Sevencyclopaedia - N

NEUTRON BLASTERS

Liberator's main armament. They had to be cleared before firing, and this required a spoken command from one of the crew. They could not be fired without prior activation of the radiation flare shield. The neutron blasters were used in the following episodes:

• The Web: used, unsuccessfully, to clear a path through the fungal strands enveloping the planet. Fired by Vila, who said he had been "looking forward to this". Zen informed the crew that the two blasts fired had drained two energy banks.
• Shadow: fired by Cally at a gunship from Space City, destroying it with a single shot. She then threatened to destroy the station. Fired by Bek at Zonda to destroy the moon disc plantations (assuming the Liberator's ground assault capability used the neutron blasters - see comments on The Harvest of Kairos below).
• Trial: fired, apparently only once, at Servalan's HQ station in Blake's lightning raid. Blake referred to the "main blasters", suggesting additional armament systems on the Liberator.
• The Keeper: Travis" pursuit ship destroyed with a single shot.
• Star One: Avon gave the order to fire at the end of the episode. The blasters were probably fired many times during the Intergalactic War.
• Volcano: fired by Avon at the attacking Federation cruisers, destroying four or five of them (although all eight were later seen retreating).
• Dawn of the Gods: having passed, as they believed, through a black hole, Tarrant told Dayna to fire two blasts at 10% power. The blasts were reflected back against the ship. Dayna also fired a 50% blast at a vehicle attacking the ship. These firings suggest blast intensity could be modulated, to save energy, or to cripple rather than destroy a target.
• The Harvest of Kairos: an area of 50 square surface spacials destroyed on Servalan's command. Comments by various persons suggest that surface strikes were made with plasma bolts. However, in Shadow Blake said, having planted sensors around the moon disc plantations, "Our blasters can pick off anything we care to nominate", suggesting use of the neutron blasters.

• In Aftermath, Avon ordered Zen to destroy an approaching ship (presumably Klegg's) without any prior clearing of the neutron blasters.

Another reference to a neutron blaster in Dawn of the Gods applies to a totally different weapon, a mounted ground weapon carried outside the ship and deployed for use against the Thaarn's slave retrieval vehicle. A device on the vehicle neutralised the weapon before Vila could fire it. It might be this type of weapon that Avon was thinking of when he asked Gunn-Sar for a neutron blaster in Power.

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