T'aral Deep Space FTL Weapon System

A very large deep space weapon platform constructed by the Sulethis Republic.
The T'aral is a large railgun about 2 km in barrel length designed to fire large slugs which can travel at high superluminal velocities using an SR designed warp drive. Its range is mostly limited by the FTL fuel, but it still has about 5 ly of range and can reliably hit targets inside this. Firing the weapon releases a huge energy signature that the enemy can easily detect which might allow them to return fire. As such, the T'aral is only used against large targets such as battleships, where they can make their cost more easily. They are also often used to provide fire support for a SR invasion or even defencive force, as well as anti space station artillery. Also, it is quite slow and very vulnerable to anything that it is in range of. Additioanlly, it only contains enough energy and amunition to fire the railgun 10 times after which it needs to return to a station to reload and rearm. These factors makes it impossible to use as a front line unit. It is also relatively unpopular with its crew despite having a seemingly safe role. When the railgun fires it causes a huge recoil force to be imparted on the ship, which can throw the crew towards the front of the ship. A few deaths have happened due to this, but the SR attempted to reduce this drawback using shock absorbers, where they were partly successful (removed about half of the felt recoil force).

Owning Organization

Sulethis Republic

Length

Railgun Barrel - 2 km Ship - 3 km