Kinetic Weapons

Kinetic weapons are those which derive their destructive energy from impact force alone, and are typically dumb-fired without on-board technology. Kinetic weapons include bullets and railguns, although any object traveling at sufficient relative velocity has destructive potential.

Railguns

Railguns can near-instantaneously accelerate a magnetic round to relativistic speeds of devastating kinetic impact energy. They are developed from mass drivers, a technology used throughout space for civilian purposes, but their military application is in railguns.

An inherent drawback of the rapid launch method is that the violent force prohibits implementation of any major on-board technology such as guidance systems, which simply cannot survive the acceleration. The round also requires a direct impact to cause damage, a drawback accentuated by their lack of guidance.

A "kinetic cannon" from the early space age. Such weapons were always followed closely by anti-satellite weapons deployed specifically to destroy them if the moment came.

Orbital Bombardment

Orbital impactors are any class of space-based weapon designed to annihilate targets on the surface of a world. This can include specialized railgun rounds or simply the redirection of a comet onto a collision course. The weaponization of any spaceborne object into a surface impactor remains a notable threat to any world, especially those without shielding atmospheres.

Droprod satellites - space infrastructure designed specifically to carry and deploy orbital droprods - were a common technology in the early space age as a power balancing weapon deployed by various governments to keep each other in check. The weapons nevertheless saw limited use in warfare, and were eventually phased out with the advent of the railgun.

Bullets

Bullets are used in all manner of weapons at sight-range in firearms and planetside defenses. Such weapons are rarely used on spacecraft due to the mutual severity of collateral damage. Bullets are instead found spaceborn in point-defense systems, which utilize streams of bullets to defend against missiles. The firing of bullets uses some chemical reaction for propulsion, with the reactants dependent on the bullets’ use-case; typical combustion is adequate when there is available oxygen, but point-defenses must utilize other reactants.

Particle Beams

Particle beams are streams of particulate matter or energized particles accelerated and launched at a target to cause rapid erosion of material or to overwhelm defenses. They can use electromagnetic acceleration similar to mass drivers, but their low relative directed mass means they’re less energetic on individual impact. Particle beams are effective weapons at shredding armored targets without outright annihilating them.

Debris

Debris is a separate case of weapon and defense all on its own, with far-reaching consequences.