Plasma?

That's right. We are developing several plasma weapons: the Plasma Bolt (no-brainer!) and the Electus Torpedo. Brief overview: both weapons are built around the use of Plasma fields being launched through space at their targets. You can attack and destroy them, although it is very difficult--and with the Torpedo, it's "at your own (high) risk". So what's the deal? The shielding system that our space-craft use is based inside of the craft. It raises a slight field that conforms to the ship, and is invisible to the naked eye; it is only detectable by scanners, or previous knowledge of its existence. The Pulsar technology that we use for the standard 'blaster' uses large quantities of ATP that are loaded into thin-crusted metal balls. Before firing, the ATP receives a very intense charge of energy. Upon impact with a target, this energy is released, resulting in an immense energy shock--not to mention the damage from the metal shards themselves. The shielding system absorbs the vast majority of the energy releases, meaning that while some damage is sustained from the physical impacts of shells and some energy shocks, the ship remains un-harmed. Until... the shield's capacity is exceeded. Over a period of time, the shield can slowly release some of the energy it has accumulated. But if it overflows, the hull of the ship takes damage, and the next step is total destruction.

We ran into a problem: once you start talking very large ships (Ex: 'Torchestrian' class), you're looking at shield systems that are practically invulnerable to normal fire. So what's the classic response to heavy armor? Bigger weapons. Super weapons. Thus we began to dabble with Plasma weapons.

The Plasma Bolt is a pure plasma field, that is, it is comprised of nothing else. When it hits a target, the immense energy contained within it is released as the Plasma is absorbed by the ship's shield. This takes down the shield much more rapidly than normal weapons would.

The Electus Torpedo was the first idea that we had. I had been talking to a director whose film I am contracted to compose music for (he's a super technical-savvy guy!), and we got to talking about the fact that some of our characters have obtained access to the Electro-Magnetic Force. He asked if we had thought about the possibility of using that access to create attacks on Magnetic Bonds; if you were to direct such an attack at, say, a person, they would disintegrate!

This was an interesting idea--and we decided to take things to another level. Thus, the Electus Torpedo was born. It would be about five feet in length, and six inches in width at the center, narrowing to a tip at either end. The Plasma Field in this weapon contains the energy that would unleash this attack. The Plasma Field would make contact with the shield system of the ship, and would be absorbed. However, the energy attack would now spurt out of the end of the Plasma Field, by-passing the shield system for the most part. The result is disastrous to any ship--a jagged hole is blown open, and the damage continues to spread slowly for several seconds after the initial effects, like chemicals eating away at styrofoam (now that is super-creepy to watch... I've seen it happen in a science experiment!). In addition to all of that, the shield system also takes a dreadful knock.

If you're in a fighter, you could use a short-range, highly ballistic missile on the Electus Torpedo, but you have to be careful, as the Plasma would disintegrate, the missile would explode, and if you don't dodge soon enough, you will fly right through the matter contained within the Plasma Field. Oops. Picture whole chunks of the ship simply ripping away from it, a ring of fire passing over the body for a moment, and the twisted, blackened chaisse flying to pieces.

While you could easily equip a large battle-ship or mobile base unit with guns that could generate Plasma Bolts for combat, no craft would be carrying more than three Electus Torpedos at any given time. Each Torpedo is contained within its own Capsule. The Capsule is pretty much a metal canister; each end is left open, the Torpedo being held in by magnetic rings that semi-seal off the ends. You have your firing tube (which is also used for any other heavy weapon), and when you engage the Electus Torpedo firing function, the unit containing the Torpedo canisters is rolled up to the Firing Tube. A canister is rotated into the Firing Tube, and a large charge of energy is compacted behind the Torpedo. The fore-magnetic rings are opened, the energy lashes outward, and the rear set of magnetic rings slames forward, launching the Torpedo toward its target.

Whew... that was about a month and a half of planning. Not easy!