Beams

"There's a reason why fighters are now unmanned. It has nothing to do with the cost, or the training. You don't have fighter pilots anymore because no one is dumb enough to try playing chicken with the brilliant glow of a chemical laser."

-- Instructor Tarin, on making it clear he had spent far too much time operating laser battery turrets

Beams or Lasers are weapons found in almost every starship on all factions. Their role as both an offensive weapon and a defensive weapon make them a useful tool for every captain that wants to prolong the structural integrity of their ship.

Most beams operate on a fundamental principle of combining various chemicals or energies in a single focused pulse of energy, typically with diminishing returns at short range. Because of their high energy cost and heat generation however, its advised to most captains to not fire them continually and give the turrets time to cool. More than one ship has it fare share of scorch marks from internal blazes.

All beams are capable of Point Defense, the only weapon currently in the game capable of doing so. They are capable of shooting down both Missiles and Fighters in one shot. Point Defense can be activated for all lasers on a ship with the command Ctrl+B.

Beams

The following lists the current beams in the game for the three factions. Some are faction specific, but are not considered Faction Special Gadgets as they behave very similar to normal beams despite a few unique properties.

Standard Chemical Laser / Chemical Beam Laser

225px
Faction:	UGTO/ICC
Range:	xGU
Damage:	Medium
Falloff:	{{{falloff}}}
Energy use:	Low
Magazine:	Unlimited
Resource Req:	45
Tech Req:	5

The Standard Chemical Laser (and the ICC equivalent Chemical Beam laser) is a human-only laser-chemical based beam that is a mount on most ships with a 5 second burst of pure energy, inflicting massive damage to ships at close range. The SCL also provides human ships with a higher powered, but slower, point defence system against larger missiles or troop pods attempting to land.

The SCL operates with by reacting a gas and two oxide based liquids in a chamber, which produces super dense oxygen atoms. Another chemical is them injected into the laser itself initiating an additional reaction resulting in a high yield beam.

Captains are warned the SCL is effective against most armour and shield types, however new Reflective armour technologies have reduced it's ability.

The UGTO version is unmoddable. On ICC, the CBL can replace the Pulse laser on available allied worlds for 45 resources and 5 technology.

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Heavy Chemical Laser

225px
Faction:	UGTO/ICC
Type:	Laser
Range:	xGU
Damage:	Medium
Falloff:	{{{falloff}}}
Energy use:	Low
Magazine:	Unlimited
Resource Req:	x
Tech Req:	x

The Heavy Chemical Laser provides ships with a 5 second burst of pure energy, inflicting massive damage to ships at close range. The HCM, although can be used in point defence.

The HCL works in the same way as the Chemical Beam Laser, however comes with several injection chambers, surrounded by reflective panels to channel the several lower yield lasers into one larger beam.

Captains are warned that the HCL is not designed for this function and can result in additional power loss. The HCL has a range of 250gu.

The CBL costs a Captain x resources and can only be bought from suppliers with a technology rating of x or higher.

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Flux Beam

225px
Faction:	UGTO
Range:	xGU
Damage:	Medium
Falloff:	{{{falloff}}}
Energy use:	Low
Magazine:	Unlimited
Resource Req:	x
Tech Req:	x

A unique weapon among the various factions, the Flux Beam is a UGTO only weapon similar to the EMP cannon but much more devastating, and its distinguished by its bright golden beam. Using UGTO researched Flux technology, this weapon fires a beam of charged particles at a molecular level designed to disrupt cohesion. While doing very little physical damage, it does tremendous amounts of damage to exposed systems on the hull, producing an ear piercing scream as the electrical equipment of the ship is pulled apart at the sub-atomic scale. The only drawback is its very short range, proving only to valuable in close range fights, although its sound is known to be demoralizing to enemy crews.

Flux beam damages ships similar to other beams, but also deals EMP damage. The weapon is currently unmoddable, and is a medium class beam found only on UGTO ships.

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Pulse Beam

225px
Faction:	ICC
Type:	Laser
Range:	xGU
Damage:	Medium
Falloff:	{{{falloff}}}
Energy use:	Low
Magazine:	Unlimited
Resource Req:	x
Tech Req:	x

The Pulse Beam provides ICC ships with a tactical point defence option without affecting power. The Pulse Beam has a low yield charge designed to destroy close non-ship targets. The Pulse Beam tracks a targets engine emissions and fires when within range.

The Pulse beam works with a single, low yield high intensity beam of light energy pulsing through lenses designed to magnify the beam onto a small area. Using this low yield system allows the Pulse Beam to trigger far quicker than other Chemical based Lasers.

The Pulse Beam targets missiles, fighters, transport pods and mines within range with a short cooldown. The Pulse Beam costs a Captain 50 resources and can only be bought from suppliers with a technology rating of 15 or higher.

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Disruptors

225px
Faction:	K'Luth
Range:	xGU
Damage:	Medium
Falloff:	{{{falloff}}}
Energy use:	Low
Magazine:	Unlimited
Resource Req:	x
Tech Req:	x

The main armament on any K'luth warship, the Disruptor is one of the alien race's primary weapon systems.

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Assault Disruptors

225px
Faction:	K'Luth
Type:	Laser
Range:	xGU
Damage:	Medium
Falloff:	{{{falloff}}}
Energy use:	Low
Magazine:	Unlimited
Resource Req:	x
Tech Req:	x

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ELF Beams

225px
Faction:	K'Luth
Range:	xGU
Damage:	Special
Falloff:	{{{falloff}}}
Energy use:	Low
Magazine:	Unlimited
Resource Req:	x
Tech Req:	x

Salvaging, researching and adapting technology from decaying Energy Entities brought to the evolved K'Luth's arsenal a unique energy beam which could extract energy from the vicinity of impact, process it and produce re-usable energy instantly. Passing through all known forms of matter, it leeches energy for the host vessel to use as an alternative to organically generated energy.

A relatively new weapon, the Energy Leech Field Beam was primarily used on specialized Mantis-class dreadnoughts to deplete the strength of healthy and fierce Gaifens, and capture them for scientific research. When K'Luth found themselves pitted against the human factions, the ELF beam found a much more active use by the K'Luth heavy warships to replenish their own energy and deplete that of human machines. With time, the ELF beam has been enhanced to be equippable on smaller Predator destroyers and Chitin cruisers.

The ELF beam leeches energy and gives it to the host ship. It does no damage but can cause destruction of missiles, mines, transport pods and fighters.

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