Guide to Gunnery

Overview

Welcome, Horizon crewmember! You have chosen, or been chosen, to have a part in using the SCCV Horizon's armaments, consisting of a 406mm Longbow howitzer, a Grauwolf Flak Battery, and the deadly (and experimental!) Leviathan Zero-Point Cannon. Operation of the weapons requires a great deal of crew cooperation, between Operations personnel, the bridge crew, and for the Leviathan, the engineering staff.

About the Guns

Firstly, let's get what the guns actually are out of the way.

The Francesca

The Francesca is a little rotary cannon attached to the Intrepid. To visualize it, think of a very large Gatling gun or minigun, with big shells coming out of it with high rate of fire.

The Longbow

The Longbow is a howitzer, which in simple terms can be thought of as a big cannon. Its shells require assembly and are modular, allowing custom mixing of three components: the primer (the thing that starts the reaction that launches the shell out of the barrel), a casing (self explanatory and only one version is available at the moment), and the warhead (the part of the shell that actually does the work, be it exploding or piercing armor). Generally, the Longbow is your most flexible armament given the customizable nature of its shells.

The Longbow can be found on Deck Three, just to the east of the bridge control room, past the staircase down to the kitchen.

The Grauwolf

Wow, what a mean sounding name - but for a Flak Cannon, totally deserved. A flak cannon is a gun that shoots out rounds that explode when close to their target, sending huge chunks of jagged metal towards them. Usually best for lightly-armored targets.

The Grauwolf can be found just south of Tech Storage on deck two, past the Operations front desk in the starboard side of the ship.

The Leviathan

If you're familiar with the idea of a "wave motion gun", you can get the gist of the Leviathan from that. An incredible energy hog, it drains twenty megawatts every time it fires. This experimental piece of technology will absolutely obliterate anything it fires at with a warp-powered energy beam.

The Leviathan can be found in maintenance on the port wing in deck two. The entrance is guarded by turrets and requires head of staff access to enter.

The Crew Required

Here is a slightly more in-depth explanation of what each crewmember involved in the firing and reloading process is responsible for.

Bridge Crew

The job of the bridge crew is the simplest. They aim and fire the guns using the targeting control console in the bridge. They also perform the systematic tasks required for the guns to be fired, such as loading ammunition and assembling Longbow shells.

Operations

Operations personnel have only one task: ammo distribution. Next to the Operations Manager's office is a locked room with various types of ammunition for the Francesca and Grauwolf along with different warheads for the Longbow.

Engineering

Engineering only has a tertiary involvement with the Horizon's firing process. In the event that the ship decides to fire the Leviathan cannon, responsibility for "loading" the Leviathan falls to engineering instead. As an energy weapon, the Leviathan requires an immense amount of power in its special SMES unit every time it fires as mentioned previously, and therefore it is Engineering's responsibility to generate and direct that power.

Using the Guns

Ballistic Weapons

Loading

The first step to using the guns is loading them. For the Grauwolf and Francesca, acquiring the proper ammunition from the Operations ammunition store and clicking on the (weapon name) loader will load them fairly simply. The Longbow works in much the same way, except it requires the shells to be assembled beforehand. Longbow shells require three parts: warhead (from Operations), casing, and primer (both from the Longbow's own room). Click on the casing with the primer and warhead of your choosing (examine each type to get an idea of the differences) and then the shell will be fully assembled and ready for loading. Don't throw a fully assembled shell, or it will explode and kill you.

Finally, all loader areas are marked with a yellow arrow pointing towards them.

Targeting

Once loaded, you can use the targeting computer in the bridge to select a target and fire the weapons. WIP TEXT: WRITE THE TARGETING INFORMATION HERE

The Leviathan

The Leviathan's process is significantly different from the others, given its immense destructive potential and power draw. Firstly, two heads of staff must swipe on the keycard authentication device in order to engage the Leviathan's systems. Next, a boxed key from the Captain's office desk must be retrieved and inserted in to the Leviathan Activation Terminal next to the targeting computer, then clicked again to twist it and finish preparations.

Now that the bridge preparations are finished, the Leviathan room comes in to play. The activation lever can be found in the Leviathan's gun room next to three control terminals, and must be pulled as the final step of preparation. Once pulled, the Leviathan will begin draining power from its APC rapidly. Fire quickly. Assuming all steps have been completed, the Leviathan can be aimed from the targeting console on the bridge WIP TEXT: FACT CHECK THIS and then fired using a large red button next to the computer. Remember, the Leviathan SMES must have sufficient power for a shot, or it won't work!