Krasnaya Xue
Red Snow
Intent: To create a SCION variant for capital ship arsenals and planetary defense.
Development Thread: Stand By, Ion Control; Paralyzer
Manufacturer: Krasnie Drives
Model: SCION 20-Meter Electromagnetic Beam Cannon
Affiliation: The Rebel Alliance; The Republic
Modularity: [None]
Production: Minor
Material: Tunqstoid; Duralloy; Quadanium
Classification: Electromagnetic beam emitter
Size: Ship-mounted or grounded planetary
Length: 20 meters
Weight: 108 metric tonnes
Ammunition Type: Energy capacitor
Ammunition Capacity: Unlimited
Effective Range: Long-range by capital ship weapon standards
Rate of Fire: Once per individual charge-up
Special Features:
- Steam-powered
- Heavily plated/shielded housing
The SCION system first emits a cluster of photons to plow ahead through magnetic fields at lightspeed, opening a wake for trailing ionized gamma rays to penetrate shields unhindered. The 'wake' is capable of creating a tiny gap in any shield and allowing the ionized photons to breach, which inflicts the target by deactivating local electronic systems in one shot.
The 20-meter model is exceptionally more powerful than the SCION 6m, with enough firepower to completely disable a corvette or frigate with a few accurate shots or to damage hectometer-wide segments of full-sized capital ships, bringing down systems and leaving the targeted vessel limping, thus giving the attacker an opening to pour in destructive fire without full resistance. While designed to be ship-mounted, the 20-meter variant is also a formidable weapon for planetary defense purposes due to its long range, capable of hitting large ships in orbit.
The SCION gun is very fast in rotation and targeting, but its firing rate is very slow as it requires a brief charge-up of its energy capacitor for every single shot fired. It is heavily armored and its rotation is steam-powered in order to reduce vulnerability to similar ion attacks on itself.