Starflare

From OPU Wiki

• Common Metals Cost high
• Rare Metals Cost none
• Area of Effect large
• Range NA
• Rate of Fire NA
• Concussion Damage high
• Penetration Damage very high

Description

The energy storage systems used in all colony vehicles lends itself readily to an effective self-destruct mechanism. Volt-sinks, used to store and moderate the output of cool-fusion reactors, react explosively if short-circuited at low resistance. Simply dropping a conductive buss-bar across the terminals will create an explosion large enough to destroy the unit and do considerable damage in the immediate area.

While the initial intent of the self-destruct mechanism was to keep damaged units from being captured, it quickly became apparent that such suicide tactics had strategic applications. Unfortunately, the small explosion generated did not generally justify the intentional sacrifice of an expensive combat vehicle. This led to the development of specialized self-destruct turrets capable of doing enough damage to be worth the sacrifice of a combat chassis.

The first of these self-destruct turrets is the Starflare. The Starflare uses a shaped charge to direct most of its blast energy outward around the vehicle. It can destroy nearby vehicles and do considerable damage to nearby structures. The charge is configured so as to confine most of the damage very close to the turret, allowing it to be used relatively close to friendly units.