Quoted By:
“All armaments make concessions. The RAIN’s laser array is no exception. Despite employing a complex, diffraction-compensated optical manifold, the energy output of the weapon barely exceeds that of a light railgun. Performance against ablative armor is notably poor. Engagement ranges are limited.
Within the past few months, there have been moments when I have questioned my decision to furnish the RAIN with this eclectic weapon system. A conventional battery of railgun turrets would have easily broken the ambush we faced in the outer asteroid belt with raw power. A prototype particle lance – like the kind mounted on the RAIN’s sister ships – could have circumvented the threat entirely by allowing the RAIN to engage outside of their threat envelopes.
But now, I no longer hold these regrets. Over the past sixteen hours, the remaining Mizarian patrol ships sent a constant stream of kinetic fire racing towards our position – peppering their own mirror system with projectiles ranging in diameter from several millimeters to tens of centimeters. Very few of them made it to their targets. With ample time to track and engage targets, the RAIN’s laser array made the volume around our ship nearly impenetrable. The UV lasers emitters would track and whine, discharging at reduced power to conserve capacitor charge. And hour by hour, barrages of kinetic slugs would shoot past the RAIN like autumnal meteorites, leaving white-hot trails as they were ablated into clouds of metal vapor.
All the while, the three mirrors burned: casting their baleful gaze on a new target.
MERRYGATE used less finesse here. Instead of tracking a target within the same lunar system, she was directing the focus point at a moon orbiting another planet. The distance was an order of magnitude larger, and the effects of diffraction reduced focal intensity accordingly. Yet once again, the power output of the mirror array simply proved overwhelming.
One after another, the two unoccluded defense stations defending MIZAR-V wilted under the sustained solar heat. Thermal management systems failed in rapid succession before the superstructure began to vaporize, creating a visible gas plume oddly reminiscent of a comet tail. By the time the kinetic barrage finally succeeded in shattering the three mirrors to the point of inoperability, both stations were reduced to two thirds of their former mass.
And like the molten stations surrounding MIZAR-V-A, their charges were left exposed. A pair of verdant twin accompany a young, littoral ocean-moon – the three remaining footholds of Mizarian interstellar expansion.
