Approved Tech Harrowleech Bomb Mk. I

[Darth Prazutis]

​

• Intent: To create a Kainate exclusive shield-siphon breach bomb that opens a timed corridor through enemy deflectors, cripples shield generators, and enables follow-on precision strikes by bomber wings.
• Image Source:
  • Headers - Teresa Zambrano | Darth Pellax
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

• Manufacturer:
  
  • Malsheem Hypernautics and Manufacturing
• Affiliation:
  
  • The Kainate
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: Harrowleech Bomb Mk. I
• Modularity: No
• Production: Limited
• Material:
  • Bloodsteel Casing
  • Bled Kyber Modulator Ring
  • Siphon-Coil Inductor Stack
  • Shear-Loop Breach Projector Assembly
  • Sigil-Wire Control Lattices
  • Shadow-Phase Baffle Foil

• Veil-Threaded Phase Gate: A ring of fractured bled kyber crystals is tuned to couple with the harmonic envelope of enemy deflectors during terminal approach. Once the array locks, it draws a measured sliver of shield energy, inverts its phase relationship, and routes that inversion into the Shear-Loop. Coupling parameters can be pre-seeded by the Scry-Lens suite, which hands the bomb a clean harmonic read so the latch occurs quickly and with minimal telemetry exposure.
• Shear-Loop Breach Projector: On detonation the projector releases the inverted packet as a lance-straight corridor through the shield face. The corridor persists for a calibrated interval measured in seconds, with width selected at arming to match the follow-on payload profile. Crews describe it as a black seam that opens and holds a razor-still line through the wall of light, a cut that should not exist and then does until the timer runs out.
• Generator Backfeed Rupture: The same inverted packet rides the deflector's return path into capacitor banks and control nodes, forcing either a protective quench or an uneven recharge stutter. Heat load rises as logic scrambles, which prevents an immediate clean reseal even after the seam collapses. In layered grid architectures the backfeed can ripple into adjacent nodes, creating partial coverage and jagged edges that follow-on strikes can exploit.
• Shadow-Phase Baffle Cloud: During the last seconds of flight the bomb sheds a cloud of Bloodsteel micro-foils etched with tuned phase noise. The cloud returns shield-like shimmer at false ranges and angles, which lures point-defense into chasing ghosts while the real body remains a muted signature under its own shadow. Multi-band glints confuse optical gates and lidar simultaneously, increasing survivability to the merge against modern point defense stacks.
• Gravitic Course Correction Nodes: Integrated gravitic nodes provide silent trajectory and attitude trims without thruster emissions. Pilots can walk the bomb onto a specific shield facet, turret bubble, or hangar screen even if the target yaws, rolls, or strafes mid-run. Formation leads can also coordinate micro-trims across several Harrowleeches so multiple corridors open on a single vector, allowing stacked payloads to thread in a ripple.
• Timed Corridor Programming: Before release, crews program corridor dwell and orientation to align with the planned lane of fire. Short windows suit single-shot lance threading or a single breacher; longer windows support a ripple of bombs or missiles in close formation. Timing locks are sequenced wing-wide to prevent overlap collisions, which lets several bombers pass their munitions through the same cut in disciplined order.

• Shield Door Opener: Harrowleech does not batter shields, it keys them and pries a corridor open so kill munitions can pass untouched. This gives Kainate wings a reliable first strike when brute force would stall at the wall. The corridor creation is consistent across common military deflector families, which turns an enemy's best layer of protection into an invitation.
• Generator Crippler: Backfeed rupture punishes the source by forcing capacitor stress and logic missteps that linger after the seam closes. The result is partial coverage and slow reseal, which stretches the window for follow-on ordnance and lance shots. Even when a total collapse is avoided, efficiency drops and thermal limits tighten, making the next breach easier.
• Point-Defense Evasion: Shadow-phase baffles keep approach signatures thin while spoofing PD range gates with convincing glints. Defensive fire control wastes cycles on false positives as the real bomb couples and cuts. Survivability to the merge is markedly higher than conventional shield-breaker rockets that advertise themselves with thrust bloom and hot skins.
• Surgical Breach Placement: Gravitic trimming and dwell programming put the hole exactly where doctrine demands. Open a slit over a reactor blister, a hangar mouth, a dorsal sponson, or a capacitor tower, then thread precise payloads through the seam. Placement control turns shielded ships and towers into target arrays with doors where the Kainate chooses.
• Doctrine Synergy: Pairs seamlessly with the Scry-Lens Bombardment Suite. The suite maps shield harmonics and hands a coupling solution to Harrowleech, which opens the seam; Bloodfire, Spinebreaker, Netherpierce, or Nullshock then pass through on a perfect lane after the Cataclysm Axial Lance carves a gouge in the hull, preparing it for true devastation as the bombs fall.

• Force Nullification: Deep within fields of Force Nullification, the bled-kyber array cannot hold a coupling lock. The bomb still detonates and may induce localized ionization, but a clean corridor cannot be formed, and the attack reverts to conventional effects. Kainate doctrine requires null suppression or shield disruption before employment to avoid wasting the breach window.
• Harmonic Countermeasures: Targets equipped with aggressive shield jitter, asymmetric phase cycling, or stabilizer grids can shorten corridor life or reduce width. The seam still forms, yet timing margins tighten and threading becomes more demanding for the strike package. Such defenses are rare and expensive to field fleet-wide, but they reduce Harrowleech's elegance when present.

The Harrowleech Bomb Mk. I answers the first question in every Kainate kill chain. How do you get in. Where Bloodfire drowns decks, Spinebreaker breaks steel bones, Nullshock betrays machines, Howlshard strips courage, Black Veil blinds, and Netherpierce blooms inside, Harrowleech provides the door they all require. It is a quiet key that fits the loudest locks.

On the run-in, velvety clouds of Bloodsteel baffle foil drift from the casing and paint false targets across enemy scopes. Behind that veil, the bled-kyber ring listens to the rhythm of the shield and takes its measure. The array does not wrestle the wall, it steals a pulse and hands it back inverted to the Shear-Loop. At detonation the loop releases that inversion as a needle-straight seam. For a breath the cut is real, a narrow corridor that holds steady in the face of a raging field. Through it, bombs and beams pass as if the shield were never there.

Down the return path the inversion claws at capacitors and logic, forcing a stumble that keeps protection thin while the rest of the strike package arrives. Coverage bars fold and stretch on alien timing, recharge curves shift, and thermal ceilings drop. Point-defense fires at ghosts thrown by the shadow-phase glints while the real payload follows the open lane and buries itself where doctrine demands.

Harrowleech's beauty lies in how little mess it makes for how much harm it allows. There is no roar to advertise the breach and no broad fireball to light the sky, only a line in the air and the cold realization that a trusted wall has parted. Shields without disciplined doctrine tend to panic and fold entirely; shields with doctrine still falter because the window opens and closes on Kainate timing, not theirs. The warhead fails in null and elite sanctums can roughen the seam, yet across fleets and fortresses that place their faith in thickness and light, Harrowleech turns certainty into suggestion.

In the hands of Kainate bombers the sequence is simple. Scry-Lens marks the facet and hands the harmonics. Harrowleech couples, cuts, and limps the generator. Netherpierce, Spinebreaker, Bloodfire, or Nullshock walk through the door in the order the commander calls. The Cataclysm Axial Lance threads last to carve the gouge that writes the lesson. Harrowleech knocks once, the door opens, and the rest of the Kainate comes in.

 

[MANIAC]

Darth Prazutis

Very cool sub again!

Approved.