Y-42 Defile 30mm Autocannon

A small, lightweight cannon of the Grand Artanat Empire (GAE) with a maximum fire rate of about 240rpm. 

With a 30mm caliber, it can fire a variety of ammunition such as high explosive rounds, armour piercing rounds as well as rounds filled with plasma designed to break enemy shields, and more. The cannon was designed to be used in massive numbers in order to overwhelm enemy forces and make them retreat. It was given an incredibly fast fire rate to make their forces even more overwhelming and give the cannon a suppression role. The GAE tends to support these cannons with more accurate weapons with a much lower rate of fire which are better suited to destroying enemies rather than suppressing them. However, they have managed to destroy enemy forces many times with these cannons, possibly due to sheer volume of fire. They are also often armoured and used in either armoured vehicles or used with a significant gunshield. They have also found uses as an anti air weapon, but their poor accuracy means that it struggles in this role and dedicated anti air would be required.

The autoloading requirements to sustain the 4 bullets / second fire rate are significant. Much of the weapons internal volume are taken up by the autoloader, which takes into account the weapon can shift under elevation or azimuth movement, while the ammunition rack does not move. This is perhaps the least reliable machine in the weapon as it can get clogged if the operator tries to rotate and fire simultaneously, in which case they retreat to clear the jam if possible.

Although simple in comparison to weapons with a similar weight class employed by other factions, this weapon has been used to devastating effect in several wars, particularly those against the Hyperion Federation for the hyperionites' particularly low numbers and their reliance on their advanced technology. This enables toe GAE to use a huge number of cannons against few HF forces, though the HF has far more advanced shields and protection. Even their infantry might be able to survive a few hits with the cannon because they are all shielded and lightly armoured with TGX Composite.