HV-PLASMA ELECTROLASERS:

Most VS infantry small arms are a hybrid of electrolaser and plasma-launching (coil? rail?) gun; using microwaves and electromagnetics to excite and fling bolts of plasma at obscene velocities, and a pulse laser to bore a conductive path through the atmosphere for the bolt to cohere to and travel along. Despite common misconceptions, the heat and electrical energy of the plasma is a tertiary to negligible damage source, due to the extremely low mass (and thus overall thermal/electrical energy) of a bolt – the true killer is the incredible kinetic energy of a small mass moving at multiple kilometers per second. This staggering velocity means that Vanu weaponry has exceptionally flat trajectory and phenomenal armor penetration, able to bore icepick wounds through almost any personal body armor. However, such armor-piercing power also means lessened tissue damage compared to Terran or Conglomerate slugs, as the plasma bolt blasts right through soft tissue rather than expanding or fragmenting and more fully dissipating its energy. Due to air resistance and a number of other physical factors, the low-mass projectile also does tend to shed energy and matter over distance, even with the help of a conductive ion channel; thus, over long range the terminal ballistics suffer from ever-narrowing wound channels, to the point where a shot at extreme distance might not inflict much more damage than a sewing needle.

Because each individual shot is comprised of such a tiny amount of matter, most Vanu weapons can carry reaction-mass reservoirs sufficient for hundreds to thousands of shots – far more than the wielder is likely to fire in a single rebirthing. Thus, the real limiting factor is the sheer amount of energy required to operate such a weapon, reflected in the design of VS weapons system around a handful of types of quick-change battery.

A few experimental Vanu weapons attempt to get around the power issue by using the steady energy of auraxium decay to continually refill a special battery as it discharges. While this results in an energy core able to power hundreds or thousands of shots, it also causes much greater issues with heat buildup within the weapon; de facto limiting the number of shots that can be fired in direct sequence.

PLASMOID-BASED WEAPONRY:

A significant number of Vanu weapons such as the PPA fire larger, slower orbs of explosive plasma rather than hypervelocity KE-reliant bolts. These weapons are essentially artificial ball lightning generators, using particle accelerators (hence the “Proton Pulse”) to vaporize and ionize heavy mineral elements (often, powdered Cortium or even Auraxium dust) into dense, temporarily-coherent spheroids of white-hot plasma; which are then accelerated towards a target by some combination of the particle beam itself, a laser-bored atmospheric ion channel, or other electromagnetics such as conductive coils. These plasmoids burn fiercely hot, and on impact with solid matter destabilize in a concussive shockwave of superheated, ionized air; causing intense overpressure and electrical burns. However, their armor penetration is extremely low compared to equivalent HV plasma-bolt systems, relegating them primarily to antipersonnel usage.

Plasmoid projectors require significantly greater reservoirs of reaction mass than standard Vanu weaponry, making them fairly bulky systems; only two experimental weapons, the Lasher heavy weapon and the Spiker auraxium-fuelled pistol, are compact enough to be man-portable, at great penalty to the size and power of the plasmoids they can generate.

TOROIDAL PROJECTORS:

Something of a midpoint between the hypervelocity-bolt electrolaser and the ball-lightning generator, some Vanu heavy weapons fire a vortex ring of plasma, which allows for greater projectile masses and densities than an HV electrolaser and greater stability at high velocity than a ball-lightning type weapon. Despite most of the plasma mass being concentrated in a tight toroid (doughnut) shape, these projectiles do diffuse somewhat in flight and tend have long “tails” and a brilliant cometlike appearance as a result. The aptly-named Comet, the S1 shoulder-fired launcher, and the Magrider’s main cannons are all examples of toroidal plasma weapons.

PARTICLE ACCELERATORS:

The Lancer (and its cousin the Vortex) is a cyclotron-augmented HV-electrolaser weapon. It uses a circular particle accelerator to “spin up” reaction mass to unbelievable velocities, then laser-bores a guiding ion channel through the atmosphere to the target and releases the spun up bolt through a final linear-accelerator element – flinging a pencil-thin, hypervelocity beam of plasma with unbelievable velocity and kinetic energy. The system has incredible range and precision and can bore through well over a foot of composite tank armor, but it takes time and energy for the cyclotron to spool up and fully accelerate the plasma bolt to its maximum velocity. Ironically the weapon’s very precision makes it ineffective against infantry targets – the beam is so narrow and overpenetrates a soft target so utterly that the resultant wound channel is no greater than that caused by a standard plasma-carbine shot.

THE SPIKER:

The Spiker is a proof-of-concept weapon, developed to investigate the possibilities of directly using Auraxium decay as a power source. Fuelled by suspended auraxium pellets instead of traditional batteries, laser ablation of the fuel pellet releases a pulse of both energy and vaporized Auraxium dust to use as plasma reaction mass; of sufficient energy to power a burst of two plasma discharges. Alternately, by ablating a larger portion of the fuel pellet at once, enough energy and Auraxium vapor is released to generate a single larger, denser plasmoid similar to that of the Lasher.

The Spiker was considered more technological stepping-stone than fruitful weapon technology due to the fact that ablating auraxium fuel pellets proved extremely inefficient and only powered a comparable number of shots to existing batteries; however, its development laid a research foundation for the hybrid power-core systems used in cutting edge Vanu infantry weapons such as the Betelgeuse. Despite its experimental nature, the weapon has seen some special-issue amongst Vanu soldiers who find its fire rate and flexibility valuable enough to offset the weapon’s idiosyncratic design and unstable, exotic ammunition.

ION MISSILES: