Thermal Detonator
Thermal Detonators are extremely powerful devices. While the small metallic
sphere appears to be a common grenade, the weapon proves to be far more deadly.
The device's thermite casing contains a synthetic explosive known as baradium.
When the weapon's sliding thumb trigger is activated, warning lights and alarms
are immediately activated as the six-second thumb timer counts down. During this
time, the weapon can be deactivated by returning the switch to it's default
position. The timer can also be reset manually to offer a maximum of five
minutes, or the control pins can be programmed to act as a deadman's switch for
instantaneous explosion. In this setting, unless a tiny switch near the
indicator light is flipped to the safety position, the weapon will explode
immediately.
When the weapon explodes, the baradium's fusion reaction creates a particle
field which quickly expands outward, releasing enough energy and heat to
virtually disintegrate anything within the blast sphere. In a few seconds, the
baradium core burns out and the particle field sphere collapses on itself.
Everything within the blast sphere is completely gone, and anything beyond the
sphere's outer boundary is intact.
The Standard Imperial detonators have a small baradium core and yield a blast
radius of just five meters. The Class-A detonators used by Princess Leia would have resulted in a
blast radius of twenty meters. Some criminals use custom-built detonators which
contain enough baradium for a hundred meter radius.
The force of the detonator comes from baradium, which is a highly unstable
chemical. Because of this, detonators have been know to spontaneously explode
when thrown, dropped, or for no apparent reason. Because of this, the weapons
were strictly military-regulated and were disallowed for civilian use, however
their usefulness creates a demand for the weapon, pushing black market prices
up to two thousand credits. Because a single blast can disintegrate up to to meters
of permacrete, military crews also use detonators for demolition work
and also set detonator booby traps to cover retreating soldiers.
Proton Grenade
Proton Grenades are high-powered, heavy duty, hand-held explosives which contain
a proton core- a greatly reduced version of which are used  in proton torpedoes.
The grenade was first developed for breaching ships' hulls during boarding
actions, they were also used later for large demolition projects.
The weapon is activated by twisting the grenade's arming mechanism primes the
battery to deliver a small electrical charge to the proton core. Pressing the
activation plunger starts the timer. This two-step process offers a fail-proof
way to prevent accidental denotations, thus protecting the user, as the proton
core is almost as powerful as a thermal detonator.
The timer can be set for up to twenty minutes, and it can be disarmed at any
time by pressing the twist plunger release.
Proton grenades are much for effective than standard detonate charges. The
prestressted metal casing and shaped proton charge can channel the explosion's
force toward the magnetic plate which holds the charge to the target, and the
blast brake through one and a half meters of permacite. Electromagnetic pulses
disrupt computers, droids, blasters, or other electronic devices within twenty
meters.
When used on boarding actions, the grenade can instantly blast through armor
plating, which is much for effective over cutting through the hull with fusion
cutters. The grenade's explosion also exposes the ship's outer corridors to a
vacuum, eliminating any opposition in the explosive decompression while
attacking troops board with minimal resistance. Unless the target passengers are
equipped with space suits, their only chance of survival is to retreat as the
attackers advance, cutting through bulkheads and exposing more and more of the
ship to space. Teams of troops boarding from several locations can secure a
vessel within minutes. The attackers can also use grenades to compromise a
ship's sublight drives, shield generators, and weapons.
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