Converging Stream Weapon: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
This is a heavy weapon which contains multiple smaller devices that send out a stream, beam, blast, etc.. Those all converge into a single stream, beam, blast, etc., that is more powerful than the sum of its parts.
Usually, the resulting stream goes in the logical
Besides [[Rule of Cool]], this kind of weapon has grounding in conceptual mathematics. If lasers could add in the way vectors do, the result would be a laser of many times more magnitude than if it were simply fired from a single barrel (that is, the resultant beam travels [[Beyond the Impossible|several times faster than the speed of light]]). Fortunately for unexploded planets everywhere, this is not the case.
The inversion of this trope, where one attack splits into many, is [[Recursive Ammo]] or [[Spread Shot]].
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The "Dark Star Weapons" in ''[[Slayers|Slayers Try]]'' function in this manner. At the end of the season, all five weapons are combined with a [[Yin-Yang Bomb]] into a [[Wave Motion Gun]].
* The "Precure Marble Screw" attack from ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure]]'' is like this.
* Used in ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'' as Unit 1 fires the [[BFG|Positron Rifle]] at Ramiel.
* The ''[[Transformers Energon]]'' incarnation of Optimus Prime can normally fire [[Roboteching]] [[Beam Spam]]. When combined with Wing Saber he can perform a [[Combination Attack]] with the [[Attack Drone
* Although it was only used twice, in ''[[Legend of the Galactic Heroes]]'' the ships of a fleet can fire all their lasers in a "pinpoint attack" that spawns a super-beam that can decimate bunched-together ships.
** There's also the Thor Hammer.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* The upgraded Slaver Disintegrator in Larry Niven's ''[[
** [[Did Not Do the Research|The Slaver Disintegrator uses]] '''[[Did Not Do the Research|parallel]]''' [[Did Not Do the Research|beams.]] The current flow happens between the impact sites, [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|adding]] [[Shock and Awe|electrocution]] [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|to the localised disintegration effects]].
* The energy weapons in F.M. Busby's ''Rissa Kerguelen'' trilogy and its sequels and prequels use a pair of converging laser beams. They [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterodyne heterodyne] at the point of convergence and produce a significantly greater effect than those beams could if '''not''' heterodyned. This has two disadvantages: First, if the gunner doesn't judge the range correctly, the heterodyne point may not be where it's needed. Second, prolonged shooting heats up the emitters, causing the heterodyne point to shift even if the aim isn't changed, so the gunner needs to estimate how much to compensate — they don't have a very good computer program for that. But a shooter who manages to keep "peak heterodyne" squarely on target can take the enemy apart in a hurry.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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** The Interstellar Alliance's Victory-class destroyers (which were based in part on stolen Vorlon technology) used beams sent from the three wingtips to the front to convert the entire ship into a massive [[Wave Motion Gun]].
* In ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', the Federation developed a 'collimator beam' made of dozens of small phaser banks spread along the rim of a ship, the energy can be seen flowing along the surface of the Enterprise until it meets at one point, and then fires off from the point on the phaser bank row closest to the target.
** On ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'', Species 8472 has a [https://web.archive.org/web/20100412120349/http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Species_8472_planet_killer weapon consisting of several ships that acted like the Death Star when firing simultaneously].
* The basic enemy fighter ship in ''Kara no Messeji: Ginga Taisen'' did this.
* Several ''[[Power Rangers]]'' weapons work by this, the first being the original Rangers' Power Cannon from season two (one barrel fires five energy balls... that turn into one much more Badass one.)
* The weapon Torchwood use against the fleeing Sycorax ship in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Christmas Invasion".
** In "The Poison Sky", a similar weapon is used by the [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]] the ''Valiant'' to fight off the Sontarans.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Multiple Beam Cannon units from ''[[Command
** The [[Kill Sat|Ion Cannon]] also works in this manner. Unfortunately, this telegraphs the actual attack, enabling your enemy to sell all buildings in the target zone before the main blast occurs.
** In ''Red Alert 3'', the Athena bombardment vehicle features converging beams on its gun. Unusually, they emerge from the same point on the Athena and "sweep" towards to the target from the left, right, and top. Also, they're the ''targeting'' lasers - once they converge, the [[Kill Sat|real weapon]] shoots down from orbit.
* ''[[Xenosaga]] Episode I'' had the Rhine Maiden, a converging wave-motion gun comprising the Dammerung and four smaller vessels in formation.
* ''[[
* ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] Prophecy'' was supposed to have the Tiamat dreadnought equipped with a version of the "fleet killer" plasma gun mounted in the Kraken, with the green glowing tips of the Tiamat's arms forming the beam, but technical difficulties prevented it from being implemented.
* ''Bang: Gunship Elite'' has many weapons, one of which fires rapidfire bolts from the meeting point of three continuous beams that emanate from three prongs in front of the ship.
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** And a phased array laser would be called... you guessed it, a [[Portmanteau|phaser]]!
* An '[[wikipedia:Nuclear weapon design|implosion bomb]]' uses multiple smaller explosions to set off the main charge.
* Some radiotherapy devices used for treatment of highly localized brain tumors operate on this principle. The method is called "gamma knife radiotherapy". Basically, they send several hundred (usually over 200) narrow gamma ray beams into your head. Each beam is fairly weak and doesn't do much damage, but they all intersect where the tumor is located. * Sizzle!*
* Though not a weapon, this is how inertial confinement fusion reactors are supposed to work - with hundreds of laser beams converging on a tiny spherical pellet of fuel, causing it to implode and ignite a fusion reaction.
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[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
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