Weapons and Armor

Small Arms
Mostly comprised of sidearms and other weaker personal weapons, small arms are easy to carry and deadly against an unarmored target. Most are single action or semi-automatic laser weapons with less than a dozen shots in them. For the most part they can be wielded in one hand and are worn by many people in hostile or quasi-hostile environments. They can injure any person not wearing some form of combat armor. An environmental suit can reduce a small arms injury from fatal shot to merely a severe injury. The front plate in officer’s jacket will stop a single direct hit from small arms.

Combat Arms
Most rifles or other firearms made for military purposes are collectively referred to as “combat arms”. Most are semi-automatic or automatic laser weapons that can punch through combat armor pretty effectively but have no (or minimal) effect on vehicle armor. Combat arms are dispatched to military personnel in combat situations and don’t see much use by the civilian population.

Heavy Arms
Also called “special weapons” or “heavy weapons” are a general category of personal weapons the describe very powerful firearms that pack a extra heavy punch. High powered anti-materiel sniper rifles, shoulder mounted rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, and the like all fall into this category. Most of these weapons are slow to reload, require special training to fully utilize, may require additional support to use, and are equivalent to small caliber ship weapons. Special troops are issues heavy arms to strike key targets on the battlefield. They can cause damage against light shielding and push straight though combat armor.

Combat Armor
Normally worn by ground troops these can resist small arms fire (though the wearer will still feel like they were hit with a sledge hammer). Combat armor might take a little of the power out of a shot from combat arms but it’s only about a 50/50 chance and with them being automatics it is a cold day in hell that combat armor will save your life if you get a full on burst.

Small Caliber Weapons
On par with heavy arms, small caliber weapons (also called light weapons) are effective against ground troops and fighters. While they can damage ships with light shielding most small caliber weapons are too short range to reach harder targets.

Medium Caliber Weapons
The mainstay of the fleet are medium weapons. They can punch though light shielding and even damage medium armor. When faced with a flood of medium caliber weapons fire even heavy shielding with eventually fail.

High Energy Weapons
High energy weapons (also called large caliber weapons) are powerful lances of energy that can rip apart anything it touches below heavy shading. Even being near a beam can cause blistering and ambient damage. These weapons are normally on capital ships and are fixed in position as a ship’s main weapon. Heavy shielding that takes a blow from a high energy weapon will be severely damaged and there is a good chance, particularly if it is fired at close range or scores a direct hit, that the high energy weapon will simply punch right though it.

Missile Batteries
A battery launches small (about the size of a man), computer guided, warheads. They are fired in clusters, each battery able to launch 5 or 6 in quick succession. Missiles are typically ineffective when an individual one strikes its target but grow more effective when more strike a single target. A single missile can destroy a fighter while it might take two or three direct hits to cause damage a ship with light shielding. It can take 10 or 20 direct hits to cause any sort of injury to medium shielding and missiles are typically not useful against the heavy armor of, say, a battleship. They are launched more for a “shotgun” effect- filling an entire area with dozens of small missiles. Their main use is to strike and damage exposed non-armored targets like communications arrays, exposed weapons ports, and take out fighter attack wings. Missiles have a limited homing capacity, able to lock on and track a target but they are not terribly maneuverable. A skilled fighter pilot can lose a missile lock but would have a problem with two or three.

Turret-Mounted vs Fixed
Turret-mounted weapons are able to be swiveled and aimed independent of the ship. Most of the time

Rapid Firing Weapons

These weapons typically are turret mounted and offer a short “burst” of automatic-firing energy rather than a long sustained beam of energy. Due to this it might take several hits from one of these weapons to equal it’s normal effectiveness.

Short Range
Short range weapons are typically self defense weapons that are design to strike fighters coming in at a close range. They only shoot a few hundred yards.

Medium Range
In a typical engagement ships will fire their weapons at each other from either a long or medium distance. A medium distance is about 1-5 miles and medium weapons have their sweet spot at about 3 miles.

Long Range
Long range weapons are typically high energy weapons with a first strike capacity or rockets designed to hope get a lucky shot on an unarmored target. Long range weapons have a range of 5-20 miles and a sweet spot of about 10 miles. Most of the time capital ships will stay out of range of these sorts of weapons, only moving in if they are ready to commit to the attack.

Energy Vulcans:
Most fighter craft have several of these small caliber, fixed, short range, rapid firing, energy cannons that chew up other fighter craft.

Defensive Batteries:
These small caliber, turret mounted, short range, rapid firing, energy cannons are normally scattered around a ship’s hull to to defend against fighters trying to close in and to intercept missiles. Most of the time these weapons are automated and told to scatter their fire to create a defensive perimeter.

J-Cannons
A pair of twin medium caliber, fixed, short range, rapid firing, energy cannons mounted together and drawing from the same energy source. They alternate firing and are typically used to either destroy other fighters or for strafing escorts or carriers. These cannons are almost exclusively used on bluejay fighters.

Assault Cannons
Medium caliber, turret mounted, medium range, rapid firing, energy cannons normally found on escorts. They typically come in large numbers and are located in similar locations- able to focus fire and eventually cause damage to even heavy targets. These weapons are often found on escorts.

Battle Cannons
The more traditional cousin to the assault cannon, these weapons are medium caliber, fixed, medium range, rapid firing, energy cannons. They produce a sustained beam of energy and are normally placed with several in the same area. They are generally aimed manually to strike key points on enemy escorts and create a wall of fire that can punch though most armor.

High Energy Cannons
Typically mounted in the core or at least at the front of the ship, a high energy cannon is a  forward facing, high energy, long range, energy cannon that fires a sustained beam of high energy at it’s target for 5-10 seconds. Nicknamed “lances”, these weapon are designed to punch though the heaviest armor and destroy escort craft. While they are normally found on capital ships like battleships, heavy destroyers also have one.

Tactical Energy Cannons
Only seen on tactical battleships, tactical energy cannons are turret mounted, high energy, medium range, energy cannons. They are used when in the thick of it to devastate multiple targets without having to reposition the ship. This makes the tactical battleship one of the most devastating ships when it closes in range but it has to sacrifice the much longer reach of the high energy cannons that it doesn’t cary.

No-Shielding
Fighters and scouts lack any notable shielding and, while they probably can’t be damaged by even combat arms- they are very susceptible to heavy arms fire. They are reliant on their speed, maneuverability, and small size to avoid attacks.

Light Shielding
Ships with light shielding are generally reliant on speed, lower value as targets, and lack of size, to spare them from the heavier weapons fire. Escort carriers, submarines, and fast attack craft (scouts) have light shielding.

Combat Grade Shielding
Also called “medium shielding”, this is the mainstay for most escorts. They are not susceptible to any heavy arms fire from personal weapons and it takes a lot of direct hits from small caliber weapons to make any noticeable amount of damage. Still, strafing runs against these kinds of ships can still strike exposed weak points (like sensory equipment, communications arrays, weapon ports, etc) if they get lucky and cause some critical damage. Escorts like destroyers, and cruisers have combat grade shielding. Fleet carriers (other than the main battle carrier) also have this grade of shielding.

Heavy Shielding
The heaviest kind of armor is reserved for capital ships whose hulking forms can support the huge weight it imposes. Main battle carriers an battleships are the most famous ships to have this kind of armor and for this weapon most of the time they lead the charge into battle. Lighter armored ships flank it or use ships with heavy shielding for cover. Small caliber weapons couldn’t hope to hurt it and it takes a constant barrage of medium caliber weapons to even dent a heavily armored ship. Still, as they are typically slowed down by this extra armor, they are easy targets and need many support craft to protect its few vulnerable spots from pesky things like fighters and cruisers.