User:Vivaporius/Sandbox/League of Civilized Worlds/III: Difference between revisions

===Directed-energy weapons===

====Plasma weapons====

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! colspan="3" |Weapons

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! Weapon

! Environment

! Description

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| {{nowrap|Hellbore}}

| Space

| TBD

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| {{nowrap|Plasma weapons}}

| Space/Terrestrial

| Developments in the field of controlled nuclear fusion have made the use of plasma weaponry a practical option for combat operations. These weapons possess an extraordinarily powerful amount of thermal and kinetic energy, though are limited in use as short-range weapons due to their strong dispersal tendencies. When used in an atmospheric setting, plasma weapons are used in conjunction with adaptive high-energy lasers, which are required to help prevent energy dispersal along the path of the beam to the target. Even with these lasers, plasma weapon projectiles can be dispersed with electrostatic and reactive defenses, limiting the use of the weapon to soft-body targets. Upon hitting a soft target, the megajoules of thermal and kinetic energy released from the primary source of energy in the bolt, as well as the secondary laser impact and electrostatic discharges, triggers an enormous heat transfer which generates a steam explosion within the body tissue of an enemy combatant, or enough static electric discharge to short-circuit superconducting circuitry.

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| {{nowrap|Fusion weapons}}

| Space/Terrestrial

| A derivative of plasma weaponry, fusion weapons were a natural development which evolved out of the progression of magnetic bottling technologies which allowed for the firing of a bolt of plasma that would undergo thermonuclear fusion which in transit to the target. Naturally, the amount of energy required to make this a possibility means that both the input and firing velocity of the bolt must be increased so as to prevent the premature detonation of the bolt while in-flight. Because of these developments, fusion weapons are tremendously powerful dealers of direct energy damage to both soft and hard targets, whether they are in space or in atmospheric conditions.

|}