Dynetech Cryo-Rail Cannon

[Adron Malvern]

​

• Intent: The Dynetech Cryo-Rail Cannon is a devastating star ship heavy-artillery piece. Designed to eradicate lesser ships and leave them open to boarding.
• Image Source: Image link, Graphics made by Luca Donskoi
• Canon Link: None
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

• Manufacturer: Malvern Incorporated - Dynetech Industries
• Affiliation: The Confederacy, The Illyrian Monarchy
• Model: HRAC
• Modularity: No
• Production: Limited
• Material: Titanium Frame, Impervium Casing, Carbonite Cooling Vessel, Electromagnetic Projectile Launcher, Heating Array, Magnetic Stabilizer

• Classification: Cryo-Rail Cannon
• Size: Very Large
• Weight: Very Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Carbonite-infused Slugs
• Ammunition Capacity: Average
• Effective Range: Battlefield
• Rate of Fire: Low
• Stopping Power: Very High
• Recoil: None

• Surrounded by a magnetic field infused with ION particles the artillery piece is very adept at breaking through most deflector shields that are not redundantly hardened against ION fields or RAIL technology.
• The RAIL rounds are infused with a specialized liquid carbonite that is actively cooled while the rounds are waiting to be deployed. The moment the round impacts its target, the carbonite capsule within the round explodes out, covering the area in a freezing coating of carbonite.

• Rail rounds provide near-perfect penetration of standard deflector shields and typically multi-round volleys are capable of piercing more advanced deflector shields. Rail rounds also pass through molecular shields while only tending to lose their magnetic field, allowing the round to penetrate all the same.
• The cryo-storm that explodes from the round covers most areas in thick fields of carbonite, usually carbon-freezing all life forms, systems, and machinery in the impact zone. This can play havoc on ship systems and prove fatal for ship personnel, both biological or organic.
• The magnetic field that the round is encased in can prove devastating to an undefended ship's electrical systems.
• The Rail system has a Battlefield-Class range, allowing it to serve as long-ranged artillery in space combat and working well for long-ranged bombardments on planetary targets.

• Particle Shields are some of the most hardened shields that this weapon can face. As they are capable of halting projectile rounds they are the hardest shields for these rounds to penetrate. While the ION field can prove damaging to the shield, it is not enough to allow a round through, it would take sustained assault for this weapon to bypass a particle shield.
• Energy Reserves must be maintained. If a ship's power supply reaches critical levels then the cryo-vessels that keep the liquid carbonite cool will shut down. This can lead to the carbonite vessels being damaged, making the entire artillery weapon serviceable.
• Due to the massive size of the weapons, they are unable to fit more than 1 gun per every thousand meters of a single vessel, with the max being eight guns for even the most advanced of ships.

Long-Ranged artillery are often considered the leading pieces in the realm of space warfare. The Cryo-Rail cannon developed by Malvern Incorporated and constructed by Dynetech industries was made to give The Confederacy an edge in long-ranged combat. The weapon is a fusion between an advanced Magnetic Rail System and a Hyper-Carbonite Cryo Artillery battery. Each individual round is kept in a cooling chamber until the artillery gun automatically chambers the round in preparation for fire. Due to the need to keep the rounds cool so that the carbonite does not revert back to it's physical form and damage the round, they are not able to maintain a round in a chamber for a long time, which means they cannot be "ready to fire" in a spur of the moment. Activating the battery takes several seconds, while the first round is chambered in under a second. From there the rail rounds are fired at extreme speeds, generally taking a few seconds between firing. Once fired, a magnetic field, filled with ION particles is wrapped around the carbonite shell. This field not only plays havoc on undefended systems, but also helps the RAIL round to bypass most deflector shields in its path, with molecular shields merely soaking in the magnetic field. Upon impact, the carbonite vessel explodes into a mass of hyper-freezing carbonite that will drown everything near the impact area in sub-zero temperatures. This can prove devastating to both organic and mechanical ships.

 

[Gir Quee]

Adron Malvern , double check me on this, but I think that this is actually one rating underpowered. If that is the case, I might recommend upping production to limited because of the next issue:

Production: Semi-Unique
Affiliation: The Confederacy, The Illyrian Monarchy

Semi-unique production is explicitly supposed to be limited much more narrowly than a major faction:

Semi-Unique (A single small unit, squad, or squadron)

If the intent is to arm some Illyrian Monarchy ships (under the broad CIS aegis), limited production should allow you to do just that. If there's another more narrowly defined affiliation of course, that will work as well.

Let's talk actual tech:

Rail rounds provide near-perfect penetration of standard deflector shields and typically multi-round volleys are capable of piercing more advanced deflector shields. Rail rounds also pass through molecular shields while only tending to lose their magnetic field, allowing the round to penetrate all the same.

Do you have a reference for "rail rounds provide near-perfect penetration of standard deflector shields"?

It's worth noting here that typical "deflector shield generators" are actually separate ray and particle shield systems combined into a single system, rather than a distinctive type of shielding themselves.

And semi-related:

Once fired, a magnetic field, filled with ION particles is wrapped around the carbonite shell. This field not only plays havoc on undefended systems, but also helps the RAIL round to bypass most deflector shields in its path, with molecular shields merely soaking in the magnetic field.

Closest canon concepts that I am aware of are probably the HR-IO4 Ion Railgun and the ion encumbrance system. It's worth noting here thought that neither actually directly bypasses shielding, though they certainly very damaging to it. Do you have a source showing where ion fields allow the bypassing of physical objects through shielding?

effectively carbon-freezing all life forms, systems, and machinery in the impact zone.

As a reminder, while we can suggest damage, we cannot dictate hits to opponents either. I think if you said something like "capable of carbon-freezing most life forms, systems, etc" or added some other qualifier here we'd be good.

 

[Adron Malvern]

So, I can definitely switch this to Limited, that works fine.

It was my understanding that ION particles will disrupt a particle shield pretty effectively, while a ray shield absorbs energy-based attacks and allowing projectiles through. The ION particles would disrupt the particle defense of a deflector shield, allowing the projectile to pierce the ray shield undefended. The idea is that the advanced ION weaponry creates a door through the shield that allows the projectile to push through. I did notice that most projectiles would be electronically charged once moving through, however I wouldn't think a standard deflector shield would hinder one of these rounds. I take this from readings of Ray and Particle shields here.

Also I updated the wording to be more "suggestive" as to what happens than forcing anything.

Gir Quee

 

[Gir Quee]

Adron Malvern , exact quotes or references from sources would be helpful here.

It was my understanding that ION particles will disrupt a particle shield pretty effectively,

Do you have a source for ion particles disrupting or otherwise directly interacting with particle shields?

I know that ray shields can be reconfigured to protect against ion cannon bolts (Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology pg.84), which suggests to me that ions don't have much effect on particle shields (and vice versa).

I did notice that most projectiles would be electronically charged once moving through,

I'm not an expert physicist by any stretch, so if you can show me a source showing that the projectile does have a noticeable field, I'd be greatly obliged. As I understand it, one rail in a railgun has a negative driving current, and the other has a positive driving current used in the creation of a Lorentz force - meaning the while the projectile conducts a charge through it in order to complete an actual electrical circuit, it doesn't have a noticeably permanent and stable charge of its own. My knowledge on the subject probably has faded somewhat and muddled somewhat because of studying other things, so I'll quote wikipedia's railgun article on where magnetic force goes:

This simple model predicts that exactly half of the electromagnetic work will be used to store energy in the magnetic field along the barrel, {\displaystyle L'xI^{2}/2}

, as the length of the current loop increases.

The other half of the electromagnetic work represents the more useful power flow - into the kinetic energy of the projectile.

however I wouldn't think a standard deflector shield would hinder one of these rounds

Railguns show up reasonably commonly enough in Star Wars that if they had significant ability to outright ignore deflector shields that I think we'd know about it - and see a lot more railguns as well, given how relatively mature both shielding and railgun technology is in the Star Wars universe. But that's a negative evidence argument.

The closest canon item that I can find to what you describe is the Slingshot slug railcannon which can fire 'metal projectiles that partially bypassed a target's shield'. It's kind of vague as to what shielding they're referring to (and it could simply be a game mechanic) because it would make sense for a projectile to bypass ray shielding entirely, while it could be impacted by particle shields, which "absorb kinetic energy from physical impacts" (Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology, P.82). In-game statistics state that 20% of the damage bypasses shields and goes directly to the target's hull, which doesn't suggest to me that railgun projectiles outright ignore shielding, though it is probably more effective against it compared to conventional weapons.


End point to this all is that while I can see this being arguably more effective than many weapons against shielding (and I can support something like that in the sub's description), I don't see anything currently suggesting that this can ignore shielding.

 

[Adron Malvern]

Ok, so mind if we split these up?

I'd like to start with the ION aspect of the weapon. So this may require I adjust the specs of the weapon a bit, maybe to make it more focused on being an actual ION weapon as opposed to a weapon with ION properties. The ION Pulse Cannon utilized in the Clone Wars effectively disabled enemy shields and star systems. Would we say this is because the ION Cannon was powerful enough to move through the shield and THEN disable the shield's systems or does the ION pulse itself disable the shields? If it is the first option, i can probably reconfigure the sub, making it more powerful and likely going back down to Semi-unique or even unique production if I have to.

Alternatively, I can equip each round with a field disruptor, that would allow it to keep the property of bypassing the shield while ditching the ION concept entirely. I'd like your opinion on it if you don't mind?

Gir Quee

 

[Gir Quee]

Adron Malvern , people have made ion pulse cannons before in the Factory, and I see no issue with you making one now. As a reminder though, the original weapon is listed as a superweapon in wookieepedia. Marking down that's explicitly doesn't have as much power is the way forward if you choose to go this route.

It's entirely possible to use individual field disruptors instead. However, it's worth noting that these canonically are not a guarantee of shield penetration, especially with particle shields. The original devices as described in canon aren't used against deflector shields at all (ray or particle) but rather against energy fences (the Evasive-13 wookiee page has more details). I think you can make an argument they're basically anti-force field devices that work similarly enough (and that's traditionally been accepted on Chaos for breaching ship and planetary shields for transport craft). With that said though, even assuming that the principles are the same doesn't guarantee successful shield penetration, as it's entirely possible that an opposing shield is simply too strong. From the Evasive-13 Individual Field Disruptor entry in Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology, page 72:

The Evasive-13 can defeat most civilian energy fence systems, but military units have high enough energy ratings to counteract this disruptor.

 

[Gir Quee]

Adron Malvern , where are we at with this? Do you want me to move it to the pre-Factory for the time being?

 

[Gir Quee]

Adron Malvern I've moving this to the archive for the time being to help clean up the Factory forums. Let us know when you're ready to continue with it.