Weapons

The Last Angel universe have many wars. Civilizations needs to protects they citizens leeds to creations of many instruments of destructions.

- Displacement Engine:
The displacement engine utilizes an elongated shockspace breach, extended from the prow of the vessel as a weapon. The resulting beam is several meters wide, and is controlled through emitters on the inside of the trifurcations of the vessel, which open like the petals of a flower when the weapon is in operation. The nature of shockspace as a higher-dimensional plane means that there is no armour or protection system in the galaxy capable of blocking the beam, as targets that pass through the centre of it are simply erased from existence. Those further towards its edge face the arguably worse fate of being attemptedly re-formed into shapes that cannot physically exist in our dimension. The massive amount of pure energy released from the beam's edges is also powerful enough to destroy smaller vessels all by itself, and on larger vessels practically cores them from end to end as a result of its release all along the penetrating beam.

In its original form, the displacement engine was more of a last-ditch weapon than a primary weapon. The formation of the shockpoint is performed using the vessel's breach core, meaning that to use the displacement engine, the breach core cannot function as a power source. This leaves the vessel's remaining systems to run entirely on secondary reactors. There was also an amount of collateral damage to the vessel's systems as a result of firing.

- Ukonvasara-class mass drivers:
This siege weapons are one of primary weapons of Nemesis-class Deep Space Fleet Engagement Vessels. Original specifications had a maximum speed of 0.72c and a range of sixty million kilometers. Modern specifications have it reach a maximum speed of 0.92c and a range of over a hundred million kilometers.

Currently she can carry 21 rounds per deployment. The standard warhead is antimatter, though there are plasma variants. There are also ones that carry laser platforms, and breachers. Breachers create warp breaches, like the displacement engine, these will overwhelm enemy sensors, stealth systems, and emit a bunch of radiation.

- Pinaka-class mass drivers:
Its effective range is less than sixty-five million kilometers and its mass rounds are both smaller and less responsive than those of an Ukonvasara, the Pinaka is nonetheless one of the most powerful weapons in known space. Used by Fate-class strike cruisers.

- Fusion cannons:
Fusion cannons are an unholy mixture of/homage to Yamato Cannons, meltaguns and bomb-pumped energy weapons. They create a massively powerful reaction and direct it at whatever happens to be on Red's shit list at that particular moment. Like plasma mortars, they can burn through almost any armour, but they penetrate deeper over a much smaller area. They're also fickle, slow-firing energy hogs so only get used for precision shots. Nemesis only has a handful per broadside.

- Disruptors:
Disruptors are a Compact invention, shipborne weapon is basically a directed pulse that will either severely weaken or completely destroy large sections of whatever it hits. The bolt expands even faster than plasma, so it's limited to knife-fighting range to be truly effective. It's also rather useless against shields, but once employed, it is devastating to whatever it hits.

- Plasma mortars:
Plasma mortars are plasma weapons - they fire a bolus of plasma along a guide laser, keeping it contained via a very short-lived energy envelope. The envelope dissipates within a second and the plasma starts to expand rapidly, which limits the range of the mortars to under a light-second. Mortar payloads can burn through even the toughest armour incredibly fast, which makes them absolutely lethal, but they're only of average use against shields/screens/barriers.

- Missiles:
Missile exchanges are usually used to soften up an enemy force before closing to energy range to finish them off, thinning out their escort forces, picking off command ships and causing as much damage as possible before getting in close. The better your missiles are, the more of this 'softening up' you can do before getting in close - sometimes even obviating the need for close-in slugging match. Missiles do have a disadvantage that energy weapons don't: they can never ignore shields. A powerful enough beam will just punch right through screens; missiles have to wear down the opponent's defences and then damage the ship itself. So if your target has good enough ECM/capable enough of point defences/strong enough shields, then you need to get into beam range.

Missile heavy vessels and variant classes will do well in a long-range environment, since they can overwhelm a target's defences... until they come up against an energy/point-defence ship. In which case they have to find a way to over-saturate the defences of vessels who are built to take massed missiles salvoes before said ship closes with them.

Larger ships can, of course, beat flotillas of smaller, lighter units like a caravan of rented mules at range without too much worry of retaliation. They've got longer reach and heavier warheads, so it gives the light units two options: run for it and keep eating missiles until you get out of their envelope, or drive in towards your own range. If the target is big enough, they're just going to eat everything you can throw at them - but if you survive to get into energy range, they're still going to kill you - but that gives you a chance to bypass their defences and stick a knife in their ribs.

- Mines:
Mines in the Angelverse are one of two main types: short-ranged missiles that trade endurance for larger yields (as the enemy tends to come right to them) and single-shot/slowly charging energy mounts that engage anything without a proper IFF that enters their kill zone. There's also things like drone launch mounts, targeting platforms that don't actually fire, but light up the target to make the rest of the minefield (and any nearby ships and/or larger weapons platforms), etc

- Mindkiller:
It was a weapon made by the Betrayers to be used against the Devoured. The Compact and the Principality took two different paths with the same idea. Compact mindkillers are more 'weaponized' and intended to cripple/kill AIs from the outside in. Principality tech works differently and requires a connection to the AI's systems, destroying them from the inside out. If I had to make comparisons, I'd say the Compact systems are more like the anti-replicator weapons from Stargate and Principality tech is more akin to the AI erasers of Andromeda. There's pros and cons to both sides; Compact tech is able to be deployed on large scales and as an area of effect weapon, but it's clumsy and you're not always guaranteed a kill with it. Principality tech is smaller, easier to use but requires some kind of actual connection to the AI in question; you can't get away with just being 'close enough' like with a Compact mindkiller. - Proximal Flame

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- Shields:
Shield systems are comprised of two main systems: generators and projectors. Generators which actually, well, generate the effect and projectors which control and manipulate a shield's geometry, strength and appearance. Depending on your tech base, you might have them bundled together in one device or the generators might be deep inside the hull. Regardless of where they are mounted, you can have one generator per projector or one generator allowing several projectors to flagrantly sin against natural law and physical reality at once.

Shield technology in this universe has two functions: destruction of any physical object that impacts it and the 'fracturing'/attenuation of energy weapons. Having large explosions, railgun rounds and energy beams constantly impacting is not a good thing - all that energy has to go somewhere. Some of it is just shunted back into space. The rest is absorbed by the shields themselves. This also has the unique function of making your ship easier to see at range whilst simultaneously screwing with targeting - you're a giant blur of heat, light and radiation, so the enemy can identify your general vicinity, but the question is, what is the actual target and what's just sensor doubles, ghosting effects and thermal bleed from the shields?

This is not without cost; shields cannot absorb damage indefinitely, constant battering weakens them, so more energy has to be supplied to keep them up and to prevent damage from leaking through. The projectors and the conduits between the generator and the projector overheat and the generator has to throw more power at the projectors to try and keep them up and to get them to dump more energy back into space. Once the projectors and conduits reach critical, the generators automatically shut down and your shield collapses - until the system cools down and you repair the damage.

If your enemy manages to pick off a projector, then you have two choices: allow a gap (or weakened section) in your coverage, or detail other projectors to cover that section - which means each of them is using more power, meaning they have lower thresholds. The worst thing that can happen is if your safeties or your damage control teams aren't able to shut down your generator(s). The conduits terminally overheat and fry, the projectors are either reduced to slag or explode and with nowhere for that power to go... each generator is now building up a dangerous amount of power right inside your own ship. You'd better hope damage control can figure out why the hell it isn't shutting down before you get what we in the business like to call a 'secondary explosion'.

Reset shields neatly avoid the whole mess, the shields go down only for a handful of seconds rather than minutes or hours and when they come back, they do so at full strength.

Confederate shields are basically like, well, shields. Each facing of the vessel has a single shield that covers it. There is some overlap between the sections at the edges but not much. Compact screens are more like the traditional 'bubbles' we see in sci-fi. Principality barriers are an interlocking, layered series of plates.

The system Principality uses means that energy weapons (specifically the high-penetration variants) have to punch through multiple layers of shields, which weakens them substantially. Each small section can be knocked down fairly easily - but it can be brought up just as quickly. They can also adjust the placement of their barriers so that they can plug holes in their defences - one section goes down and another is moved into place. It's not hard to punch through individual 'plates', but there are so many that it's very difficult to cause an Askanj ship's entire barrier grid to collapse. Normally the ship is wrecked long before that happens.

Compact screens are just a pain to batter their way through - the 'all-over' coverage means that the entire screen can used as a sponge - there's a lot more surface area available for shunting off waste energy. Plus, with so many projectors working together, it takes a lot more effort to break down the entire grid. The downside is that when Compact screens fail, they either collapse in large sections or in their entirety. This suits the Compact's naval doctrines quite well, since the resiliency of their screens pairs nicely with (and contributes to) how damn hard to kill their ships are.

Confederate shields are a balance between the two extremes: large sections means they're more resilient than barriers, but can be repaired and restored faster than screens.

Other star nations have their own versions of the technology and some wildly different defensive measures as well.