Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Particle Cannon

The Particle Cannon is the Aquila's superweapon capable of destroying almost any enemy target with utmost precision.

History
"What was that light!? Is that-"

-Kodiak tank commander upon seeing a Particle Cannon strike

Since the revival of the Strategic Defense Initiative, this WMD has been accompanying the Aquilan Military to successfully take down enemy bases like God's Heat-Ray. The Particle Cannon is a surface-orbit-surface tactical particle energy-based weapon of mass destruction site which is placed in a rather odd circle and square structure connected via a small rectangle. It is divided into two parts: the control room and the firing port. The control room controls all the activity of the weapon, connects with the reflector satellite and runs systemic checks to ensure the weapon is in good condition. The firing port houses a giant particle cannon blaster that fires a concentrated particle beam in which it will later be reflected by the reflector satellites heat-resistant panels back to a designated target, The satellite can be moved around to chase any escaping units with ease. Thanks to its quick heat dispersal system, the superweapon can quickly reload in just under 5 minutes in order to be used again. For Ironhand, it can also provide an upgrade to make his drones stealthed when not attacking.

The Particle Cannon's origins can be traced back to the 1980s V.C. during the Cold War. the President of Aquila back then, Willie Branford, was particularly against the Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D) doctrine. Thus he called upon the scientists and engineers of Aquila to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete. This resulted in the Strategic Defense Initiative being formed in 1984 V.C..

A wide array of advanced weapon concepts, including lasers, particle beam weapons and missile systems were studied, along with various sensor, command and control, and high-performance computer systems that would be needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the entire globe.

But in 1987 V.C., the American Physical Society concluded that the technologies being considered were decades away from being ready for use, and at least another decade of research was required to know whether such a system was even possible. After the publication of the APS report, SDI's budget was repeatedly cut. By the late 1980s V.C., the effort had been re-focused on the "Brilliant Pebbles" concept, which involves using small orbiting missiles not unlike a conventional air-to-air missile, which was expected to be much less expensive to develop and deploy.

By the 1990s V.C., With the death of Cherdenko and Lunafreya took helm as Premier in Voshkod and the perceived threat changed to short-range missiles. Pebbles was modified, but doing so raised its weight and cost; the original design called for around 10,000 missiles and would cost 10 to 20 billion dollars but by 1990 V.C., the cost for just 4,600 of these BMDs had ballooned to $55 billion. Fighting in the Congress through the early 1990s led to Brilliant Pebbles project's cancellation in 1993 V.C.

Time has passed and the world started to experience a Elysea's Conflict as warfares and chaos started to occur such as the Voshkod invasion of Aquila and the Andoran Crisis. This was also followed by many world leaders starting to mobilize their nuclear weapons in greater numbers than before. The Aquilans, which was debt-ridden from previous conflicts, have decided to respond to such trends by authorizing the now-defunct SDI which is renamed as Domestic Missile Defense Project. Miraculously, the DMD Project gave birth to a directed-energy weapon that fires a hot beam of light that is powerful enough to blast through metal plates. Further research developed a slim structure housing the weapon as a prime missile defense structure to shoot down enemy ICBMs coming into Aquila territory. As the weapon has to be in a fixed position, a specialized satellite was invented to reflect the beam to a target.

The birth of the Particle Cannon wasn't really opposed when it was publicly unveiled,instead,it was mostly viewed a symbol of the advancement of human technology and a common joke by military enthusiasts that Aquila acted contrary to other nations in terms of nuclear issues as Aquila did not increase its nuclear stockpile but built the PC and being naive of not thinking that other nations will give the nation a quick,unpredictable pre-preemptive strike in case of an nuclear war or develop hypersonic ICBMs to outrun PC's targeting systems.

Not long after the MLA's terrorist attack on Lurensia, the Aquila Congress has passed a law to allow Armed Forces to install particle cannons en masse on Aquila homeland and its overseas territories to build an anti-ICBM network. Worldwide speculation went wild as the medias hypothesized that Aquila was preparing for a potential war defensively during the period. However, the Particle Cannon's time-consuming recharge and incapability to shoot down missiles up close (cannot engage missiles that have flown less than 1100m from the firing spot or it will accidentally cause friendly fire) have proven to be its fatal flaws, especially when it missed a missile launched by the MLA, causing mass civilian causalities on Aquilan soil. Subsequent ballistic missile mobilization caused Aquila to develop the SDI Cannon as a second line of missile defense for neutralizing enemy missiles that are missed by the PC. Today, the Particle Cannon is the first line of Aquila's missile defense line and the tactical WMD in skirmishes.

Trivia

 * It is not available for Task Force Eagle, as the Strategic Command Uplink took place instead

Guardians of the Tacitus

 * Particle Cannon (Aquila)
 * Proton Collider (Alliance)
 * Ion Cannon (ADI)
 * Psionic Decimator (Protectorate)
 * Solaris Array (Andora)
 * Atomic Palace (Empire)
 * Nuclear Storm
 * Hadron Collider
 * Scientifc Lab
 * Temple of Cantha (Community)

Destroyers of Balthazar

 * Vaccuum Imploder (Voshkod)
 * Temple of Asmodia (Brotherhood)
 * Soyuz Missile (Horde)
 * SCUD Storm (MLA)
 * Psychic Dominator (Collective)
 * Minea Elemental Missile Silo (Encantadia)
 * Rift Generator (Scrin)

Neutrals

 * Tremor AGAS (Coalition)
 * Warp Missile (Heralds)
 * Firestorm Generator (Order)
 * Resonance Jackhammer (Survivors)
 * Weather Control Generator (Syndicate)
 * Omega Blitzer (Conglomerate)
 * Basilisk Magnus Apocalypse (Legion)

DLC

 * Orbital Bombardment (Federation)
 * Coronal Storm (Corona)
 * ... (Party)
 * The Icon (Skynet)
 * ICBM (Dominion)
 * ... (Elemental)
 * ... (Autocracy)
 * ... (League)
 * ... (Swarm)
 * ... (Pirates)
 * Temple of Elona (Elona)
 * Death Hand Tesla ICBM (Ascalia)
 * ARK Superheavy Artillery Battery (Confederation)
 * Eldritch Cannon (Kingdom)
 * ... (Goo)
 * ... (Security)
 * Aggregat (Imperium)
 * ... (Dynasty)
 * ... (Warlords)
 * ... (Cult)
 * ... (Raiders)
 * Hammer of Sigmar (Theocracy)
 * ... (ASA)
 * ... (Insurgents)
 * Guns of Windrunner (Bastion)
 * ... (Guardians)
 * ... (Hierarchy)
 * ... (Sundered)
 * Doomfire Missile Silo (Ecumene)
 * Shrine of Sadida (Concordat)
 * ARKNIGHT Dropzone (Contingent)
 * ... (Rangers)
 * ... (Eden)
 * Meganulon Hive (InGen)
 * ... (Hallows)
 * Gandalf Scatter Launcher (Commune)
 * Stonehenge Strike Array (Clique)
 * Fugaku Air Tower (Guild)
 * Death Worm (Threat)