Weirdo Zone Military Services Insignia
The Weirdo Zone has a great many foes, and an equal variety of weapons in its arsenal. While diplomacy and tact act as the first line of defense, many times talking will not change our enemies' minds. The Reavers refuse to listen to diplomacy, the Thaurians listen but often do not comply, and thousands of non-aligned raiders, pirates, and brigands willfully flaunt the excess of diplomacy. Therefore, in this violent and threatening Universe of ours, we depend on our superior firepower to maintain order and the safety of our citizens.
Weirdo Zone weaponry encompasses many aspects of technology, especially in the areas of energy, projectile, chemical, quantum, and pandimensional weaponry. The only thing the Weirdo Zone fully disavows is biological weaponry, as diseases tend to be too sloppy and too prone to backfiring for the Weirdo Zone military policy of "appropriate force."
ENERGY WEAPONS
Blazers (Broadband eLectromagnetic Amplification Energy Ray)
Blazers are high-powered focused broad-band energy weapons that fire on all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Firing either coherent pulses or beams of radio, shortwave, microwave, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma radiation, Blazers cause damage in a variety of ways. In full-power mode, damage usually occurs this way:
Armor piercing is achieved through the explosive burning power of visible light laser energy.
Massive biological cell disruption is caused by microwave and infrared maser energy.
Damage to energy systems as well as cell damage and death caused by x-ray and gamma radiation.
Blazers are rated on a standard scale determined by the amount of cubic meters of titanicrete (a common titanium carbide cermet used for armor in the 2500s) that they can disintigrate in a single shot. A Blazer's position on this scale is shown by a standard metric prefix before the word 'Blazer.'
Blazers - the base value - can disintigrate at least a cubic meter of titanium. Most Blazer pistols fall into this category. Range values vary dramatically, but usually have a maximum of 500 meters to 1 kilometer.
Decablazers - commonly known as Light Blazers - can disintigrate at least ten cubic meters of titanicrete. Most infantry Blazer rifles fall into this class, as well as (surprisingly) atmospheric fighters. Maximum ranges of decablazers are around two kilometers.
Hectoblazers - commonly known as Medium Blazers - can disintigrate at least one hundred cubic meters of titanicrete. They are popular as infantry support weapons and anti-tank weapons, and are often the lightest weapons found on capital ships due to their effectiveness against spacefighters. The maximum range of hectoblazers range from two to four kilometers.
Kiloblazers - commonly known as Heavy Blazers - can disintigrate at least one thousand cubic meters of titanicrete and are the high end of ground-based armor and infantry weapons. Kiloblazers are also the most powerful weapons found on most spacefighters. The only man-portable kiloblazer is the AHBR-22 Heavy Blazer Rifle used by Weirdannhilators with a 2.5 kilometer range, while the King Tiger heavy hovertank has six Heavy Anti-Tank Blazers with 10 kilometer maximum ranges. Spacefighter kiloblazers have a 100 to 1,000 kilometer maximum range.
Megablazers can disintigrate at least one million cubic meters (one cubic kilometer) of titanicrete and are the largest weapons found on most smaller capital ships, but the SB-53 Delta heavy spacefighter does carry four. Most megablazers require at least a 10 meters barrel length, making it hard to place them in fully traversable turrets. Megablazers usually have a 1,500 to 25,000 kilometer maximum range.
Gigablazers can disintigrate at least one billion cubic meters (one thousand cubic kilometers) of titanicrete and make up the heaviest weapons on cruiser-class capital ships. Orbital bombardments with these weapons can, optimally, leave a crater ten kilometers deep. This is often more powerful than required, and so most gigablazers can be used as rapid-fire pulse megablazers. They are quite large, requiring barrels that are at least 30 meters long, and are limited to fixed emplacements, but limited amount of beam traverse is achieved using gravitic space distorters lifted from Reaver technology. Gigablazers have an effective range of four light-seconds (100,000 kilometers) and sometimes a maximum range of 1 astronomical unit (148,800,000 kilometers).
Terablazers can disintigrate at least one trillion cubic meters (one million cubic kilometers) of titanicrete and are the largest energy weapons in the Weirdo Zone's arsenal. These weapons can pierce a planet's crust, creating an instant volcano / magma sea at the point of impact; they could also completely annihilate an entire Star Wars S/TS "Death Star"-class battlestation in a single shot. Almost nothing can withstand the ten-meter wide beam of a terablazer except for the shields and super-dense armors of the largest planetary defense systems and warships, such as the Ares-class superbattleship. Terablazers require 100 meter-long hardpoints and enough power to fuel a small planet to fire, and yet an Ares-class carries six of them and can fire one every ten seconds (this is set up to accomodate the one-minute refire rate, not the limited resources of the ship's power--it could fire all six at once). Terablazers have an effective range of one astronomical unit (148,800,000 kilometers) and a maximum range of four astronomical units (595,200,000 kilometers).
Plasma Weapons
Traditional plasma weaponry, in the form of cohesive beams and spaceborne plasma 'bolt' torpedoes, are rarely used by the Weirdo Zone due to their quick dissipation rates, which quickly offset their tremendous short-range damage potential. Advances in Blazer technology have made beam plasma weapons obsolete and the Singularity Torpedo eliminated the usefulness of plasma bolt torpedoes by having both a far longer range and a far greater damage potential.
However, noncohesive plasma weapons are often used by infantry in the field as a replacement for traditional fuel-based flame weaponry. Powered by micro-fusion reactors, standard-issue plasma flamers draw in the ambient atmosphere and superheats it into a noncohesive ionized plasma, which can then be projected using either a series of Gauss electromagnets or a traditional thermal pressure pump. The resulting effect is much like that of a traditional flamethrower, except that the plasma 'flames' are several thousand times hotter. Infantry-issue and vehicle-mounted plasma flamers are used to clear bunkers and underground installations due to the liquid-like properties of plasma (much like neonapalm).
The only remaining naval application of plasma weapons are semicohesive short-range 'flak' plasma clouds used in anti-starfighter applications. Creative commanders have used these weapons to great effect, however.
BALLISTIC WEAPONS
Energized Projectile Weapons (Lasbolters)
Energized Projectile Weapons use magnetic Gauss fields to instantaneously launch dense explosive slugs at semi-relatavistic speeds and encapsulate them with a coherent field of energy. These weapons cause damage through the kinetic energy of the slug's high speed, explosive energy from the slug's dense dodecohydronitrate explosives, and more explosive thermal energy from the slug's energy shell. While limited by ammunition, EPWs remain in common use because they are extremely effective against shields and armor. Unlike energy weapons, shields cannot modify their harmonics to nullify EPW slugs as a great deal of EPW damage comes from the sheer momentum of the slug. EPW slugs tend to lose their energy shell over long distances due to inadvertent ionization of the atmosphere they streak through, but this is a minor loss. EPWs are prized not only for their simple effectiveness but also their ability to fire specialized munitions such as penetrator shells, acid bolts, et al. Even when EPW weapons run out of ammunition, they still work quite well as short-range rapid-fire energy weapons, as they simply discharge their energy shells in ball lightning form rather than surrounding bullets.
The most obvious EPW is the general issue APR-34 Lasbolter assault rifle used by all branches of the WZMS, most notably the Weirdtrooper infantry. However, even support weapons such as the heavy Gauss rifles found on King Tiger hovertanks also classify as EPWs.
EPWs are not commonly used in space warfare as the large ammunition supplies required would be restricted by their volume and mass. Energy and missile weapons are far more efficient in these regards.
EPW range profiles are dependent upon the weapon.
WARHEAD WEAPONS
Missile Pods
Most missile-carrying units carry variations of missile pods. Using relatively small, mission-oriented munitions with guidance capabilities, missile pods are extremely versatile weapons. From directed-charge warheads for anti-armor operations to low-yield nuclear, antimatter, or singularity warheads, missile pods are the jack-of-all-trades in space, air, and ground combat.
The average missile pod can fire from one to twenty missiles in a single salvo, fed either from an external magazine on man-portable weapons or an internal ammunition bin, as is the case with vehicle-mounted pods. These ammunition supplies carry a mixture of direct-charge warheads for anti-armor use, neutronium-osmium penetrator kinetic shells for anti-shield use, and high-explosive fragmentary flechette munitions for anti-infantry applications (usually in a 4:2:1 ratio). Missile pod munitons typically have a range of several hundred meters to a few kilometers.
Standoff Missiles
Standoff missiles are the space equivalent of the terrestrial cruise missiles of years past. Large weapons with equally large warheads, these faster-than-light munitions can make their way across star systems in mere minutes. The largest of these missiles, the Fast Attack Universak Standoff Torpedo (FAUST)-series, has an effective range of twenty light-years and a flight time of ten minutes. While usually carried in numbers only by superbattleships of the Ares- and Sagittarius- classes, standoff missiles can be mounted even on ships as small as five-man Wildcat-class interceptors.
Due to their massive destructive capability and long range, standoff missiles are often used as a "no threat" method to bombard enemy fleets and nonplanetary targets.
Nuclear Armaments
Nuclear armaments, although outdated and far too dangerous for most WZ operations, still have a limited use in the WZMS. Heavy radiation "neutron" warheads and "clean" (i.e. nil residual radiation) fusion bombs are used to destroy targets when greater firepower is not needed. Defensive nuclear anti-starship mines can be found bordering many of the Weirdo Zone's older star systems, such as the Sol and Volant systems. These defensive minefields usually date back to pre-WZ times.
Nuclear weapons are almost never used in space combat because the most damaging aspect of a nuclear bomb, the blast wave, is non-existant. Hulls and shields designed to withstand the high heat, pressure, and radiation of stellar coronas can easily shrug off nuclear explosions.
Antimatter Warheads
Antimatter warheads are inexpensive and extremely effective armaments commonly sighted on battlefields both on planetary surfaces and in space. As the size of the explosion is completely dependent upon the amount of antimatter stored in the warhead, these powerful weapons can be easily tailored to mission-specific yields ranging from quarter-sticks of trinotoulene to tetratons of the same material. One downside to the use of antimatter weaponry is the intense gamma radiation naturally produced as a result of the matter-antimatter annihilation process. While this fast-acting nonresidual radiation can be useful in damaging biological targets, its potency and radius of effect makes it dangerous to use even in relatively dispersed formations.
Antimatter missiles and torpedoes used on starships usually have giga- or teraton yields and have ranges of one to three astronomical units. Superluminal torpedoes as well as teleport torpedoes are used in combat at faster-than-light speed with ranges up to ten light-minutes.
Singularity Warheads
Singularity warheads are the most lethal weapons ever constructed. Basically a variation of the antimatter warhead, a singularity torpedo uses two charges of antimatter to propel large, dense masses of neutronium into each other at relativistic speeds. These masses slam together to form a singularity--a miniature black hole. Due to Hawkings radiation leakage, the black hole only has a lifespan of several microseconds, at which it explodes in a tremendous burst of x-ray and gamma ray radioactivity. These combined effects of black hole and radiation explosion can cause severe damage to anything in the immediate vicinity.
A target of a singularity warhead first has a good chunk of itself torn away by the massive gravitic pull of the black hole, completely annihilating several tens of cubic meters of the target and warping/stretching many more. Then, the mass of the black hole (plus the mass of the matter it pulled from the target) annihilates completely into extremely high-frequency radiation which not only irradiates everything within several kilometers but also, through sheer quantum transmission, vaporizes a large area directly into energy or at least a more energetic state of matter (i.e. solid to liquid to gas).
Singularity torpedoes of tetraton or greater yields are used on starships as an all-range devastation weapon against enemy vessels. After a barrage of STs, there is rarely anything left of a ship to salvage, much less capture. Singularity warheads of hectoton to megaton range are used on planetary surfaces only in times of desperation, when everything within a given radius absolutely needs to die and needs to die quickly.
Weirdo Zone Military Services NonClassified netdoc
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Published 8.19.3001