Deathwand

The "deathwand" is a fictional weapon used in Dan Simmons' Hyperion universe. In the books, the deathwand is used as a personal weapon by FORCE (interplanetary military) officers, and is also available as an extremely illegal weapon through the black market.

Very limited in range as a personal weapon (several meters to several hundred meters, possibly), the deathwand projects no mass, nor does it fire plasma or radiation beams or lasers; according to its descriptions in the books the deathwand 'scrambles' every neuron in the brains of its human targets.

In 'The Fall of Hyperion', the TechnoCore advocates the use of a ship-sized "deathwand bomb" in order to halt multiplanetary invasions by the Ousters. The radius of effect from the "deathwand bomb"s is uncertain but certainly adequate for use in solar system battles -- as a result, denizens of the planets to be defended by deathwand bombs were instructed to hide in massive underground labyrinths, as the kilometers of stone above them was supposed to shield them from the deathwand bombs' effects.

Whether this was true or not was never discovered; the only deathwand bomb to be deployed was detonated in extradimensional space at the instant it translated via farcaster to its destination.

In 'Endymion', a deathwand device was used as an execution tool for character Raul Endymion after he was convicted of the murder of a Pax citizen.

Deathwands are rarely seen by anyone outside of the military, and are commonly regarded as contemptible weapons in light of the New Bushido advocated by FORCE -- the New Bushido urges honorable, small-scale combat at a location and time agreed upon by all sides in the conflict so as to avoid the unnecessary loss of civilian life or resources.

Death Beams

In the sequel of Endymion, a new type of deathwand was created. Unlike deathwands, deathbeams were fitted onto warships. Instead of firing off an invisible scythelike energy, deathbeams are fired at faster than light speed. A single shot is powerful enough to destroy the brains of every person on board an enemy ship. By the time of Rise of Endymion, almost every warship controlled by the Pax had a deathbeam.