Initially deployed in late YE 36 as a proof-of-concept prototype and (at long last) completed over a year later in the summer of YE 38, Nepleslian Arms and Munition's “Dark Zenith” Anti-Neutron Cannon is Nepleslia's first-ever energy-based weapon designed specifically for usage by starfighters against starships.
The fruits of a top-secret collaboration project between NAM's Aerotech division and Peacekeeper Heavy Industries (via the “official” explanation of improving Nepleslian-Jiyuuian relations under DATASS), the Na-V6-W3800 “Dark Zenith” - named in recognition of its vastly-larger forerunner, the My-D1-W3001 Xeneth Cannon - was originally intended to be the primary armament of the Na-YF/A-6X(A) "Scythe" Stealth Fighter/Interceptor - thereby granting the Scythe with enough firepower to threaten even capital ships, given that the aerospacecraft was to have featured four of what was jokingly referred to as the “Plasma Lance's little brother.”
There was just one problem with this grand concept of overwhelming firepower supremacy: The aforementioned project's engineers had grossly overestimated the miniaturization capabilities available to them, for the Ayana-Class Escort had been equipped with a single Xeneth; furthermore, it had dedicated an entire room to it - thereby making it appear as YE 36 became [timeline:ye_37]] that the cramming even one “Dark Zenith” into something a tenth the size of an Ayana would, to put it mildly, be a nightmare.
And a nightmare it was - for it wasn't until the opening months of YE 38 that the (by now exhausted and weary) engineers finally had a prototype that wouldn't overload, explode, destabilize, achieve spontaneous combustion, overheat, disintegrate, or violently lose anti-neutron containment after firing a single shot. Regardless, however, they had done it: In the final months of that year's summer, the “Dark Zenith” Anti-Neutron Cannon passed its final live-fire pre-deployment trial - and in doing so, removed the final barrier preventing the completion of the Navy's long-awaited second-generation starfighter.
Similar to the aforementioned Xeneth Cannon, the “Dark Zenith” functions by drawing from an anti-neutron containment system and (upon accumulating a sufficient quantity) encasing them in a subspace field, akin (albeit on a much, much, much smaller scale) to that of a Subspace-Encased Positron-Tunneling Cannon. The resulting “beam,” of course, is capable of penetrating spatial-distortion shielding with ease and inflicts nearly as much damage - but also is the only mode the “Dark Zenith” is capable of firing in. Nor do the drawbacks end there; due to the sheer reduction in size (and resulting lack of auxiliary field generators), the Dark Zenith's range and beam duration are both mere fractions of its older brethren - and that doesn't even begin to cover its abysmal rate of fire and frequent need for lengthily re-calibrations……
This page was originally created on 2016/08/04 12:43 by Frostjaeger, restored by char
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