Small weapons pale in comparison to the large weapons, however they do have some advantages.

• Some have a chance at hitting a soft spot
• Few point defense can stop it
• Cheap and cost no minerals
• Useful in swarming
• Fast recharge rate
• Lower power requirements

Weapon Descriptions:

Laser	Cheap! Only 5mc per weapon. Does not get any exotic tech bonus for shield or armor drain. Shorts out pulsed lasers on target ship if this weapon hits the target's armor. When a target ship's armor is hit all pulsed lasers drop to an energy level of negative 20 and must be depolarized before they can be fired again.
Pulsed Laser	Fastest charge rate of all small ship weapons. Recharges in just 3 seconds. Does not get any exotic tech bonus for shield or armor drain.
Disrupter	400% more damaging to life support systems than any other small ship weapons. It kills the crew and has a short range. The weapon has an extra kill bonus against races other than Solar Federation, Crystals, Robots, and Stormers. The the target has no armor there is a 25% chance of 10 crew, 100 colonists, and 30 troops getting killed. If the target has full armor the odds drop to 0% of this kill bonus happening. The Stormers, Solar Federation, Crystals, and Robots are immune from this effect. This weapon can hit the target's soft spot and cause the target ship to explode.
Streak Missiles	Point defense systems have an easy time of intercepting streak missiles.The 35mm Vulcan has a 70% of doing so. It is the most accurate of all small ship weapons and is the only small ship weapon to use ordnance. It has a high blast level, very long range, a very slow recharge rate ( takes 30 seconds to recharge) and drains 5 shield units per hit. The have the advantage of overcoming any enemy evasive factors. A target ship's evasive rating will always be zero when fired on by a streak missile.
Phasor	Heavy damage to ships subspace engines. Solar Federation ships have a +40 change of hitting an enemy target with phasors.This weapon can hit the target's soft spot and cause the target ship to explode. Is much better at shooting down enemy assault pods then other small weapons
Positron	It has good accuracy, does heavy damage to the hyper drive jump engines, heavy damage to ships subspace engines, and destroys 3 armor units per hit. Any impact on an target ship's armor will result in a 40% chance of shorting out the power banks of the target ship's small weapons. When the banks are shorted out all power levels drop to negative 20 and the weapons must depolarized and recharge before they can fire again.
Meson Gun	Does a good amount of damage to ship control systems and arcs through 95 units of armor. An impact on the armor may drain the enemy's large weapon power banks slightly. If the target has full armor no large weapon power is drained. If the target has no armor there is a 25% chance that 5 points of large weapon energy will get drained from all large weapons. It is possible to force all the targets energy banks to go into a very negative state of charge keeping the large weapons from firing at all. The Stormers and Solar Federation are immune from this effect.
Xenon Beam	It does a good amount of damage to ship control systems, does a high amount of damage to ship parts and ship hull, kills the crew, has a very slow recharge rate ( takes 30 seconds to recharge ) , destroys 4 armor units per hit and shots arc through 50 shield units. Any impact one the target ship's armor will result in a 80% chance of the target ship's point defense weapon systems losing energy, for a few seconds as the target's point defense power banks drop to negative 10 energy points. This weapon can hit the target's soft spot and cause the target ship to explode.
Tachyon Gun	It is hard to intercept with point defense systems, has a high blast level, has a very long range, draws 5 gw a second of power while recharging, shot arcs though 120 units of armor and does no damage at all to armor. In other words this weapon can not hurt a ship with 120 units or more of armor. Unless exotic tech is used to give the weapon a armor drain bonus. The have the advantage of overcoming any enemy evasive factors. A target ship's evasive rating will always be zero when fired on by a tachyon gun.
Plasma Gun	It does very heavy damage to ship control systems, heavy damage to the hyper drive jump engines, heavy damage to ships subspace engines, kills the crew. It has the highest blast level of all small weapons, has a very short range, draws 10 gw per second ( the heaviest power draw of all small weapons ), arcs through 100 units of ship armor, and drains the target`s shield of an impressive 10 units of shields with every hit. Every hit on a target ship's armor results in a 80% chance of draining 200 energy points out of the target ship's super weapon and a 2% chance of causing an energy loss in the target ship's large weapon systems. The plasma gun is twice as likely all all other small weapons to cause shields to loose power when hit than all other small weapons. The plasma gun does not suffer from the 50% chance of a glancing hit on the target's shields that all other small weapons suffer from. This weapon can hit the target's soft spot and cause the target ship to explode.

Damage:

	Shield Drain	Shield Arc	Armor Drain	Armor Arc	Blast	Kill	Dmg To Target Parts	Dmg To Target Engines	Dmg To Target Hyper Drive	Dmg To Target Control Systems	Dmg To Target Life Support
Laser	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Pulsed Laser	2	0	2	0	1	1	2	1	1	1	1
Disrupter	1	0	1	0	1	3	3	1	1	1	4
Streak Missiles	5	0	1	0	5	2	2	2	1	1	1
Phasor	2	0	1	0	2	1	3	4	1	1	1
Positron	1	0	3	0	1	1	1	5	4	1	1
Meson Gun	2	0	2	95	2	2	1	1	1	5	1
Xenon Beam	2	50	4	20	4	5	8	2	1	5	1
Tachyon Gun	1	10	0	120	5	1	2	2	1	4	1
Plasma Gun	10	0	2	100	9	5	5	5	5	8	1

Combat Data:

	Max Range	Charge Time	Accuracy	Point Defense Intercept Odds	Ord Usage	Charge Draw	Hardness
Laser	376	4	40	40	0	1	10
Pulsed Laser	355	3	40	40	0	1	20
Disrupter	290	8	45	35	0	1	76
Streak Missiles	950	30	70	80	1	1	55
Phasor	495	10	45	30	0	1	40
Positron	550	10	67	35	0	1	40
Meson Gun	365	10	40	35	0	1	40
Xenon Beam	370	30	50	10	0	1	70
Tachyon Gun	950	8	60	0	0	5	90
Plasma Gun	200	10	50	40	0	10	100

Costs:

	Tech Level	Cost	Duranium	Tritanium	Molybdenum	Cost of Tech
Laser	1	5	0	0	0	100
Pulsed Laser	2	10	0	0	0	120
Disrupter	3	20	0	0	0	200
Streak Missiles	4	50	0	0	0	300
Phasor	5	52	0	0	0	300
Positron	6	55	0	0	0	300
Meson Gun	7	30	0	0	0	550
Xenon Beam	8	150	0	0	0	1020
Tachyon Gun	9	160	0	0	0	1765
Plasma Gun	10	165	0	0	0	1900

Other Racial Abilities With Small Weapons:

• The ECM Jammer Ship Device used by the The Aczanny Pyramids reduces the accuracy of Small Weapons by 30%
• Weapons of The Privateer Bands have 4x the normal killing rate and if one of the Privateers ships in a battle has an enemy hull plan stored in its memory banks, all ships of the Privateer will do 3x the shield drain and armor drain to an enemy ship of that hull type.
• The Solorian Unity take 200% shield drain from non-ord weapons and only 50% drain from ord based weapons.
• The Crystal Assembly take 300% shield drain from ord based weapons (except for the Diamond Flame Class Battleship) and only 50% drain from non-ord based weapons.
• Small Weapons of The Scavenger Tribes do 200% of the normal damage to Shields, Armor, Hull, Weapons and Systems.
• Small Weapons of The United Enforcement Authority do 400% normal system damage and kill only 50% the normal number of crew.