Design

The Archon is the largest fully dedicated Cytaari warship, though some supercarriers that also have a logistics role are larger. Built around its massive coaxial cosmic lance, capable of easily lancing through a heavily shielded Directorate dreadnought, the Archon is also equipped with powerful dimensional radiation barriers, batteries of electroplasma blisters, and over a dozen powerful solar blisters.

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The main cosmic lance is an x-ray frequency laser, known as the 'Cosmic Might'. If pointed at a planet, it is easily able to rupture the continental crust; against starships, it will easily lance through heavy armor and shielding. It has a characteristic pulse, where as the laser begins firing it starts at a low power level, exponentially increasing in power until it reaches a maximum power, and then finishing its pulse. This pulse pattern enables it to 'paint' a target on the enemy vessel for a brief moment, disabling and heating protective elements, before the laser increases to maximum power to cut through its target.  Mirrors and thermal shielding provide little protection against this weapon, as the ultra-high frequency laser ionizes any matter it comes into contact with and cannot be deflected.

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The weaker solar blisters around the ship actually make up most of its firepower, as they are faster firing if much less powerful individually. These solar blisters are biomechanical U.V. lasers, with a wide field of fire, which project a beam for a couple of seconds. The long pulse (relative to 'pulse lasers' which fire for only a tiny fraction of a second) enables them to cut through a ship rather than relying on the concussive effect of instant vaporization on contact. These solar blisters are dual-purpose, being accurate enough to engage enemy fighters and missiles as well as voidships.

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Finally, the Archon possesses four electroplasma blisters; one on the front ventral side, one on the front dorsal side, one on the rear ventral side, and one on the rear dorsal side. These powerful weapons project a large, heavily ionized stabilized plasma ring to speeds of about 5 km/s. On impact, the tenuous bonds holding the plasma ring together unravel and they unleash thermal, electromagnetic, and kinetic devastation. Because of the composition of the electroplasma, they inflict a much more powerful electromagnetic pulse than is typical, damaging even hardened electronics and nervous systems.

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Unusually for a Cytaari ship, the Archon's weapons cannot all fire forwards: two of its electroplasma blisters and four of its solar blisters cannot fire directly forwards. Instead, the Archon is designed to have maximum weapon coverage, enabling it to engage targets on all sides. This is because, as the powerful warship it is, the Archon does not need to focus all its firepower on a single target to kill them quickly and can instead effectively engage multiple powerful enemies at once.

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For such a powerful warship, the Archon naturally also possesses heavy armor. Several meters of energized biomechanical armor cover the ships hull, with standard Cytaari regenerative and reactive components. It also possesses a dimensional radiation barrier which absorbs the energy from incoming shots, as well as adaptive defenses which allow it to synthesize new defensive technology to defend itself against incoming attacks. Its adaptive defenses also enable it to focus its protective power on regions of the armor that are taking the most damage. Even if penetrated, the Archon has numerous redundant systems, including four separate main reactors and regenerating hull tissues.

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With its powerful dimensional engine, the Archon is able to lock onto dimensional signatures and open wormholes without the need for a wormhole modulator on the other side, allowing it to create wormholes to any occupied system that has ever had a wormhole opened before. As well, its powerful dimensional engine can rip open wormholes much closer to gravitational bodies than other wormhole generators, and also can perform distortion attacks on targets that possess weak dimensional engines.