HSIT
(This article includes ideas, technology, or events which have been declared "Heresy", or not true in the Swarm Cycle's universe. These concepts cannot be used in a story claiming to be 'canon'.)
HSIT
HSIT is an acronym for Hyperspace Synchronizing Interference Technique. The weapon system was designed to deliver an explosive charge to a target in hyperspace by locating the target and navigating to it, then matching speed and finally merging drive fields. Once merged and in close proximity, the weapon detonates, damaging the target.
This weapon has been outlawed by the Confederacy. All vessels equipped with a hyperspace generator will be controlled by an AI capable of preventing its use as a weapon.
Humans provided the key innovations enabling the development of this weapon by providing more research into the basic properties of hyperspace. This allowed improved navigation and tracking techniques, plus the ability to integrate two drive fields. The rest of the Confederacy had never done much basic research into hyperspace once the ability to use it for reliable transport was achieved.
While the weapon system is officially named "HSIT" (the label assigned by the research team which developed it), the HSIT system is more commonly known (among those who know about it) as "SPAM" (originally "Something Posing As a Mine" but then later "Shattering Planets And Moons" when its alternative use was discovered).
The discovery of its potential as a planet-destroyer was almost an accident, brought about by impulsive and improper use of the weapon against ground-based Sa'arm artillery. The weapon was inadvertently allowed to materialize (phase in from hyperspace) well inside the planetary crust below where the artillery was based. In the process of becoming solid, the nuclei of its constituent atoms apparently merged with those atoms of the planet occupying the same space. This created a mass of fissionable material of unprecedented size and criticality. The resulting fission explosion completely destroyed the planet and all life on it. Needless to say the planet itself no longer exists though the fragments from the antipodes may be useful for space-based mining.
The weapon's launching platform may be detected, but the weapon itself is delivered through hyperspace and is not detectable by any sensors within a gravitational field. Even when used for its original intended target -a ship traveling in hyperspace- it cannot easily be detected by shipboard sensors given its small size and hyper footprint.
Due to the massive destruction potential of these devices and the limited value of planetary targets, post attack, they have seen only minimal use in any theatre, and then only for their original intended purpose. The Confederacy AI's have demanded suppression of information concerning their construction and capabilities, apparently because of concern that such weapons could be turned against the Confederacy should the human developers become displeased with their "arrangements." The non-human portions of the Confederacy are poorly equipped mentally or emotionally to do the basic research needed to find countermeasures. (It can be argued that countermeasures would first be developed by Humans.)
See Also
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