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WEAPONRY:
NONSOLID:
FUSION CANNONS |
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Technical Brief: |
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Fusion Cannons are quickly becoming the new standard heavy
naval artillery weapon of the Imperial navy since first
contact with the Federation and subsequent run-ins with the
Borg. Of all the advantages that fusion cannons have over
traditional
turbolasers, including increased damage output, higher
efficiency and increased mechanization, the fact that they can
operate free and independent of Tibanna supplies weighs the
largest on Imperial minds.
Despite popular belief, fusion cannons were in fairly common
usage by the Galactic Empire nearly a year prior to contact
with the United Federation of Planets, finding extended use on
the
Maw Dreadnought. Unlike her predecessors who relied on
finite supplies of naturally-spin stabilized Tibanna, advances
in gravity-compression and fusion initiators over the years
allowed the fusion cannon to utilize virtually any type of
fuel atomically lighter than Technetium (43). |
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However, as a
trade-off, fusion cannons must use up to over 300% more
reactant than a traditional
turbolaser, but this results in a plasma bolt nearly 350%
larger than a Super-Heavy Turbolaser can put out at a
consistent temperature of over 990,000 degrees Kelvin. This
kind of raw power comes with a high cost: the energy required
to create and sustain a stable bolt of this magnitude is well
over a 500% increase over a Super-Heavy Turbolaser, and the
actual fusion cannon emplacements are, on average, 50% to 70%
larger than their direct predecessors. In fact, the fusion
cannon's power requirements are so drastic that until the
development of gravitic power technology, the weapon was
simply impractical for widespread fleet use. The damage yield
versus the weight, space, and power requirements of the weapon
have so far restricted it to employment on heavier capital
ship designs, defense platforms, and battle stations. |
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questions of fuel types and special gravity compression
techniques, the majority of technology utilized in fusion
cannons is old hat; intense focused lasers energize compact
pockets of fuel until the weak molecular bonds break down.
Once that occurs, a second beam of photons is introduced that
excites the free molecules to approximately 5,000 times that
energy level, and the electrons on the individual atoms break
away and the gas becomes plasma. These pockets of plasma are
retained in a small magnetic bottle at the base of the fusion
cannon barrel until the moment the weapon discharges. When it
does, the magnetic seal at the mouth of the containment
chamber is released, and a ring pulse guides and accelerates
the excited atoms along the barrel and out of the apparatus. |
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The visible
effect is a condensed bolt of glowing blue plasma, directed at
high velocities (anywhere up to .1c) toward a target.
Depending on the class of fuel, the bolts can be anywhere from
azure blue to cyan to nearly ultraviolet. Because of the
nature of fusion cannons, like
turbolasers, tremendous amounts of excess heat are often
generated and require sophisticated cryosystems for cooling
purposes. Failure of these systems can cause an emplacement to
quickly overheat and explode. This was true of
turbolaser emplacements and is much more so with fusion
cannons. The failure of a fusion cannon cooling unit can very
well tear a starcruiser in half, the temperatures and forces
involved are so intense. Each unit is commonly backed up by
four redundant systems to prevent such a catastrophe. |
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