Babylon 5 Plasma Weaponry

Plasma Weaponry

The first and most basic of the ‘energy-based’ weapon technologies, plasma was – and still is – a simple and effective way of turning any amount of volatile gas into a deadly ball of roiling liquid plasma. Although it loses much of its powerful inherent energies to the void of space as soon as it begins to launch toward a target, plasma is a deadly weapon when focused properly.

What began as simple vented bursts of plasma being flung toward a target became fixated and condensed ‘plasma bolts’ (like larger versions of the ones fired by a PPG).

Once it became apparent that plasma weapons were so utterly inefficient, many races moved on to laser and particle technologies accordingly. However, the basic plasma cannon remains one of the single most used weapon systems in the galaxy. There have been newer versions, older throwbacks and brilliant inventions never imagined by early plasma researchers, but the standard versions still find their home all over the shipbuilder’s market.

Plasma Weaponry
Name	Origin	Type	Scale	Cost	Space Range	Atmosphere Range	Qualities	Damage
Light Plasma Gun	-	Plasma Weapon	Starfighter	10,000	1/2/3	10-100/200/300m	Fire Control: -1D	4D
Light Plasma Cannon	-	Plasma Weapon	Starfighter	45,000	1-3/7/13	10-300/700/1,300m	-	5D
Medium Plasma Cannon	-	Plasma Weapon	Capital	150,000	1-2/6/11	2-4/12/22km	-	3D
Heavy Plasma Cannon	-	Plasma Weapon	Capital	300,000	1-6/15/30	2-12/30/60km	-	4D
Plasma Accelerator	Centauri Republic	Plasma Weapon	Capital	250,000	1-8/19/38	2-16/38/76km	Bypass Interceptors 2D	5D
Plasma Stream	Pak’ma’ra	Plasma Weapon	Capital	350,000	1-3/8/15	2-6/16/30km	Bypass Interceptors 1D	4D
Advanced Plasma Stream	Soul Hunter	Plasma Weapon	Death Star	1,500,000	1-15/38/75	2-30/76/150km	-	3D
Fused Plasma Torpedo Launcher	Pak’ma’ra	Torpedo Launcher	Death Star	1,750,000	1-9/22/43	2-18/44/86km	-	4D+2

• Bypass Interceptors: Whether they are based on relatively basic laser technologies or more advanced neutron or bioelectric principles, beam weapons rank as the most devastating form of weaponry. These weapons ignore/bypass the target's Interceptors and/or Shields by the listed amount.

Light Plasma Gun

• Fire Control: -1D

Not much more than directional venting from the superheated fusion exhaust, plasma guns are essentially fighter-sized PPGs for use against ships. They can fire relatively quickly without cooling off too rapidly, but concentrated fire occasionally draws too much energy off the engines and can cause a fusion blackout.

Plasma Cannon

The first of the plasma weapons specifically designed to take imported gases and turn them into malleable plasma to be projected at an enemy. Helium or chromium are the most common ammunition gases due to their inherent stability, but the unexpected masters of plasma technology – the Pak’ma’ra – have learned to use methane siphoned from their toxic homeworld.

The energized core of the weapon system creates a ball of plasma to be shot at the enemy. The only drawback to this manner of attack is the sheer lack of inherent control over the shots and the serious drop in effective range with no additional propulsion other than the nature of the void and decompressing gases. Because of this, plasma cannons are Close-ranged and inaccurate but tend to be much more devastating than other weapons of their size.

Plasma Accelerator

• Bypass Interceptors 2D

Another remarkable use of mixed technologies on the part of the Centauri Republic, the plasma accelerator is basically a matter accelerator weapon system altered to handle large gouts of superheated plasma instead of ferrous ammunition. By venting plasma stores into the magnetized chamber of the accelerator and cooling it slightly in order to form a ferrous crust around it, the entire ball of plasma can be magnetically hurled at much longer ranges with greater accuracy, efficiency and rate of fire.

Plasma Stream

• Bypass Interceptors 1D

Having never ventured away from the technology of plasma for their fleet, the Pak’ma’ra Civility has made outstanding and unexpected breakthroughs in plasma use as a weapon. One of the most heralded in the 23rd Century was the invention of the plasma stream. As plasma reacts to outside stimuli like a liquid in most fashions, the plasma stream is a focused torrent of plasma from directional ports on super condensers.

Like a fire hose attached to a water plug, the ports spew thin but deadly ropes of plasma at a target. The plasma still cools rapidly, making the weapon another close ranged choice, but the pressure and continuous fire capabilities of larger vessels mean that it can muster massive damage potentials rather quickly on a target.

• Special: The plasma stream depends on keeping a continuous stream aimed at its target. As such, it must be locked on a ship and that target lock must remain in place. The targeted craft must also remain within range of the firing craft. For every turn the targeted craft is held in the stream, the Beam rating is increased by +1D.
  Hence a spacecraft held in a plasma stream for 3 turns suffers Beam damage of 6D+2 the 1st turn, 7D+2 the 2nd turn and 8D+2 the 3rd turn.
  Due to plasma super condenser limitations, ships that carry plasma stream weapon systems can only fire consecutively for a certain amount of time. Starfighter Scale ships can maintain the stream for a maximum of 4 rounds; Capital Scale ships 8 rounds. After firing, the plasma stream must cooldown for 1D rounds.

Fused Plasma Torpedo Launcher

The highest level of plasma technology that the Pak’ma’ra have devised to date, the fused plasma torpedo launcher, or ‘Fuser’ as it has come to be called, is a remarkably powerful weapon capable of causing tremendous damage on several targets in close proximity to one another. Only called a ‘torpedo’ because of the shape of its casing, the Fuser is in fact a massive plasma-based explosive device that fills a very large area of space with an expanding cloud of hull-devouring superheated gas.

By taking a segmented shell and filling it with white-hot fusion plasma, then launching it via plasma vented rocket boosters toward a specific area of space to be detonated, the Fuser makes entire areas of space hostile for any sort of spacecraft. The Fuser is a marvel of destruction and cannot be used by any vessel smaller than Capital scale.

Fused plasma torpedo launcher systems may only fire every other round due to their slow loading times.

• Special: If the fused plasma torpedo is fired at a fleet or wing, it splits its Damage against every single craft within that group. The one attack roll is compared to every craft’s Defense roll.

Source

• Babylon 5 Ship Builder's Manual (pages 50-52)
• thedemonapostle