Shadow Hand
- Intent: To create a heavy plasma missile for Kainate starfighters and strike craft, delivering concentrated thermal devastation and shield suppression against enemy vessels.
- Image Source:
- Headers - Teresa Zambrano | Darth Pellax
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer:
- Affiliation:
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: Dreadflare Plasma Missile Mk. I
- Modularity: No
- Production: Limited
- Material:
- Sarrassian Iron Casing
- Reinforced Plasma Containment Cells
- Bloodsteel Stabilizers
- Crystallite Discharge Nozzle
- Directed Plasma Cascade: On impact, the missile fractures its containment shell and releases a focused plasma jet forward into the struck surface. This cascade delivers an intense, narrow cone of thermal energy capable of burning through armor layers in seconds. The discharge is bright violet, serving as both a psychological and tactical marker.
- Shield Disruption Conduit: The warhead's plasma release briefly interferes with local shield harmonics, suppressing regeneration cycles and creating a vulnerability window. Even powerful deflector shields can be momentarily staggered, allowing follow-up attacks from other weapons.
- Thermal Saturation Payload: The plasma mass is stabilized with crystallite matrix nodes, preventing premature venting during acceleration. Upon release, the payload generates extreme heat saturation within a confined radius, overwhelming structural integrity without wide collateral spread.
- Incredible Thermal Damage: The Dreadflare delivers heat levels capable of compromising heavy starship armor, liquefying plating and disabling systems within the impact area. This makes it particularly effective for disabling external weapon turrets or sensor arrays.
- Temporary Shield Suppression: On detonation, the missile disrupts localized energy fields, reducing shield recharge speed and briefly lowering maximum shield output. Pilots can exploit this to drive a gap in defenses that other weapons can widen.
- High Precision Delivery: Engineered guidance vanes and a stabilized casing allow accurate strikes even against moving capital ships. Its focused plasma jet ensures damage remains concentrated instead of dispersing over a broad surface.
- Limited Blast Radius: The warhead's highly directional nature means damage is restricted to a relatively small area of impact. Vessels relying on distributed systems or redundant hulls are less vulnerable to total disablement from a single strike.
- Slow Reload and Handling: The delicate containment and priming process of the plasma core requires extensive handling precautions and specialized loading systems. In extended engagements, rearming the Dreadflare can be time-consuming.
- Force Nullification: The missile's containment regulators and shield disruption conduit rely on Sith inscribed crystallite matrices to harmonize the plasma output and destabilize local energy fields. When deployed in areas of Force Nullification, these alchemical circuits lose their resonance effect. This results in diminished shield suppression capability.
The Dreadflare Plasma Missile Mk. I was conceived during the later phases of Kainate naval experimentation, when doctrine shifted from brute-force annihilation to precision battlefield disruption. It was forged as a weapon of surgical devastation, less a bombardment tool and more a scalpel to carve through hardened defenses. Crafted within the plasma induction chambers of Malsheem, the missile houses a stabilized containment field laced with crystallite discharge regulators. When triggered, this core erupts forward in a narrow cascade of superheated plasma, instantly vaporizing armor in a confined segment. Observers describe the impact as a violet sun blooming for an instant before leaving a smoldering gouge behind.
Yet its most feared trait is its secondary disruption of shield harmonics. As the plasma surge dissipates, it injects instability into local deflector modulation, momentarily reducing regeneration and opening gaps in coverage. Kainate pilots have used this effect to devastating advantage, pairing Dreadflare salvos with precision cannon fire to cripple ships much larger than their own. The warhead's limitations are not insignificant: its directional focus limits widespread damage, and the searing thermal bloom reliably exposes the attacker's location. But for commanders seeking to punch holes in otherwise impervious walls, the Dreadflare is a weapon worthy of the Sith.
Out Of Character Info
Intent:
To create a heavy plasma missile for Kainate starfighters and strike craft, delivering concentrated thermal devastation and shield suppression against enemy vessels.
Canon Link:
N/A
Primary Source(s):
N/A
Technical Information
Affiliation:
The Kainate
Model:
Dreadflare Plasma Missile Mk. I
Modular:
No
Material:
Sarrassian Iron Casing Reinforced Plasma Containment Cells Bloodsteel Stabilizers Crystallite Discharge Nozzle
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