John Locke
V U L K A N
- Intent: To submit an new stand-off missile for Locke and Key Mechanics to sell
- Image Source:
- Top Image: Star Citizen | Stalker V Missile
- Banners and Photoshop work: By me
- Canon Link: N/a
- Permissions: N/a
- Primary Source:
- Manufacturer: Locke and Key Mechanics
- Affiliation: Locke and Key Mechanics
- Market Status: Closed
- Model: Ranthar Missile Mk. I
- Modularity: No
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Materials:
- Durasteel
- Electronics
- Ultrachrome
- Classification: Capital Missile
- Size: Very Large
- Weight: Extremely Heavy
- Explosive Type: Advanced Nuclear
- Delivery Method: Self-Propelled/Launched
- Effective Range: Battlefield
- Area Of Effect: Average
- Damage Output: Extreme
- Propulsion and Maneuvering:
- Launch: The Ranthar is designed to be launched from an assisted launch system, using a railgun or gravimetric launchers to provide it an initial burst of speed. Note: While designed to be launched from an assisted launch system, it can be fired from a normal capital missile weapon, however this will slow it down decreasing it’s overall survivability.
- Mid-course: During the main element of its journey towards its target the Rantharutilizes the gravity-powered propulsion of the Huabing drive to carry it forward towards its target.
- Terminal: During its final attack run on its target, the Ranthar fires off an Ion Engine, giving it a last minute burst of speed. At this point the Huabing will switch to a purely maneuvering system, juking the missiles from left to right in order to allow it to avoid oncoming point defense fire.
- Guidance and Tracking
- Launch: During its launch phase the Ranthar downloads a data package from its launch ship which contains the data on it’s target and the route it’s been sent on as well as data on the defenses of its target and any friendly IFF signatures in the area.
- Mid-course: Datalinks provide constant updates to the data package on the missile, providing updates on the evolving nature of the battlefield the missile will have to fight in.
- Terminal: When the missile gets close enough to its target to trigger the terminal flight sequence the data package is locked in and will not accept further commands to shut down, and further command updates are to be given via a encrypted laser link, though these commands only deal with when to trigger the terminal boost and pathing instructions. This is, in particular, to prevent the effects of the Missile Deactivation Transmitters.
- The Ranthar is unique amongst Locke and Key’s latest missile classes in that it is not a combat missile but is instead a support missile. It’s terminal phase is not designed to destroy an enemy ship, but rather to increase the likelihood of other missiles accomplishing that goal.
- Stand-off Missile
- Shield Penetration: The Ultrachrome plating on the tip of the missile utilizes the metal’s unique characteristic of being able to reflect electromagnetic energy and physical attaks allowing the missile to pass through the energy barriers or survive point defense that might otherwise be expected to stop it.
- After the missile closes with its target, passing through its shields it will jettison the ultrachrome cap exposing the focusing lens beneath
- Nuclear: The Ranthar missile converts the power of a nuclear bomb into a directed energy beam that can be used to attack the target.
- A nuclear bomb is detonated in the warhead of the missile, and through the use of a special containment vessel and powerful magnetic fields, the energy of the bomb is directed forward.
- The output of the bomb is funneled forward through a magnetic lens which focuses the particles into a tightly focused beam which allows the particle beam to travel without spreading and therefore losing its power.
- Shield Penetration: The Ultrachrome plating on the tip of the missile utilizes the metal’s unique characteristic of being able to reflect electromagnetic energy and physical attaks allowing the missile to pass through the energy barriers or survive point defense that might otherwise be expected to stop it.
- Extended Range
- The Ranthar’s grav drive allows it to travel through space without using up it’s fuel, as long as the missile remains powered
- High survivability
- Shields:
- The Ranthar is equipped with a set of Duban Magnetic Shields which are able to provide it significant protection from kinetic and energy based point defense fire.
- Manoeuvrability:
- The Huabing gravimetric drive allows the missile to dance across space, performing feats of maneuverability that would be seen as impossible for a normal missile. It doesn’t need to change it’s heading or speed in order to shift in any direction making it very hard to get a solid lock onto.
- Ultrachrome Tip:
- The Ultrachrome head of the missile is able to reflect some of the incoming fire giving it even more of a chance of survival in the modern battlefield.
- Shields:
- Incredible Destructive Power:
- The Ranthar focuses the incredible power unleashed by a fusion bomb into coherent beams of light which can traverse space, delivering death and destruction in their wake. All the power and radiation released by a nuclear weapon focused into a laser that has the potential to disintegrate and shatter ships and their armour.
- Long-range:
- The Ranthar is designed to travel across a battlefield, carrying it’s deadly payload to the enemy, while the launching ship can sit safely out of the range of its opponents. Utilising the gravitational propulsion technology of the Huabing Drive the Ranthar is able to maintain it’s maneuverability even while operating at significant speeds.
- Survivable:
- The Ranthar is designed to deliver the payload to the enemy, with multiple systems working together to enable this. The warhead is coated in Ultrachrome, allowing it to absorb incoming energy fire. The missile is also protected by energy shielding allowing it to shrug off a surprising amount of enemy fire before it’s destroyed. Combined with the missile’s gravity drive it can be a tough nut to crack.
- Thermal Blooming:
- The Rathar Missile is useless in atmosphere, whie the power of the missile in space will die off after some distance, in atmosphere the laser’s power to rapidly robbed by thermal blooming. Unless the missiles is detonated right next to its target it won’t cause any damage.
- Data-reliant:
- In order to prevent its active sensors from making the Ranthar a target it is heavily reliant on the data package uploaded and updated by a capital ship. If the data package is incomplete due to ECM the missile will launch with incorrect data and make it’s decisions based on that.
- Larger than Average:
- The Ranthar is not a small missile, more equivilent to a fighter than a missile. While this gives it more range and explosive power, it also means that it’s a more vulnerable target. Not just to Point defense but fighters and other small craft.
- A hammer, not a scalpel:
- The Ranthar is designed to be used against larger craft and stations, a small craft will find it laughably easy to avoid the missile.
The Ranthar Missiles is Locke and Key’s answer to the perennial problem with shipborne weaponry. You need to actually hit a target in the vastness of space. This isn’t normally an issue for weapons which travel at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, such as energy based weapons or those shot from a railgun. However, so much of a missiles power and capability comes from it’s onboard elements, limiting it’s speed. For that reason a missile has never been a long range weapon in ship-to-ship combat, always more focused on the short range combat where it was more likely to hit it’s target.
The new missile frame Locke and Key’s engineer’s created changed that, giving missiles the legs they’d needed to have a truly battlefield reach. Locke and Key’s first offensive missile to use this frame was the Lylek, a missile that, while not revolutionary, used an antimatter warhead to produce a powerful direct impact weapon. The Ranthar was the ultimate evolution of the missile concept, using powerful X-ray pumper lasers to create a missile that could engage multiple targets, or focus a deadly wrath upon just one. The lasers generated by the Ranthar made it a stand-off weapon, one that didn’t have to directly hit your ship to damage or even destroy it.
In the world of ship-to-ship combat, the Ranthar is a game changer and is the ultimate evolution of Locke and Key’s missile doctrine.
Last edited:
