Reaper Gun Failure?

frostytheplebe

frostytheplebe

Seventh Part of the Seal
Do we know anything about what happened to the Reaper gun by WCP?

I used to love that gun on both the Wraith and Excalibur, yet by WCP they had been replaced with... of all things... a God damn Ionic Pulse Cannon.

Was there something wrong with the reaper gun? Because I thought it was great!
 
According to Voices of war the Reaper Gun has “gunned down more ships than all other weapons combined”.

Armada takes place in 2669, I don’t know anything about what happened in the years between then and prophecy.
 
Space Point

Yes, the Reaper Gun is a huge oddity because of that reference - it's still in the "experimental stage" according to Victory Streak... but in the same year it has also score some incredibly unlikely number of kills.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Yes, the Reaper Gun is a huge oddity because of that reference - it's still in the "experimental stage" according to Victory Streak... but in the same year it has also score some incredibly unlikely number of kills.
Click to expand...

Maybe it is an old gun design, such as the plasma weapons in WCP.
 
The Kilrathi Saga manual lists "Planned 2669" as the service date.

Here are the descriptions:

Wing Commander Academy: "Similar to a particle cannon, this blaster also combines long-range effectiveness with powerful damage potential. Reaper cannon are even more powerful than neutron guns, but they also deplete blaster power very quickly. Currently in development for use on the new Confederation Wraith, these weapons represent our latest advances in blaster technology."

Wing Commander Armada: "The heaviest gun developed to date, the reaper cannon has gunned down more ships than all other weapons combined. Besides acting effectively at long range, this blaster has powerful damage potential and recharges quickly."

Wing Commander III: "(This gun will be available as soon as it completes its test cycle.) The RCX-V1 reaper cannon evolved from the standard ion cannon, and its refire rate is slightly faster. This gun delivers high-speed pulses of charged atomic particles that give off energy and radiation damage. Fighters find this gun especially useful against ships with shields that regenerate quickly, and any ship with slow shield generation is sure to take damage."
 
Taken together perhaps the Reaper is similar to the real world Vulcan and GAU 12 Equalizer cannons. Both the Equalizer and the Vulcan fire 25 m.m. rounds but the Equalizer is newer and supposedly more lethal gun.

The WCIII reference states that it's evolved from the Ion cannon, so maybe the Reapers were supplanted by a newer and better evolution of ion cannon by the Prophecy. It was my favorite pre-WCIV gun, but then when the Stormfire and fission cannons popped up I had a new love.:)
 
Shaggy said:
The WCIII reference states that it's evolved from the Ion cannon, so maybe the Reapers were supplanted by a newer and better evolution of ion cannon by the Prophecy.
Click to expand...

That might also be your answer to the unusual reference. What if the "gunned down more ships" line refers to all variants of ion cannons instead of just the reaper?
 
It has to be something recent, though - since previous descriptions gave that same title (most ships killed) to the laser cannon. Even if we expand the Reaper Cannon to refer to the Ion Cannon too, it still means that there were lots and lots of ion cannon kills in the last few years of the war.

Another explanation might be that the reference is completely correct - Reaper Cannons were deployed in '68/'69 and were used as defensive weapons against the massed Kilrathi fleets pushing ahead on every front. (It also might be time specific - the Reaper Cannon gunned down more ships than all the other weapons put together... *while it was in service*)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top