Hydrashock Launchers

Overview

The Hydrashock Launcher is a defensive weapons system fitted onto most Kaukolastani Fleet Vessels. Originally conceived as a means to stop incoming Supercavitating Torpedoes, it has found a secondary use as an anti-submersible weapon, particularly against an enemy utilization of Barracuda-type micro-submarines. The Hydrashock is designed around an eight-tube projector, similar to the archaic Nebelwerfer in appearance. The tube assembly emerges from the hull through a moving plate, and rotates into the incoming vector of the attack. Firing underwater, the tubes are flooded, and a microcharge hurls a small high explosive munition into the path of interception. The concussion of the detonation can crumple the enemy, or strip the Supercavitating bubble from a torpedo, forcing it to sheer in the water.

Firing Sequence

Upon detecting an incoming attack, the vessel’s command systems delegate a Hydrashock battery to counter. The tube assembly emerges from the hull, aligns on the target using the main vessel’s targeting data, and volleys a set number of underwater munitions at the incoming vector. (The Hydrashock can fire all eight tubes in less than five seconds, though this is not advisable in a multi-target environment.) As the munitions travel on their course, the Hydrashock Launcher can retract, or remain in the armed position, being auto-loaded in either status, a process which takes approximately twenty seven seconds.

The fired high explosives are only marginally guided, and they form a “screen” between the target and the vessel. In most cases, the munitions are set to proximity detonate, but they can be set to a fixed time or depth as needed. Once detonated, the shockwave generated can crush hulls of enemy submarines, or to mission-kill incoming torpedoes. The original, and most valuable application of the Hydrashock is to remove the threat of Supercavitating Torpedoes. Since these weapons rely on a “bubble” of air in which to “fly”, the concussion of the Hydrashock strips the cavitations, causing the torpedo to sheer into a wall of water, stripping control planes and detonating the warhead, killing or mission-killing the offending torpedo.

Doctrine and Application

• Hydrashock Launchers are fitted onto most Ships of the Line, from Destroyer on up the chain. Destroyers normally mount a pair of launchers, Cruisers and Frigates a quad, and Dominators and Carriers mount three pairs or more. Attack Submarines maintain a pair, ballistic submarines a quad.

• These weapons can be moved into “active mode” at any time, although they increase the vessel’s signature with their protrusion and tracking activity.

• With the advent of the BattleNet System, the Hydrashock became even more valuable. Through the fire-control linking of the Fleets, the defense of individual ships became a unified and automated concern of the entire BattleNet, usually based in a Dominator Class Super Dreadnought. Used inside of BattleNet, an incoming torpedo, aimed at a Carrier, can be targeted by a Frigate on the outskirts of the Fleet, the data relayed instantly to the BattleNet Node, and any Hydrashock Launcher in range could fire upon the torpedo, allowing a massing of overlapping firepower far beyond any individual vessel’s means.

Varying Munitions

• Timed
• Proximity
• Guided
• Swarm
• Limpet Anti-Submarine