Annihilator Missile Launcher

Large missile launchers used by the Cypher Dominion.

The Annihilator is normally used to fire guided missiles for a variety of roles including anti air and anti tank roles. Though it can perform several duties, it is not as effective within a duty as a more specialised missile launcher. For example, higher velocity missiles are necessary for anti air roles, and heavier missiles are needed for anti tank roles. The wide range of missiles usable by the Annihilator can make it fairly cumbersome and awkward to use. However, due to the hivemind of the CD, this disadvantage is somewhat mitigated as experienced users can more easily relay information to new users on how to use it. It is a strange missile launcher, that other factions such as the HF have performed studies on. 

Specifically, the launcher can fire:
- Heavy anti tank missiles that penetrate thicker enemy armour. By detonating a small amount of antimatter as it impacts the enemy armour, it can create a powerful overpressure wave that is usually deadly to most organics such as tank crew. Though they can maneuver themselves, its movement is very weak and the missile also has a shorter range as more internal space is taken up by the warhead than fuel.

- Large but lightweight anti air missiles which are designed with a higher maneuverability and higher speed but can penetrate only very light armour. Its warhead is designed to penetrate a short distance into enemy armour and then explode, allowing a significant pressure buildup to destroy a large number of internal components, which will probably bring most aircraft down. 

- Fast and maneuverable anti shield missiles which will create a significant EMP or plasma shock on impact and will heavily damage or cripple most types of shields. All of the military forces of the HF from their basic infantry are shielded, so these warheads are particularly useful against that faction specifically.

- Neurotoxin missiles, which are specially designed to cripple and/or kill large organic targets by burying themselves within a large organism's body and releasing chemicals that heavily damage neural tissue or even other organs. 

The weapon was used to good effect in multiple wars involving the CD. As their forces can communicate with each other almost instantaneously due to the hive mind, Annihilator infantry is almost always supported with other infantry to deploy against many enemy threats, armoured formations and often also aircraft, as the CD deploys its wide arsenal on its enemies. This can make large formations of soldiers difficult to remove with conventional large vehicles up to ATVs in size, at which point they would need to deploy specialised anti ATV vehicles. Though many other factions use a lot of ATVs, the CD can only reasonably counter them on a large scale, and even significant patrol forces would not be equipped to destroy such large enemy forces. The Annihilator specifically has poor performance against well armoured aircraft. However, the cheap cost of both the missile launcher and missiles themselves make it fairly easy to deploy in mass numbers, as long as the CD has the logistical base for it in battle.