Made available in YE 39 by the Frontier Service Corporation, the Octo-Gatling Rotary Pulse Laser Battery was created as part of a much larger project, the creation the Greatsword-class Battleship. The idea was to build a weapon that could serve as a secondary turret and point defence simultaneously. The principal was simple, by focusing the fire of several rapid fire pulse laser weapons a greater damage potential was realized. Alternatively, by staggering the shot grouping the same weapon could engage smaller targets as well.

From that principal the Octo-Gatling was built.

Looking to build a versatile weapon system the Rotary Pulse Laser Battery was specifically designed to engage a variety of targets. While intended for use on a battleship plans are in the works for a variety of applications.

Designer: FSCorp and USO

Manufacturer: FSCorp

Name: Octo-Gatling Laser Turret

Nomenclature: FS-B1-W3900

Type: Rotary pulse laser battery

Role:

• Primary: Light anti-starship(10)
• Secondary: Heavy anti-mecha(9)

Length: 5 meters

Width: 3 meters

Height: 3 meters

Mass: 5 tons

The weapon's most most noticeable feature is the dual clusters of four barreled rotary guns mounted to each side of a boxy looking hull. While a majority of the rotary pulse laser assemblies are concealed by armor plating just enough of the 32 barrels are visible to intimidate anyone on the receiving end.

Resting atop the central hull is the RADAR dish responsible for range finding and target tracking. On the rear of the central hull are a pair of large, louvered vents which ventilate the interior while being used in an atmosphere so the rapid expansion of super heated air can escape safely. This does present a safety hazard for anyone standing near the vents.

Muzzle Flash: Bright white flash.

Retort: It makes a very loud pop every time it fires. Sustained fire sounds like a very, very loud swarm of angry bees.

Projectile/Beam Appearance: Bright blue streak

Effective Range

• Space: 140,000 Kilometres
• Atmosphere: 4500 meters

Rate of Fire:

• Single Gatling
  • 1000 rounds per minute
  • 16 rounds per second
• Whole Battery
  • 8000 rounds per minute
  • 133 rounds per seconds

Recoil: None from firing, however the force of eight rotating barrels requires structural reinforcement around rotating assemblies.

Each shot has a damage potential comparable to heavy anti-personnel(tier 3/Tier 3, Heavy Anti-Personnel) weapons. When calculating the damage dealt over time it is best to count over the period of a second. 1 second of sustained fire carries a damage potential comparable to light anti-starship(tier 10/Tier 10, Light Anti-Starship) weapons against solid materials. However, due to the over-saturation this weapons delivers shield generators have an easier time deflecting or stopping the shots, often deflecting several shots with the same action. this reduces the batteries damage potential making a seconds worth of sustained fire comparable to heavy anti-mecha(tier 9/Tier 9, Heavy Anti-Mecha) weapons.

Round Capacity: When connected to the coolant system of a starship the battery is capable of firing for as long as the vessel can provide coolant. It is important that the battery have constant cooling after firing as the heat from the 32 barrels tends to linger for hours, even days following extended usage.

Usage on vehicles lacking large cooling systems requires the user to be personally aware of heat generation and management. Sustaining fire for over 5 minutes would usually result in a catastrophic failure.

Firing Mechanism: Each barrel contains the lenses needed to focus the beams of the pulse laser, as the barrel passes over the diode the high energy capacitor discharges causing the diode to flash.

Loading: The battery has a massive power demand, each battery must be connected to two generators.

Control: Every battery can be linked to a ship's computer system and be controlled either individually or automatically. A gunnery station on the bridge, a central gunnery station, would be capable of operating all of the batteries using the ship's computer to automatically aim the guns. This is preferred as the computer's aim is naturally better than a man's. The computer is also more situationally aware allowing it to provide superior overall combat performance. A gunner on the bridge would be prioritizing targets rather than pulling the trigger.

Every battery requires a local gunnery station which has a computer screen displaying vital data for the specific battery, including the weapon's camera sights. A gunner may take direct control of the battery from the local gunnery station but a central gunnery station can lock out the local station to prevent usage by infiltrators and such.

Safety Mechanism: Operator station has a safety switch with and the ambidextrous joystick requires a thumb button to be fully pressed before the trigger is pulled.

Weapon Sight: The battery is equipped with camera and displays the firing pattern as a translucent blue field.

Octo-Gatling Laser Battery: 10,000 KS

Rotary Assembly: 1,000 KS

RADAR Equipment: 2,000 KS

Targeting Computer: 500 KS

Cooling System: 500 KS

Rizzo created this article on 2017/03/20 08:38.