Post by Darkrider on May 5, 2009 21:12:49 GMT -5
Artifact/Weapon Name: Tau Cannon
Wielder: Gordon Freeman
Type of Artifact/Weapon: Prototype assault rifle
Appearance of Artifact/Weapon:
Origin of Artifact/Weapon: A prototype for the assault rifle of the future, the Tau Cannon is an experimental weapon developed by scientists at Black Mesa
Special Abilities of the Artifact/Weapon: Its advanced technology allows it to use depleted uranium as fuel. Furthermore, you do not have to worry about reloading the gun – it taps directly into your ammo reserve. The depleted uranium ammunition is shared by the Gluon Gun.
The tau cannon is a type of experimental weapon that fires beams of Tau particles. The weapon has two different fire modes. The first shoots tau particles rapidly, visible as yellow beams in the air; each beam damages a target with its negative charge and its bullet-like kinetic energy. Though not particularly powerful per hit, these rapid discharges can quickly gun down unarmored targets. The alternate fire mode charges up the weapon to fire more powerful white-hot beams; these can shoot through multiple targets or penetrate walls, causing a devastating explosion-like blast of particles on the far side.
The tau particle beams can reflect off walls if they are hit at the right angle, and in fact can be reflected several times. This aspect can be useful as it can be used to hit targets when there is no clear shot, but as with bullet ricochets there is also a danger of friendly fire or self-harm. Tau cannons are compact and light enough to count as small arms, despite the fact that a blast from a charged-up tau cannon can penetrate or destroy armored vehicles.
The tau is the most massive member of the lepton family of elementary particles; like electrons, tau particles are negatively charged, but tau particles have more than three thousand times as much mass. This would explain the tau cannon’s powerful penetrating power, as well as its significant recoil. Though the early tau cannon prototypes used normal household batteries as an initial power source for the particle accelerator, a micro-fission reactor generated the deadly particle beam. This advanced nuclear device was capable of using inexpensive depleted uranium as fuel rather than an enriched isotope. (The same technology was put to use in the experimental gluon gun.) When the tau cannon's alternate fire mode was used the reactor it would be fed more depleted uranium fuel without being fired, and the energy would be stored in a set of spinning capacitors. Although these prototype capacitors could store a vast amount of energy they could not hold a charge for long, and if the tau cannon’s capacitors were fully charged-up the weapon would have to be fired within ten seconds to prevent a catastrophic discharge that could kill the user of the weapon. It uses an alternative fuel source that gives it seemingly unlimited ammunition, and the capacitors can hold a full charge indefinitely.
Wielder: Gordon Freeman
Type of Artifact/Weapon: Prototype assault rifle
Appearance of Artifact/Weapon:
Origin of Artifact/Weapon: A prototype for the assault rifle of the future, the Tau Cannon is an experimental weapon developed by scientists at Black Mesa
Special Abilities of the Artifact/Weapon: Its advanced technology allows it to use depleted uranium as fuel. Furthermore, you do not have to worry about reloading the gun – it taps directly into your ammo reserve. The depleted uranium ammunition is shared by the Gluon Gun.
The tau cannon is a type of experimental weapon that fires beams of Tau particles. The weapon has two different fire modes. The first shoots tau particles rapidly, visible as yellow beams in the air; each beam damages a target with its negative charge and its bullet-like kinetic energy. Though not particularly powerful per hit, these rapid discharges can quickly gun down unarmored targets. The alternate fire mode charges up the weapon to fire more powerful white-hot beams; these can shoot through multiple targets or penetrate walls, causing a devastating explosion-like blast of particles on the far side.
The tau particle beams can reflect off walls if they are hit at the right angle, and in fact can be reflected several times. This aspect can be useful as it can be used to hit targets when there is no clear shot, but as with bullet ricochets there is also a danger of friendly fire or self-harm. Tau cannons are compact and light enough to count as small arms, despite the fact that a blast from a charged-up tau cannon can penetrate or destroy armored vehicles.
The tau is the most massive member of the lepton family of elementary particles; like electrons, tau particles are negatively charged, but tau particles have more than three thousand times as much mass. This would explain the tau cannon’s powerful penetrating power, as well as its significant recoil. Though the early tau cannon prototypes used normal household batteries as an initial power source for the particle accelerator, a micro-fission reactor generated the deadly particle beam. This advanced nuclear device was capable of using inexpensive depleted uranium as fuel rather than an enriched isotope. (The same technology was put to use in the experimental gluon gun.) When the tau cannon's alternate fire mode was used the reactor it would be fed more depleted uranium fuel without being fired, and the energy would be stored in a set of spinning capacitors. Although these prototype capacitors could store a vast amount of energy they could not hold a charge for long, and if the tau cannon’s capacitors were fully charged-up the weapon would have to be fired within ten seconds to prevent a catastrophic discharge that could kill the user of the weapon. It uses an alternative fuel source that gives it seemingly unlimited ammunition, and the capacitors can hold a full charge indefinitely.
Sigh, I'll explain it again...
