Railgun

Railguns were the most commonly used shipboard and emplacement weapons in the galaxy. They accelerated a heavy projectile along conductive rails at a high velocity.

Railguns were primarily used on starships, which in space were deadly as the projectile would simply continue accelerating until it impacted a solid object. Kinetic screens would absorb such impacts, but they could only take so much before they collapsed due to strain.

The power needed to operate a railgun was immense. Due to this, starships used excess energy from the ship's fusion plant to supplement its weapons' dedicated generators. This resulted in a massive buildup of heat, which caused problems when the ship was in combat and had to have its radiator panels retracted.