How do phase missiles work?
After the research is complete, a miniature version of the Strikecraft's phase drive called a Potprostorr Engine is installed into all the missiles capable of holding such a device. It is limited to missiles, because they can carry enough load to facilitate the engine's main phase drive, the power core(which is mostly one-use) and be fitted with a Space Matrix Cavitation Helix at the nose. That is why cannons cannot benefit from the Phase Missile Technology, and also why it is called Phase Missile Technology. The device itself functions very much differently than a strikecraft's version.
When a Phase Missile is launched, it quickly homes into the target vessel, and starts to accelerate. Complicated monitoring devices inside the missile monitor target ship's activities and the Quantum Calculation Unit begins complex calculations in when to activate the phase drive, how to set it, and how powerful the phase shift should be. Upon reaching approximately 11.2% common-space C, the Space Matrix Cavitation Helix begins to charge it's neutrino release pods. The interaction of neutrino particles with surrounding sparse particles such as hydrogen atoms and the errant ferrum atom then begins to create a field of localised space around the missile that moves with the missile. Once this field reaches a 77% ratio to the normal space within the field's area of effect, the Main Phase Drive can finally be activated to bend this loaclised space itself and reshape the space around it as if the missile and it's own localised field of space did not exist. Once this is accomplished, the missile is considered fully phased out, and achieves a speed well exceeding the speed of light. The standard missile has enough energy supplies to phase itself for just under 0.07 seconds, after which it is thrust back into normal space violently. It is the duty of the previously mentioned Quantum Calculation Unit to ensure this violent thrust back into normal space is achieved after the shields of the target ships have been bypassed. Various factors can influence the results, and some of those factors can not be classified into a calculation. These factors include phase-space eddies(which can increase or decrease the phase-time of a missile and turn it off it's course), sporadic antimatter existance(may lenghten the process of phasing by interfering with the integrity of the localised field of space), target maneuvering(a very minor effect, but important enough to be mentioned) multi-phasic and ascending shield systems(makes the return to normal space inside the shield impossible) and the existence of remote phase disruption equipment(such as those found on phase disruptors, phase stabilisers, Antorak marauders and Stilakus vessels). After thousands of field tests, the reliability of phase missiles has been classified into a 5% effectiveness for the oldest, passive cavitation models, to as much as 25% for the newest, phase-space scanning missiles.
I hope this brief review of the Phase Missile Technology has been insightful for you. If you would like to know more, please peruse the Vasari Tactical Doctrine files 26c and 33b through 33f, as well as the Artifact Archives Codex 7 on the details of phase space mechanics and the devices for phase space interaction.
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