Clan Quantum Railgun

The Clan Quantum Railgun is an assault-category weapon developed from recovered Star League tech in the Clan homeworlds, operating from 3064 onwards.

History
Star Coronel Markus Kotare of the Smoke Jaguars recovered a Star League weapons cache on Cermak. Though he was utterly defeated by Davion forces, his efforts did uncover examples of the Rail Gun that the Clan scientist caste could re-engineer back in the Clan home worlds.

The Jade Falcons won a Trial of Posession for Railgun tech, and subsequently developed the Clan Targeting Railgun.

Properties
This redevelopment includes an onboard Targeting Computer uniquely dedicated to ensure that the weapon only fires when certain to hit, thus maximizing opportunities and saving valuable and heavy ammo.

The railgun is long-ranged and deals 19 upfront damage in a single hit location, being the bane of light and poorly armored 'mechs and vehicles alike. Even Assault mechs are vulnerable against a single hit from a critical angle such as the back.

The Clan Targeting Railgun does have weaknesses, though. It's weight means that mounting it is a big compromise on other weapon systems. It requires an energy source to fire much as a Gauss Rifle, making it unable to be used with unamplified Internal Combustion Engines. Last but not least, it has a noticeable blind spot on short ranges combined with a long recharge period, meaning that in the unlikely case an enemy survives the barrage, they can carefully position themselves to prevent further shots. To compensate this, mounting 'mechs and vehicles have to ensure they have either high mobility (something hard with such a weight), Jump Jets, short range weaponry, or all of those.

Effects
The Clan Targeting Railgun shot will sometimes "dance" around the target before hitting it. This delays the damage, but possibly has a disabling effect. The cause of this effect is unknown in and out of game. However, it does generate a pleasant visual effect. The fire is still linked to the target and will bounce around its axis. The time to detonation is quite random with apparently being a certain % chance on every cycle.

'Mechs that use it
It is mounted by default on the Nova Cat-W(L).