Weapons

Each colony use's guard posts and one of three different vehicle chassis' to mount a modular weapon system on. Both colonies use the same three attack vehicle's, classified as the Lynx, the Panther, and the Tiger. Each of these represents a combat chassis of increasing power and sophistication. Every new guard post and vehicle unit at time of manufacture can be produced with one of a variety of weapons turrets, depending on which colony produces the unit, and what technologies are available.

One of the byproducts of Eden's metal smelting operations is an especially corrosive and unstable acid. In several unfortunate industrial accidents, containers of the material exploded, producing an even more reactive cloud that caused damage over a wide area before breaking down into an inert form. From these accidents, a new weapon was born. A method was found to stabilize the acid for safe handling, and yet allow it to be ignited at will. This acid is housed in special shells that can be launched from a low-velocity projectile weapon and exploded on or near a target. An almost undetectable aerogel “bubble” helps contain the cloud briefly and allows it to do extended damage over a controlled area. The cloud attacks metal, organics, plastics, and many other common materials. While it is a very effective weapon, it can be as dangerous to friendly units as enemy ones when used in close quarters.

The electrostatic grenade (ESG) launcher is a specialized low-velocity projectile weapon. It fires an electrostatic induction grenade with a programmed fuse linked to the vehicle's targeting system. The grenade generates powerful electric fields through a chemical process similar to the one Eden uses to power its Rail Guns. This field induces currents within conductive components of the target, causing extreme heat, arcing, and both welding and erosion effects in metal.

New Terra's thin and normally clear atmosphere makes it a natural for the use of visible-light Lasers. Eden's Laser weapon is a hybrid pumped-chemical laser designed for short firing duration with a rapid cycle time. Frequency and power are pulsed within each shot in order to defeat ablative coatings and armor.

The Plymouth Microwave weapon is derived from technology originally used for broadcast power generation. A further study of the methods used revealed that it should be possible to produce a much more powerful and directed beam of coherent microwave radiation. The Microwave weapon creates electrical induction in metal objects, and heats organics and other water-containing structures such as cool-fusion systems.

Eden's Rail Gun weapon uses electrical energy to accelerate a conductive projectile in contact with two charged parallel rails. This weapon's chief advantage is its incredible muzzle velocities of several kilometers per second. No explosive warhead is necessary, the kinetic energy of the impact causing all the needed damage. Electrical energy is provided from two sources. The primary source is a chemical generator that is part of the RG “shell.” The force of a small explosion is turned into electricity and delivered in the tiniest fraction of a second. The second source is a bank of volt-sinks in the turret itself. While the power provided by these is smaller, it is also completely controllable, which allows the muzzle velocity to be varied. This allows the type and extent of damage delivered to be tailored to the target for maximum effectiveness. The visible “projectile” and characteristic plasma “smoke rings” seen coming from the muzzle of the Rail Gun weapon are actually a byproduct of the chemical generator charge, and emerge from the weapon long after the actual projectile has struck its target.

This wire-guided, tube-fired rocket weapon uses solid propellant motors and is fired from a closed-breech piston launcher that accelerates the projectile to cruise speed before leaving the muzzle. A sustainer motor keeps the RPG at this speed until impact A collar of 100 solid-propellant guidance micromotors is controlled by the turret's targeting computer and ensures precise delivery of the shaped-charge warhead. The charge normally explodes just before impact, launching several kinetic-kill depleted uranium “hammers” into the target for maximum armor penetration.

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.

Plymouth's StickyFoam weapon is a low-velocity projectile weapon firing a non-metallic warhead. The warhead is a two-compartment bi-chemical system that discharges on impact. The shells are stored in the magazine empty, and are filled from separate tanks only when they are in the firing chamber. The mixing of the two highly reactive liquids produces a rapidly expanding glob of aerogel. Aerogels are extremely light, open-cell foam materials with cell sizes in the nanometer range. They contain materials that are solid, but seem little more substantial than smoke. While most aerogels have little mechanical strength, StickyFoam is laced with ultra-strong carbon Buckytubes, 600 times stronger than steel. The foam disintegrates after a short period, but while it remains intact, a vehicle covered with it will be completely immobilized.

In addition to the smaller Starflare, Plymouth has also developed the much more powerful Supernova self-destruct turret. The Supernova employs a cluster bomb approach to deliver massive damage over a wide, but strictly controlled, area. A central charge delivers damage close to the turret and distributes a ring of secondary shaped charges that explode a fraction of a second later to devastating effect. A well-placed Supernova is capable of destroying an entire column of enemy units, or taking out numerous structures.

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