Pursue And eXterminate Module

The Pursue And eXterminate Module, or PAX Module for short, is the only successful weapons design produced by the Omega Shipyard Weapons Lab during the period that the shipyard had sufficient capital to fund the lab’s operation.

PAX Modules are omnidirectional projectiles, vaguely resembling homing mines, but designed to simply attack a target at a distance upon launch. Each module consists of a minimally shielded, unstable central reactor, feeding an outer shell of thrusters and containing a heavy-duty inertial neutralizer and a warhead to supplement the explosive force of the reactor’s detonation upon impact. The modules and their launchers are equivalent in size to heavy rockets and their launchers, though the sensitive thruster shell of the PAX Modules means that they cannot be placed as close to one another as heavy rockets can. As a result, a heavy rocket launcher can be supplied with more ammo in a given amount of space than a PAX launcher can. For the same reason, PAX modules are not suitable for use on very light or poorly armored ships. They can, however, be launched in very rapid succession; PAX launchers are based more on a mine-dropping principle than a launching principle, except without the stabilization used for creating enduring minefields.

PAX modules are shorter-middle-range weapons, possessing slightly less range than turbolasers or heavy rockets do, but still capable of engaging at normal distances of capital ship engagement; the are also fairly fast, attaining their maximum range in considerably less time than heavy rockets take. As omnidirectional weapons, PAX modules are capable of engaging a target in any direction, regardless of the vector upon which they are launched. Importantly, PAX modules, despite being capital scale weapons, with a warhead yield slightly less than that of a heavy rocket, are agile enough to be used against starfighters. The electronics of PAX modules, however, are singly devoted to guiding the modules to their targets and avoiding other solid objects; evasion of energy-weapon point defense fire lucky enough to hit the fast-moving modules, and the targeting of specific areas on a target are both beyond the capability of the modules. Furthermore, the modules are not streamlined for use in an atmosphere, and suffer an effectiveness penalty when used for planetary bombardment.