Gatling Railguns, as their name implies, are rapid-fire, high-powered railguns developed by the Trayn Collective as an upgrade for their old Gatling Cannons. They can be calibrated to fire up to twenty rounds per second, firing a 3.9 kilogram steel slug at 34.9 kilometers per second. Slugs weighing up to 4.5 kilograms can be loaded, with some small modifications. Steel slugs can also be swapped out for slugs tipped with depleted uranium for added armor piercing ability. Currently, the only races known to posses Gatling Railguns are the Trayn, Cyrannatar, and Ferros.
Gatling Railguns are usually used as turrets on warships. They have four small railgun barrels, that spin quickly when activated. When one of the barrels hits the top, is quickly and mechanically loaded and fired. Because the barrels spin so fast, precise timing is critical. The barrels have been known to become jammed up if the timing is not accurate, and this can cause damage to the weapon, or it could cause it to misfire and explode. Thankfully, railguns exploding and causing damage to the ship is a rare occurence, although jams are not.
Heavy Gatling Railguns[]
Heavy Gatling Railguns are a variant of standard Gatling Railguns developed by the Trayn Collective. They fire considerably less rounds per minute than their less powerful counterparts, but make up for this by firing much heavier ammunition. Rather than a 3.9 kilogram steel slug, they fire a 5 kilogram depleted uranium slug. Slugs made of tungsten can also be used. The projectiles have a lower velocity than those fired by the standard versions of the Gatling Railgun, at only 31.3 kilometers per second.
These weapons are bulkier and use more power than the standard versions, and thus cannot be fitted in the same large quantities.
Thanks to the slower RPM, jams in Heavy Gatling Railguns are less common.
Types of Gatling Railguns Used by the Trayn[]
'Venom' Gatling Railgun[]
The 'Venom' Gatling Railgun is the standard Gatling Railgun used by the Trayn Collective. It is used primarily as a weapon against smaller craft. Since its initial debute the mid 2160s, it has gone through many revisions and upgrades. It also saw the arrival of its larger cousin, the 'Fury' Heavy Gatling Railgun, a considerably more powerful weapon.
The Venom has five barrels, each equipped with magnetic rails used to accelerate the slugs which are loaded into it. When activated the barrels rapidly turn, and a slug is loaded into each barrel as it reaches the uppermost position. The slug is immediately fired and the next barrel arrives at the top immediately afterwards to be loaded. Due to this method, jams are a distinct possibility, and often plagued earlier models. Fortunately, the number of jams has begun to decrease as technology advances.
It fires 5 slugs per second. The slugs are normally made of depleted uranium, weigh about 4 kilograms, and are fired at 12 km/s.
'Fury' Heavy Gatling Railgun[]
The 'Fury' Heavy Gatling Railgun is a Gatling Railgun used by the Trayn. It is considerably more powerful than its smaller counterpart, the 'Venom' Gatling Railgun, however it is not quite as widely used due to its higher power requirements and larger size. They also fire slower than Venoms, only firing 3 slugs per second. Despite this, it is still fairly widely used, mostly as a weapon against smaller craft.
It operates in the same way as the Venom does, with five barrels. It fires heavier slugs, however, and they are made of Tungsten. The slugs usually weigh 6 kilograms, and are fired at 15 km/s.
Only the Trayn have developed Heavy Gatling Railguns.