Heavy Weapons

Heavy weapons are military-grade, high-damage weapons that require specialized training to use. Heavy weapons are difficult to hold steadily and aim accurately, and they thus require a minimum Strength score to use to their full potential. Heavy weapons must be held and operated with two hands, and they require a battery or ammunition of the proper size and type to function, as shown on Table 7–5.


 * Minimum Strength: The minimum Strength score is 12 for 1st- through 10th-level heavy weapons and 14 for 11th-level and higher heavy weapons. A character using a heavy weapon without the appropriate minimum Strength takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls with that weapon.

Agitator
An agitator is a portable generator of microwave radiation that rapidly heats up targets to create internal bubbles of steam or makes targets burst into flames. The longer the weapon is focused, the more intense the agitation becomes, making it a favored by the defenders of bunkers, guard posts, and other emplacements. Ember agitators and blaze agitators rely on individual generators, taking the form of a bulky cylinder in the middle of the gun that hums ominously as the weapon fires, but miniaturization technology allows inferno agitators and solar flare agitators to include multiple smaller generators for increased effect.

Anacite Ion Cannon
This heavy weapon was designed by Aballonian law-enforcement agencies for capturing criminal constructs without completely destroying them.

Arc Caster
Flanked by large handles, an arc caster bristles with capacitors and antennae that release more energy than it can realistically control. While many shock weapons have a chance to arc to a second target on a hit, the arc caster is designed to achieve that feat on every shot, and particularly well-aimed strikes can sometimes arc twice. The storm and tempest models feature improvements that build upon the capabilities of static and aurora arc casters. Since there is little way to control which creatures are struck on the subsequent arcs, arc casters are generally used only by solo combatants or those with little regard for their allies’ well-being. More rarely, party members may take particular precautions against electricity damage, such as with an electrostatic field armor upgrade, to protect themselves from an ally wielding an arc caster.

Artillery Laser
Artillery lasers are heavy weapons designed to be effective against hardened targets such as vehicles and enemy bunkers.

Aurora Cannon
The aurora cannon is a variant plasma cannon with holding chambers that overcharge the plasma generated within the weapon. The walls of these chambers are typically translucent, allowing a veiled view of the shifting plasma. The aurora cannon’s modified plasma blasts cause creatures it hits to glow with a surprisingly beautiful aura, making it difficult for them to hide. Aurora cannons are categorized according to the primary composition of these auroras, from the hydrogen aurora cannon to the electron and proton models.

Autobeam Artillery
Though it lacks the penetrating power of an artillery laser, an autobeam artillery delivers sustained laser fire. It uses a rotating array of lenses to prevent the intense heat of sustained fire from melting the weapon’s housing.

Burner
Indistinguishable from a flamethrower to the lay observer, a burner uses petrol as fuel to produce a strong jet of flame. However, the subtly narrower nozzle and recoil-suppressing gyros allow a burner to fire streams of petrol with more control and focus than its traditional cousin. Ifrit-, salamander-, hellhound-, firedrake-, and phoenix-class burners are all widely available.

Cathode Cannon
Cathode cannons were originally designed by members of the Android Abolitionist Front, and many varieties made by different races nonetheless are decorated with circuit designs reminiscent of the weapons’ android inventors. The tactical cathode cannon is a standard-issue weapon for members of the Front, while advanced, elite, paragon, and shockstorm cathode cannons are often used by mercenaries and assault forces with a variety of goals.

Cluster Launcher
The cluster launcher fires multiple grenades as a single shot, granting those grenades increased range and a larger blast radius. Each of the models—tactical, advanced, elite, and paragon—features an increase in range, capacity, and overall explosive power.

Colossus Coil
Where massive creatures roam, those who fight against them for survival develop colossal weapons. Such is the case with the colossus coil, a weapon said to have been developed to hunt colossi on the planet Daimalko. It has since spread to many systems, including the Pact Worlds. This heavy firearm has a barrel sporting a series of toroidal high-voltage generators that collectively produce powerful arcs of electricity, and it can be overcharged to deliver even more destructive blasts. The electric blast sometimes overwhelms its target, branching off to hit another. The corona colossus coil produces a ring of electricity, while a brush colossus coil produces a more diffuse field. A streamer arc colossus coil produces a traditional arc of electricity, while the multistream colossus coil generates multiple such streams for a devastating blast.

Conqueror
Conquerors are perhaps the largest and most difficult to handle of the plasma weapon category. A conquerer can deliver a single devastating blast of plasma, but the weapon is rather front-heavy and difficult to maneuver. Some vesk take up the weapon as a sign of their patron deity, Damoritosh, viewing it as the ranged spiritual equivalent of the doshko. In addition to the red star, yellow star, white star, and blue star models, the particularly powerful violet star conqueror has recently made its way onto the market.

Convergent Laser
For those seeking efficient laser attacks in a reliable, relatively lightweight format, the convergent laser is an ideal weapon. The weapon’s smaller lasers synchronize and focus their output on a single target to deal more damage than any single beam could deal alone; however, the need to carefully aim and adjust the weapon makes it somewhat slower to fire than its single-beam counterparts. Typically, the different beams originate from the corners of a square or triangular barrel, angling in to join at a single point on the target. A single-wave convergent laser emits a single wavelength, with all its beams sharing a color. Multiwave convergent lasers produce different wavelengths for each beam, using computer assistance to continually adjust the output, while a wide-spectrum convergent laser increases the number of beams until their joining point on the target is a white so brilliant that it’s painful to look at.

Coolant Sprayer
Coolant sprayers were designed following the principles of a flamethrower, but with an eye more toward hindrance than sheer damage. Experts can easily identify a coolant sprayer by the bulky insulation surrounding the sprayer’s coolant reservoir. The weapon expels a cone of activated coolant that stiffens and freezes living tissue. While not harmless, the effect is somewhat less deadly than most energy weapons. Hiemal, algid, glacial, and isothermal coolant sprayers all function in similar ways, though their destructive potential varies from one model to another.

Dart Cannon
When Akiton’s economy began to collapse in the wake of the thasteron bust, scrappy frontier townspeople were left to cobble together their necessities from whatever they had on hand and defend what resources they had from outside raiders. Dart cannons were created by these inventive souls, who reconfigured their depreciated mining equipment and less critical medical supplies into a weapon to stave off looters and thieves. These wide-barreled cannons fire a barrage of magnetically accelerated darts that contain barbed cores rather than toxins or medicinals. While this prevents the darts from being used to inject substances, the barbs can lodge in a target’s body, dealing lasting damage. Dart cannons tend to see use in environments with some level of gravity, as no one wants to deal with the aftermath of a dart cannon’s discharge in a zero-g environment. This weapon is available in light, tactical, heavy, advanced, elite, and paragon models.

Dazzler
Dazzlers are a form of crowd control used primarily for civil peacekeeping. While the weapons use lasers to damage and sometimes blind targets, the beams are carefully calibrated to avoid inflicting lethal injury. Built on similar principles to the smaller compliance ray, dazzlers also tend to bear the colors of local law-enforcement groups. However, the similarities end there, as the dazzler is a bulky device usually carried with the help of a shoulder strap, with its business end covered by dozens of glassy bulbs surrounded by a conical shield. Downplaying this somewhat disturbing appearance, dazzler manufacturer ATech holds up the weapons as an important tool for safe peacekeeping and spreads the weapons wherever AbadarCorp is found. Dazzlers come in flash, strobe, and sunspot models.

Dirge Cannon
Pirates are the most common users of dirge cannons. The potbellied, shoulder-resting weapons cause a brief but intense sound burst at frequencies and pressure sufficient to rupture living cells while leaving inorganic objects unharmed. The result is a weapon that can eliminate a starship’s crew without causing any damage to the vessel or its cargo. Those who prefer lighter damage favor harmonic and resonant cannons, leaving anharmonic and parametric models for situations that call for carnage

Disintegrator Cannon
This wide-barreled cannon emits a stream of red-tinged energy that originates from the weapon’s heavy proton tank, affecting all enemies in a line. Like most disintegrator weapons, they are available in liquidator, decimator, executioner, and eradicator models.

Divergent Laser
Originally developed alongside convergent lasers, divergent lasers use multiple laser beams emitting from a blocky casing to produce a cone-shaped output. This weapon’s damage is significantly less than that achieved by the convergent lasers, but the same systems that synchronize wavelengths in a convergent laser allow the divergent laser to focus on multiple targets. The single-color beam of a single-wave divergent laser sets it apart from the shimmering colors of a multiwave divergent laser. A wide-spectrum divergent laser has a nearly white beam and could be mistaken for a spotlight at a glance—though not by a target struck by one!

Energy Converter
Boxy devices covered with various gauges and protruding antennae, energy converters resemble dangerously experimental pieces of hardware. These devices invert matter-antimatter annihilation; instead of generating massive amounts of heat from a tiny speck of matter, an energy converter generates a tiny speck of matter by drawing an incredible amount of heat energy from a nearby area. Tactical, advanced, and elite energy converters each create relatively larger flecks of matter, drawing their energy from a larger area in order to do so.

Flame Launcher
Flame launchers sling large globules of aerated petrol with carefully timed ignition. The resulting explosion is usually well contained and can be placed with surprising precision. Although fed by the same sort of petrol tank found in burners and flamethrowers, the weapon is a complicated mess of air tanks, exposed circuitry, and tubing, all required to achieve the perfect mixture for controlled explosions. Fireball flame launchers are the weakest version of this weapon, outpowered by immolation flame launchers and the exceptionally powerful supernova flame launchers.

Flamethrower
These portable flamethrowers consist of a heavy rifle-like design with an oversized petrol tank integrated into the weapon’s stock.

Hailcannon
Hailcannons use a complex integrated coolant system to generate staggering barrages of ice. Unlike with many cryo weapons, the hailcannon’s prolific output and massive barrel allow the weapon to be fired in automatic mode, which can overwhelm targets. Subzero hailcannons are the standard model, and the increasing damage capacity of gelid, ultracold, absolute-zero, and clathrate hailcannons proves attractive to many who swear by such weapons.

Hydra Cannon
Rather than firing a single burst of plasma, a hydra cannon generates countless discrete plasma filaments that spread outward in a pattern reminiscent of crawling serpents. The spread of these filaments can be somewhat controlled, allowing a proficient user to avoid hitting a limited number of creatures within the weapon’s area of effect. Python-series hydra cannons offer the least control, while viper-series, asp-series, and cobra-series hydra cannons offer increasingly fine-tuned control over their target areas.

Ice Launcher
A decidedly unsubtle weapon, an ice launcher fires a huge block of ice at an opponent. The weapon is heavy and slow to fire, but the weight of the supercooled ice can knock an opponent to the ground and deal extensive cold damage. Aufeis and iceberg launchers produce small enough quantities of ice that it can be stored in the weapon’s square barrel, sometimes making them appear more like bulky appliance than weapons. The more complex floe, glacier, and icecap ice launchers generate a large amount of ice in front of the barrel proper, steadying the mass with clawed protrusions before firing.

IMDS Missile Launcher
IMDS (an acronym for “individual missile delivery system”) missile launchers are the most common missile launchers currently on the market. IMDS launchers fire individual missiles as ammunition and use the damage listed for the missiles fired out of them.

Machine Gun
The most basic and portable machine guns are known as squad guns for their popularity among mercenary groups. Light, medium, and heavy machine guns remain reliable heavy weapons for their automatic fire and damage capability.

Minelayer
A specialized form of grenade launcher, a minelayer surrounds its ordnance with a cushioning magnetic field. Grenades must be loaded into a minelayer individually, and a user can decide which grenade to fire with each shot. A merc minelayer holds up to 8 grenades at once, a squad model holds 12, a platoon version can carry up to 16, and the command minelayer can hold an impressive 20 grenades.

Nanite Decoupler
While most disintegrator weapons produce a stream of energy that strikes a single target, a nanite decoupler programs nanites to replicate a disintegrator’s destructive energies over a set area. The integrated generators used to overcharge the nanites for the desired effect make a nanite decoupler a heavy, bulky weapon that requires a skilled user. The caustic nanite decoupler and the vitriolic nanite decoupler are both deadly, destructive weapons.

NIL Grenade Launcher
NIL (an acronym for “neutronic individual launcher”) grenade launchers are the most common grenade launcher available on the market. NILs can be fitted with any sort of grenade as ammunition. Grenades are loaded individually, rather than in magazines. You can load different types of grenades into a NIL grenade launcher, and you can select which grenade to fire as part of the action used to make an attack.

Plasma Array
A retractable coarse mesh of electromagnetically protected wire covers the wide muzzle of a plasma array; this mesh breaks apart plasma into a flurry of discrete charges. Plasma arrays are manufactured in the typical classifications for plasma weapons: red star, yellow star, white star, and blue star.

Plasma Cannon
Plasma cannons shoot large, explosive blasts of ionized plasma. They are difficult to use and have a relatively short range for a heavy weapon, but their impact has devastating effect.

Radcannon
Radcannons are large, dangerous-to-wield weapons typically employed by desperate, reckless users. A radcannon’s high-voltage capacitors channel energy through a magnetron and transformer to generate massive blasts of radioactive waves, burning targets and typically exposing the target—and potentially the user—to dangerous levels of radiation. Devourer cultists often employ electromagnetic radcannons, neutron radcannons, and even rapid-decay radcannons, unfazed by the weapons’ danger.

Rail Cannon
Rail cannons are scaled-up versions of rail guns, and like rail guns, they use magnetic fields to rapidly accelerate ammunition. A rail cannon generates such phenomenal force that its rounds can pass entirely through multiple targets, allowing the user to hit multiple targets in a line. Tactical rail cannons are precise and effective, while advanced rail cannons offer more firepower; elite and paragon rail cannons are generally used only by heavyweapons specialists in professional military groups.

Reaction Cannon
An ancient yet still popular vesk weapon, the reaction cannon uses advanced materials and technology to redirect the recoil of a projectile back into the projectile itself, making it an extremely damaging heavy weapon.

Resonator
A resonator is a boxy device with a terminal along the top and a series of concentric rings of metal and crystal in front to focus the weapon’s harmonics. A shoulder strap helps offset the weapon’s considerable weight, allowing the use of a top handle to direct output while freeing up the other hand to operate the controls. A resonator generates sonic waves at frequencies set to resound within the targeted material, allowing the weapon to deal precise damage regardless of the target’s composition or protection. If the integrated probing function is employed before firing, the resonator’s sonic frequencies can be precisely tuned. Diffraction and refraction resonators align sonic waves in specific patterns, while linear and phased resonators focus the sonic energy through specialized matrices for amplified output.

Rotolaser
A rotolaser uses much of the same technology as autobeam artillery, but in addition to directing its beam through a rotating array of lenses, it also uses a rotating array of barrels that creates a series of short laser blasts. This rotating assembly helps the weapon to survive the heat and stress of rapid fire. Rotolasers come in tactical and advanced versions.

Screamer
A screamer is a circular metal device with two handles on the back. The front of a screamer projects a cone of sonic energy that can damage and deafen anyone within the weapon’s area of effect.

Shock Caster
Shock casters fire a blast of electrical energy that explodes when it impacts, creating an electrical storm that can damage and stun anyone within its radius.

Shout Projector
Shout projectors amplify your speech to overwhelming or destructive volume, and then project it in a cone. Words and sheer sonic pressure in this cone can’t be ignored. All shout projectors can be installed as armor upgrades (taking one upgrade slot per hand needed to wield the weapon), allowing the projectors to be used hands-free. That way, a user can carry lethal weaponry, safety gear, or protest signage. Exhorter shout projectors can be useful for crowd control with a lighter touch. Damper and pacifier models are ostensibly for nonlethal but more coercive applications, while the riot and crackdown projectors are for heavy-handed use.

Sonic Bolter
The sound waves a sonic bolter produces tightly focus in a brief but coherent line. This concentrated, low-frequency vibration damages the body and jostles internal organs, causing dizziness, pain, and slight nausea. Members of the Android Abolitionist Front developed the light model upon discovering the effect of a similar beam. Heavy, assault, and devastator bolters can generate sufficient sound pressure to damage artificial and unliving creatures.

Starheart Cannon
Followers of Sarenrae designed these very bright weapons to defend isolated solar outposts from Corpse Fleet marauders.

Stellar Cannon
A stellar cannon is a portable, handheld cannon that fires exploding shells filled with dense flechettes that shred nearby targets. Stellar cannons have a limited range, but they deal traumatic damage to large areas.

X-Gen Gun
X-gen guns are named for their external generator—a power pack that drives the automatic feed of the weapon. They are common on fortified bases and in large armed encampments.

Zero Cannon
Zero cannons project a freezing line straight out from a generator, affecting any targets within the line. A pair of tanks in the cannon’s heavy stock contain chemical coolants that produce a violent endothermic reaction when mixed in the insulated barrel.