Arquebus

The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe.

Description

The Arquebus is a variant of the Varunastra-A mass driver for mounting specifically on the Custos-X cruiser. It is one of the few capital-scale weapons that can be directly controlled by the player.

Blue Planet Tech Room Description

Varanustra Mass Driver for the Custos-X variant.

Performance

Arquebus

Range	3000 m
Rate of Fire	0.5 shots per second
Velocity	1500 ms-1
Base Damage	1200
Armor Damage	1.0x	1200
Shield Damage	0.25x	300
Subsystem Damage	1.0x	1200

Notes

• Weapon is capable of easily damaging large vessels (Huge)
• Weapon has high recoil (Shudder)
• Weapon projectile generates particles (Particle Spew)

• The weapons room description lists this as a gauss cannon, but the tech room description lists it as a mass driver. To make it more confusing, it has the weapons effect of a gauss cannon with the damage characteristics of both. For now, this article follows the tech room description.

Veteran Comments

While not ideal for taking out enemy fighters or bombers, it does do enough shield damage that two hits in relatively close succession will annihilate just about any strike craft you might encounter--though Shivans are another matter entirely, with their very high shield values.