Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Seeing many of its political allies and customers on the defensive, Lucerne Labs turned towards creating a general purpose mine that could fill the gap between its existing short-ranged anti-starfighter mine and its long-range anti-capital ship mine. To this end, it was determined that the mine would have to be equally effective against both small and large ships alike. This requirement compounded by recent advances in defense technology ruled out many common mine payloads like small laser cannons or explosives. However, in their search for a payload, they ran across an entry to the old Yevethan Gravity Bomb and decided to try and duplicate its effects with modern gravitational technology rather than high explosives.
With their weaponized payload found, Lucerne Labs focused retrofitting existing Starstreak mine shells for their new components. It was quickly found that the base repulsor beam generator, gravity generator, and their cryogenic power cell left a little extra room. Seeking to improve their product a little bit more, Lucerne Labs added a fuel slug and several small chemical thrusters which gives the mine a very limited amount of self-propulsion. Since this fuel supply is small and the thrusters cheap and inefficient, it typically can only fire off a few bursts of power, mostly relying on inertia from these thrusts to close with the target. Several seconds before it enters effective firing range, the Fracture uses an etheric rudder to roughly orient its front towards the target. When a Fracture enters targeting range, a combination of a proximity sensor and an IFF transponder reader both separately arm the weapon. This is a pretty simple system that while usually foolproof in terms of collateral damage, also means that it lacks autonomous tactical understanding or target priority. Because of this, they can also be controlled via remote control to a friendly ship or space station if subspace radio waves aren't being jammed. Then the mine's remaining power is pumped into its weapons payload.
To this end, each Fracture contains a pair of single-use, high-powered generators. A single gravity generator produces a focused cone of force that draws the target towards the mine, while a repulsor generator produces a slightly overlapping cone of force that pushes the same target away from the mine. By simultaneously pulling and pushing the target, this creates a shearing effect where the cones overlap. On lightly built or armored targets, this may literally cut the target asunder. On larger or more heavily built targets, the effect is much similar to the Yevethan gravity bomb, where the shearing effects wears down the structural integrity of the ship's frame and causes massive shifts in the ship's internal gravity, causing people and other objects onboard to be slammed or jarred around inside the ship. Because the mine is so small, the duration and area of effect also quite limited, with the cones' diameter typically not exceeding several dozen meters in diameter and rarely lasting more than a few seconds. The mines can then be recovered for reuse with a new power source and fuel supply, which typically only happens when they are placed to defend friendly worlds or space stations. Alternatively, a small collapsium-based self-destruct mechanism can be triggered, which implodes and wipes all traces of the mine away. This self-destruct is not powerful enough to damage anything around it, and only exists in order to ensure that the weapon cannot be recovered.
Fractures have very limited utility by themselves, and best deployed in combination with other weapons. To this end, they are typically deployed as an outer defense to wear down enemy capital vessels before they enter the effective firing range of other defenses or starships that use high-powered kinetic weapons. Alternatively, they are can be as close-range defenses to deter enemy starfighter attack runs, especially if used in combination with Cometburst mines.
Intent: To provide Lucerne Labs with a general purpose mine to sell
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Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: Fracture-class Gravity Mine
Affiliation: Lucerne Labs, Closed Market
Modularity: None
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Carboplas, gravity generator, repulsor beam generator, electronics, collapsium self-destruct
Classification: Space Mine
Size: Ship-Launched
Length: 2.5 meters
Weight: 400 kilograms
Ammunition Type: energy
Ammunition Capacity: Single use
Effective Range: short Capital Ship
Rate of Fire: single shot
Low profile: Fracture is designed to be difficult to immediately spot through using low-profile carboplas casing and other passive stealth measures such as a chemical drive system.
Proximity detonation: Fractures use a combination of a proximity fuse combined with an IFF reader to identify potential targets and arms its payload.
Seeker: The Fracture has a very small fuel slug and several miniature chemical thrusters, which grant it a very limited ability to move towards targets, usually by drifting on inertia.
Gravity Weapon: Fracture is equipped with a gravity generator and a repulsor beam, with one generator generator generating tremendous force forward, while the other pulls part of the object forward. This creates a shearing effect on targets.
Common Shape: The Fracture uses the same basic shape and dimensions of the other Lucerne Labs mines based on the SJ-62/68, making it capable of deployment from existing minelaunching systems.
Hunter-Seeker: The Fracture has a limited ability to propel itself forward towards it target.
Gravity Weapon: The Fracture's weapon is not easily countered by conventional shielding or armor technologies.
Low Profile: Fracture is designed to have a small sensor profile and signature, which can allow it to remain undetected until it is in within range of its target.
Starfighter Deployable: The Fracture's shell is based on that of the SJ-62/68, and thus can usually be deployed by certain bombers or other craft that have some flexibility in their ordinance payload.
Single use: Unlike the classic Type A, B, or Defender Ion mines, the Fracture is a single use weapon during an engagement.
Short-range: Unlike those same same mines, the Fracture has a relatively short range of about a half kilometer.
Plane Effect: Particularly small or fast objects may only be caught in one of the gravity fields, which while it may temporarily interfere with the target's maneuvers, may otherwise not be effected at all because the other gravity field wasn't present to cause a shearing effect.
Indiscriminate: As a basic area of effect weapon, the Fracture's attack is just as likely to destroy an enemy target as a friendly starship in close-quarters combat.
Seeing many of its political allies and customers on the defensive, Lucerne Labs turned towards creating a general purpose mine that could fill the gap between its existing short-ranged anti-starfighter mine and its long-range anti-capital ship mine. To this end, it was determined that the mine would have to be equally effective against both small and large ships alike. This requirement compounded by recent advances in defense technology ruled out many common mine payloads like small laser cannons or explosives. However, in their search for a payload, they ran across an entry to the old Yevethan Gravity Bomb and decided to try and duplicate its effects with modern gravitational technology rather than high explosives.
With their weaponized payload found, Lucerne Labs focused retrofitting existing Starstreak mine shells for their new components. It was quickly found that the base repulsor beam generator, gravity generator, and their cryogenic power cell left a little extra room. Seeking to improve their product a little bit more, Lucerne Labs added a fuel slug and several small chemical thrusters which gives the mine a very limited amount of self-propulsion. Since this fuel supply is small and the thrusters cheap and inefficient, it typically can only fire off a few bursts of power, mostly relying on inertia from these thrusts to close with the target. Several seconds before it enters effective firing range, the Fracture uses an etheric rudder to roughly orient its front towards the target. When a Fracture enters targeting range, a combination of a proximity sensor and an IFF transponder reader both separately arm the weapon. This is a pretty simple system that while usually foolproof in terms of collateral damage, also means that it lacks autonomous tactical understanding or target priority. Because of this, they can also be controlled via remote control to a friendly ship or space station if subspace radio waves aren't being jammed. Then the mine's remaining power is pumped into its weapons payload.
To this end, each Fracture contains a pair of single-use, high-powered generators. A single gravity generator produces a focused cone of force that draws the target towards the mine, while a repulsor generator produces a slightly overlapping cone of force that pushes the same target away from the mine. By simultaneously pulling and pushing the target, this creates a shearing effect where the cones overlap. On lightly built or armored targets, this may literally cut the target asunder. On larger or more heavily built targets, the effect is much similar to the Yevethan gravity bomb, where the shearing effects wears down the structural integrity of the ship's frame and causes massive shifts in the ship's internal gravity, causing people and other objects onboard to be slammed or jarred around inside the ship. Because the mine is so small, the duration and area of effect also quite limited, with the cones' diameter typically not exceeding several dozen meters in diameter and rarely lasting more than a few seconds. The mines can then be recovered for reuse with a new power source and fuel supply, which typically only happens when they are placed to defend friendly worlds or space stations. Alternatively, a small collapsium-based self-destruct mechanism can be triggered, which implodes and wipes all traces of the mine away. This self-destruct is not powerful enough to damage anything around it, and only exists in order to ensure that the weapon cannot be recovered.
Fractures have very limited utility by themselves, and best deployed in combination with other weapons. To this end, they are typically deployed as an outer defense to wear down enemy capital vessels before they enter the effective firing range of other defenses or starships that use high-powered kinetic weapons. Alternatively, they are can be as close-range defenses to deter enemy starfighter attack runs, especially if used in combination with Cometburst mines.
