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| Large Energy Beam Weapon Systems | |
| Laser Cannon Firepower | |
| 8.0 | " Corran hit the trigger
and walked laser fire from stern to nose on the ugly. Two bolts
blew the R5's flowerpot head off, then two more punctured the cockpit,
exploding it into a cloud of transparisteel and duraplast
fragments. The last bolts hit forward and touched off a proton
torpedo's fuel cells. The fuel's detonation filled the slender
craft with fire and sent the nose spinning wildly off into space."
[ "X-Wing:
The Krytos Trap" p.46 ] The fighter laser cannons (in this case those of a TIE Interceptor) are not powerful enough to melt or vaporize almost any of the fighter. It apparently took 2 bolts to just blow up an R5! |
| 8.1 | "He tightened down on the trigger, pulsing kilojoules
of scarlet energy into an eyeball's cockpit." [ "X-Wing:
The Krytos Trap" p.54 ] Kilo-joules - not mega- or giga-joules come out of fighter laser cannons. |
| 8.2 | " The quad burst of laser
fire pierced the Headhunter's shields. The red beams sliced
into the joint where the port wing joined the
fuselage, sheering it off. The engine on that wing
exploded and the ship itself whirled off in a flat spin." [ "X-Wing:
The Bacta War", p. 75 ] X-wing lasers can pierce the shields of a Z-95 Headhunter and at the same time damage/destroy it. |
| 8.3 | " Two New Republic
Assault Frigates, the Tyrant's Bane and Liberty Star,
cruised in toward the Golan station. Though each ship was less
than a third as long as the station, they bristled with fifty laser
cannons and poured terajoules of coherent light into the Golan."
[ "X-Wing:
Isard's Revenge" p.7 ] This appears to say that 100 capitol class laser cannons produce only terajoules of energy - as in less than 100. |
| 8.4 | " The quad laser turret
started shooting. The outer door of the airlock had gotten
jammed open somehow in the fighting. It began to glow red, then
orange, then fire-white - and then the inner hatch blew off, the ship's
atmosphere streaming away into space." [ "Showdown
at Centerpoint", p. 286 ] Not too powerful, that quad laser turret. |
| 8.5 | "The scout walker fired several times, blackeningparts
of the temple rock." [ "Darksaber",
p. 334 ] " The AT-ST commander, still apparently nervous, fired twice into the empty chamber. The bolts of his laser cannons ricochetted off the inner walls and flashed, causing minor damage spots on the stone." [ "Darksaber", p. 334 ] Pretty puny, even for a scout walker. Very puny, in fact. |
| 8.6 | " The two pilots
acknowledged, and she returned her attention to the inconspicuous spot
beneath the Star Destroyer's central sublight drive nozzle where her
Z-95's lasers were currently blasting away. Beneath the
shielding at that point was a critical part of the lower-aft sensor
package. If she could take it out, she and the others would
have free run of the relatively undefended underside of the huge ship.
With a sudden puff of vaporized metal and plastic, the lasers punched through it." [ "Dark Force Rising", p. 425 ] After only a few minutes of concentrated firing the lasers of a Z-95 Headhunter can punch through a shield of an ISD. |
| Turbolaser Firepower | |
| 9.0 | " 'I'm still surprised at
how small an energy input it's supposed to take,' Luke said. 'I
thought at first we'd have to bring in half a dozen Star Destroyers and
keep them here a month.'" [ "Tyrant's
Test" p. 362 ] Apparently Luke thinks that it would take 100 SDs a month to melt and vaporize enough of a planet's frozen oceans to start up the green house effect. |
| 9.1 | " 'Do we have plans for
an attack, Admiral?' the weapons chief said from his station, looking
disappointed as he assessed his array of weaponry.
'Yes,' Daala said. 'We strike from orbit. All turbolaser batteries, full strength. Fire at will, targeting any structures in the jungle.'" [ "Darksaber", p. 311 ] " The Knight Hammer's weapons chief fired another volley of deadly turbolasers, and another, and another." [ "Darksaber", p. 311 ] "Even from her place in the Knight Hammer, high above Yavin 4, she could already see the forests starting to burn." [ "Darksaber", p. 311 ] Isn't it strange that after multiple hits by several hundred high powered TLs on a forrest planet all she saw were burning forrests? One would have expected huge flashes of light, shockwaves, enormous craters, dust clouds covering half the planet... If the TLs really are multigigaton in power, that is. Also please note complete lack of requests for bodies of any kind. |
| 9.2 | "Callista looked up and saw another blast come
down. With a single strike, the Super Star Destroyer
obliterated an acre of ages-old growth. One lucky shot could
level the Great Temple." [ "Darksaber",
p. 350 ] " Then an indiscriminate river of fire seared through the atmosphere, ripping the air apart in a screaming ionization path. A massive turbolaser bolt from orbit struck one of the TIE fighters and disintegrated it in a puff of released energy. The shockwave fuffeted the Falcon, making Han and Chewbacca scramble to regain control of the ship." [ "Darksaber", p. 356 ] " Another turbolaser bolt came down in the distance, igniting a portion of the jungle kilometers away." [ "Darksaber", p. 356 ] Hmm, are these the all-powerful turbolasers we all heard so much about? All they do is burn forrest - not much of it, either. They don't create very much shockwaves even when ships get really really really close to them (within a few hundred meters, apparently). The SSD in orbit even appears to be incapable of targeting a huge temple in the middle of the forrest, pretty much cleared of growth, just begging to be destroyed. Not very impressive, if you ask me. :) |
| Ion Cannon Statistics | |
| 10.0 | "Moonshadow was coming up and turning to port,
its port-side batteries firing against Direption's aft
shields. Red and blue laser and ion cannon fire pumped
terajoules of energy into the shields, but somehow they stayed up."
[ "X-Wing:
Isard's Revenge" p.111 ] Clearly shows that ion cannons and lasers (possibly even turbo-lasers) are in the TJ range. Very interesting, especially considering the fact that the Moonshadow and the Direption are both ISD2's, and they were doing their best to hurt or kill each other in this situation. |
| 10.1 | "Wedge's monitor showed seven Interceptors hanging
dead in space. That number was impressive, even in spite of the
ambush, because blowing ships up was far easier than taking their
electrical systems down." [ "X-Wing:
The Krytos Trap" p.55 ] Ion cannons do indeed effect the electrical systems of the target vessel. |
| 10.2 | "The ion cannons mounted on towers around the
facility had been cranked skyward. They pulsed out massive blue
bolts that shot upward at the invading fleet, pouring out through
momentary gaps opened in the shields by fire-control computers."
[ "X-Wing:
Isard's Revenge" p.287 ] SW computers have to open holes in shields for the weapons to fire through them. Or at least in the planetary shields. |
| 10.3 | "'But, Admiral - the ion cannon simply obliterates
electrical and computer systems.'" [ "Darksaber",
p. 70 ] Further proof of the effects of ion canons. |
| Range | |
| 11.0 | " Corran glanced at his
sensors, then up at the gas giant. Black specs rose up through
the clouds, looking for a moment like insects trapped between two panes of
transparisteel. Though kilometers distant, he knew what they
were: TIE fighters, Interceptors, and Bombers."
" Because of the vast distances in space, the Rogues and their counterparts could see each other long before they could engage each other. Minutes would pass before they would close to effective fighting ranges. Having time to think about what was coming seldom did a warrior any good - and training was meant to take over when thought wasn't possible. You're leading Three Flight, Corran. Prep them for what's coming." [ "X-Wing: Isard's Revenge" p.182-3 ] X-wing effective fighting range is positively pathetic. |
| 11.1 | "Coming up and around, she dropped her Interceptor on
his tail, but saw he already had ten kilometers worth of lead over
her. Even with the Interceptor's greater speed, I won't
catch him before he escapes the atmosphere and goes to lightspeed."
[ "X-Wing:
The Bacta War", p. 160 ] "By shunting more energy to her engines, she could increase her speed, but her lasers would have no power to shoot Gavin when she caught him." [ "X-Wing: The Bacta War", p. 160 ] This clearly shows that the range of Interceptor lasers is much less than 10 km - at the very least in atmosphere. |
| 11.2 | "Yag'Dhul and its moons appeared as colorful spheres
hanging in space. Silhouetted against Yag'Dhul's gray face, the
space station appeared to be little more than a cross - insignificant and
defenseless." [ "X-Wing:
The Bacta War", p. 287 ] " 'Have you spotted the Alderaanian War Cruiser yet?' 'Negative,' reported Drysso's aide. We are clear for a hundred kilometers around us, and Virulence is reporting similar clearance.' 'Push the sensor sphere out to wo hundred kilometers, Lieutenant Waroen, and keep scanning the fringes of the system for that War cruiser. Time to engagement?' 'Ten minutes to range.' 'Bring our shields up to full.' 'As ordered, sir.' Drysso stroked his goatee as he watched the station grow larger." [ "X-Wing: The Bacta War", p. 287 ] The SSD was out of range, despite the fact that the ship's captain could see the station with his own eyes. Even if someone tries to argue that he saw it on a monitor, the SSD was still no more than 100 km away from the station - since that was the original sensor sphere. |
| 11.3 | "'Bring the Y-wings up front. Let them
think that's all we have." [ "X-Wing:
Solo Command", p. 292 ] "Several kilometers out from Mon Remonda, as they reached maximum firing range from the Y-wing squadrons, they opened up with a salvo of lasers, then broke around the Y-wing force in four groups, leaving the slower New Republic starfighters to turn awkwardly in their wake." [ "X-Wing: Solo Command", p. 292 ] Since the Y-wings were "in front" of the NR ships, and therefore between the Mon Remonda and the TIEs, TIE maximum firing range must be less than several kilometers. |
| Miscellaneous Information | |
| 12.0 | " 'Do you know of any
weaknesses or vulnerability of the vagabond that we can exploit?'
'Yes. Blaster cannon, cruiser-weight and up. The hull's not armored, and there don't seem to be ray shields, at least not at those frequencies. You can hole it and hurt it.'" [ "Tyrant's Test", p. 339 ] Since Lando knew absolutely nothing about the vagabond, he could only talk about its shields from the perspective of shields known to him - by assuming that the vagabond's shields worked the same way as the standard SW shields. Therefore, not only are SW blaster cannons frequency dependent, but so are their ray shields. |
| 12.1 | "Two pairs of green laser bolts hissed
out. The second pair hit the missile, melting
it. The propellant combusted into a big ball of flame, and an
explosion by the warhead a second later snuffed it." [ "X-Wing:
Isard's Revenge" p.224 ] Clearly shows that concussion missile fuel is chemical in nature, and works by combustion. |
By 'Elim Garak'
