Approved Ranged Weapon LKF "Flicker" Plasma Torpedo Launcher

[Helix]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a naval-grade torpedo weapon for Helix vessels
• Image Source: Link
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Helix Privateers
• Affiliation: Helix Privateers
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: LKF Flicker
• Modularity: No
• Production: Minor
• Material: Helsteel, Storm Iron, Helglass, Otherplasma

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Missile/Plasma
• Size: Large
• Weight: Heavy
• Ammunition Type: Otherplasma warheads
• Ammunition Capacity: Very Large
• Effective Range: Battlefield
• Rate of Fire: Low
• Damage Output: Very High
• Recoil: Very High

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Exceptional range and damage
• Contaminates bombardment areas
• Aftershock-integrated

STRENGTHS

• Salvo: The Flicker is capable of projecting unstable Otherplasma torpedoes over enormous distances.
• Salt The Earth: When used in an orbital bombardment capacity, these weapons typically inflict long-term radioactive contamination to the surrounding area.

WEAKNESSES

• Slow n' Steady: The Flicker launcher possesses a very slow rate of fire (perhaps to avoid jostling the warheads too much).
• Cookout: A premature detonation of a Flicker missile will almost certainly be fatal to its operators, and anyone else unlucky enough to be nearby.

DESCRIPTION

Despite its innocuous word designation, the Flicker missile launcher is purely a weapon of terror and oppression.

Following the usual Helix design doctrine of carrying numerous smaller missiles rather than fewer, more powerful ones, the Flicker possesses a sizeable stockpile of spare munitions, and is thus capable of keeping up fire for an exceptionally long time.

The missiles themselves emit significant ambient radiation even when inert, and as such simply approaching this weapon can be dangerous. This is due to their warheads, inside each of which is a cluster of some 30 deliberately-faulty Otherplasma reactors.

This renders these munitions highly unstable, and they should be handled with extreme caution. Nonetheless, their effects on hard targets can be devastating.

When used against other vessels, the Flicker's primary operation is simply to be launched toward a target, as with any other such weapon. Still, each individual missile contains its own Aftershock computational software. This renders these munitions capable of surprising course-corrections, as they are capable of accurately calculating not only the enemy's current position, but their potential future one as well.

As such, a launched torpedo will doggedly track its target, detonating once it touches shielding or a hull. Once so triggered, the Flicker torpedo's method of operation is similar to the Gossamer's secondary firing mode. The warhead's internal Otherplasma reactors are deliberately made to go supercritical, then contained with powerful magnetic fields in almost all directions. The only direction their fury can be vented in is toward the target.

The resultant torrent of star-stuff is hammered into the hull or shield in a directed, controlled explosion, subjecting a small area to tremendous thermal and kinetic shock. Moments later, the burst typically spreads outwards, sending billowing sheets of eldritch black flame rippling across the field's surface (or in the case of a hull breach, through nearby corridors). This secondary incendiary radius is far larger, but somewhat less destructive. Nonetheless, allowing this weapon to breach a hull is to be avoided, as it can spread its dreaded flames (and radiotoxic contaminants) throughout a large section of a ship's interior.

Likewise, these weapons are also occasionally used to bombard ground targets. A captain considering this course is advised to do so carefully, as these weapons typically poison an area for centuries, or in some cases millennia. Radiation at an impact site is many, many times higher than would typically be needed to kill most forms of life, necessitating the use of protective gear.

Nonetheless, there are few more effective terror weapons in the galaxy, and the sweeping ebon fire of the Flicker missile is the stuff of horror stories and dark legends all over the galactic map. In some cases this is enough to prompt the deployment of a Flicker launcher groundside. These ground-based emplacements can serve as defense against orbital foes, or as a way to effectively extort a planet.

 

[MANIAC]

Helix

Nicely made.

Approved.