Ballistics

Old Earth soldiers in the pre-Government era, holding ballistic rifles

Railguns

Ballistics, often referred to as sluggers, firearms, shell spewers, kinetic weaponry, and projectile weaponry, are an old and obsolete form of weaponry, rendered almost completely ineffective in the modern age, but still in use in some parts.

## Capabilities

Ballistics were built to function with springs, powders, or other firing mechanisms that would launch a projectile at up to sub-sonic speeds, although railguns would allow for speeds nearing that of energy weapons. Basic firearms could quickly kill organics in a few shots to vital areas, although wounds to limbs and non-vital areas could be patched up, allowing a victim to survive and even heal. Firearms could also destroy many types of objects and substances, but for destructive power, cannon-type ballistics were used, which had far more firepower and often used explosive rounds. Railguns used electromagnetic force to launch projectiles at incredibly high velocities, enough to negate most forms of anti-ballistic armor, but not all. Ballistics are most impractical against armored units with shock absorbers or other dispersers, especially those made with materials as strong as Imperialite. Ballistics, unlike energy weapons, have a finite amount of ammunition that must be reloaded upon depletion, but they can be loaded with other types of ammunition, such as explosive rounds, incendiary rounds, corrosive rounds, and more. While ballistics have several drawbacks in the modern age, a cheap ballistic weapon would often outlast a cheap or even fairly standard energy weapon when exposed to harsh elements, although usually only railguns and cannons can compare to sophisticated energy weapons in terms of effectiveness and destructive power. Ballistics that lack scoping systems often require one to mentally plot trajectories and take a greater aim than would be required with energy weapons. However, ballistics can also be augmented the way one would augment an energy weapon, and while energy weapons can be difficult or even impossible to silence, one would often find that ballistics are far easier to silence and use in stealth-based operations, especially when ballistic ammunition can be almost completely invisible, unlike energy bolts.

## Background

Ballistics are an ancient form of weaponry, derived from throwing weapons, such as spears, and other forms of precursor weaponry, such as slingshots, although crossbows and the likes still classify as ballistics. Ballistics are common among primitive or less advanced worlds, but are considered antiques among the modern world, which began with the introduction and widespread use of Energy Weapons. However, ballistics are occasionally used in training programs, or among hunters going after unarmored game, and sometimes, rubber rounds are used as riot suppressing weaponry. Most energy guns were designed in the style of ballistic weaponry, something easily recognizable.

## Variants

* Firearm: A basic and recognizable version, firearms consist of pistols, rifles, shotguns, and even heavy weapons, such as Gatling guns. As time went on, crossbows were also considered firearms, but only among some groups. They can range from bolt-action to single-shot, pump-action, powder-based, automatic, semi-automatic, and caseless pulse guns.
* Cannon: Cannons are defined as destructive ballistics, sometimes as small as rocket launchers, other times as large as the turrets on tanks and sea-faring warships. Their rounds can be explosive, or simply pack large amounts of firepower. While effective against smaller modern units, larger and more armored modern units, such as turbolaser tanks and Juggernauts, can often take cannon rounds without flinching.
* Railguns: The variant still seen in some areas of the advanced universe, railguns are the closest to energy weapons that ballistics can get. Some can be the size of firearms, while others are large and meant to fire entire ships in a sort of "hyper-slingshot," a predecessor to even Sub-Light Drives. Railguns also require physical ammunition to be loaded into them, but can often take random objects not technically classified as ammunition.