11.1 Phaser Operations

In their primary defensive application, the ship's phase arrays land multiple beams upon a target in an attempt to damage the target, sometimes to complete destruction. As with other SF hardware, the Type XV is highly adaptable to a variety of conditions, from low-energy scans to high-velocity ship combat.

The exact performance of most phaser firings is determined by an extensive set of practical and theoretical scenarios stored in the main computers, aside actual combat performances if they exist (of course, with us, they do). AI routines shape the power levels and discharge behaviors automatically, once specific commands are given by officers (Note: Nothing is said about them being responsible).

Low-energy operations provide a valuable direct method of transferring ships energy for a variety of controlled applications, such as sensor scanning. In the more preferred arena of high-energy operations, several interrelated computer systems assist the Tac officer in placing the beam on target, within microseconds. Long and short-range scans provide targeting information to the threat assessment\tracking\targeting system (TATT), which drives the phasers with the best target coverage. Multiple targets are prioritized and acted upon in order. The maximum effective tactical range of phasers is one light second, or around 300,000 kilometers. Phasers may be fired one-way through the ship's own shields due to EM polarization, with a small acceptable drag force at the inner shield surface.

In Cruise Mode, all phaser arrays receive power directly from the main warp core, with supplementary power provided by the auxiliary warp cores. Recharge times are kept to <.3 seconds. Full power firing endurance is rated at 10.4 hrs, give or take. During MVAM mode, recharge times remain the same, but firing endurance drops to 4.6 hours.