The sonic blaster is primarily used against pieces of technology, as it is twice as effective against rigid targets such as robots and equipment than it is against soft targets like biologicals. The mechanism is quite misleadingly named "sonic", as the thunderous clap of its discharge is merely a byproduct. The weapon operates around vibrating force-beams that produce a spectrum of frequencies simultaneously. These vibrations inflict damage by literally shaking the target. Hard targets will have several harmonic frequencies that will propagate to cause twice as much damage as the weapon normally would. Thus, this pistol is not a true blaster, as its discharge is actually a beam - though the sound of its discharge is truly that of a "blast". Many simpler beings make the mistake of assuming that the weapon requires the propagation of sound waves, and think that it would be useless in vacuum. It is actually fully functional in vacuum (and particularly useful against airlock mechanisms). |