Weaponry: Phasers
Created by Captain Chiellon Nerevaryn on Fri Apr 23rd, 2010 @ 6:03pm
Handheld Type-2 Phasers
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The phaser is the standard Federation beam weapon system. Phaser is an acronym for PHASed Energy Rectification, a term which referred to the original process by which stored or supplied energy was converted to another form for release toward the end without any need for an intermediate energy transformation. Although this term is something of a holdover, it remains true in modern phaser systems. Phasers have three distinct effects on the target. At low power settings - setting 1 to 3 on a hand phaser - the impact of phaser energy is almost wholly limited to simple electromagnetic and mild thermal effects. These are concentrated on the nervous system of the target, causing pain and/or unconsciousness in most beings. At higher levels the thermal effect becomes prevalent, and the phaser will begin to cause physical damage to the target resulting in moderate or severe injuries. By the time the power level is at setting 7 the energy is distributed equally between thermal and nuclear disruption energy. Disruption effects become widespread, resulting in immediate death to most Humanoid life forms. At levels higher than 7 the majority of phaser energy is in the form of nuclear disruption. A large portion of the target is simultaneously vaporized and transitioned out of the continuum, a process that is instantly fatal. The higher power settings available with Marine phasers (setting 9+) cause severe damage over a wide area. These settings are rarely used because of the relatively high power consumption; a single setting 10 discharge uses more than twenty five times as much energy as a setting 7 discharge, while a setting 16 discharge uses over three hundred and fifteen times as much. |
  
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The Marine Phaser rifle is a more sophisticated weapon than its Type 3 Phaser rifle counterpart. Unlike its Starfleet issue counterpart it is only capable of firing Phaser energy in pulses. This was desired as it allows more damaged to be applied to the targeted area (improving on energy and kinetic transferal) It utilizes a computer controlled oscillating frequency shift to allow the beam characteristics to be modified automatically, a measure clearly important when dealing with the Borg. As well, the addition of a fifth pre-fire energy compression chamber allows for faster fire rate than previous models. The Marine Phaser rifle also includes a much more effective and elaborate targeting system, and a larger energy reserve. The Rifle is equipped with a gyro-stabilized targeting unit; this is linked into the Marine's M3 armour's targeting software. This allows a marine to fire from the 'hip' with greater accuracy than would be allowable with normal sighting systems, and provides the ability to utilize short-range sensor sweeps without having to take his attention away from the battlefield. Images of the targeted life forms would be displayed on the marine's headset. The frequency of the beam can be varied so that on settings 1 to 6 the phaser beam can be set on a special wide-beam setting that only effects carbon-based living tissue. Though this is an exceptionally useful feature, it uses significantly more energy than required by normal beams. The Marine Phaser Rifle is often equipped with a clip-on grenade launcher. Because of the nature of its missions, Majestic-class vessels only carry Marine Phaser rifles and not the standard Type-3 phaser rifles carried onboard most Starfleet vessels. |
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