2.18 Weapons: Ship's Phasers

In brief: A particle/beam projector which is the ship’s primary offensive weapon. Voyager has a number of massive phaser banks that wrap around both of the ship’s main sections. At maximum power, the main phaser banks can totally disrupt the surface of a planet. Phaser beams travel at the speed of light, and thus are relatively ineffective at warp speed. Phaser is short for “PHAsed Energy Rectification”. Maximum effective phaser range is about 300,000 kilometers.

How to use it: Typical orders given during tactical maneuvers might include: “Energize phaser banks to full power,” “Target the Romulan ship,” “Fire phasers,” and “Power down phaser banks.”

More: Phaser power is usually expressed in percentages or fractions of rated power. A “two percent” phaser blast will barely nudge a target, but a “full power” shot will cause serious damage. It is occasionally useful to adjust the “base emitter frequency” or “secondary modulation” of a phaser beam. This can sometimes be used to more effectively disrupt a deflector shield, although most sophisticated deflectors use “random modulation” to prevent such tactics.