Reaper Missile

The Reaper Missile is a standard munition utilized by the gaussian astral fleet.

Missile Stages

Prelaunch

In the pre launch stage the missile is held within a tube. The missile AI can be pre-programmed with a set of instructions. For instance to fly to a predetermined set of rendezvous points, to visually recognize a specific object or target, or to exchange one-time-pad encryption keys in order to exchange instructions and information with the launch platform, other missiles, or other spacecraft or guidence platforms. This information would be exchanged by way of a physical hardline connection rather than any sort of remote communication.

Launch Phase

During the launch phase the missile would be jettisoned from a linear induction launch tube. This was a cold-launch system that would jettison the device several kilometers from the ship before the main engine ignited.

Midcourse Phase

During the midcourse phase, the missile would conduct a burn towards a target. This could involve a short range high acceleration burn or a long burn wherein it fired its thrusters for some time and coasted on inertia. In atmospheric flight the speed and power of the fusion jet would need to be carefully governed as to not melt the missile from atmospheric fiction.

Terminal Phase

On approach to the target the missile AI would dump all excess fuel through the engine to reduce mass and therefore increase acceleration. The missile would utilize random variables generated by the radioactive decay of the americium button to generate juke-dodge movements, making around one hundred maneuvers every single second on terminal approach. Given a maneuver occurs once every hundredth of a second, the missile would therefore be nearly impossible to target outside of a range of 3,000 kilometers due to light lag, without using a guided weapon system with a similar reaction time.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Body

The body is constructed largely of graphene-reinforced high entropy altanium alloys. Arsium doping would not be used to keep costs and overall mass down. Using universally common elements such as carbon, aluminum and titanium made mass-manufacturing easier and cheaper to sustain in a wartime economy. This made the body of the missile have a high strength-to-weight ratio, enabling it to survive tremendous accelerations without breaking up. Though very strong, it was still completely unhardend against damage or point defense countermeasures. Engine and reaction thrusters Running on a high-powered deuterium-tritium ringjet, the missile was optimized for maximum thrust at the price of fuel efficiency and engine reliability. The engine in fact, ran with such intensity that it would melt and warp its own components in flight; and was only guaranteed to remain functional for as long as the missiles' fuel supply lasted. 32 reaction thrusters provided attitude control and evasive maneuvering, fed from the same fuel supply.

Fuel Supply

Due to being fuel efficient a significant fraction of the missiles mass was turned over to fuel. Making it resemble an ancient conventional chemically-fueled rocket. The major difference being that the tank onboard contained a mixture of deuterium and tritium fusion fuel rather than a chemical fuel and oxidizer. In total the missile typically has around 45,000km/sec of DV, enough to accelerate to 15% of lightspeed. 

Guidance Systems

Reaper missiles utilize advanced guidance systems. These include active radar based systems, visible light cameras, and X-ray trackers and telemetry systems. Lock-On-Jam functionality was also included. They could be remotely operated or be provided with pre-programmed instructions before launching. Often remote operation required equipping each missile with a series quantum-randomness derived one-time-pad encryption keys to prevent remote guidance signals being hijacked.
An advanced AI system gave the ordinances a limited capacity to identify targets, decoys, active and passive countermeasures, and respond to developing situations in real time. This allowed the missiles to learn to identify decoys and avoid active countermeasures, actively developing methods to avoid or subvert them. If configured to attack a target in several waves the early waves could communicate with later waves and utilize learning algorithms and neural networks to adapt to soft-kill and hard-kill countermeasures.
The guidance system contained a button of Americium-252 and a particle detector. The radioactive decay displayed "true" randomness and could be used to derive completely unpredictable integers to help drive juke-dodging algorithms.

Warheads (MUSKIP, DIDONO, MCA, NIMP)

Reaper missiles could carry a variety of warheads.
The most common being flechette impactors. Building tremendous momentum with their high acceleration they would detonate a payload of small dense flechettes. These could be used to intercept other incoming missiles or drones.
Also common were DIDONO (Directionally Imploding Dialable Output Nuclear Ordinace). Versatile nuclear fusion devices that could, through manipulation of explosive lenses control the yield and shape of the blast. Detonating as a nuclear shaped charge of casaba howitzer a stream of radioactive plasma could be shot as a jet towards a target. Or a more conventional omnidirectional explosion would occur. Modern warheads often possessing yields around a hundred megatons.
MCA (Magnetically Confined Antimatter). The standard warhead would be replaced 100-kilogram sphere of anti-osmium suspended within a vacuum sealed magnetic bottle. Direct mass annihilation produced exponentially more energy on detonation than nuclear devices, but this was vastly less controllable. The risk of accidental detonation through damage to the missile or launching mechanism meant that antimatter missiles were not often used for how much they could jeopardize the vessel they were attached to with assured destruction. However small numbers of such missiles may have been stored internally deep within a vessel then launched out the hangars or nonstandard magizine-fed launchers.
Nuclear Induced Magnetic Pulse were specialized electronic warfare warheads. Upon detonation most the entire energy of the blast would be manipulated into a powerful electromagnetic pulse and wave of ionizing radiation. This had the effect of disabling unshielded electronics without outright destroying vessels. The utility of this effect could vary greatly based on range and the level of shielding.

History

The Reaper missile, like many other weapons systems was first developed during the millenium modernization program. A reaper missile does not in fact refer to one specific model but rather a family of ordinances designed to fit within a specific type of launching mechanism that was around one meter in diameter and nine meters across. Newer missiles tended to have better guidance and sensor systems, higher yield warheads, and more powerful accelerations.

by JadeGreen17

Item type

Ammunition

Creation Date

1024DE

Rarity

Reaper missiles are incredibly common, fielded on virtually all gaussian vessels. They are mass produced at most shipyards and some secondary weapons facilities. Some spacecraft can produce them, albeit in smaller quantities with onboard manufacturing capabilities and stockpiles of raw materials.

Weight

4.5 tons (Dry Mass) 9 tons (Fully Fueled)

Dimensions

1m Diameter, 9m length

Base Price

Δ1,000,000

Raw materials & Components

*Deuterium-Tritium Fuel (liquid metallic state, 4.5 tons) *Aluminum (approx 400kg) *Carbon (various allotropes including graphene, approx 1.5 tons) *Titanium (approx 600kg) *Kelter (approx 25kg) *Silicon (approx 25kg) *Uranium-233 (approx 50kg)