Plasma torpedo
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
- "Just another item in the Covenant's bottomless arsenal. Not a plasma torpedo, or we'd already be free-floating molecules."
- — Captain Jacob Keyes[1]
Plasma torpedoes are a type of plasma naval weaponry used by the starships of the Covenant and its remnants. They are one of the staple weapons of most larger warships, though may be found in use on smaller vessels and even fighters/bombers - serving as a rough equivalent to the missiles heavily employed by the warships of humanity.
A plasma torpedo is itself a solid-core cylindrical projectile fired from a silo located on the ship's exterior hull.[2][3] When preparing to fire, a core is "lit" with plasma siphoned from the ship's pinch fusion reactor, with the energy contained and enveloped by the core in a sheath. The torpedo is then fired and guided to its target via a command link with the firing warship, before detonating at the target.[3] Upon contact, a plasma torpedo causes severe damage to the target, boiling armor or overloading shields.
Overview[edit]
Design details[edit]
The systems used to fire plasma torpedoes are known as plasma torpedo silos[4] or plasma turrets, which are located along the hull of the ship. At least on some Covenant vessels, the turret or "silo" is antenna-like in appearance and is installed on universal joints often located along the lateral sides of the ship.[5] The torpedoes are typically described as red or purple in color and short, with a ball-like head and a trail.
The torpedoes themselves are initially stored aboard Covenant vessels as inert cores, which are roughly cylindrical objects that range between 3–5 meters in total length. For Ket-pattern battlecruisers such as the Truth and Reconciliation and probably other ships that are armed with plasma torpedo silos, thousands of these inert cores are carefully packaged and stored in munitions racks before each deployment of the vessel.[4]
Although normally launched from starships, self-guiding plasma torpedoes can be deployed as mines to deny strategic locations to enemy forces.[6]
Operation[edit]
- "The Covenant cruiser came about to face them. Its plasma turrets glowed like angry red eyes."
- — Description[7]
The inert plasma torpedo cores are ignited in a pinched magnetic field by energy supplied from the ship's pinch fusion reactors and guided by magnetic coils. When the weapon charges, a line of superheated plasma forms alongside the exterior plasma conduit adjoining the turret.[8] Once fully charged, the now ignited plasma torpedo core fires outward at its target. The torpedo is guided towards its target by a long-reaching magnetic field projected by the emitter.[9] Upon impact, the torpedo penetrates most unshielded starships, burning through internal decks and structures, thus causing heavy damage on the target.
They are extraordinarily accurate; one of the only ways for UNSC ships to even temporarily avoid them is to use emergency thrusters to "dodge" incoming plasma torpedoes at the last moment. Particularly strong magnetospheres, such as those of gas giants, will disrupt the magnetic field guiding the torpedo, dissipating the plasma and rendering the torpedo harmless.[10] The dust and vapor from missiles detonated close enough to the ship may also absorb the energy from a torpedo, rendering it harmless.[5] When the damaged Ascendant Justice entered the atmosphere of Threshold, the massive wake of superheated gases trailing the ship scattered the plasma torpedoes fired by pursuing Covenant vessels.[11]
The attacking ship must lower a section of its shield in order to fire the torpedo, otherwise it would detonate inside the protective barrier. John-117 used this weakness to temporarily blind a Covenant cruiser with a Longsword and to penetrate the shields of the Ascendant Justice.[12]
Guidance[edit]
Plasma torpedoes can be manually guided from a weapons control station on the bridge, by using holographic "steering spheres" superimposed over a holographic display of the space surrounding the ship. The plasma torpedoes and steering solutions of an enemy ship are similarly shown on the display.[13] The Covenant have also developed "counter guiding signals", a form of electronic countermeasure that disrupts the guidance control of an enemy ship's plasma torpedoes.[8]
If the firing ship is destroyed, all plasma torpedoes guided by its magnetic fields are either detonated prematurely or fly about aimlessly.[9] However, it appears that torpedoes are sometimes able to hold together for a small amount of time, as demonstrated during the Fall of Reach, when fired torpedoes destroyed UNSC orbital defense platforms even after their firers had been destroyed.[14]
Tactics[edit]
Volleys of plasma torpedoes are frequently the first attacks launched by Covenant fleets when engaging enemy forces at long range. They often decimate enemy ranks upon impact. They emit visible radiation, giving them an amber color but volleys are visually akin to solar flares due to the sheer number of torpedoes launched. It has been said a single volley can destroy a ship from bow to stern.
Occasionally, plasma torpedoes can miss their target and fail to reacquire them if the target is moving towards the launcher at an oblique angle and high speed, such as the offensive maneuver conducted by John-117 to evade the fire of the Covenant ships at Alpha Halo during the Skirmish over Threshold, or also if the movement of the craft is erratic such as the way Keyes evaded the torpedoes during the Keyes Loop by detonating the ship's emergency thrusters seconds before impact. Even though they are considered very accurate against capital ships and space stations, they can frequently be evaded by smaller craft, such as Pelican dropships and Longswords.
Enhancement and atypical uses[edit]
As with many other examples of their technology, the Covenant themselves only understand a fraction of the underlying science involved with the operation of the plasma turret. As a result, despite their overwhelming power against human ships, the Covenant's methods of using their weapons systems are highly inefficient, relying on crude brute-force calculations and causing wasteful energy expenditure due to their slow operation; this is also why the turrets glow before firing. When in control of the Covenant ship Ascendant Justice, UNSC AI Cortana was able to use the vessel's plasma turrets to their full potential; she created an entirely new system to control the plasma, using electromagnetic pulses to direct the plasma into precision beams within a microsecond. This enabled her to use the weapons with far greater power and precision than the Covenant themselves, cutting through Covenant vessels like a scalpel, not unlike an energy projector. According to Cortana, she could have improved the plasma turrets even further had the Covenant ship possessed better electromagnetic systems.[15]
The magnetic coils used in a MAC gun can be used to shape and guide the plasma fired by a plasma turret; this was seen before the Massacre at Eridanus Secundus, when the UNSC Gettysburg's magnetic coils were used to guide plasma torpedoes fired by the Ascendant Justice's turrets.[9]
Models[edit]
Various models of plasma torpedo are based on the design pattern of the silo itself.
Heavy plasma torpedo silos[edit]
- Mictix-pattern heavy plasma torpedo silo
Mictix-pattern heavy silos are employed on the largest carrier classes of the Covenant.
- Syfon-pattern assault carrier - 24x Mictix-pattern heavy plasma torpedo silos[16]
- Kerel-pattern assault carrier - 24x Mictix-pattern heavy plasma torpedo silos[17]
- Sh'wada-pattern supercarrier - 32x Mictix-pattern heavy plasma torpedo silos[17]