When you're in a war, you need weapons, right? so, the 27th century weapons aren't very different than the 20th century weapons: Guns and Missiles. Every fighter and every capital is armed with at least ONE gun...

The difference between guns and missiles comes in a few criterias:

1) Missiles are for only one use. You shoot 'em, and you can't get 'em back... while guns, regenerate or get new ammo (except for a few special guns, as noted ahead).

2) The Missiles' damage potential is a lot larger than the guns' damage potential.

3) In most missiles (except a few ones) you need a lock to fire the missile. A gun, in the other hand, can be fired at any time.

4) Missiles can be diverted from their target by a decoy... gunfire can't be diverted by any sort of known technology, but, without locking (that missiles have), guns are harder to aim with.

Usability of guns and missiles:

Fighters have limited space for missiles and guns on them. A missile is for only one use... it's either hitting the target or not... fighters missile slots are moving between 2-20 missiles a fighter. Guns from the other hand, regenerate. That's why pilots usually use their guns for ordinary attacks and use missiles only in emergencies and critical situations.

Guns usually take energy from the fighter's power plant for regeneration. A pilot can't fire a gun without stopping for a while, if he wants to fire a long sustained gunfire. The regeneration TAKES TIME... some guns regenerate faster than the others. Firing all guns simultaniously takes more power, and takes more time for regeneration. A pilot knows what's his gun-energy status by a bar in his cockpit. When the bar is empty, there's no energy for the guns. In this kind of a situation, the pilot can still use gunfire, but in a slow-gunfire mode (because he is using the power-reservs).

Damage Potential:

A damage potential is the maximum amount of damage that a weapon can cause to it's target. Damge is measured by points that are subtracted from the target's shields and armor.

I'll just show you the shields and armor details of a Dragon fighter here so you could understand the power of missiles and guns noted below (more details about armor and shields will be in the next lesson).

Now, for all the "regular" guns, and their details:

Damage means the maximum damage one shot of this gun can cause. Energy means what's the rate of the energy consume of this gun (a higher rate means that this gun consumes a lot of energy).

Now, after we know these details, I can give you an example (in this example all guns cause maximum damage for convienience): A fighter approaches a Dragon. It opens fire with it's Mass Drivers guns. This gun is adequetly powerful, and doesn't consume much energy. When the Dragon is closer to hte fighter, the fighter uses his full guns (2 Heavy Photon guns, 2 Mass Drivers) to attack the Dragon. The Heavy Photon guns (the most powerful gun in the list) make a lot of damage, especially combined with the mass drivers, BUT, as you notice, the Heavy Photon guns are also consuming much power, that's why after 4 seconds, the energy bar is empty. The fighter turns and runs away. It made 5 hits with the Heavy Photon, and 7 hits with the Mass Driver. The result is 685 points of damage (74*5+45*7=685). This attack lowered the Dragon's shields entirely (only 300 cm), and caused 385 points of damage to the Dragon's armor. The dragon now stands on 125 cm of armor.

Now, you DON'T have to make these calculations when you're writing a story. I'm just telling you, that when someone attacks with a powerful gun, he can't attack forever, but, he makes a lot of damage.

Now, for the missiles:

Damage is the maximum potential damage that the missile can cause. Man. means the rate of maneuverabiliy of the missile (higher rate means better maneuverability). Duration means the number of seconds that the missile remains active after launch (after this time period, the missile self destructs). Lock time is obvious - the time (in seconds) needed to get a lock on the target with this missile.

Missile explanations:

Mine - like you probably guess, a mine is a device you plant wherever you'd like. It causes pretty much damage, and it can be used for destroying tail-flying enemies. Also, mines are very slow, and therefore undetectable in ordinary radars.

Friend-or-Foe - (aka FF) Not much damage from this missile... BUT, it's one of the only missiles that don't need a lock to fire. This missile locks on a fighter's radio transmissions. It automatically locks on the nearest target with an "enemy-radio transmitter". The problem with this missile is that it can accidently hit a damaged "friendly-radio transmitter".

Image Recognition - (aka IR) A very efficient missile, with good damage and a quick lock. It has good maneuverability and it's hard to shake off. Great missile (my favorite! :) ).

Leech - A missile that doesn't do any damage except overloading the target's systems, and causing them to malfunction.

Heat Seeker - (aka HS) Another very good missile. Manuevers like the IR, but it has a different lock: it locks on the target's engine. BUT, problem with this one: it can lock even on your engine...

Torpedo - The largest missile. Poor manuevrability, and you just CAN'T fire it on fighters. It has a huge damage potential, and it's only role is capital ship-killing.

Dumbfire - (aka DF) this missile is just flying ahead from the moment you launch it. It doesn't have a lock, and it's used mainly for attacks on capships and slow targets. Even the greenest rookie can outmaneuver a DF.

Flashpak - (aka FP) a disk-shaped missile. It's present only on the Dragon. It's damage potential is the largest in known universe and it can destroy every known ship. BUT, it can't be used against fighters.