Meson Stream
Type	Main Gun
Available From	TER
Fitted To	Small and Medium Ships
Role	Assassination
Required License	Military License (+10)

In-game Description

The Meson Stream is an incredibly powerful, and correspondingly expensive, weapon that fires a single transient beam that strikes almost instantly. Similar to other high precision weapons, the Meson Stream does not automatically track its target, and relies on the pilot's skill for aiming. In other respects, including its moderate range, it handles more similarly to beam weapons such as the Beam Emitter. The Meson Stream does not require charging, and can theoretically be fired without releasing the trigger. However, the ship's maximum heat capacity will usually prevent this kind of usage. Because of the weapon's extreme power consumption and heat generation, it can only be attached to high-energy weapon mounts.

For a variety of reasons, the Terran military had long since toyed with the idea of an oversized laser cannon. Despite requiring an entirely new, specialised platform, and bearing an abysmally wasteful energy profile, such a weapon's potential as a deterrent was never in question. Moreover, superweapons maintain a special place in the heart of Terran popular culture, and when the time came to develop the first small-scale prototype, there was overwhelming public support for the project. In light of this, the Meson Stream represented the first cautious, yet determined, steps of the Terran Protectorate towards fulfilling a long-harboured fantasy.

In return for massively increased material cost, the Mk2 variant manages to raise the energy output of the weapon to an even higher level.

Tactical Overview

The Meson Stream is the Terran variant of the Paranid Mass Driver and Split Boson Lance. It increases the damage output even further, to the point it might actually be useful.

The Meson stream fires a beam instead of a projectile, removing the need to lead the target and making scoring hits much more manageable. 
It also carries one of the highest single-shot damage of any weapon in the game. Only missiles and the Asgard Beam can deliver more damage in a single salvo.
The Medium Mk2 variant especially delivers massive damage, enough to potentially one-shot even some large targets!
This makes the Meson Stream viable as an alpha-strike weapon.

There are two significant downsides with this weapon, though.
The first is that it has the same lousy heat dissipation, resulting in a very low rate of fire. Up to 80 seconds cooldown time if using four guns!
The second is its insane price. Only the Asgard Beam is more expensive. This makes using the Meson Stream somewhat questionable since four of them cost as much as a small fleet.

Update 7.10 has given this weapon minimal tracking. The gun can only aim in a small square area, and you must still move the entire ship to aim the weapon, which makes it real hard to use in a fast dogfight. 

Specifications

Note: The Small Meson Stream does not quite overheat from a single shot. A second shot is possible but the beam exists only for 0.17 seconds.

Construction Cost

Universal Build Method