Approved Ranged Weapon VKS-89 "Godbreaker"

[VesperWorks]

VKS-89 "Godbreaker"​

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To submit a heavy, twin-barreled assault cannon for capital ship use, capable of sustained, high-damage ballistic fire using shaped-charge shells against armor and shields.
Image Source: MidJourney
Canon Link: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Vantablast Industries (Subsidiary of VesperWorks)
Affiliation: Vantablast Industries, VesperWorks, Project Vesper, Serina Calis, Atramentum
Market Status: Closed-Market
Model: VKS-89 "Godbreaker"
Modularity: No
Production: Limited
Material:

• Durasteel: The Godbreaker's massive external turret casing, barrel superstructure, and carousel loader chassis are constructed primarily from military-grade durasteel, the galactic standard for heavy armor. This alloy is chosen for its balance between hardness, blast resistance, and relative machinability, allowing field crews to repair and replace damaged plates even in combat zones. On the Godbreaker, durasteel forms interlocking plating layers, reinforced with angled ribbing to deflect impacts and resist spalling from near misses and glancing strikes.
• Agrinium: The electromagnetic ejection coils and shell ignition system generate localized radiation bursts during rapid-fire sequences. Agrinium, a non-reactive radiation-absorbing alloy, is used to shield sensitive components around the induction chamber, fire-control uplinks, and ammunition feed lines. This prevents radiation flashback from disrupting electronics, burning out targeting systems, or contaminating nearby crew stations. It also reduces the weapon's EM signature footprint, giving a slight edge in sensor-shielded combat scenarios.
• Phrik Lining: To withstand the immense pressures and temperatures generated by sustained firing of high-explosive shaped-charge rounds, the inner lining of each L/89 barrel is coated with phrik, a near-indestructible alloy known for its lightsaber resistance and thermal resilience. This ensures that internal rifling remains intact over extended engagements and prevents microfractures during "overfire" cycles. Phrik is also used in internal blast doors and breach seals, protecting the crew compartments and power relays in the event of a misfire or cook-off event.
• Neutronium Alloy (Recoil Housing & Mount Anchors): Firing the Godbreaker generates recoil forces akin to controlled seismic events. To keep the turret from tearing itself free of the hull, its cradle, elevation armature, and recoil-compensating pistons are built from neutronium alloy—a hyper-dense material capable of absorbing kinetic energy without deformation. These components are critical to the weapon's structural survival and allow the gun to recenter after each shot, maintaining accuracy and turret integrity even under high-stress battlefield conditions.
• Plasteel: Non-critical components such as external sensor ports, service access hatches, and recoil track covers are composed of plasteel—a lightweight, cost-effective material used to shield internal systems from shrapnel, vacuum exposure, or crew impact during recoil cycles. Plasteel is easy to replace, minimizing downtime between battles and keeping the Godbreaker combat-operational with basic field tools and modular parts.
• Thermoguard Gel: To regulate barrel and chamber temperature, the Godbreaker is fitted with micro-latticed thermal tubing filled with Thermoguard gel, a highly conductive coolant used in naval-grade power systems. This gel circulates automatically via integrated pumps, absorbing heat from the rifling coils and chamber lining before venting it through barrel-mounted exhaust ports. In emergency overfire cycles, the system activates in pulse mode, allowing a short burst of sustained fire—but only at the risk of internal coolant depletion and vent surge.
• Fiberplast Wiring: All internal electrical circuits, including turret elevation servos, vent override systems, and targeting feedback loops, are encased in fiberplast, a flexible, non-conductive material that resists ion surges, EMP interference, and thermal breakdown. This choice keeps the gun functional even in environments saturated by electronic warfare or after partial shipwide power loss—an essential feature in the chaos of capital ship engagements.
• Ferrocarbon (Ammunition Lift System & Autoloader Drive Train): The Godbreaker's autoloading system uses ferrocarbon alloy gears and carriage arms, chosen for their magnetic conductivity, low-friction tolerance, and structural integrity under repeated mechanical stress. These components ensure that the Godbreaker's drum-fed loader can operate under pressure, smoothly cycling rounds into each chamber at a steady pace, even while the vessel is under fire or in evasive maneuvers.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Slugthrower (Ballistic Dual Autocannon)
Size: Humongous
Weight: Extreme
Ammunition Type: High-Explosive Shaped-Charge Shells
Ammunition Capacity: Average (20–30 rounds per barrel, with internal drum feeds and reload bay)
Effective Range: Battlefield
Rate of Fire: High
Damage Output: Very High
Recoil: High

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Twin L/89 Synchronized Firing System:
  The Godbreaker's defining trait is its dual long-barrel design, with each L/89 electromagnetic cannon mounted side by side and connected to a unified fire-control processor. While capable of firing in alternating patterns to maintain pressure on the target, the system also features synchronized double-fire capability, in which both barrels discharge within milliseconds of one another. This allows for pulse-impact strikes capable of collapsing weakened armor sections or overwhelming shield windows between regeneration cycles.
• Electromagnetic Shell Ejection Coils:
  Each chamber is equipped with advanced mag-rail ejection coils, which launch the shell along the rifled barrel at extreme velocities while minimizing internal friction. These coils dramatically reduce wear on the barrel lining and allow the weapon to accelerate shaped-charge shells to maximum penetration velocity, even under low power draw conditions. The ejection coils also serve as secondary recoil buffers, softening the initial launch impulse before the neutronium shock absorbers engage.
• Shaped-Charge Warhead Compatibility:
  The VKS-89 is specifically designed to fire shaped-charge ogive rounds—armor-piercing munitions that focus explosive force into a single directional jet. The internal chamber and breach timing systems are tuned to stabilize the projectile's flight path and ensure proper fuse delay at impact. This weapon is not compatible with general-purpose explosive shells—each round is custom-built for penetration followed by internal concussive shock, making the Godbreaker a true armor killer.
• Powered Autoloader Carousel & Drum Feed System:
  The Godbreaker's twin barrels are sustained by a rotating carousel autoloader, housed within the turret's spinal column and fed by independent drum-style ammunition bays. Each round is lifted into place via ferrocarbon guide arms, with servo-synced cycling ensuring seamless shell seating and breach lock. This enables a high, sustained rate of fire without overheating or jamming—critical for long-term bombardment or area denial operations.
• Thermoguard Gel Barrel Cooling Matrix:
  Integrated into the barrel assembly is a thermoguard gel lattice, which actively regulates internal temperature by circulating nanocoolant through micro-veins embedded beneath the phrik lining. This prevents heat bloom and barrel warping during rapid volleys. After extended fire, the system automatically vents excess pressure through a series of armored port flaps—accompanied by a visual mist plume and audible hiss that has become iconic among Godbreaker crews.
• Overfire Mode (Emergency Sustained Fire Protocol):
  A unique feature of the Godbreaker is its Overfire Mode—a manual override that allows the cooling system to enter a pulse-vent state, temporarily sacrificing coolant reserves for maximum firing tempo. When engaged, both barrels cycle at near-maximum speed, producing a punishing barrage of high-velocity rounds for 10–15 seconds before requiring emergency venting and a hard cooldown. Overfire is used sparingly, typically as a last-resort hammer blow to end a critical engagement or break a siege formation.
• Fail-Safe Fire Interruption Valve:
  To prevent misfires or catastrophic breech pressure buildup, each barrel includes an independent pressure-sensing cutoff valve. If sensor systems detect overpressure, fuse delay error, or misaligned autoloader sequence, the valve will automatically disengage ignition and eject the round inert, protecting the gun—and the ship—from a shell cook-off. While this results in a lost shot, it prevents turret destruction or internal chain reaction.
• Fleetlink™ Combat Uplink Integration:
  The Godbreaker is compatible with VesperWorks' proprietary Fleetlink™ fire control uplink, allowing it to receive coordinated targeting data from sensor ships, drones, or other artillery platforms. This integration enables long-range killbox setups, synchronized fire arcs, or cross-vessel barrage commands—a force multiplier in large-scale engagements. Additionally, the barrels can be slaved to automated suppression patterns, allowing them to continue firing in grid formation even if primary control is disrupted.
• Cradle-Recoil Synchronization Pistons:
  To manage the immense kinetic output of the twin barrels, the VKS-89 is mounted on a neutronium-core cradle recoil system, anchored directly into the ship's structural spine. The cradle includes inertial dampeners, vertical torsion clamps, and synchronized hydraulic pistons, which absorb firing shockwaves and preserve turret alignment. This allows for accurate follow-up targeting even during evasive maneuvers or in atmospheric pressure zones.
• Ceremonial Armament Protocol (NAVCOM-D Class Traditions):
  While not a technical feature, Dominion Navy vessels with VKS-89 mounts often include dedicated gunnery rites—ranging from ritualized shell loading chants to reactor-pulse synchronizations during "Godbreaker Hour," a shift-wide alert drill where the weapon is kept primed for honor salvoes. This cultural embedment of the weapon creates cohesion among crews and identity among ships, reinforcing loyalty and psychological resilience under fire.

STRENGTHS

• Devastating Anti-Armor Performance — "The Hullsplitter":
  The Godbreaker is explicitly designed to destroy heavily armored targets through the sustained application of shaped-charge warheads delivered at high velocity. These shells do not merely penetrate—they rupture plating, compromise hull integrity, and send overpressured shockwaves through a target's superstructure. Against static defenses, dreadnought hulls, and fortified emplacements, the Godbreaker excels where turbolasers fail. Even starship armor specifically tuned to resist energy weapons finds itself torn apart by the raw physics of Godbreaker fire.
• Sustained Fire Under Thermal Load — Built to Outlast the Fight:
  Unlike most heavy weapon platforms that require cooldown cycles after a few salvos, the Godbreaker is fitted with nanocoolant-regulated thermoguard gel lines capable of rapid and sustained heat dispersal. This enables the weapon to maintain high output over prolonged engagements, turning it from a precision strike asset into a barrage platform. It can function as both a suppression weapon and a siege-breaker, offering flexibility and battlefield endurance rarely seen in guns of its class.
• Alternating Twin-Barrel Design — Continuous Pressure, Relentless Impact:
  The VKS-89's twin L/89 barrels are mounted with a synchronized but independently cycling mechanism, allowing them to fire alternately or simultaneously. This creates a thunderous rhythm of sustained, overlapping kinetic strikes, maintaining pressure on shield emitters, hull armor, or ground emplacements with no lapse between shells. Where single-barrel weapons offer impact, the Godbreaker offers momentum—a steady drumbeat of destruction that makes retreat, repair, or counter-fire far more difficult for its enemies.
• Overfire Mode — A Final Word in Steel and Fire:
  When an enemy must be broken now, the Godbreaker's Overfire Mode allows it to exceed its standard fire rate for a short burst at the cost of coolant efficiency and post-cycle shutdown. This mode is rarely used, but when it is, the weapon becomes a wall of kinetic annihilation, launching a concentrated salvo capable of obliterating an enemy's forward momentum, shattering a breakthrough push, or hammering a retreating ship into scrap before it can jump. It is a king-slayer protocol reserved for only the most critical moments.
• Shield-Stressing Firepower — Cracking Energy Barriers Through Volume:
  Though not purpose-built to counter shields, the Godbreaker's sheer volume of sustained high-impact explosions can rapidly wear down or overload shield capacitors, especially in older or poorly maintained vessels. Each successive impact forces shield emitters to cycle harder, introducing instability and feedback loops that can cause emitter flicker or critical field failure. Against energy shields with low recharge windows, the Godbreaker is a death sentence through brute force attrition.
• Fleetlink™ Integration — Force-Multiplied Lethality:
  Fully integrated into the Fleetlink™ command-and-control network, the Godbreaker can receive targeting solutions from spotter ships, drones, or fire coordinators, allowing it to engage targets at the edge of sensor range or through signal-obscured zones. This enables multi-platform synchronized volleys, where multiple vessels fire in perfect rhythm to obliterate a target in a single wave. The Godbreaker is not only a weapon—it is a node in a networked doctrine of coordinated devastation..
• Symbol of Culture — Morale Through Magnitude:
  In the Serina's Navy, the Godbreaker is not merely a gun—it is an identity. Crews celebrate its roar, synchronize shipboard rituals to its firing cycles, and tell stories of battles it ended in two salvos or less. It is nicknamed "The Heartbeat," a term both literal (for its distinctive thump-thump recoil) and spiritual. Its presence on a ship elevates morale, fosters discipline, and creates cohesion through shared awe. Few things are as psychologically stabilizing to Serina's sailors as the sound of the Godbreaker coming online.
• Highly Reliable Under Fire — Resistant to EMP, Ion, and Battlefield Chaos:
  Thanks to its heavy use of fiberplast-encased circuitry, analog loaders, and redundant magnetic ejection mechanisms, the Godbreaker is highly resistant to electronic warfare and ion disruption. Even in systems-compromised environments—after an ion bomb, slicer attack, or reactor surge—the gun can often continue operating in reduced-output autonomous mode, buying precious time for a crippled ship or station to retaliate before total shutdown.

WEAKNESSES

• Massive Physical Profile — A Beacon for Targeting Computers:
  The Godbreaker is enormous, both in turret height and barrel length. Its dual L/89 configuration makes it one of the most visually and sensor-obvious hardpoints on any vessel that mounts it. On infrared, radar, and even visual scopes, the Godbreaker stands out like a spire. Enemy gunners and capital ship AI will often prioritize this weapon system as a high-value target, knowing that its silence drastically reduces a ship's lethality. It cannot be concealed, shielded, or cloaked with any effectiveness once it's online. If it's there, it's already painted.
• Slow Traverse and Narrow Firing Arc — Vulnerable to Flanking and Close-Range Encirclement:
  Due to its bulk, the turret rotation speed of the Godbreaker is painfully slow. It is designed for deliberate fire against pre-selected, slow-moving or stationary targets, not for rapid directional changes. Agile enemies—especially frigates, gunships, or strike craft at close range—can easily outmaneuver its arc of fire, rendering the Godbreaker effectively inert unless supported by escorts or point-defense platforms. If caught between firing angles, its reset time can be fatal.
• Severe Recoil Shock — Structural Stress with Every Salvo:
  Even with neutronium recoil compensation and synchronized pistons, the Godbreaker produces massive recoil force. Each shot causes deck-wide reverberations, and over time this can lead to microfractures in turret mounts, hull warping, or even misalignment of adjacent systems like targeting arrays or cooling manifolds. Extended engagements without proper rest cycles or reinforcement can result in gun seizure, misfire, or structural collapse in older ships.
• Overfire Mode Comes at a Price — Risk of Coolant Depletion and Component Meltdown:
  The Overfire Mode is devastating but inherently dangerous. Activating it drains the Thermoguard system's nanocoolant reserves at an accelerated rate, and if used for longer than the prescribed window (10–15 seconds), it risks overheating the chamber, warping the rifling, or melting magnetic ejection coils. Improper use can permanently damage the weapon, lock the turret, or trigger a chain reaction leading to internal explosions. It's a desperation move, not a sustainable tactic.
• Ammo Logistics — Heavy, Volatile, and Finite:
  Each Godbreaker round is massive, complex, and difficult to fabricate. The shaped-charge ogives require precise assembly and magnetic stabilization during storage. As a result, ships can only carry a limited onboard cache (typically 20–30 shells per barrel), and rearming the weapon requires dedicated munitions crews, specialized loading cranes, and extensive safety protocols. In long campaigns, a Godbreaker vessel can become ammunition-starved, unable to contribute meaningfully without resupply.
• Dangerous Cook-Off Potential — Catastrophic If Compromised:
  If the Thermoguard cooling system fails, or if an enemy manages to detonate the ammunition carousel via pinpoint strikes or boarding sabotage, the Godbreaker becomes a bomb waiting to happen. Each shell's high-explosive charge and volatile materials could chain-react inside the loading bay, detonating half the ship's internal compartments. While internal bulkheads provide some protection, a worst-case ammo cook-off is a ship-killer from the inside out.
• Poor Performance vs. Shields Without Support — Not a True Anti-Shield Weapon:
  Though repeated kinetic blasts can strain shield emitters, the Godbreaker is not purpose-built for shield penetration. Against modern warships with redundant emitters, fast-cycling recharge, or shield-on-shield buffering, its rounds may detonate harmlessly on contact, failing to breach the field. Without support from ion cannons, beam disruptors, or coordinated shield-suppression, the Godbreaker's effectiveness is severely diminished—its rounds simply burn themselves out in the void.
• Minimal Flexibility — One Purpose, One Role:
  The Godbreaker is a specialist, not a multitool. It does one thing exceptionally well—break big things—and virtually everything else poorly or not at all. It cannot track fighters. It cannot provide area denial. It cannot launch variable munitions without full re-calibration. If the enemy force is dispersed, fast-moving, or heavily shielded, the Godbreaker becomes deadweight—a hulking symbol of misplaced investment without the proper battlefield conditions.

DESCRIPTION

The VKS-89 "Godbreaker" is not a weapon—it is a sentence. A declaration of contempt for survivability, a punishment handed down from high orbit, a fist of steel that drives not through targets, but through the idea of their endurance. It is the final word in the language of supremacy, and it is spoken in pairs—one from each of its twin L/89 barrels, thundering in rhythmic defiance of the enemy's armor, shields, and gods.

Born in the sealed forges beneath Polis Massa under the direction of Vantablast Industries, the Godbreaker was developed not just to meet the demands of modern naval warfare—but to shatter them outright. Serina Calis demanded a weapon that could not only destroy, but define. A system whose very presence on a hull would demand battlefield recalibration from her enemies. And the Godbreaker delivered.

Engineered for capital ship integration, the Godbreaker is a twin-barreled ballistic autocannon system built around electromagnetic acceleration and sustained kinetic overpressure. It fires shaped-charge high-explosive rounds, each one a mass of hardened alloy and directional annihilation—designed to burrow through starship hulls, burrow into ground fortresses, or overload enemy emitters through sheer velocity and detonation shock. Its targeting philosophy is simple: find the hardest point of an enemy and make it irrelevant.

But where other heavy guns exhaust themselves in salvos, the Godbreaker endures. Its nanocoolant reflex grid and thermoguard gel-lined barrels allow it to maintain firing pressure well beyond the limits of similar class weapons. Each barrel fires in alternating cycles, keeping the turret stable while delivering a steady, punishing cadence. In critical moments, the gunner can engage Overfire Mode, sacrificing coolant reserves in exchange for a near-instantaneous double-barreled barrage that can collapse a dreadnought's spinal deck or vaporize a planetary shield generator before countermeasures can respond.

The weapon's recoil is infamous. Entire decks tremble when it fires. Adjacent compartments must be reinforced. Turret rings must be made from neutronium composite to avoid tearing loose from their moorings. But for the Dominion, this is not a flaw—it is a ritual. Crews celebrate the thump-thump impact of every salvo, calling it "The Heartbeat of the Navy." Naval officers time their drills to its rhythm. Portside drinking halls mark their walls with stylized barrel engravings. And aboard Dominion flagships, where the Godbreaker's twin barrels loom over the bow like the tusks of a god-killer, no one ever forgets the sound of it coming online.

Yet for all its power, the Godbreaker is not omnipotent. It is slow to turn. It cannot track agile targets. Its ammunition reserves are finite, its thermal output dangerous if mismanaged. And should the coolant fail or a round cook off mid-chamber, it can kill its own ship just as easily as it ends another's. To field a Godbreaker is to take a vow: that power must be understood before it is unleashed. That fury must be aimed before it is permitted.

But when aimed correctly—when the targeting reticle turns red and the first shell leaves its cradle—everything else becomes academic. What was once defiance becomes debris. What was once structure becomes vapor. What was once a future… becomes memory.

"You don't point the Godbreaker at something you want to kill.
You point it at something you want the galaxy to remember was destroyed."
— Chief Gunnery Officer Leron Malk, PMDFS Cold Liturgy

 

[Delsin Shaw]

VesperWorks

Approved