Pulse-Gatling Support Laser

[sabredog]

I heavy support laser weapon to provide automatic fire if you can't afford, or produce,the high energy weapons. It also makes a dandy weapon to mount on an air raft or grav apc. Stats are for CT but it wouldn't be difficult to convert to your preferred rule set.

NHI Pulse Gatling Laser TL-13 Heavy Support Laser


The Pulse "Gatling Laser" was developed by Norge Heavy Industries to fill the squad level heavy support weapon niche. As a crew served weapon, the Gatling Laser is used with a tripod and typically two or three crew. The weapon is a four barrel, gas cooled, multi-lens pulse laser that uses a 1.6MW power source most commonly in the form of backpacks worn by the crew, or by the power plant of a vehicle. If vehicle mounted the weapon has adapters to hook it into the vehicle's cooling systems.

The power packs worn by gun crews are a back pack equipped with an auto-retracting power/coolant cable reel and plugs to connect to the laser. A power pack has enough power in rechargeable capacitors for 20 bursts. The packs also inject the coolant into the weapon during each burst. The weapon is not an x-ray laser and has a high signature.

The Gatling Laser crew typically has two members if using powered armor: the gunner and "loader" - a third member is required if non-powered armor is worn in order to transport all the components. The weapon breaks down into three parts: the power/coolant supply, tripod, and laser. Each crew member will have a power pack, or at least the loader and third team member will in the case of non-powered troops.

At each pull of the trigger, the weapon will burst fire to engage up to four targets, doing 5D6 damage for each hit. As the barrels spin each is fired once in every three rotations to help cooling. The appearance to the naked eye is a nearly continuous beam. Extra barrels have been tried to increase the ROF but the weapon runs too hot beyond three.

The weapon is equipped with an electronic battlefield sight.



Wt. 36kg. 40,000 Cr. Damage = 5D6 20 shots per Powerpack

Can engage 4 targets per shot for 5D6 damage each.



Armor DM's

None/Jack Mesh/Cloth Reflec Ablat Combat
+6 +4 -4 -3 -3

(Note -4 DM against Reflec instead of the usual -9)

Range DM's

Close Short Medium Long Very Long
-8 +1 +4 +4 +2

 

[Straybow]

Gatling-type barrels are coaxial and must engage the same target. With a laser you don't even get barrel flexure, recoil, vibration, and the bullet's air drag to spread out the burst.


If you want to engage multiple targets you'd need a huge phased array emitter (huge because solid state lasers are rather low power).

 

[sabredog]

But a gatling pulse laser sounds cooler and makes a terrifying whirring sound in battle.

I know, seriously, in Striker you build pulse lasers with up to 16 lenses that don't spin and all but I liked the idea of it doing that in a space opera-y game like Traveller. Sure, it's clunky and may not make sense but it exists in a universe with tiny flying lizard "Ancients" who designed us, and manipulated by giant talking starfish. And room-sized computers to do what a cheap cell phone does today.

It's a sort of Rule of Cool thing, but your mileage may vary, though.

 

[aramis]

Gatling laser to me implies using multi-lasers for cooling purposes. They might not rotate, but they're pulsing with a recovery time of (1/(2▮× barrels))×firing time or less.

In striker, these are "multi-lens pulse lasers"

 

[sabredog]

Gatling laser to me implies using multi-lasers for cooling purposes. They might not rotate, but they're pulsing with a recovery time of (1/(2▮× barrels))×firing time or less.

In striker, these are "multi-lens pulse lasers"

Yup.

And even if they spun the lens barrels to help cool or whatever, the spinning wouldn't affect the lasers' accuracy through barrel flex or anything else. The lasers are firing at light speed and the 'barrels' are not hollow tubes with a slug traveling down them.

I like the name Pulse-Gatling, though, so it stuck one day.

 

[gchuck]

Gatling Laser

'The Texas Israeli war: 1999' by Howard Waldrop, written in the late '70's or early '80's has examples of gatling lasers used as tank mounted weapons.

Fun book