The torpedo traced a lightning quick course, 114 kilometers from test firing rig to the target, a 14 ton piece of space debris. The warhead contained ten micrograms of it's classified fuel, enough to completely annihilate the target ten times over. Four seconds from launch to target, the proximity switches activated, 500 meters from the target. Implosion detected inside the Austerhagen device. Gravitational sheering detected, Hawking radiation detected. Explosion radius expanding at just over the expected rate of growth. Gravitation flux detected along the outer shell of the blast.
The Mighty Higgs Particle
The discovery of the Higgs Bosun in the 21st century was a seed that would take centuries to bear fruit. For generations sci-fi writers had bandied about gravitons and gravitics as a handwave technology to explain how futuristic spaceships could ignore inertia and gravity in space. At the same time, scientists would vigorously refute such things as nonsense. This would continue with greater vigor after the discovery of the Higgs bosun, up through the end of the Petroleum Era. When the shooting started, interest in sci-fi literature and exotic theoretical particles predictably dwindled.During the Second Renaissance, interest in exotic things rebounded, and the Higgs was one of the first grabbed after. There were failures, like the Singularity plant, but even things like this pushed the programs forward. Scientists and arcanotechnicians learned more about manipulating the Higgs bosun and Higgs fields. This created a number of fantastic technologies.
Gravitronics: the long time plaything of science fiction, gravitronics are the civilian and industrial applications of gravity manipulation. The most common uses are fixing gravity in spaceships and space stations, replacing the need for centripedal force gravity generation and the associated rotating rings and hammer arms on ships and stations. It also includes the creation of the A-Pod. The Anti-gravity Pod was a major revolution in propulsion technology, in many places replacing spinning rotors, wheels, and combustion/incandescent drive systems.
Higgs Particle Cannon: one of the highest energy weapons developed, HPCs look and function like high power lasers, but are much more devastating, having both high energy and significant knock down power. The output of HPCs are measured in kilo, mega, and gigatons. The smallest Higgs cannons are mounted on large mecha and have destructive potential in the 1 to 5 kiloton range. These 'big guns' are typically used for bunker busting, anti-mecha, and anti-warship operations. Space mecha and aerospace craft favor NPCs over lasers, due to their considerable damage potential. Megaton HPCs are mounted on capital warships, such as the Federation's self named Federation class Battlestars and battlecruisers, or the Seibertronian's Arche class heavy cruisers. These weapons have destructive potential in the 2 to 10 megaton range. The second incarnation of the Obliteratrix replaced the theoretical molecular disrupter weapon with a 1 gigaton HPC. It is estimated that the blast radius of the 'Zeus Cannon' would be almost 60 kilometers across, with lessening blast damage reaching out another 50 kilometers (140-160 km air blast diameter) Wildfires and thermal burns would be inflicted beyond this range, reaching out to a maximum diameter of almost 400 kilometers from the point of impact. The Tycho Convention last session limited HPC yield to 10 megatons, and that was an inescapable concession to the weapons the Federation already had in place.
Black Hole Bombs: the slang term for a Higgs Bosun Implosion device, or an Austerhagen warhead. Developed by the Austerhagen Initiative, the weapon generates a short duration naked singularity. This is achieved by converging three Higgs beams into a lump of classified 'hypermatter'. There is a subatomic collapse, the Higgs beams destablize the hypermatter, and it's mass turns in on itself in a gravity cascade. There are a few more technological steps, all which happen in fractions of a second. The end result is a weapon that takes a massive bite out of creation, and destroys it. The warhead is becoming increasingly popular due to both it's massive destructive potential, and it's limited collateral damage. There is almost no armor that can resist this class of weapon, and it is a non-explosive. There are no radiation spikes, no blast waves, no fireballs. There is a flash of light, from the formation of a millisecond event horizon and micro-accretion disc, and a burst of X-ray radiation, and then the area of affect is simply gone, evaporated into Hawking radiation.
Corrosion Torpedo - an increasingly common and dangerous weapon, corrosion torpedoes are smart weapons designed for anti-ship warfare. They are fairly large and have a demi-sentient control system, micro-fusion reactor to power the drive system and the austerhagen device, smart tracking and ECM systems. These weapons are expensive, tantamount to firing a fully kitted out variable frame aerospace fighter at a target, but with a much higher damage potential. Operation Jawbreaker was the testing phase for the corrosion torpedo, and a number were used to destroy asteroids or target ships as proof of concept.
The Austerhagen Device, with a capital D is the proverbial and literal self-destruct system and is being investigated as a fail safe for special containment protocols and high risk research centers. It has been grudgingly decided that it would be better for a center to be devoured by it's own pocket black hole than have a repeat of the </span></span>Leviathan or Deimos incidents. These are larger than the devices found in warheads, as they are expected to remove an entire facility and everything inside of it, be it giant insects, a viral outbreak, or the literal agents of Hell climbing out of the Pit. Everything is devoured by the black hole.
There are records in the Imbrian archives of a device called a Nugri Selis'Po, which roughly translates out to hungry seed or hungry egg, and is described as a hand thrown weapon that devours that which it is thrown it. Researchers believe that this is an Austerhagen 'grenade' and was used by the Imbrians as a last ditch or desperate weapon. It seems that there was some sort of suicide attack method in using the the devices as the few times they are mention. It is possible that this was deliberate. Austerhagen devices that detonate in a void have a relatively short lifespan. One that detonates in something with mass can actually persist for an observable amount of time, the more resistant the material is, the longer the singularity will persist. Weaker objects will crumple and be drawn into the event, while stronger ones will have sheering and stress damage, and frequently an almost cookie cutter perfect hole in them.
Usage: The Austerhagen warhead/device is the weapon system that makes the Cosmic Era step back and wonder if it has crossed a line it shouldn't have. The potential devastation of HPCs dwarf the firepower of atomic and nuclear weapons, and the destructive potential of the austerhagen bomb are enough to sober even the most vitriolic warhawk. In the Lovecraftian/anime theme of the Cosmic Era, when the Outer Gods come sloughing into the domain of man, They will be met with the brilliant lances of Higgs particle cannons and black hole tipped missiles.