Railgun
- "Yeah, I ain’t getting paid enough to be shot at like this!"
"Those lasers have a charge-up time, get outta Dodge before they shoot!" - ― Peter Kennedy and Evelyn London evading railgun fire[1]
Railguns, sometimes called mass drivers, are kinetic energy weapons used extensively in the After Calamity Era. They are found as both ground emplacements and vehicle armaments.
Description
Railguns are advanced, cordium-powered heavy weapons that are normally found mounted on large vehicles or stationary defensive emplacements. While the projectiles and harmful trails that they fire make them resembles directed energy weapons, being referred to as lasers, their thunderous report and the fact that they inflict greater damage on direct hits indicates that they are, as their name and "slug" referential suggest, ballistic weapons.
Compared to actual railguns, cordium railguns have much slower projectile velocity. The shells they fire will explode after a set distance or on contact, dealing heavy damage. The shells will also leave behind a trail of searing cordium energy that will damage anything passing through it, in similar fashion to how real-life railgun projectiles leave behind a trail of plasma in their wake.
Railguns come in two variants: Normal railguns and advanced variants (ADV-RAILGUN), the latter of which is capable of firing in quick salvos.
Only two aircraft are known to utilize railguns: The SP-34R and the PW-Mk.I. The railgun is capable of firing in single shots only, and it takes a brief moment of charging up before firing and has a lengthy cooldown period afterwards. However, your railgun deals notably increased damage, capable of destroying large targets in just a single shot and features a large hitbox; this means the target can be destroyed by just firing within close proximity to it.
Applications
Being large and energy-consuming heavy weapons, railguns are often installed on anything with access to a powerful energy source.
In naval applications, railguns are normally mounted on a type of upgraded LCS called "LCS-R" (Littoral Combat Ship - Railgun) which is only seen used by Federation naval groups. While a single LCS-R can pose somewhat of an annoyance, they are seldom encountered alone and can lay down considerable amounts of long-range fire support for nearby enemy vessels and aircraft.
Certain models of airships are outfitted with one or more railguns, which likely draw power from the vessels' cordium engines. The Arcion-class air heavy cruiser is the most common railgun-armed aerial warship, with all three variants armed with railguns.
Railguns are also used as defensive ground weapons on heavily armored turrets and provide defense to strategically important locations such as the Solana Communications Array,[2] Harkema Industrial Park,[1] and Wai Mami Port.[3] Both standard and advanced railguns can be mounted on turrets. Railgun turrets are highly durable and can sometimes take two MLAG hots to destroy.
Currently, the only land-based vehicle capable of mounting railguns is the land battleship. A land battleship can mount up to four standard railguns, allowing them to lay down an impressive amount of firepower along with their formidable large arsenal of anti-aircraft weaponry.
Before and during the Cascadian Conflict, Icarus Armories experimented and succeeded with mounting railguns on fighter jets. The first successful example is the prototype ballistic airframe SP-34R. The data is later used to create the PW-Mk.I, which would be capable of dispersing railgun cluster bomb spheres.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Campaign Mission 12: Midnight Light (Transcript).
- ↑ Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Campaign Mission 10: Pillars of Communications (Transcript).
- ↑ Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Campaign Mission 13: Valkyrie's Call (Transcript).