Railgun

A railgun is a powerful ship-to-ship weapon used by the United Nations Navy , the Martian Congressional Republic Navy, and The Outer Planets Alliance on their larger ships for space combat.
Railguns are large, powerful mass drivers, cannons that use electroconductive rails and the Lorentz Effect to accelerate a dense metal slug at very high speeds, relying on mass and sheer speed to punch clean through ships rather than warheads like with torpedoes. These weapons require significant power (presumably supplied by a fusion power-plant) to fire and must charge briefly before firing.
Railguns are typically spinal weapons that require the ship to turn and face the target to aim the weapon. Larger ships, however, can carry turreted railguns. The MCRN's Donnager-class battleships and UNN's Leonidas-class battleships and Truman-class dreadnoughts carry pairs of railgun turrets, allowing them to more easily engage targets without having to rotate the ship.
Railgun shots are powerful and accurate, capable of shooting clean through even large ships and doing critical damage, shown by their ability to take down a ship with one shot. However, if the round does not hit any critical components, it will simply perforate the ship being attacked, leaving small holes that can be plugged relatively easily.
Though powerful, railguns are used almost exclusively in CQB (close quarter battles) because while the round is quite fast, it is unguided and can be dodged fairly easily at longer ranges, although slower ships like the Leonidas-class are more vulnerable. Because of their short-range lethality, it is considered suicidal to attack spacecraft such as a Donnager-class battleship at close range.

Item type

Weapon, Ranged