A quad cannon, usually referred to by as plural quad cannons, was a cannon directed energy weapon emitter installed on starships and spaceborne-installations like starbases and other space stations. Commonly, quad cannons would fire a quartet of powerful bolts at the target. Compared to dual cannons and dual heavy cannons, quad cannons caused the most damage per individual volley. (STO - Klingon War mission: "Welcome to Earth Spacedock")
History and specifics[]
Quad cannons shared a 45° firing arc with dual cannons and dual heavy cannons. In contrast, single cannons fired in a 180° arc. Cannons, dual cannons, dual heavy cannons, quad cannons and dual beam banks could not be installed in a ship's aft weapon emplacement. Another restriction was the ship type this weapon could be installed on. In starship classification, quad cannons were restricted to these ship types: battlecruiser, carrier, destroyer, dreadnought cruiser, escort, frigate, strike wing escort, fighter, light cruiser, multi-mission science vessel, raider, raptor and warbird. (STO - Klingon War mission: "Welcome to Earth Spacedock")
In the 25th century, the Khitomer Alliance differentiated between basic damage types, and a plethora of variants. Phaser quad cannons fired orange bolts that had, by default, a 2.5% change of disabling a target's subsystem. Lime-green disruptors had a similar chance of temporarily lowering the structural integrity field. Romulan and Gorn ships could fitted with spring-green plasma quad cannons. Alliance polaron quad cannons fired purple, while those of the Dominion were pink or blue. (STO - Klingon War missions: "Welcome to Earth Spacedock", "The Hunt is On", "Explore the Flotilla", "Ceremony")
In the year 2411, each Achilles-class miracle worker heavy destroyer was equipped with the prototype phaser hexa cannon experimental weapon, which was an iteration of the Defiant-class phaser quad cannons. The hexa cannons consisted of six cannons that were designed to confront the massive Jem'Hadar warships during the Dominion War. (STO website: Unparalleled: The Heritage Starship Bundle!)
Common quad cannon types[]
- disruptor quad cannons
- rapid-linked disruptor quad cannons
- phaser quad cannons
- agony phaser quad cannons
- overload-linked phaser quad cannons
- plasma quad cannons
- Gorn plasma quad cannons
- polaron quad cannons
Appendices[]
External link[]
- Quad Cannons article at Star Trek Online Wiki.