Beamblade
The advent of the beamblade was only possible due to recent developments in mobile fencer technology that has allowed for the viability of “melee weaponry”. The quick response of mobile fencer limbs in regards to pilot inputs in new models, in addition to the risk of mobile fencers becoming useless once their ammunition stores became depleted in combat, forced the alliances that used such war machines to come up with the concepts of the beamblade.
First pioneered by the Coalition in RC 0114 as the XM11 Beamblade, beamblades utilize a type of technology known as tight-border plasma emission, or TBPE. This technology invoked the projection of a high-energy plasma field around a central magnetic structurem conferring the ability to confine the energy of the plasma projection within a predefined radius and limiting the diffusion of said energy into space. The containment of this plasma in a “tight border” due to a mixture of magnetism and electric flux allowed for the emission of a high-powered and highly dangerous field of plasma that, if given sufficient power and component protection within the emitter, could even damage the metamaterial known as halcyonite. The metamaterial's weakness to the beamblade is due to direct contact with the tight-border plasma emission of the weapon, which subjects the material to a sudden and extreme level of heat that allows enough thermal damage to the chemical structure for it to to then be cleaved by the physical portion of the beamblade.
The term “beamblade” is considered a partial misnomer, since the weapon is not entirely a “beam”, but instead plasma sheathing a sharpened central core that also houses the technology responsible for the tight border plasma emission. However, during ignition of the TBPE, it appears as if a solid beam of light erupts from the hilt.