The cutting beam is a sustained particle beam designed to carve through ship armor from range. Cutting beams were developed by Earth as a counter to the armor employed by Colonial warships and were found to be reasonably effective at penetrating most armor types.
The weapon generates a fair amount of heat and requires a fairly substantial cooling system in order to maintain the beam. Like most of Earth's energy weapons, the cutting beam employs a Ryduim based cooling system. The system makes use of a special heat sink to absorb the excess heat of the weapon, this heat is then transformed by a Ryduim based energy transformer system into usable energy that is shunted back into the weapon's capacitors.
This setup provides several key advantages. Not only does it deal with the heat build-up of the weapon, but it also puts to use energy that would otherwise be wasted. In a sustained beam weapon like the cutting beam, it also substantially increases the firing time of the beam. Thereby increasing the overall damage output of the weapon. At least, it does so for as long as the cooling system can keep up with the heat generated by the weapon. Current generation cutting beams can be maintained for only 34 seconds, but thanks to this cooling system they can be ready to fire again in only four seconds.
As for the particle beam itself, it is composed of highly charged particles. Due to the charged nature of the particles. A spatial lensing field is used to maintain beam integrity. The use of this field greatly extends the range of the beam by preventing beam diffusion due to the mutual repulsion of charged particles. The particles themselves are accelerated to lightspeed by a series of particle accelerators and will impart significant energy upon contact with the target. Much of that damage will be thermal in nature, but the molecular integrity of the target will also be affected.
In practice, cutting beams are best used to sweep over the hull of a ship. This allows them to cut a swath of damage across multiple compartments. Especially since they can cut through most forms of armor very quickly, allowing them to rupture the hull in very short order. A beam being swept over the hull of a ship will end up venting multiple compartments to space, and cook anything it hits. In addition, these beams can cut deep into a ship, and in some cases have been known to cut ships in two. Although they have been known to struggle against energy screens. Regardless of this constraint, they have been found to be a very effective and feared weapon in the arsenal of any ship. Factors that have greatly contributed to their popularity as a ship-to-ship weapon, and why most Earth vessels carry them. Only ships too small to mount an array do not carry the weapon. Due to the bulk of the weapon, and required cooling systems the weapon can only be mounted on ships frigate sized or larger. Light craft such as corvettes, shuttles, and fighter craft are unable to equip sustained beam weapons. At least, not with current-generation technology.
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The Particle Cannon is a directed energy weapon similar to the cutting beam, but instead of a sustained particle beam, it consists of a focused particle pulse. This weapon doesn't need as robust a cooling system as the cutting beam. That doesn't mean it doesn't benefit from using the same cooling setup. The lower heat generation of the weapon does allow designers to save space on cooling systems for particle cannons. This lowers the overall bulk of the weapon, allowing it to be fitted on smaller craft. As such particle cannons can and often are miniaturized to be fitted on even the smallest spacecraft such as starfighters.
On a particle cannon, the Rydium absorber cooling array is used to shunt the waste heat back into the capacitors as well. This substantially improves weapon recharge times, allowing for quite a rapid fire rate. While also reducing the strain on the ship's generators for successive shots.
The particle cannon also makes use of charged particles, and a spatial lensing field is used to ensure bolt integrity is maintained after firing. These bolts however lack the range of sustained beam weapons. They make up for that with a faster rate of fire. The damage caused by a particle bolt is often fairly similar to that of a sustained particle beam, but much more contained.
The common practice with these weapons in ship-to-ship is to use them to bombard a target with a heavy barrage of fire. Taking full advantage of their high rate of fire. Like all human weapons, they are extremely effective at punching through most forms of armor. A barrage from these cannons will reduce most targets to swiss cheese in very short order. They are noticeably less effective against targets protected by an energy screen. That doesn't mean they're useless. As enough hits against a screen in a short enough period of time can overwhelm the shield, and cause it to fail. Allowing the weapon to shred the unprotected hull.
Particle cannons are very popular with human ship captains and can be found on virtually all their spacecraft from starfighters to capital ships. As they make a very effective weapon in the human arsenal. One that is as fearsome as it is deadly.