Far tamer than anti-fleet 'shock' cannons, the W2901 Aether Beam Cannon was designed to provide a ship with a knock-out punch that would be more reliable and less hazardous to use than anti-fleet weaponry and projected aether beams.

Usually mounted on the fore of a KFY-built vessel's prow, this weapon uses a spatial distortion to release condensed potentials from the aether in a coherent phased beam. Because of the subspace effects of beam, it naturally pierces distortion-based shields. The weapon functions more like it was a giant counterpart of the M2 Mindy power armor's beam rifle than actual projected aether, making it safer to use in home territory as well as causing less strain on the ship's Combined Field System. It has no minimum range.

The main advantage of the beam cannon over its 'shock cannon' cousin aside from its safer-to-use feature is its considerably increased firing rate, up to four pulses a minute, or a less powerful but sustained 'sawing' beam. This makes the W2901 potentially superior in performance compared to the W2900 Aether Shock Cannon in smaller skirmishes.

Primary Purpose: Anti-Starship

Secondary Purpose: Heavy Assault, Anti-Mecha (in sustained beam mode)

Damage:

• Pulsefire - 5 SDR Total Annihilation in a focused, expanding burst of 6 to 750 meters in diameter (maximum size is limited by the size of a ship's distortion field, i.e.: a 150 meter-wide ship probably can't go up to 750 meters).
• Sustained Beam - 5 SDR Total Annihilation in a beam of 1 to 25 meters in diameter. Can be used to cut swaths across a wide expanse or zigzag from one target to another at will.

Range: 150,000,000 km (About 1 AU or 93,000,000 miles)

Rate of Fire:

• The W2901 aether beam cannon and projected aether beams cannot be used at the same time since they both tap in the ship aether generator in the same manner. Rate of fire listed in slices of 15 seconds to scale evenly with projected aether beams rate of fire.
• Pulse fire - 1 burst per 15 seconds.
• Sustained Beam - Constantly sustained through 15 seconds.

Payload Effectively unlimited, so long as the ship provides power.

Approved by Fred on April 16, 2005 https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/aether-beam-cannon.12755/#post-184193