traditional magnetic fields, this was not possible with the electrically neutral neutron. Only after advances in gravitational field manipulation were developed and put into practice was it possible to directly accelerate neutrons.

The greater mass of the neutron, compared to electrons and protons, translates directly to greater firepower - on average, a typical neutron beam cannon is three to four times more powerful than an electron beam cannon of equal calibre and two to three times stronger than its proton cannon equivalent, as well as better target penetration abilities.

The longest-ranged neutron beam cannons known are in service with the Alparan Empire, the primary user of this artillery (along with many of the extragalactic races present in Voidbourne), and can range out to 1 light-minute. The Terran Alliance also experimented with the technology aboard the experimental battlecruiser *Reprisal*, but did not consider it worthwhile to pursue further.

**Antineutron beam cannons** were the antiparticle variant of this weapon and saw extensive use among the extragalactic empire known as the Sanguine Accord.