Biogel Stream Weapons (World Guide, Technical) (Patreon)
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Biogel Stream Weapons
Biogel Stream Weapons direct a stream of highly energized biogel toward a hostile target. This stream imparts massive amounts of energy into a target's shields, overheating the driving superconductors and exposing the target's hull in very short order. Energized biogel streams are also highly effective against standard hull materials and most armors, 'burning' a hole and spraying into the target as an aerosol of ultra-reactive biogel.
Anyone touched by this highly transformative black mist is converted almost instantly into a puddle of living, conscious, and fully aware liquid biogel. The black mist quickly loses energy, becoming reactive biogel after about fifteen seconds. This congeals upon anyone caught by it, and transforming them into a gummy of their own physical sex. After a minute or so, the biogel begins to congeal upon surfaces. It ceases to pose a hazard after about five minutes, and becomes fully solid in ten.
Four overall classes of biogel stream weapon exist: Fighter, Defense, Cruiser, and Alpha.
Fighter stream weapons exist only as side-mounts for Vixanti Biogel Fighter Pods. They are capable of instantly overwhelming fighter class shields and knocking a fair dent in light combatant shields. While still potentially dangerous against a cruiser class combatant, especially in large numbers, against battleship class or larger vessels, these weapons are better used to protect more capable units in the attack.
Defense stream weapons are biogel hemisphere projectors intended for mounting as a defense against fighters, light combatants, destroyers, cruisers, and incoming warheads. Fighters have no defense against these weapons, and a few hits are enough to deal with the typical light combatant or destroyer. Cruisers require a considerable amount of time on target. Battleship or larger targets are only threatened if their shields fail.
Cruiser class stream weapons are larger biogel hemisphere projectors intended for use as general purpose weapons against all targets. A single hit is sufficient to deal with ships below cruiser size, and cruisers can generally only take a few before succumbing. These weapons can threaten battleships when deployed in numbers, while larger supercapital types require considerable effort to take down.
Alpha class stream weapons are fixed mount cannons. While they can be used like a normal stream weapon capable of knocking out even a battleship's shields in four or five hits, their real power comes when a volunteer is 'expended as ammunition', being liquefied and added to the discharge stream. This volunteer's soul becomes the controlling force behind the biogel, able to guide the stream to strike a maneuvering target. If this stream is able to get inside the target, it won't solidify. Instead, it congeals as an animate blob of reactive biogel under the control of the volunteer, seeking out and transforming all accessible enemy crew into gummies. This mass becomes a normal biogel monster, still able to transform targets, but having to completely surround them first.
While biogel based weapons are generally seen as being a 'non-lethal' option for warfare, they have not yet been deployed outside of a small experimental task force consisting of biogel powered and controlled light combatants, and the Destiny Omega.