Weapons of Mass Destruction

Admin Posts : 29 Join date : 2016-09-04

The splitting of the atom in the middle of the 20th century by mankind was the catalysing factor that drove Man to the stars, granting him the awesome energy that the forces that hold together the universe can provide. As expected, man developed horrifying weapons of mass destruction using that discovery, starting with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Cold War that followed between the forces of Capitalism and Communism granted man with an almost unnatural obsession with nuclear technology, and since then, the systems to deliver weapons of mass destruction have developed into the space-age.

Interstellar Ballistic Missile [ISBM]

The worst fear of any nation; nuclear obliteration. That is exactly what ISBMs are all about, complete destruction of the enemy target. That target may be as small as a town, or as big as a planet. ISBMs are self-sustainable high-yield nuclear warheads that are equipped with limited range jump drives, allowing them to travel between solar systems or planets within a few jumps. They are the standard Mutually Assured Destruction weapon, and played a critical role in the Alarei Wars. They are often called "jump cruise missiles" or "jump nukes" due to their obvious nature.

Although the term ISBM used to refer to any space-capable nuclear warhead, the definition has been narrowed down to include only delivery systems that fulfill certain criteria.

(1) The delivery system must be equipped with a jump drive and have a range of at least five (5) light years.
(2) It must include its own launch, navigation and re-entry systems. Nuclear missiles mounted on bombers belong in a different category. Missiles mounted and carried by TELAR (Transporter, Erector, Launcher and RADAR) trucks can be considered ISBMs depending on whether or not they fulfill the other criteria.
(3) It must be designed for strikes against strategic targets. FTL-capable nuclear warheads that are designed to deliver surgical strikes against enemy ground forces are not considered ISBMs.

ISBMs can be launched from ground-based missile silos, TELAR vehicles, space stations and in rare cases warships. Their size can range from small enough to be carried by a specialized truck to building-sized, although smaller missiles carried by TELARs usually have reduced range and sometimes do not even qualify as ISBMs. More often than not, ISBMs are MIRVs (Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles), vessels that carry multiple nuclear weapons to be deployed in a cluster pattern, or against several targets at once.

ISBMs however have fallen on the sword of Interdiction Technology. Most open-border star-faring civilisations had previously had electronic re-calculation systems in place for their home system, re-routing any ships that were to jump into dangerous places, for example, inside the planet. Races have re-purposed this technology to defend themselves from ISBMs by re-routing them to other areas.

This however is only a temporary fix, whilst it stops hostile forces from launching surprise nuclear attacks, it does not stop hostile forces from jumping their weaponry in-system, then using conventional propulsion methods to deliver a nuclear strike.

Atmospheric Deprivation Weaponry [ADW]

Atmospheric Deprivation Weaponry, or ADWs for short, are much more methodical than their Nuclear cousins. ADWs are designed, similarly to terra-forming modules, to alter a planets atmosphere to be hostile to its native species. ADWs usually come in the form of space stations with either large power plants or receiver bays. ADWs will saturate a planet with toxic gasses, attempt to ignite a planets atmospheric contents, or fire large, concentrated radioactive beams at the planet from the atmosphere.

ADWs are costly to research and also costly to produce. A nation focussing on building an ADW would need to prioritise it over even the most basic of colonial efforts unless they were a well-established super power. ADWs also draw on massive amounts of raw resources from other planets or nebulas. ADWs will also require the huge power output of a capital or titan-class ship.

Defence against an ADW is both easier and more difficult than its nuclear brethren, the ADW can be attached to a warship in high orbit, meaning that it's much harder to shoot down than a nuclear missile, however the ADW takes a much longer time to fully destroy a planet, and therefore gives the defenders more time to act.

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