Freeze / Heat Ray
A large, unwieldy short range weapon used by the Hyperion Federation.
The Freeze Ray directs a beam of ultracool plasma towards a target. Although the plasma is launched at a relatively low velocity, it can cause water and steam to instantaneously freeze/sublimate into ice. When fired at any biological organism, this will cause it to immediately freeze unless it is larger than about 5 m. It might also cause damage to some low tech vehicles if used intensely.
The plasma is contained in a relatively large container. This container contains very advanced QEN machines which cause heat to flow form the canister away from the weapon naturally. Using this method, it is very easy to cause the plasma to reach extremely low temperatures, less than a single kelvin above absolute zero
After being fired, however, the natural atmosphere of the planet then iterferes with the plasma. This causes it to heat up to room temperature rapidly so it must hit its target before it heats up otherwise it will be ineffective.
The weapon can also rapidly change into a heat ray. Instead of supercooling the plasma, QENs can also cause it to heat up to immense temperatures and fire this plasma at high velocity. Instead of heating up after it is fired, it will revert back to normal heat flow and cool down in the natural atmosphere. QENs will instead cause heat to flow from the surroundings to the plasma.
Heat Rays will cause organics to catch fire. It can also cause some low tech vehicles to heat up and might be able to damage a vehicle if used intensely.It will however take nearly a minute to change modes. Because of this, users tend to keep it to a single mode while in battle.
Due to its short range, however, the HF does not commonly make use of Freeze or Heat Rays, despite their raw power.
Item type
Weapon, Ranged
Owning Organization
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