Created by Conclave Ship Works in YE 42 for the Spectre-class Stealth Cruiser, the “HAVOC” is designed to destroy strategic targets at extreme ranges. It can use a variety of ammunition types, making it effective against ships, space stations, and planetary installations.

As the Spectre's development continued, it became clear that Conclave Ship Works would need to come up with a clever way to deal lethal damage to large targets without risking the ship itself. The easiest ways to accomplish that would be to fire from such a distance, without being noticed, that an opponent would not have time to return fire or take evasive actions. Many of the main guns across the sector delivered impressive firepower, but were either too flashy or too advanced to fit the project.

Instead, engineers turned to existing gauss cannon technology, such as the MAKO. Such a weapon could be fired without giving away its position and, provided with enough power, could accelerate shells to impressive speeds. Another cannon, the SHIVA, was able to use a variety of different ammunitions, but revealed itself too easily.

The Hyper-Accelerated Variable Ordinance Cannon is essentially an upscaled hybrid of the two weapons.

The acceleration chamber generates a corridor of intense, unidirectional gravity that is potent enough to draw in all light that enters the chamber. Objects placed within it are pulled forwards by rapidly increasing gravitational forces similar to those found near a black hole. When an object exits the end of the chamber, it is no longer under the influence of any artificial gravity - but the velocity remains. The 150 meters of gravimetric acceleration chamber is able to bring projectiles to near-C velocities, ranging from .6c when firing in rapid succession to .9c at full strength. Each standard round is ~170 tons and, at maximum speed, delivers 6.2 x 10¹⁵J - roughly 1.5 Megatons - of pure kinetic force upon impact.

Objects within the gravitational field are protected from annihilation by the extreme gravitational forces by a complex inertial adjustment system. When an object leaves the acceleration chamber, its inertia has been sufficiently stabilized for its extreme speeds that it leaves the chamber intact.

Nearly any object smaller than 10 meters in diameter and 20 meters in length can be fired by the HAVOC. This is most commonly used for launching sensor probes, but can also be used in a variety of other ways. Objects other than HAVOC rods and sensor probes must be loaded manually from outside the weapon.

• Designer: Conclave Ship Works, D.O.A.R.A.D.
• Manufacturer: Conclave Ship Works
• Name: Hyper-Accelerated Variable Ordinance Cannon “HAVOC”
• Nomenclature: CSW-S1-W1
• Type: Mass Driver
• Role: Strategic Target Destruction, Interplanetary Bombardment
• Length: 264 meters
• Weight: 8,000 tons

The HAVOC is a spine-mounted weapons system. As such, much of the weapon is buried within the ship's internals. The gravimetric acceleration chamber is typically left open on its sides to reduce potential pressure from any atmosphere that might be trapped within a conventional barrel. A simple electromagnetic containment field prevents outside debris or atmosphere from entering into the acceleration chamber.

• Muzzle Flash: No flash. In atmosphere, a brief concussive burst of air is formed as the projectile leaves the barrel's containment field.
• Retort: A sonic boom caused by the departing projectile
• Projectile/Beam Appearance: Blur of the projectile only
• Effective Range: Effectively unlimited in space; Limited by planetary curvature in atmosphere
• Rate of Fire:
  • Rapid fire: 60 rounds/minute, maximum of T11 damage
  • Standard fire: 4 rounds/minute, maximum of T14 damage
• Recoil: Only a faint rumble is noticeable by crew

• Ammunition: HAVOC Rods
• Purpose: Tier 11 (Light Anti-Starship) - Tier 14 (Medium Anti-Capital Ship)
• Round Capacity: 1060 Rounds

• Ammunition: "Whisker" Sensor Drone
• Purpose: Tier 3 (Sensor Probe)
• Round Capacity: 60 Drones
• Note: Typically fired backwards at .6c. Initial acceleration is provided by the HAVOC. The drone uses its thrust to slow itself down and to navigate.

• Firing Mechanism: A series of incrementally stronger gravimetric fields that replace the usual solenoids found in a coilgun. Projectiles leave the weapon at a speed between .6c (~178,800 km/s) and .9c (~270,000 km/s), depending on rate of fire.
• Loading: Rounds are automatically loaded into a revolver-like mechanism that is capable of holding 8 rounds simultaneously. As one round is released into the firing mechanism's gravimetric field, another round is being loaded into an empty chamber.
• Firing Modes: Rate of Fire is dependent on the type of ammunition being used

The HAVOC is designed to manufacture replacement rounds for itself using an external resource supply. The rod fabrication facility takes up the rearmost section of the HAVOC and is approximately 60,000 cubic meters in size.

Fabrication is done in four stages.

The first stage is the formation of the rod itself. Typically, a heavy, durable material such as tungsten will be formed into a dense, four meter long cylinder. Each finished rod is nearly 177 tons. Alternate rod configurations may have a smaller mass in exchange for a different payload.

The second stage adds a gravitic drive 'cap' to the rod. This cap is 3 meters in diameter and provides the rod with the ability to make small course changes. It is not powerful enough to move the rod at high speeds or make significant course changes in a short period of time.

The third stage adds a stealth system 'cap' to the rod. This cap is also 3 meters in diameter and works to mask the rod from most detection systems. As the rod has little in the way of power generation, active sensors, or thrust, the majority of its efforts are focused around concealing the rod's mass and any resulting wake of its travel.

The fourth stage coats the entire assembly in a thick layer of Madite-C, protecting the contents and providing passive signature obfuscation. Small portions of the rod remain uncoated to allow the gravitic drive and stealth systems to operate unimpeded.

With sufficient resources, the HAVOC can produce a round roughly once per minute.

Not available for civilian purchase.

Whisper created this article on 2020/11/03 10:26.

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