Lasers

Lasers are a directed energy weapon that fire focused beams of light at targets, causing damage through the generation of intense heat. Although lasers are often used in non-military contexts, the term is most often associated with the weapon. Lasers have a long history in warfare, usually developed well before FTL. They are used as conventional weapons on starships, strike craft, and ground-based vehicles. They are also used as part of point-defence systems in order to shoot down incoming missiles. Generally, lasers are effective against armour or hull plating, but ineffective against shields.

Depending on the size of the laser and its reactor, in ship-to-ship combat lasers can reasonably be effective from 40-80 km away. Beams are limited by their coherence, as well as the difficulty of maintaining pinpoint accuracy on targets in the face of evasion and electronic warfare. If a laser is unable to heat up a specific point on its target, it becomes unable to deal any sort of significant damage.

Red lasers are the oldest model of laser, only found on obsolete warships or civilian vessels. The beam of light they fire appears red to most organics, and is considered ineffective against most modern defences. Blue lasers were the first major upgrade in the field of laser technology, generally improving upon red lasers in terms of damage and power efficiency. As their name suggests, they appear blue to most organics. UV lasers were the first model to substantially change the design, opting to use ultraviolet light instead of energy within the visible spectrum. They were later improved upon by x-ray lasers, which use shorter wavelengths than their UV counterparts, but are capable of delivering more damage. X-ray lasers are the most common aboard warships today. The cutting edge of laser technology is gamma lasers, which use extremely high frequency energy to cut through armour

Cavitation Collapser

The cavitation collapser is a directed energy weapon that bears similarities to conventional lasers. Reverse engineered from ancient warships, it was one of the first 'archaeotech' weapons fielded. The weapon functions by firing a powerful directed energy beam at its target, which is specifically calibrated to cause repeated micro collapsing events (singularities) on contact. These events generate tremendous heat and force, even through armour plating. However, like conventional lasers, it is ineffective against shields.