Weaponry

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A **weapon** is a tool or machine that can be used to inflict damage to or harm something or someone.

The primary weapons found in The Stellar Tales were weapons used in space, as these weapons were used to attack and defend in space. These weapons and their characteristics are as follows:

## Lasers

**Overview**: Lasers are directed-energy weapons that use focused beams of light to heat a target.

**Speed**: Speed of light, 299.792.458 m/s

**Minimum** **range**: None, although the emitter needs a clear target, so ~100m distance from the emitter is advised.

**Maximum** **range**: Dependent on dispersion. Around 1 au against non-mobile targets, and around 2 light-seconds against a mobile target.

**Effectiveness**: Low, useful as anti-missile defense against low-tech missiles, or against non-mobile targets.

**Expensiveness**: Low, cheap in power, purchase, and maintenance.

**Countered** **by**: Evasion, reflective paneling, ablative armor, gas emission.

**Notes**: Has a distinct emitter signature, making it easy to detect the source.

## Radiation emitters

**Overview**: Radiation emitters use gamma radiation to cook electronic equipment and crew of a target.

**Speed**: Speed of light, 299.792.458 m/s

**Minimum** **range**: None, although the emitter needs a clear target, so ~100m distance from the emitter is advised.

**Maximum** **range**: Dependent on dispersion. Typically around 300.000km

**Effectiveness**: Low, highly dependent on radiation shielding of the target. Non-destructive weapon.

**Expensiveness**: High. Requires specialised emitters and very strong protective measures.

**Countered** **by**: Radiation shielding, distance.

**Notes**: Illegal in most civilised space. Nearly invisible.

## Particle beams / Jazers

**Overview**: Jazers are particle beams of super-accelerated uranium nuclei, having a devastating effect upon impact.

**Speed**: 99% speed of light.

**Minimum** **range**: None, although the emitter needs a clear target, so ~100m distance from the emitter is advised.

**Maximum** **range**: Around 1 au against non-mobile targets, and around 2 light-seconds against a mobile target.

**Effectiveness**: Very high due to near-instant delivery, high destructive power, and no effective defenses.

**Expensiveness**: Very high, requires powerful and advanced particle accelerators.

**Countered** **by**: Erratic movement to avoid a target-lock.

**Notes**: Requires quite some time to charge between shots. A succesful hit can knock out capital ships and one-shot smaller vessels. Also useful as a planetary bombardment weapon. While the emitter itself is nearly invisible, the heat signature of the charging process is easy to detect.

## Missiles

**Overview**: Guided missiles that can be equipped with a variety of warheads such as shrapnel, explosive, plasma, or nuclear ordinance.

**Speed**: Accelerates typically with 100-300m/s2

**Minimum** **range**: 5-10km. Distance required to build up speed.

**Maximum** **range**: Around 15.000 Km for conventional missiles. Planetary defense missiles have ranges up to 1 million Km.

**Effectiveness**: High, while not the most powerful weapons devised, missiles are widely effective weapon, easily scalable in power.

**Expensiveness**: Medium. While shrapnel and explosive missiles are not very expensive, plasma and nuclear missiles are heavily regulated and quite expensive.

**Countered** **by**: Lasers, flares, jamming, missiles, cannons.

**Notes**: The powerful drives of the missiles make them relatively easy to detect.

## Railguns

**Overview**: Tungsten rounds that are accelerated by magnetic rails to do devastating damage.

**Speed**: 3.000.000m/s for typical ship-mounted railguns, up to 20.000.000m/s for grounded planetary railguns.

**Minimum** **range**: ~5km to get a clear target lock

**Maximum** **range**: Around 6.000 Km for ship-mounted guns, up to 40.000 Km for grounded planetary railguns. Both are against mobile targets, against non-mobile targets, the maximum range is much, much higher.

**Effectiveness**: High, inside the effective range, it is nearly impossible for ships to dodge a railgun round, which can seriously damage capital ships and one-shot smaller ships with a solid hit, but on a clean pass it does little structural damage.

**Expensiveness**: High, railguns are maintenance-heavy and the purchase price is high.

**Countered** **by**: Evasion.

**Notes**: Requires some time to charge between shots. Also useful as a planetary bombardment weapon. Has a distinct muzzle flash, but is otherwise nearly invisible.

## Kinetics

**Overview**: Kinetics are a variety of massive objects with high velocities, such as shrapnel or thrown asteroids.

**Speed**: Varies, relatively low.

**Minimum** **range**: Orbital mechanics.

**Maximum** **range**: Orbital mechanics.

**Effectiveness**: Highly dependent wether or not the Kinetic is guided or unguided.

**Expensiveness**: Highly dependent wether or not the Kinetic is guided or unguided.

**Countered** **by**: Evasion, lasers, missiles.

**Notes**: The main fear of civilised worlds, as Kinetics could potentially be a deadly form of orbital bombardment if the objects go undetected. If the Kinetics are detected however, they pose little danger.

## Cannons

**Overview**: Good old bullets, fired en masse to damage whatever is in their path.

**Speed**: Around 2000m/s

**Minimum** **range**: A few meters from the cannon.

**Maximum** **range**: Around 10 Km for mobile targets.

**Effectiveness**: High, a favored anti-missile system and broadside weapon.

**Expensiveness**: Low

**Countered** **by**: Layered hull armor divided by shock-absorbant gel.

**Notes**: Also useful as an anti-personnel weapon. Usually fires around 500-1.000 rounds per minute on autotrack, but can usually also fire individual shots. Need a little time to spin up or spin down.