Technical notes on missile weapons. Weapons outlined are standard missiles, micromissiles, pursuit missiles, cluster missiles, screamer missiles, countermissiles, counter-countermissiles, standard torpedoes, static discharge torpedoes and energy leech torpedoes.

>>WARNING. Contains technobabble.

Standard Missile -
At the earliest onset of mass space exploration, before energy weapons or even ship to ship cannons, missiles were used as a reliable, effective way of attacking and destroying enemies. Over time, missile technology evolved, becoming more and more lethal against capital ship armor plating. The basic anatomy of a missile consists of a tip made of an ablative gel, a compartment of a reactory agent in the middle, and the rocket propellant at the rear. Small vernier thrusters across the surface of the casing grant the missile the ability to adjust course mid-flight.

When the missile impacts its target, the ablative gel in the tip spreads, covering the surface area of the target. Shortly afterward, the secondary chemical agent is mixed into the gel, increasing the temperature of the gel exponentially, also causing a release of gasses that resembles an explosion. The automatic cooling systems of armor plating will attempt to dispel the heat across the surface of the entire ship, but enough heat at once can overload the cooling system, and begin melting the armor. Even though missiles have been adapted for a diverse set of purposes, each still follows these same basic principles. Missiles rely on their rapid speed and maneuverability to dodge flak lasers, as the energy pulse from the laser can prematurely detonate the gel.

Micromissile -
Micromissiles are much smaller than any other type of missile. Each contains very little propellant and gel, but make up for their lack of firepower in numbers. Micromissile launchers can be capable of firing hundreds of warheads, allowing them to quickly stack up and overwhelm enemy defenses.

Pursuit Missile -
The standard in anti-strike craft self propelled weaponry, pursuit missiles contain large amounts of propellant to pursue and intercept targets, sacrificing ablative gel quantity, since not much is needed to melt through strike craft armor. Pursuit missiles are usually equipped on strike craft as fighter-to-fighter ordinance, although some capital ships dedicated to creating fighter screens mount them also.

Cluster Missile -
The "scattershot" cluster missile consists of a simple self propelled frame containing ten unguided rockets. Each rocket is very small in diameter, with only enough propellant to separate it from the scattershot frame and briefly accelerate it toward the target. While low in overall destructive potential, the scattershot rockets generate almost no sensor profile, making them hard to intercept.

Screamer Missile -
Screamers have no offensive capability; instead they are designed to generate a massive sensor profile, effectively "hiding" other ordinance.

Countermissile -
A small micromissile sized weapon, countermissiles act as a layer of defense against enemy ballistics. Two types exist, but both serve the same purpose. The first contains a cap with a shaped gel charge, programmed to rapidly expand the gel outward when a forward facing proximity sensor has been tripped, while the second forgoes the gel completely and instead mounts a small rotary autocannon that can spray bullets over a wide area. The effect of each is to attempt to force the gel cap of enemy missiles to activate before it can reach its intended target.

Counter-countermissile -
CCMs operate identical to countermissiles, although they are employed to defeat enemy countermissiles, giving friendly ordinance greater successful hit ratios.

Standard Torpedo -
In essence, a torpedo operates the same as a standard missile, although on a much larger scale. Torpedoes possess larger casings, and contain more of the ablative gel and reactory agent, but at the cost of less propellant fuel. Thus, torpedoes have a greater gel spread and burn much hotter, but have substantially lower tracking ability than missiles. As a result, torpedoes have the greatest success rate against large, slow moving targets like capital ships and space stations.

Static Discharge Torpedo -
A variation of the standard torpedo, "Starburst" torpedoes replace the ablative gel with a highly potenent energy capacitor, designed to deliver a massive power surge to enemy shield systems, causing them to overload and shut down.

Energy Leech Torpedo -
These "Vampire" torpedoes use the same capacitor as the static discharge torpedoes, although modified to drain energy shields into its capacitor. Once the charge capacity has been reached, the capacitor detonates itself, causing damage to anything in the vicinity.