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Rail Weapon

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Rail Weapons are Tau and Squat[3] weapons and considered some of the most potent and fearsome weaponry employed by the Tau Empire. Rail weapons are linear accelerators that use super-conductive electrodes to accelerate a solid-shot round to hypersonic speeds. The vast kinetic energy generated by the round on impact is capable of devastating damage on enemy vehicles.[1]

Rail Weaponry first appeared in widespread Fire Caste use sometime during the First Sphere of Expansion. Early Tau rail weapons required substantial shielding in order to avoid flooding their Hammerhead and Battlesuit pilots with radiation. These shields were inevitable formed from super-dense metal alloys and contributed greatly to the size of the weapon. Progress on fixing this flaw was slow for many years as the Earth Caste tried to improve the design and create an infantry-portable weapon. The breakthrough finally came during the Second Sphere of Expansion when the Tau developed a new ablative starship hull material to counteract the effects of Imperial Nova cannons.[2]

Types of Rail Weapons

Sources