Draugr Weaponry

[Lord Admiral AriklegoLord Admiral (MSI)]

Like all of their technology, Draugr weapons technology comes from a variety of sources. Some of the weapons date back to the time when they faced against the Masters, and these weapons reflect their Master-based inspiration. Others are often stolen from civilizations that they have encountered and raided during the long travels through the universe. And finally, a handful are of their own design, often somewhat crude due to the limits of their resources and industry but still generally effective.


Warship Weaponry:

-Coilguns: A simplistic but still very effective magnetically-fired projectile weapon, Gauss coil guns operate by turning magnetic coils on and off in sequence, "dragging" the projectile along the barrel until it leaves the weapon at high speeds. Coilguns are very power-efficient compared to most energy weapons, and trade rate of fire for penetrating power, which makes them very advantageous to the Draugr.
However, coilguns' biggest drawback is that the projectile can only travel as fast as the magnetic coils can be triggered on and off, and as such usually when the Draugr try to increase the weapon's stopping power they have to scale up the projectile's size rather than scale its max velocity.

-Railguns: The concept behind railguns is more complex than with coilguns, but the actual weapon is so simple to create and use that it has become another favorite weapon of the Draugr. Railguns are built from nothing but two long metal rails, a projectile sandwiched between them, and an electric current that is run along the rails. Railguns are more power-hungry than coilguns, but can also achieve much higher velocities, theoretically up to the same speed as the electricity traveling through the rails (though in practice this is virtually impossible).
The biggest problem with Draugr railguns is the extreme wear on the rails caused by friction and the heat of the electrical current. The Draugr will often put a sizable quantity of the superconductive, low-friction supermetals they can scavenge into railgun production, especially on large axial cannons.

-Ion Cannons: These plasma-hurling "energy" weapons, a common sight in many civilizations' arsenals, are the main directed energy weapon of the Draugr. They function by firing bursts of superhot plasma at the target, and the ionization wreaks havoc on electrical systems and energy shielding alike. The weapon is well loved by the Draugr because of its ability to disable electronics without causing noticeable harm to the target ship, and is very effective at battering through energy shielding and crippling sections of an enemy warship. The plasma shots' travel speed is much higher than projectile weapons, too, making it more accurate at long ranges.

-Anti-Fighter Lasers: These low-power, rapid-fire laser cannons spit out bolts of energy at very high fire rates and are primarily considered an anti-fighter weapon. In spite of this, the Draugr frequently improvise and repurpose them, using them to pelt the weaker sections of unshielded ships with fire that can do surprising amounts of damage.
While the weapons are surprisingly reliable and power-efficient, they are hard to replace or repair due to some of the more difficult-to-acquire components used to make them. As such, as they go through the wear and tear of countless high-energy bolts being fired, they usually suffer in the accuracy department. Many of the Draugr's laser cannons are decades or even centuries old, and very inaccurate at this point.
To make up for this, the Draugr put their most trigger-happy gunners at the controls, and fighter pilots attempting to fly in close to bomb a Draugr ship have to navigate a sickening barrage of fire to deliver their payloads.

-Missile/Torpedo Banks: Draugr salvaging skill really shines with their missile usage. Many Draugr ships use missile banks- either launch tubes with rapid feed magazines, or, if simplicity is needed, huge missile-loaded racks.
Whenever the Draugr salvage missiles or torpedoes, they stockpile them and reuse them against the enemy. Their mismatched missiles and torpedoes, stolen over time from every civilization they've visited, are full of variety.
Generally, they are dumb-fired at close range, as either the different guidance systems are too different to link to their targeting systems or it's too much work period.
The end result is a hailstorm of missiles and torpedoes raining death on whatever gets too close to a Draugr ship armed with them, creating a diverse and spectacular fireworks display.
Ironically, the effects of these missiles can vary greatly. The Draugr rarely bother to test the effects of the missiles they scavenge, so they often have no idea how useless or utterly devastating any barrage will be. In fact, there have even been instances where they've fired immensely-powerful warheads in barrages, annihilating not only the enemy ship but themselves as well.

-Anti-Ship Torpedoes: Unlike the rest of their missile/torpedo arsenal, these large-bore torpedoes are built from scratch rather than scavenged. They are frequently used both to give a large warship some extra firepower or make a small torpedo frigate or corvette capable of posing a serious threat to much larger ships.

-Draugr Death Beam: Another beloved favorite of the Draugr, these energy beams emit high-strength radiation at a target, with the intention of passing through its hull and killing the crew inside. They're useless against shielded ships, but an unshielded ship will quickly find its crew subjected to the gruesome effects of this deadly weapon.
While hull thickness can also stop the beam's effects to a limited extent, personnel in exposed parts of the ship, such as weapon gunners and bridge crew, are very vulnerable to a quick and horrible death, and even crew in deeper parts of the ship will still suffer from various effects such as nausea and severe headaches, reducing their ability to operate the ship during a battle.
Generally, though, the Draugr save the weapon for its scavenging after a battle, killing the defenders of a ship to make it easier to board, since most ships in-battle are shielded.

-Master Anti-Ship FTL Cannon: A weapon the Draugr stole from the Masters, these weapons fire energy blasts into the Draugr FTL dimension, only for them to be guided to a set destination and pulled back out into realspace- right on top of (or inside, more accurately) an enemy ship.
As you can probably guess, the effects of this weapon can be devastating, frequently blasting apart a very large portion of a target warship, or detonating it completely if a vital part of the ship is hit. Typically a direct hit will result in a third to half of the target ship being crippled.
Fortunately for those that try to go up against this weapon, it has plenty of weaknesses. To begin with, it is inaccurate, limited by the Draugr ships' short-ranged sensors and their ability to calculate the path and position of the target ship. This means that many ships that are fast and maneuverable or too small very difficult to hit.
Also, the weapon, just like a transition between the Draugr shadow dimension and realspace, takes a very long to charge up and calculate. Interestingly though, almost all of this effort is put into making that FTL jump. The actual energy weapon consumes very little power and would be somewhat ineffective if it weren't exploding in a ship's interior.



NOTE: This is not cemented in stone. I just made quite a bit of this up, so if Tetra anyone () thinks something should be changed just mention it and we can ignore it discuss and change it.

...By the way, I vote "Carcass-Tearer Battery" for the new FTL gun.

[Dino27Captain (PCG)]

This is some good, solid tech. Valyn use some of this (or similar/combined ideas) already. But their weapons will have more of a kill and destroy focus rather than a disabling one, as they're at least half insane, and they are sadistic, heartless, psychopaths who are more interested in destroying and killing than in taking tech. (So less ion cannons.)