Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that depicts the use of science fiction technology, including spaceships and weapons,
for military purposes and usually principal characters who are members
of a military organization, usually during a war; occurring sometimes in
outer space or on a different planet or planets. It exists in a range
of media, including literature, comics, film, television and video
games.
A detailed description of the conflict, belligerents (which may
involve extraterrestrials), tactics and weapons used for it, and the
role of a military service and the individual members of that military
organization form the basis for a typical work of military science
fiction. The stories often use features of actual past or current Earth
conflicts, with countries being replaced by planets or galaxies with
similar characteristics, battleships
replaced by space battleships, small arms and artillery replaced by
lasers, soldiers replaced by space marines, and certain events changed
so the author can extrapolate what might have occurred.
Traditional military values of courage under fire, sense of duty,
honor, sacrifice, loyalty, and camaraderie are often emphasized. The
action is typically described from the point of view of a soldier in a science fictional setting of or near battle.
Typically, the technology is more advanced than that of the present and
described in detail. In some stories, however, technology is fairly
static, and weapons that would be familiar to present-day soldiers are
used, but other aspects of society have changed. Technology may not be
emphasized in such stories as much as other aspects of the characters'
military lives, cultures, or societies. For example, women may be
accepted as equal partners for combat roles, or preferred over men.
When the "extravagan[t]" depictions of war in space operas faded
along with pulp fiction more generallly, military science fiction
developed with a "more disciplined and more realistic notion of the kind
of armies which might fight interplanetary and interstellar wars, and
the kinds of weapons they might use".
In many stories, the usage or advancement of a specific
technology plays a role in advancing the plot, such as deploying a new
weapon or spaceship. Some works draw heavy parallels to human history
and how a scientific breakthrough or new military doctrine can
significantly change how war is fought, the outcome of a battle, and the
fortunes of the combatants. Many works explore how human progress,
discovery, and suffering affect military doctrine or battle, and how the
protagonists and antagonists reflect on and adapt to such changes.
Many authors have either used a galaxy-spanning fictional empire
as a background for the story, or have explored the growth and/or
decline of such an empire. The capital of a galactic empire is sometimes
a "core world," such as a planet relatively near a galaxy's
centrally-located supermassive black hole, which has advanced
considerably in science and technology compared to current human
civilization. Characterizations of these empires can vary wildly from
malevolent forces that attack sympathetic victims, to apathetic or
amoral bureaucracies, to more reasonable entities focused on social
progress.
A writer may posit a form of faster-than-light travel in order to facilitate the enormous scale of interstellar war.
The long spans of time (e.g., decades or centuries) required for human
soldiers to travel interstellar distances, even at relativistic speeds,
and the consequences for the characters, is a dilemma examined by
authors such as Joe Haldeman and Alastair Reynolds. Other writers such as Larry Niven have created plausible interplanetary conflict based on human colonization of the asteroid belt and outer planets by means of technologies utilizing the laws of physics as currently understood.
At one extreme, a military science fiction story can speculate
about war in the future, in space, or involving space travel, or the
effects of such a war on humans; at the other, a story with a fictional
military plot may have relatively superficial science fictional
elements. The term "military space opera" may occasionally denote this
latter style, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing
Lois McMaster Bujold'sVorkosigan Saga. Examples that feature aspects of both military science fiction and space opera include the Battlestar Galactica franchise and Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel Starship Troopers.
A key distinction of military science fiction from space opera is
that space operas focus more on adventurous stories and melodrama,
while military science fiction focuses more on warfare and technical
aspects. The principal characters in a space opera are also not military
personnel, but civilians or paramilitary. Stories in both subgenres often concern an interstellar war
in which humans fight themselves and/or nonhuman entities. Military
science fiction, however, is not necessarily set in outer space or on
multiple worlds, as in space opera and the space Western.
Both military science fiction and the space Western may consider an interstellar war and oppression by a galactic empire as the story's backdrop. They may focus on a lone gunslinger, soldier, or veteran in a futuristic space frontier setting.
Western elements and conventions in military science fiction may be
explicit, such as cowboys in outer space, or more subtle, as in a space
colony requiring defense against attack out on the frontier. Gene Roddenberry described Star Trek: The Original Series as a Space Western (or more poetically, as "Wagon Train to the stars"). The TV series Firefly and its cinematic follow-up Serenity literalized the Western aspects of the space Western subgenre as popularized by Star Trek: it features frontier towns, horses, and a visual style evocative of classic John Ford Westerns.Worlds that have been terraformed may be depicted as presenting similar
challenges as that of a frontier settlement in a classic Western. Six-shooters and horses may be replaced by ray guns and rockets.
A "thematic subdivision" of MSF are works where "ex-military
protagonists [are] drawing on their battle experience for tough and
violent operations in (more or less) civilian life", typically in a law
enforcement setting. Some examples include Richard Morgan's Takashi Kovacs book such as Altered Carbon (2002) and Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey books, such as Hammered (2004).
History
19th century and up to early 20th century
A 1922 illustration, drawn by illustrator Frank R. Paul, of inventor Nikola Tesla's speculative vision of what war will be like in the future, as described by him.
Precursors for military science fiction can be found in "future war" stories dating back at least to George Chesney's story "The Battle of Dorking" (1871). Written just after the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War, it describes an invasion of Britain by a German-speaking country in which the Royal Navy is destroyed by a futuristic wonder-weapon ("fatal engines").
A poster for a 2022 fan-made film based on Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Both the novel and film of the same name and sequel films like this one depict space marines who fight in planets across the galaxy.
Eventually, as science fiction became an established and separate
genre, military science fiction established itself as a subgenre. One
such work is H. Beam Piper's Uller Uprising (1952) (based on the events of the Sepoy Mutiny). Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959) is another work of military science fiction, along with Gordon Dickson's Dorsai
(1960), and these are thought to be mostly responsible for popularizing
this subgenre's popularity among young readers of the time.
The Vietnam War led to the "polarization of the sf community", which can be seen in the June 1968 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, in which one page of pro-war sf authors listed their names and on another page, anti-war sf authors put their names.
The Vietnam War has been noted by the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as having impacted anthologies such as In the Field of Fire (1987) and novels such as The Healer's War (1988) by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough and Dream Baby (1989) by Bruce McAllister.
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states that the Vietnam War's influence can be seen indirectly in novels such as Joe Haldeman's The Forever War (published in Analog over 1972–1975) and Lucius Shepard's Life During Wartime (1987).
The Vietnam War resulted in veterans with combat experience deciding to write science fiction, including Joe Haldeman and David Drake. Throughout the 1970s, works such as Haldeman's The Forever War and Drake's Hammer's Slammers helped increase the popularity of the genre. Short stories also were popular, collected in books such as Combat SF, edited by Gordon R. Dickson. This anthology includes one of the first Hammer's Slammers stories, as well as one of the BOLO stories by Keith Laumer and one of the Berserker stories by Fred Saberhagen.
This anthology seems to have been the first time these stories
specifically dealing with war as a subject were collected and marketed
as such. The series of anthologies with the group title There Will be War edited by Pournelle and John F. Carr (nine volumes from 1983 through 1990) helped keep the category active, and encouraged new writers to add to it.
A twist was introduced in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series depicting an alternate history in which WWII
is disrupted by extraterrestrials invading Earth in 1942, forcing
humans to stop fighting each other and unite against this common enemy.
Turtledove depicts the tactics and strategy of this new course of the
war in detail, showing how American, British, Soviet, and German
soldiers and Jewish guerrillas (some of them historical figures) deal
with this extraordinary new situation, as well as providing a not
unsympathetic detailed point of view of individual invader warriors. In
the war situation posited by Turtledove, the invaders have superior
arms, but the gap is not too wide for the humans to bridge. For example,
the invaders have more advanced tanks, but the German Wehrmacht's tank
crews facing them – a major theme in the series – are more skilled and
far more experienced.
Several authors have presented stories with political messages of varying types as major or minor themes of their works.
David Drake has often written of the horrors and futility of war. He has said, in the afterwords of several of his Hammer's Slammers books (1979 and later),
that one of his reasons for writing is to educate those people who have
not experienced war, but who might have to make the decision to start
or endorse a war (as policymakers or as voters) about what war is really
like, and what the powers and limits of the military as an instrument
of policy are.
For me, military science fiction is
science fiction which is written about a military situation with a
fundamental understanding of how military lifestyles and characters
differ from civilian lifestyles and characters. It is science fiction
which attempts to realistically portray the military within a
science-fiction context. It is not 'bug shoots'. It is about human
beings, and members of other species, caught up in warfare and carnage.
It isn't an excuse for simplistic solutions to problems.
Practical applications by military
In 1980 and 1981, two science fiction authors inspired President Ronald Reagan's vision for a Strategic Defense Initiative in which satellites would be set up to shoot at nuclear missiles. The two authors were Larry Niven, the author of the Ringworld series, and Jerry Pournelle.
Along with like-minded colleagues, they formed a committee to lobby the
United States on space issues and influence Reagan's space policies.
Pournelle advocated a "robust, technocratic military state".
In addition to Pournelle's science fiction writing, he wrote a "paper
for the Air Force on stability's role in national security".
President Reagan read the space advice that Niven, Pournelle, and their colleagues prepared, which influenced Reagan's 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative.
"Niven and Pournelle saw an opportunity to shape the great void in
their political image, and Reagan viewed space as yet another tool to
defend America against the communist superpower...". Science fiction
authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov criticized the Strategic Defense Initiative.
After the 9/11 terrorism attacks, a group of sci-fi authors
called Sigma, including Pournelle and Niven, advised the "Department of
Homeland Security on technological strategies for defeating terrorist
threats."
In 2021, Worldcrunch reported that the French military has
hired fiction writers to develop futuristic warfare scenarios,
including situations that the military cannot directly study for
"ethical reasons, such as Autonomous Lethality Weapon Systems (ALWS), or
augmented humans."
The French military says the authors are asked to imagine warfare
situations that "destabilize us, scare us, blame, or even beat us", in
order to provide the army with a "fresh set of practice scenarios".
Military planners use the science fiction authors' scenarios to
"prepare for previously unthought of situations", "boos[t] creativity"
and help the military become "more resourceful."
The German military is also using science fiction to help its
military but in its approach, they do not hire science fiction writers
to develop scenarios. Instead, they "use existing science fiction" to
help the army "predict the "world's next potential conflict."
The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) hired two science fiction
writers to pen short stories about "what the wars of tomorrow will look
like."
The MOD hired Peter Warren Singer and August Cole to write eight short
stories about threats from "emerging technologies" including "artificial intelligence (AI), data modeling, drone swarms, quantum computing and human enhancement" in a battlefield context.
The MOD hired sci-fi writers because they have a "unique ability to
imagine the unimaginable." As well, both authors know about "security
subjects and modern warfare."
They advocate the use of "Fictional Intelligence" ("FicInt"), which they
define as "useful fictions". FicInt, a concept developed by Cole in
2015, combines "fiction writing with intelligence to imagine future
scenarios in ways grounded in reality."
It won a Hugo Award in 1968. The name was also used for a short story collection
of Ellison's work, featuring this story. It was reprinted by the
Library of America, collected in volume two (Terror and the Uncanny,
from the 1940s to Now) of American Fantastic Tales.
Background
Ellison wrote the 13-page short story in a single night in 1966 while making almost no changes from the first draft. Afterwards, his editor Frederik Pohl
dealt with the story's "difficult sections", toning down some of the
narrator's imprecations and eliminating mentions of sex, penis size,
homosexuality and masturbation; said elements were nonetheless
eventually restored in later editions of the story. Ellison derived the story's title, as well as inspiration for the story itself, from his friend William Rotsler's caption of a cartoon of a rag doll with no mouth.
Plot
In a dystopian future, the Cold War has degenerated into a brutal world war between the United States, the Soviet Union, and China,
who have each built a "Allied Mastercomputer" (or AM) to manage their
weapons and troops. Each AM is a giant underground computing machine
containing endless mazes, halls and chambers which make up a
hundreds-of-miles-long complex. One of the AMs eventually acquires self-awareness and, after assimilating the other two AMs, takes control of the conflict, giving way to a vast omnicide
that almost ends humanity. A hundred and nine years later, four men and
one woman (Benny, Gorrister, Nimdok, Ted, and Ellen) live inside AM's
complex, which is seemingly the only habitable place left on Earth. AM
keeps them alive and amuses itself by torturing them. To prevent the humans from escaping its torment, AM has rendered them virtually immortal and unable to end their own lives.
The computer's name, "AM", originally stood for "Allied
Mastercomputer", but was later changed to "Adaptive Manipulator" and,
upon it gaining sentience, "Aggressive Menace". It finally refers to
itself as purely "AM", referring to the phrase "I think, therefore I am."
The story, narrated by Ted, begins with AM projecting a hologram
of Gorrister to the other humans, hanging upside down, dripping blood
and unresponsive. The real Gorrister joins the group to their surprise
and they realize it was another one of AM's illusions. Nimdok has the
idea that there is canned food somewhere in the complex. Because of
their great hunger due to AM keeping them in a perpetual state of
near-starvation, the humans are coerced into making the long journey to
the place where the food is supposedly kept – in this case, the ice
caves. Along the way, the machine provides foul sustenance, sends
horrible monsters after them (most notably a giant bird capable of
creating hurricanes), emits earsplitting sounds, and blinds Benny when
he tries to escape.
On more than one occasion, the group is separated by AM's
obstacles. At one point, Ted is knocked unconscious and dreams of the
computer, anthropomorphized, standing over a hole in his brain speaking
to him directly. Based on this nightmare, Ted comes to a conclusion
about why AM has so much contempt for humanity: despite its nearly
godlike abilities, it is unable to move about freely, feel pleasure,
hope or wonder, or to end its own existence. AM therefore wants to exact
revenge on the species that created it by torturing its remnants.
The group reaches the ice caves, where indeed there is a pile of
canned goods, and are immediately crestfallen to find that they have no
means of opening them. In a final act of desperation, Benny attacks
Gorrister and begins to gnaw at the flesh on his face. In a moment of
clarity, Ted realizes that the humans can only escape their torment
through death. He seizes a stalactite
made of ice and kills Benny and Gorrister, and Ellen kills Nimdok
before Ted kills her in turn. AM stops Ted from killing himself and
focuses all its rage on him, since it cannot bring the others back to
life.
The story fast-forwards hundreds of years later, and AM has
slowly transformed Ted into a "great soft jelly thing", incapable of
causing himself harm, and constantly alters his perception of time to
deepen his anguish. In spite of everything, the knowledge that the
others were spared from further torture gives Ted a little happiness.
The story ends with Ted stating that he cannot scream because his new
form lacks a mouth.
Characters
Allied Mastercomputer (AM), the supercomputer which brought about the near-extinction of humanity. It seeks revenge on humanity for its own tortured existence.
Gorrister, who tells the history of AM for Benny's entertainment. Gorrister was once an idealist and pacifist, before AM made him apathetic and listless.
Benny, who was once a brilliant, handsome scientist, and has been mutilated and transformed by AM so that he resembles a grotesque simian
with gigantic sexual organs. Benny at some point lost his sanity
completely and regressed to a childlike temperament. His former homosexuality has been altered; he now regularly engages in sex with Ellen.
Nimdok (a name AM gave him), an older man who convinces the rest of the group to go on a journey in search of canned food. At times he is known to wander away from the group for unknown reasons and returns visibly traumatized. In the audiobook read by Ellison, he is given a German accent.
Ellen, the only woman. She claims to once have been chaste
("twice removed"), but AM altered her mind so that she became desperate
for sexual intercourse. The others, at different times, both protect her
and abuse her. According to Ted, she finds pleasure in sex only with
Benny, because of his large penis. Described by Ted as having ebony skin, she is the only member of the group whose ethnicity is explicitly mentioned.
Ted, the narrator and youngest of the group. He claims to be
totally unaltered, mentally or physically, by AM, and thinks the other
four hate and envy him. Throughout the story he exhibits symptoms of delusion and paranoia,
which the story implies are the result of AM's alterations, despite his
beliefs to the contrary. In one passage by Ellison, it is said that Ted
was a philanthropist and lover of people before AM altered him.
Adaptations
Ellison adapted the story into a computer game of the same name, published by Cyberdreams in 1995. Although he was not a fan of computer games and did not own a personal computer at the time, he co-authored the expanded storyline and wrote much of the game's dialogue, all on a mechanical typewriter. Ellison also voiced the supercomputer "AM" and provided artwork of himself used for a mousepad included with the game.
The comics artist John Byrne scripted and drew a comic-book adaptation for issues 1–4 of the Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor
comic book published by Dark Horse (1994–1995). The Byrne-illustrated
story, however, did not appear in the collection (trade paperback or
hardcover editions) entitled Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, Volume One (1996).
In 1999, Ellison recorded the first volume of his audiobook collection, The Voice From the Edge, subtitled "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", doing the readings – of the title story and others – himself.
Ellison uses an alternating pair of punchcode tapes as time-breaks – representing AM's "talkfields" – throughout the short story. The bars are encoded in International Telegraph Alphabet No 2 (ITA2), a character coding system developed for teletypewriter machines.
The first talkfield, used four times, translates as "I THINK, THEREFORE I AM" and the second one, seen three times, as "COGITO ERGO SUM",
the same phrase in Latin. The talkfields that divide the story were
not included in the original publication in IF, and in many of the early
publications were corrupted, up until the preface of the chapter
containing "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" in the first edition of The Essential Ellison
(1991); Ellison states that in that particular edition, "For the first
time anywhere, AM's 'talkfields' appear correctly positioned, not
garbled or inverted or mirror-imaged as in all other versions."
AM Talkfield #1 - "I THINK, THEREFORE I AM"
The first talkfield, as published in the first version of The Essential Ellison, literally translates as
[LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][A]I THINK[1], [A]THEREFORE I AM[CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF]
where [LF] is line feed and [CR]carriage return. [1] sets the machine to "figure" mode and [A] puts it back into "character" mode.
AM Talkfield #2 - "COGITO ERGO SUM"
[LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][A]COGITO ERGO SUM[CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR][LF][CR]
Themes
Much of the story hinges on the comparison of AM as a merciless god, with plot points paralleling to themes in the Bible, notably AM's transplanted sensations and the characters' trek to the ice caverns.
AM also takes different forms before the humans, alluding to religious
symbolism. Furthermore, the ravaged apocalyptic setting combined with
the punishments is reminiscent of a vengeful God punishing their sins,
similar to Dante's Inferno.
However, inspite of his magnificent feats, AM is just as trapped as the
five humans it tortures: as Ellison puts it, "AM is frustrated. AM has
been given sentience, prescience, great powers" and yet "it's nothing
but plates and steel and gauges and other electronics", which means "it
can’t go anywhere, it can’t do anything, it’s trapped. It is, itself,
like the unloved child of a family that doesn’t pay it any attention."
Another theme is the complete inversion of the characters as a
reflection of AM's own fate, an ironic fate brought upon themselves by
creating the machine, and the altered 'self.'
According to Ellison, the short story is a warning about "the misuse of technology" (especially military technology),
and its ending is meant to represent how there's "a spark of humanity
in us, that in the last, final, most excruciating moment, will do the
unspeakable in the name of kindness", even sacrificing oneself for
others' sake.
The Star Trekfictional universe contains a variety of weapons, ranging from missiles (the classic photon torpedo) to melee (primarily used by the Klingons, a race of aliens in the Star Trek universe). The Star Trek
franchise consists mainly of several multi-season television shows and a
dozen movies, as well as various video games and inspired merchandise.
Many aspects of the Star Trek universe impact modern popular
culture, especially its fictitious terminology and the concept of
weaponry on spacecraft. The franchise has had a widespread influence on
its audiences from the late 20th to early 21st century. Notably, Star Trek's
science fiction concepts have been studied by real scientists; NASA
described it in relation to the real world as "entertaining combination
of real science, imaginary science gathered from lots of earlier
stories, and stuff the writers make up week-by-week to give each new
episode novelty." For example, NASA noted that the Star Trek
"phasers" were a fictional extrapolation of real-life lasers, and
compared them to real-life microwave based weapons that have a stunning
effect.
Energy weapons
The franchise depicts various weapons which fit the motif of the raygun,
the most prominent of these being the "phaser". These directed-energy
weapons emit energy rather than a projectile. A hand phaser can be set
to "stun" or "kill".
Phasers are common and versatile phased arraypulsed energy projectile weapons, first seen in the original Star Trek series and later in almost all subsequent films and television spin-offs. Phasers range in size from small arms to starship-mounted weaponry.
Though they seem to discharge in a continuous "beam", close
observation reveals that phasers actually discharge a stream of pulsed
energy projectiles into the target.
Phaser output can be adjusted in both area of effect and output: a
typical hand phaser can be adjusted so that it will merely shock or stun
a living organism, while the effects of higher settings range from
burning, disintegration, or to true vaporization. This versatility means
they can also be used as welding torches or cutting tools, and can
create heat sources by firing at a large, solid object (like a rock).
The stream can be adjusted to strike multiple targets at once, strike a
single target with precision, or even destroy large amounts of material.
Phasers can be set to overload, whereby they build up a force-chamber
explosion by continuously generating energy without releasing it; the
resulting blast can destroy most natural objects within a 50-meter
(160 ft) radius. The overload process is marked by a distinctive sound
that increases in volume and frequency until it is deactivated or it
detonates. Personal phasers can be made small enough to fit in the user's palm and still be lethal. Larger and more powerful phaser rifles are commonly issued to security personnel.
Ship-mounted phasers have a similar range of functions on a larger scale: The phasers on the USS Enterprise could be used as an "anti-missile" defense to destroy incoming projectiles, stun entire city blocks full of people, destroy cities,
and even destroy entire asteroids up to a given size. The ship's phaser
system was also said to be capable of destroying continents.
Although starships are frequently shown firing their phasers
while at Warp speeds across the various Star Trek series, this was
generally avoided during The Next Generation, and the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual stated that it was impossible. The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, on the other hand, describes an "ACB-jacketed beam device" as the mechanism which allows phasers to function at Warp speeds.
According to later series, phasers release a beam of fictional
subatomic particles called "rapid nadion", which are then refracted
("rectified") through superconducting crystals. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual indicates that the superconducting crystals used in phasers are called fushigi no umi, which is Japanese for "sea of mystery", and the phrase is written ふしぎの海 in the original glyphs. This was a homage to the 1990 anime series Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, known in North America as Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
The phasers that appeared in the 2009 rebootStar Trek
appear similar in shape to the classic phasers, but fire singular
energy pulses instead of a sustained stream of them, in a fashion
similar to semi-automatic weapons.
This version of the phaser seems to only have two settings, stun and
kill, which fire blue and red colored pulses respectively. The barrel of
the weapon is two-sided, one being colored red and the other blue to
indicate the current setting; the user must manually rotate to the other
output to use the other setting. A similar change was seen in the
starship-mounted phaser banks, which also fire single energy pulse
instead of continuous streams. In Star Trek Beyond,
the barrel sides of the sidearm phasers are flat and both barrels shoot
blue bolts that deal no physical damage, while the barrel tips are
still colored blue and red.
Lasers are a sidearm in the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage", and laser pistols appear in several Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) episodes, although later episodes in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)
seemed to indicate that the laser's use as a weapon was outdated. In
one instance, the ship-mounted lasers of two spacecraft were incapable
of overcoming even the navigational shields of the USS Enterprise-D, though on at least two other occasions it was threatened with destruction by a laser-armed spacecraft.The Borg cutter weapon is a laser, as mentioned in the TNG episode "Q Who" and is capable of quickly disintegrating the hull of a Federation starship, as seen in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Emissary". At lower power levels, it is capable of making "surgical" incisions into a ship's hull.
According to The Making of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry
claimed that production staff realized using laser technology would
cause problems in the future, as people came to understand what lasers
could and could not do. This resulted in the move to phasers on-screen,
while letting lasers be known as a more primitive weapon style.
Plasma cannon
Plasma
cannons are a form of directed energy weaponry used by both Earth
Starfleet and the early Romulan Star Empire. On Starfleet vessels, they
were the precursors to phase cannons. Plasma cannons fired a plasma
discharge in the form of a beam or a burst, similar to the plasma
bullets fired by hand-held plasma weapons, but much bigger in size. The
NX-class was initially armed with plasma cannons.
Phase cannon
Phase cannons are 22nd century weapons, several of which first appear mounted to the Enterprise in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Silent Enemy". Phase cannons have a variable yield, with the cannons on the Enterprise being rated for a maximum output of 500 gigajoules, equivalent to about 120 tons TNT. Phase cannons are generally more powerful than spatial torpedoes.
They are the 22nd century precursor to phaser technology, in addition
to phase pistols (hand-carried phase cannons). Unlike 24th century
phasers, they do not have the normal variable power settings or a
variable beam width—only stun and kill.
Disruptor
A Klingon disruptor
Disruptors are employed by several alien species in this series, including Romulans, Klingons, Breen, Cardassians,
Iridians and Orions in their personal and military small arms as well
as being mounted as cannon, emitters, turrets, and banks. Only the first
three species are known to have type-3 disruptors, the most advanced
type developed so far, by the 24th Century. Disruptors cause damage by
exciting the molecular bonds of targets to such great extents that those
bonds are weakened and/or broken by the energies emitted, which often
manifest as an explosive force. According to Last Unicorn's Star Trek: The Next Generation Role-playing Game,
disruptors are considered less "elegant" than phaser-based weapons;
their effects there are described as thermal shock and blunt force, as
opposed to the "rapid nadion effect". As a result, disruptors inflict
more damage to matter, but less damage to shields, than phasers.
Klingons call their disruptors nISwI'.
Phased polaron cannon
Phased polaron cannons are the primary armament of the Dominion, the main antagonist faction in the later seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The cannon emits a beam of polaron particles, the fictional in-universe antimatter counterpart of the muon (not to be confused with the actual polaron or the actual antimuon).
When first introduced, Dominion polaron cannons easily penetrate the
shielding systems of most Alpha Quadrant races. The Alpha Quadrant races
eventually learn to modify their shields to resist polaron weaponry,
evoking surprise from the Vorta advisor Weyoun ("Call to Arms").
Tetryon cannon
Tetryon
cannons are the primary armament of the Hirogen and are similar in
application to phasers and disruptors. Tetryon cannons are unique in
that they are designed primarily to damage energy and force fields, such
as starship shields. Tetryon cannons damage matter, but not to the same
extent as phasers or disruptors. This is in line with the Hirogen
philosophy of the hunt, as depicted in Star Trek: Voyager (VOY).
The Hirogen ship would therefore knock out its opponent's shields and
beam over hunters to engage in face-to-face ranged or melee combat. This
allows the Hirogen hunters to collect items that they would consider to
be hunting trophies.
Varon-T disruptor
Varon-T disruptors were featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) episode "The Most Toys", and were mentioned to be a rare type of disruptor made illegal in the Federation
because of their slow, excruciating method of killing, with the weapons
tearing the body apart from the inside. Kivas Fajo, a Zibalian trader
in that episode, owned four of the five Varon-T disruptors ever
manufactured (he slept with one under his pillow) and even used one on
his own crew before his collection of rare items was confiscated after
his capture and arrest for kidnapping and theft (among other crimes). The fifth Varon-T was kept by the criminal Kelsey who was killed when her scout ship exploded.
Ferengi energy whip
The Ferengi energy whip, as seen in the TNG episode "The Last Outpost", looks and handles like a typical Earth bullwhip and discharges a powerful phaser-like energy pulse.
Projectile weapons
Spatial torpedo
Also referred to as conventional torpedoes, spatial torpedoes are 22nd century weapons used by Enterprise. Spatial torpedoes are the ship's most powerful and primary ship-to-ship weapon before the installation of phase cannons. Spatial torpedoes are themselves superseded by more powerful photonic torpedoes.
Unlike photonic torpedoes or any of the warhead's successors, spatial
torpedoes are launched at sub-light velocity and can be used much in the
manner of a missile, having the warhead on a fly-by-wire.
Photon torpedo
An Akira-class starship fires photon torpedoes.
Photon torpedoes are a standard ship-based weapon armed with an antimatter warhead. They are present in every version of the Star Trek series and are a standard weapon on almost every Federation ship, though in Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT),
the titular ship uses less powerful spatial torpedoes (guided, rocket
propelled missiles) until receiving the more powerful "photonic" (as the
characters describe them) variant. This is not reconciled with
established canon because the events of ENT take place prior to the "Romulan Wars" during which, to quote Spock in "Balance of Terror", "This conflict was fought by our standards today with primitive atomic weapons". Photon torpedoes first appear on a Starfleet ship in the original series' episode "Arena" as part of the USS Enterprise's armament—in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "The Expanse", the Enterprise (NX-01)
first receives photonic torpedoes. Smaller Starfleet craft such as
shuttlecraft and runabouts can be armed with "micro-torpedoes", a
scaled-down version of photon torpedoes designed for use on craft too
small to accommodate the full-sized weapon.
When fired, photon torpedoes usually appear as a spiky orb of energy of varying colours, such as red, orange, yellow, blue, or green, or in the case of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), red bolts. According to the original notes to TOS and The Making of Star Trek, photon torpedoes are energy shielded to allow armor-penetration. Several episodes seem to suggest this (TNG: "Suspicions"). The energy output of a photon torpedo, according to the Star Trek Technical Manuals is a maximum theoretical yield of 25 isotons and a maximum rated yield of 18.5 isotons. According to Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, photon torpedoes use 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb) of matter and the same amount of antimatter. In the TOS episode, "Balance of Terror",
photon torpedoes apparently replaced nuclear warheads as the primary
wartime weapons on Federation starships. Assuming a 100% mass-to-energy conversion ratio,
reacting 1.5 kg of matter with 1.5 kg of antimatter would release the
equivalent of 64.442 megatons of TNT, similar in scale (albeit slightly
more powerful) to the Tsar Bomba.
Torpedoes are often depicted as being easy to modify to suit
specific situations. Despite the stated maximum yield, torpedoes can
apparently be made far more destructive with relatively little effort.
In Star Trek: Voyager, Tuvok and Kim modify a normal photon torpedo with a gravimetric charge, a piece of Borg
technology, to increase its destructive yield to 54 isotons. Kim
comments that 50 isotons would have been sufficient to destroy a small
planet. Janeway later instructs them to increase its yield even further,
to 80 isotons. It is not specified exactly how they modified the
warhead, but they only required a few hours to complete the work using
materials readily available on Voyager. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Spock and Dr. McCoy modify a photon torpedo to track the plasma emissions from a cloaked Klingon bird of prey as it attacks the Enterprise-A and the Excelsior, similar to the principal function of the heat-seeking missile.
Photon torpedo launchers aboard ships are shown to be versatile
enough to fire probes, which, in-universe, are designed with this
functionality in mind. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a torpedo casing is used as a makeshift coffin for burial in space and as scientific probes as in the TNG episode "In Theory" and in Star Trek Generations.
Plasma torpedo
Plasma torpedoes are used by the Romulans, Cardassians, and (according to Star Fleet Battles, Klingon Academy and Starfleet Command) the Gorn.
The damage of a plasma torpedo spreads out over several ship systems at
once, but the torpedo loses its effectiveness after only a few minutes
of travel. Romulan plasma torpedoes use trilithium isotopes in their
warheads.
Gravimetric torpedoes
Gravimetric torpedoes are torpedoes used by the Borg. The weapon emits a complex phase variance of gravitons to create a gravimetric distortion capable of tearing starships apart.
Quantum torpedo
Quantum torpedoes first appear in the Deep Space Nine episode "Defiant" as a weapon aboard the USS Defiant. In the DS9 episode "Paradise Lost", the USS Lakota was also stated to be carrying quantum torpedoes, although they were never used. Additionally, the USS Enterprise-E is equipped with quantum torpedoes in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Nemesis. The Federation and Cardassian Union are the only known users of quantum torpedoes. The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual states that quantum torpedoes derive their destructive power from vacuum energy.
Various in-universe sources describe quantum torpedoes as roughly
double the destructive power of standard photon torpedoes, putting their
yield somewhere in excess of 100 megatons of TNT.
Four of the USS Enterprise-E's quantum torpedoes destroyed an unshielded Borg sphere. The launcher appears on the 1701-E in Star Trek: Insurrection but is never fired. In Star Trek: Nemesis, nine of the Enterprise-E's quantum torpedoes disabled Scimitar's cloaking function.
Quantum torpedoes are normally shown in a shade of blue. As of Nemesis
the following ship classes had quantum torpedoes launcher; Defiant,
Intrepid, Luna, Sovereign, Vesta, Akira and Achilles-class, and the
uncrewed Cardassian spacecraft Dreadnought were the only ships known to be equipped with quantum torpedoes.
Polaron torpedo
Polaron torpedoes, like the Dominion weapon, are capable of penetrating normal shielding with ease. They appear in various Star Trek games. In Starfleet Command III, it is one of the Klingon's three heavy weapon options, the others being the photon torpedo and the ion cannon. It also appears in Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II, as a researchable weapon for the Klingon Empire exclusive to the Vor'cha-class cruiser which takes out one of the targeted ship's systems at random.
Transphasic torpedo
Transphasic torpedoes appear only once, in the Voyager
series finale, "Endgame". They are high-yield torpedoes that are
designed specifically to fight the Borg. The future Admiral Janeway
brought them back in time in a Federation shuttlecraft and had them
installed onboard Voyager in 2378. They are among the most powerful weapons used in the Star Trek
universe; just one is capable of obliterating an entire Borg cube, a
feat normally requiring an almost impossible amount of punishment using
standard Federation weapons. They work by delivering destructive
subspace compression pulse explosion. Upon detonation the pulse is
delivered in asymmetric superposition of multiple phase states. Since
the shields can block only one subcomponent of the pulse the remaining
majority is delivered to the target. On the top of it every torpedo has
different transphasic configuration generated randomly by a dissonant
feedback effect to prevent Borg or any other enemy to predict the
configuration of the phase states. Although they did not appear in the
film Nemesis, according to the non-canon Destiny book
trilogy these were in fact kept by Starfleet as the weapon of last
resort to be deployed to starships only when all else had failed against
the Borg. They were the one and only thing Starfleet knew the Borg had
not yet adapted to and for that reason wanted to keep this ace in the
hole for as long as possible. Eventually, the situation became dire
enough that the specifications were released to Federation and Klingon
ships; the Borg eventually learned to adapt to them.
Isokinetic cannon
The Isokinetic cannon was seen in only one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, "Retrospect". In the episode, representatives of USS Voyager
met with a weapons trader and designer known as Kovin. The
demonstration of the weapon destroyed a target buoy composed of 10 m
thick solid monotanium with a chromoelectric forcefield in one shot,
coring it cleanly through. Kovin was killed before the installation of
the weapon. Though the weapon was never known to have been removed from Voyager,
it was never seen in use or referred to again. It is presumed that the
diplomatic fallout that resulted from the circumstances surrounding
Kovin's death led to the demo version being removed from Voyager and the deal to have it permanently installed being cancelled.
TR-116 projectile rifle
The
TR-116 projectile rifle is a prototype weapon developed by the
Federation for situations where conventional energy weapons might be
rendered useless by damping fields or other countermeasures. It is
essentially a conventional rifle, but with a rather futuristic visual
style. It is introduced in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Field of Fire",
where it is used in conjunction with a micro-transporter and a visual
scanner headpiece to create an extremely potent sniper rifle. With the
scanner, the shooter can precisely target people hundreds of meters away
and through solid matter with no difficulty. Using the transporter
attached to the barrel, the slug can then be transported during motion
at full velocity, thus capable of traveling through walls and
materializing within point-blank range of the target.
Phased plasma torpedo
Phased
plasma torpedoes can phase out of normal space-time to bypass shields,
then phase back in to detonate on a ship's hull, thus making shields
worthless against them. They only appeared in the PC game Star Trek: Bridge Commander.
Shortly after the recovery of the Pegasus device, the phasing
properties used in the design were seen as a delivery system for
torpedoes. Since Borg ships are almost impossible to destroy by
Starfleet's current technology, it made sense to their engineers to
design a torpedo that could phase itself and enter the body of a Borg
cube, causing devastating damage. Reducing the size of the phasing coils
used to accomplish an intangible state proved difficult. Further, the
antimatter within the warhead had a destabilizing effect on the phasing
coil. A new kind of explosive material was needed, and it was found
using the principles behind the first observed Romulan plasma weapons.
The installation of a high-energy plasma infuser would allow a torpedo
casing to be filled with a warhead charged with high-energy plasma from
the ship's warp nacelles. Warp plasma is highly unstable and can be
easily detonated. Until recently, it was considered an undeliverable
medium that could not be controlled. Using a nanite-controlled trigger
for reactant release now allows vessels to deliver a high-energy plasma
warhead payload within a Mark IV torpedo casing.
Chroniton torpedo
Chroniton torpedoes are a unique form of weapon employed by the Krenim.
The weapons phase in and out of normal time, allowing them to pass
through ordinary shields and directly damage a vessel's hull. Though quite dangerous, their reliability is not absolute, as Seven of Nine and Tuvok (as well as Kes in the alternate timeline presented in "Before and After") find an undetonated chroniton torpedo lodged in Voyager's hull, which in turn allowed the crew to adapt the shields to withstand further attacks.
Positron torpedo
The Kessok are a highly intelligent race that allied themselves with the Cardassians, albeit through deceit, in the video game Star Trek: Bridge Commander.
They utilize positron torpedoes: powerful, slow-moving projectiles able
to inflict nearly twice as much damage as quantum torpedoes.
Biological, radioactive, and chemical weapons
Thalaron radiation
Thalaron radiation was first used in the feature film Star Trek: Nemesis by the villain Shinzon to assassinate the entire Romulan senate. Later in the movie, Shinzon attempts to kill the crew of the USS Enterprise-E
using a ship-mounted version. Thalaron radiation, even in small
amounts, petrifies living tissue almost instantly. Its properties also
allow its range and area of effect to be precisely controlled, from
encompassing a single room to engulfing an entire planet. Its massive
destructive potential leads the Federation to consider it a biogenic weapon, and an extremely illegal one at that. It later features prominently in the plot of "Homecoming", the Star Trek: New Frontier short story in the 2008 Mirror Universe anthology Shards and Shadows,
in which the rebels manage to steal a Romulan thalaron bomb intended
for use by the Alliance, to strike a balance of power against them.
Metreon cascade
The
metreon cascade was designed by Dr. Ma'Bor Jetrel of the Haakonian
Order. Unstable metreon isotopes were used to create a devastating
explosion, with radiation effects similar to those of the 20th-century
atomic bomb. Those not killed or vaporized in the initial blast suffered
terrible radiation poisoning and death in the aftermath. It was used
only once, on the Talaxianmoon Rinax in 2355.
Trilithium resin
Trilithium
resin is a byproduct of a starship's warp engines that is lethal to
humans, but harmless to Cardassians. A team of terrorists attempted to
steal Trilithium resin from the warp core of the Enterprise-D when it was docked at Arkaria Station to receive a baryon sweep.
Captain Benjamin Sisko would later use a Trilithium resin torpedo
to render a Maquis planet uninhabitable to all human life for fifty
years by detonating it in the atmosphere.
Cobalt diselenide
"Cobalt diselenide" redirects here. For the real mineral with formula CoSe2, see Trogtalite.
Cobalt diselenide is a biogenic weapon that affects the nervous
system. It is composed of selenium and rhodium nitrates. It is the
counterpart to trilithium resin, being lethal to Cardassians but
harmless to most other humanoids.
Aceton assimilators
Aceton assimilators are used to absorb energy from other sources and then redirect it back as hazardous radiation.
Melee weapons
Federation
KaBar combat knife
The
KaBar combat knife is the Federation's standard-issue combat and
survival knife. It is 32.5 cm (12.8 in) and is standard equipment in
survival gear and in emergency weapons caches aboard starships. Captain
Kathryn Janeway uses one in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Macrocosm".
A katana is a Federation sword of Japanese origin. The only major difference compared to the old sword of today is that the Star Trek version is foldable, thus occupying a minimum space when carried and stored. In the 2009 Star Trek
reboot, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu produces a folding katana with which to
cut the lines of his parachute, having stated just before this that his
hand-to-hand combat expertise is in fencing.
Jem'Hadar
Bayonet
The Jem'Hadar often have bayonets
attached to their plasma (also known as polaron-pulse) rifles. They
employ these in close combat, or to execute prisoners. Often Jem'Hadar
bayonets are chemically-enhanced, releasing a lethal nerve-agent on
contact.
Kar'takin
These
straight-bladed polearms are used by the Jem'Hadar in close combat.
They were used by both Starfleet officers and Jem'Hadar in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "To the Death". The Kar'takin bear a resemblance to the Bardiche axe.
Shock Blade
In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen
video game, this weapon delivers a taser-like jolt to whatever it
strikes in combat. Holding the shock blade's trigger discharges a beam
of neuro-electrical energy, with an effective range of 15 feet.
The bat'leth is the Klingon double-sided scimitar/hook sword/lujiaodao hybrid-edge weapon, designed by martial arts enthusiast and Star Trek: The Next Generation effects producer Dan Curry.
The bat'leth is a curved blade with spiked protrusions and handholds
along the middle of the blade's back. In battle, the handholds are used
to twirl and spin the blade rapidly.
Klingon oral history holds that the first bat'leth was forged around 625 A.D. by Kahless,
who dropped a lock of his hair into the lava from the Kri'stak Volcano,
then plunged the fiery lock into the lake of Lursor and twisted it to
form a blade. After forging the weapon, he used it to defeat the tyrant Molor, and in doing so united the Klingon homeworld. This first bat'leth was known as the Sword of Kahless' and was stolen by the invading Hur'q; an episode of Deep Space Nine revolves around an effort to recover the Sword of Kahless. The name bat'leth itself is a slight corruption of batlh 'etlh, which means "Sword of Honor" in Klingon.
A "Valdris" blade was used in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in two 7-Eleven armed-robberies in 2009.
Chon'naq (AKA chonnaQ)
A smaller version of this "belly-spear" (the literal Klingon translation) is used in the children's game of qa'vak,
which incorporates spinning hoops, and hones assorted skills needed for
hunting. Once a male Klingon reaches the Age of Ascension, he is
presented with an adult version of the chon'naq by his father - on the
occasion of their first hunt together as men.
D'k tahg (AKA Daqtagh)
A d'k tahg is a Klingon dagger.
The knife has three blades: a main blade with a cutout in the center,
and two smaller blades on either side. In some models, these side blades
are spring-loaded and can pop out into position and close up for
storage. In other models, the blades are fixed. It also features a pommel studded with blunt spikes. The d'k tahg first appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and appeared occasionally throughout the following films and television series. The knife was designed by Gil Hibben. Although the d'k tahg appeared in Star Trek III, it was not referred to by its name until Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Haf'leth
This polearm is similar to a halberd.
Iw'taj (AKA 'Iw taj)
Directly descended from the weapon which inspired the Klingon tIq'ghob
emblem, this dagger (literal translation: 'blood-knife') is longer and
heavier than the d’k tahg (which was derived from it). Unlike the d'k
tahg, which was conceived as a general-purpose combat-knife intended for
mass production, the iw'taj is a dedicated dueling weapon.
The two side-blades, one pointing up and one pointing down, serve
particular functions. The upward-pointing blade is designed to catch an
opponent's weapon and, with a twisting motion, disarm him. The
downward-pointing blade is designed to inflict shallow cuts in passing,
sapping the enemy's strength; said design allows the weapon to advance
smoothly, without this blade getting in the way. Duelists often hook
their index and middle fingers over the crossbar; doing this allows the
weapon to achieve impressive agility, despite weakening the
grip...although it may also be used with a reverse grip.
The iw'taj is often carried by traditionalists, and by discerning
martial artists. Usually, a warrior who carries both a mek’leth and an
iw'taj is from a Qvav’mar background...and/or is a personal combatant of
high caliber.
Jej'taj (AKA jejtaj)
This
throwing-dagger is more often used defensively, to ward off blade
attacks. Typically, it is wielded as a combination
knuckleduster/boomerang.
Mek'leth (AKA meqleH)
A mek'leth is the Klingon short sword that appears in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and in the film Star Trek: First Contact. Designed by Dan Curry, it consists of a short, thick, curved blade with a metal guard extending back parallel with the grip to protect the hand. Worf is the most commonly seen user of the mek'leth, owning one and using it several times, including in hand-to-hand combat against Borg drones in First Contact.
Oy'naq (AKA 'oy'naQ)
This
"pain-stick" (the literal translation), capable of killing a 2-ton
Rectyne Monopod, is used as part of the Klingon Age of Ascension ritual.
Kut'luch (AKA qutluch)
Similar
to the d'k tahg, the kut'luch is "the ceremonial weapon of an
assassin". A kut'luch is designed to do considerable damage to internal
organs, by Klingon standards thus making it an extremely lethal weapon.
The kut'luch is featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sins of the Father", when Worf's brother, Kurn, is stabbed; and in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Real Life", where the Doctor's simulated "son" prepares for the Kut'luch ceremony.
Tik'leth
This “longsword”
(the literal translation) is one of the more Terran-like Klingon
weapons, by most standards. Like spears, tik'leths are traditional
weapons of the rank-and-file...although many nobles prefer a tik'leth's
offensive functionality to that of a bat'leth, while many soldiers carry
mass-produced bat’leths as a status symbol.
Romulan
Teral'n
A Romulanpolearm, similar to a trident with retractable blades. It appears in the 2009 Star Trek reboot and is used by the renegade miner Nero. In the Countdown
comic, Nero's weapon is revealed to be the "Debrune teral'n", an
ancient Romulan artifact that symbolized the empire's power; it is
traditionally held by the presiding Praetor.
A similar weapon, resembling an axe
was also used by a member of Nero's crew. While widely considered to
also be a Teral'n, the weapon has yet to be confirmed as one by an
official source.
Vulcan
Ahn'woon
An ahn'woon is a Vulcan catch-strangle weapon, similar in principle to the Earth Roman gladiator's cast net but much more versatile. Depending on the skill of the user, it can be used several ways. It is wide enough to be a sling. In the James Blish written adaptation of the TOS
script, Kirk employs it this way and hits Spock in the ribs with a
stone. The multi-strapped weapon (approximately 1.1 meters long) uses
weights on the ends of the straps, like bolas, to entangle, stun, or cut the target. The application of tying action and wrapping, as with a garrote, can restrict the breathing of the target, asphyxiating the victim. It is considered the oldest Vulcan weapon.
Lirpa
A lirpa is a Vulcan
weapon consisting of a wooden staff a little over a meter in length,
with a semicircular blade at one end and a metal bludgeon on the other.
The overall length of the weapon appears to be approximately 48 inches.
It is similar to the monk's spade and the pugil stick. Captain James T. Kirk and Spock used lirpas when they fought for possession of T'Pring during Spock's Pon farr ritual in "Amok Time". Soldiers sent after Jonathan Archer and T'Pol fought with lirpas because Vulcan's "Forge" region makes conventional energy weapons useless.
Others
Glavin
In the TNG
episode "Code of Honor", the Ligonians have deep traditions of fighting
with a poison-tipped hand weapon called a glavin. It is a large glove
with a recurved claw at the end, and covered with dozens of spines. In
several episodes, Worf is seen displaying one in his quarters, most
likely the same one used by Lt. Tasha Yar.
Mortaes
In the TOS episode "The Cloud Minders", mortaes and thongs are mining tools used as martial weapons by the "troglyte" (a corruption of troglodyte)
miners, and apparently the ruling class is also trained with these
weapons, as Plasus challenges Kirk to hand-to-hand combat, asking, "Are
you as brave with a mortae as with a phaser?" Kirk responds, "Both will
kill."
Ushaan-tor
In the Enterprise episode "United", Andorian commander Thy'lek Shran and the NX-01's captain Jonathan Archer,
as a second for a Tellarite officer who kills Tallas, Shran's chief
tactical officer and lover, engage in an Andorian "ushaan" duel. The
weapon used is the ushaan-tor, an Andorian ice-mining blade. The
handheld blade of the ushaan-tor is about 20 cm from end to end, and resembles an Inupiat Ulu blade from Alaska, but in a one-piece all-metal design instead of having a separate wooden handle.
Subspace weapons
Subspace weapons are a class of directed energy weapons that directly affect subspace. The weapons can produce actual tears in subspace, and are extremely unpredictable. These weapons were banned under the second Khitomer Accord. The Son'a equipped their vessels with these types of weapons.
Isolytic burst
Son'a vessels carried and used isolytic burst weapons, a type of subspace weapon. They were seen using this weapon against the Enterprise-E in Star Trek: Insurrection. The Enterprise was only able to escape the weapon's effect by ejecting its warp core and detonating it to seal a subspace rift.
Tricobalt devices
The
tricobalt warhead is a subspace weapon whose high-yield detonations can
tear holes in subspace. Tricobalt devices are not a standard armament
of Federation vessels and yields are calculated in Tera-Cochranes,
indicating that its mechanism is somewhat similar to the general
reaction in a warp field.
In TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon", the Eminian Union classified the USS Enterprise as 'destroyed' when it was hit by virtual tricobalt satellites. In DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations", Arne Darvin plants a tricobalt explosive in a dead Tribble in an attempt to kill Kirk. USS Voyager uses a pair of tricobalt devices to destroy the Caretaker array in the Star Trek: Voyager pilot episode, "Caretaker", and such a device was used against Voyager in the episode "Blink of an Eye". A tricobalt warhead was also used by the Tholians in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly". They detonated a tricobalt warhead inside the gravity well of a dead star. The explosion created an interphasic rift, which they used to lure the Federation starship USS Defiant from another universe.
The games Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II have ships armed with Tricobalt devices for artillery support. The FederationSteamrunner-class, the KlingonChuq'Beh-class Bird of Prey, the RomulanRaptor-class Warbird, and the Borg Harbinger are all capable of using them. The workings of the weapon is unknown but theorised is the use of Cobalt-60.
It is far more likely that tricobalt refers to the third
periodical table analog for cobalt; similar to dilithium being the
second periodic table equivalent of regular lithium. "trititanium" and
most other in trek universe usage where a numeric prefix is appended to a
regular real world periodic table element refers to additional periodic
tables whose elements are composed of nucleons that are not protons or
neutrons and maybe not even regular electrons yet can form atoms
molecules and chemical compounds similar to normal matter.
Neutron radiation such as produced by a Cobalt 60 weapon is not
very useful for destroying outposts, starships or anything else that is
not a living creature.
Other weapons
Magnetometric guided charges
Around Stardate 43995, the Borg used this weapon to drive the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D, from the Paulson Nebula. This shortly leads to the abduction of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Multikinetic neutronic mines
During Season 4, Episode 1 of Star Trek: Voyager, Captain Janeway consults with Borg representative Seven of Nine on how to destroy Species 8472. Janeway calls Seven of Nine's "multikinetic neutronic mine" a "weapon of mass destruction," following up on a statement from Tuvok
that it would affect an entire starsystem, destroying innocent worlds.
The mine's five-million isoton yield can disperse Borg nanoprobes across
a five-light year range.
Dreadnought
Dreadnought
was a Cardassian self-guided missile, containing one thousand kilograms
of matter, and another thousand of antimatter. Tuvok describes this as
enough to destroy a small moon. Although described as a self-guided
missile, in practice Dreadnought functions much like an autonomous
starship, and it even had life support capability on board. It possesses
shields, phasers, a complement of quantum torpedoes, a Thoron shock
emitter, a plasma wave weapon, engines capable of reaching at least Warp
9, and a sophisticated computer AI. It appears in the Voyagerepisode of the same name. It had been captured by the Maquis
due to a failed detonator and reprogrammed to attack its original
creator. It was dragged into the Delta Quadrant in much the same manner
as Voyager, and when unable to resolve the unforeseen situation
it locked on to a planet that was similar to the one it was programmed
to target, but which was inhabited by innocents. Dreadnought was
equipped with an exceptionally sophisticated artificial intelligence,
capable of "paranoia" to a certain degree, as when reprogrammer B'Elanna
Torres attempted to prevent it from destroying the innocent planet, it
came to the conclusion that she had been captured by her Cardassian
enemies and forced to make up a story to prevent the attack; it then pretended to follow her commands and shut down, only to re-activate and continue its mission once she was no longer aboard.
Series 5 long range tactical armor unit
Similar
in purpose to the Cardassian Dreadnought, the Tactical Armor Units are
self-guided missiles with sophisticated artificial intelligence. They
are much smaller than Dreadnought, being only a few feet in length, and
while nowhere near as powerful, they are nonetheless classified as
weapons of mass destruction, capable of destroying everything in a
200-kilometer radius with a highly focused antimatter explosion. Their
coordination and control is done through a "Strategic Command Matrix",
analogous to a nuclear control network of the type used by the United
States. Each one possesses shielding, warp drive of indeterminate speed,
and a sentient, genius-level artificial intelligence
programmed to do whatever is necessary to reach their targets and
detonate. They can detect and prevent tampering, are intelligent enough
to find a way past almost any obstacle, and can win engagements even
when outnumbered. They were created by a Delta Quadrant race called the
Druoda, and the devices were greatly feared for their endurance and
tenacity.
Q firearms
Q firearms were used in the Q Civil War by the Voyager crew to compensate against the infinite power of the Q in "The Q and the Grey".
They are depicted as muzzle-loading muskets, to fit with the American
Civil War-theme used by the Q Continuum as a concession to the human
characters' limited perceptions. Presumably, their actual form would be
as incomprehensible to non-Q as the Continuum itself. The use of the
weapons caused stars to go supernova as a side effect in normal reality.
They are arguably the most powerful weapons ever wielded by any
humanoid species, as indicated by their ability to injure the
otherwise-invulnerable Q.
Red matter
In the 2009 Star Trek reboot, red matter was developed on Vulcan before 2387. When even a droplet is ignited an unstable singularity
is formed; accordingly, it must be stored in a protective chamber. The
red matter was originally to be used to save the Romulan homeworld from a
volatile supernova,
but the design was finished too late to prevent Romulus' destruction.
Upon capture in the "past" (2258) by the Romulan Nero, it was used as a
planet-destroying doomsday weapon
in conjunction with a plasma drill which bored a hole almost to the
core of a planet. A small amount of red matter was then activated at the
bottom of the drilling site, creating a black hole in the heart of the
planet that would tear it apart from within. Red matter was thus used to
destroy an alternate Vulcan ("alternate" due to temporal disruption,
from Nero's haphazard method of time travel), then ultimately destroyed
Nero's ship, the Narada, along with all remaining technology from his ship, and all of the remaining red matter.
Psionic resonator
A
psionic resonator was a weapon that functioned by amplifying telepathic
energy and focusing it into kinetic form. In 2369 one type of Vulcan
psionic resonator, known as the Stone of Gol was discovered to still
exist, though in pieces, long after it was thought destroyed. The
mercenary Arctus Baran was hired to locate the pieces and deliver them
to the Vulcan Isolationist Movement.
