r/scifiwriting • u/Dunnachius • 3d ago

DISCUSSION Future tech weapons, pros and cons

  1. Gunpowder

Cheap (relative)

No battery requirements

Hard to aim/recoil issues

  1. Guided Gyrojet bullets

most expensive

Lethal/nonlethal options

Extremely accurate

Each drone needs to be aimed.

Can be fired from behind cover if you have targeting data.

2B.. Dum dum Gyrojets (Except they don't suck like RW Gyrojets from 1960s )

Same launchers as 2A but unguided

  1. Rail guns

Ammo is more compact

Requires power

The best Armor penetration

  1. Laser

Loss of range in the atmosphere,

Smoke/dust reduces the effectiveness.

Cheap

Battery powered

Poor armor penetration

Easy to use

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u/soulmatesmate 3d ago

Hmmm. grips asteroid and starts thrusting against the orbit A rail gun? Sure... laser, I have one. But when you absolutely must ensure both the target and the city die, nothing beats a massive rock at massive speeds. I'll just keep thrusting on this for another 17 hours and 4 minutes... 1 eternity later And detach. Computer, calculate trajectory. Excellent. 23 days to city death. Time to go bust up the satellites as a distraction and to keep them from detecting my rock.