Torpedoes (Earthfleet)

In the world of Earthfleet there are a variety of disposable, single use ordinances, colloquially known as "Torpedoes", that are employed by both Earthfleet, as well as many other races in the galaxy. These are the most commonly used across the galaxy.

Plasma Torpedo

The plasma torpedo is the single oldest antiship to ship disposable ordinance in galactic history, predating antimatter torpedoes by several centuries. While no longer in use in the current era, its uses in ancient times was very common and significant, up until the advent of energy shields which, for the most part, rendered the weapon unusable and ineffective. The torpedo gets its destructive power from the detonation of a wide variety of materials, or the generation of copious amounts of energy, creating a pulsewave of energy that does the majority of the damage on a target vessel. These were used a lot in the early hyperdrive days before the discovery of warp drive.

Antimatter Torpedoes

The Antimatter Torpedo is one of the simplest, yet oldest, high yield anti-ship weaponry employed in common use within the galaxy. They operate by injecting a small, shielded containment core with a tiny, measured blob of anti-deuterium or some other form of antimatter, and then fired at a desired target where, upon impact, the core is breached, and the antimatter released, creating a high energy explosion that inflicts damage upon the desired target. The only drawback to this weapon, aside from its age, is that it can only be deployed on a warp powered starship as it needs the facilities, resources, and antimatter supply of the parent starship in order to be armed and used as antimatter torpedoes can't be stored long term with a live, charged antimatter core. Doing so risks premature detonation in the hold, potentially destroying the ship.

Quantum Doublestrike Torpedo

Quantum Double Strike Torpedoes, sometimes simply referred to as "Quantum Torpedoes", are a weapons technology that uses a unique property of quantum to create what would be the subspace equivalent of a cavitation explosion. This is done by first generating a quantum pulse that first strikes the target, then rebounds, much as a water cavitation would, which results in an energy rebound that is more powerful than the initial wave, which strikes the target a second time, causing further damage. Hence the weapon's name "Double Strike", as it strikes a target twice, back to back, and is considerably more effective and deadly than traditional Antimatter torpedoes.

Isolinear Torpedo

An Isolinear Torpedo, sometimes known as a "Plasma Shock" torpedo, for the way it forcefully overloads the power systems of any ship it strikes, is a weapons system that, of itself, does not possess the ability to do much physical damage to its target. Where the torpedo excels in effectiveness and killing power is that, when detonated, it creates a powerful shock or "surge" in the enemy's power systems, which almost always leads to a power systems overload that has the potential to destroy the ship. On warp powered vessels, this can become deadly because, wholesale failure of the power system can lead to a warp core breach due to loss of power to the antimatter containment system.

In most cases, regardless of ship type, one to three torpedoes, striking anywhere on the vessel, is sufficient to knock out or destroy a ship. However, while proven to be highly effective, the torpedoes don't work on all ships or technologies. This is because some technologies have a natural immunity to the weapon's effects. This weapon was first used in The Battle of Sebius, and several subsequent battles afterwards, but was later abandoned once word of its existence spread across the galaxy, and effective countermeasures were created against it. This torpedo was meant to succeed the Quantum Double Strike torpedo, but proved unable to do so.

Protomatter Torpedo

A Protomatter Torpedo is a highly advanced, exclusively Earthfleet technology capable of destroying any star, type F or smaller, with a single shot. Type A and higher may require several hits to destroy it. The weapon was created around the time that Mike Clayton became Grand Admiral of Earthfleet. While never classified as anything but a prototype, experimental weapon, eight live, plus one prototype test weapon were created, after which it was determined that the weapon was too dangerous to mass produce, and thus all plans and research on the weapon were forever destroyed to hide its existence. The eight live rounds that were produced were then carried exclusively on the Sergenious throughout Mike's career, and then later transferred to his care in civilian life when the Sergenious was given to him as a retirement gift.

The eight weapons were then later used during The Marargon Invasion, and thus fully expended. After seeing the enormity of the power that the protomatter torpedoes generated, a treaty was struck that banned such super weapons from ever being created again. The weapon's incredible power is created by a unique state of matter and antimatter known as "protomatter". Since matter and antimatter are interchangable, with one becoming the other simply through a quantum state change, protomatter, in turn, is the neutral state that matter and antimatter take when transitioning between the two forms. As protomatter is naturally unstable, and high in energy, to force it to remain in that state for too long causes the material to decay into pure energy.

However, in doing so, it draws with it a consider amount of energy from Inter-dimensional Space, causing a multiplication of energy released by the warhead by a factor of several million. This incredible shockwave of energy is capable of vaporizing an entire type F star in a single blast, wiping out it, and its entire solar system as well.