Vi vet att det kan riktas, och mycket exakt . De kunde bestämma sig för att förstöra antingen hela stjärnsystemet eller en bas på den (men lämna andra planeter intakta).
(i all rättvisa verkar den senare motsäga punkten # 4 nedan. Välkommen till J.J. Abrams "canon": (
Though visibly angry, Snoke’s tone remained unchanged. “Have we located the main Resistance base?”
Hux was clearly gratified to be the bearer of good news. “We were able to track their reconnaissance ship back to the Ileenium system. We are coordinating with our own reconnaissance craft in the area in order to lock down the specific location of their base.”
Snoke replied with cold satisfaction. “We do not need it. Prepare the weapon. Destroy their system.”
Collected and composed as he was, Hux was not immune to surprise. “The system? Supreme Leader, according to the most recent galographics, at least two and possibly three habitable worlds circle Ileenium. Following the destruction of the Hosnian worlds, would it not be worthwhile simply to destroy their base and claim the remainder for the Order? We will have the location of the base within a matter of hours and—”
Här är vad som hände när de avfyrade enheten. Notera den djärva delen, vilket innebär att planeten själv syftade till vapnet genom att anpassa sin väg.
Efter att ha sagt det står det "artificiell linje av utkörning" utan några ytterligare detaljer - vilket kan innebära att det finns åtminstone viss flexibilitet i hur den linjen tillhandahålls (förutsatt att linjens inneslutning är energibaserad och inte bara en lång smalt hål borrat i jordskorpan).
When the weapons engineers fired the device, a breach was induced in the containment field. At incredible velocity and accelerating exponentially, the concentrated volume of quintessence escaped, transforming as it did so into a state known as phantom energy and following the artificial line of egress that had been provided. Assuming that the rotation and inclination of the planet had been taken into account, the released blast of concentrated phantom energy would travel along a perfectly linear path, punching a small Big Rip through hyperspace itself until it left the galaxy —
— or encountered something in its path that was of sufficient mass to intercept it.
Vapnet bränder genom hyperspace (eller snarare SUB-hyperspace).
Foster's novelization täcker detaljer om vapnet:
Wexley spoke up. “They’ve built a new kind of hyperspace weapon within the planet itself. Something that can fire across interstellar distances in the equivalent of real time.” His expression showed his incredulity. “I’ve had my share of technical training, but I can’t even imagine how that’s possible.”
This time Finn responded. “I can’t, either, but those of us assigned to the base heard rumors that it doesn’t operate in what we’d call normal hyperspace. It fires through a hole in the continuum that it makes itself. Everybody was calling it ‘sub’-hyperspace. That’s how it can arrive in moments across a distance like that between the base and the Hosnian system.
och
Finn nodded. “General Hux told us it’s the most powerful weapon ever built. He said that it can reach halfway across the galaxy.” Fresh murmurs of disbelief greeted this latest assertion. “And in real time. Because it doesn’t reach across the galaxy; it reaches through it.” He shook his head, which was starting to hurt from the effort of trying to explain what he had overheard but did not understand.
Och här är hur det faktiska skottet på Hosnian Prime beskrivs:
Traveling faster than anything ever generated by artificial means, through a torn portion of space-time whose properties were not fully understood, the concentrated glowing ball of energy lit the night sky above Republic City. ... It was as if a minuscule sun had suddenly appeared from nowhere, heading directly for the world on which she stood.
Lite offtopisk, men spekulationen i ett annat svar här att 4 separata strålar var för 4 separata mål var INTE korrekt. Det som förstörde andra planeter i Hosnian-systemet var inte separat nyttolast från vapnet, det var explosionen av Hosnian Prime:
...Turning the planet into what astrophysicists called a pocket nova.
Expanding outward from the explosion, a tremendous burst of heat tore through the Hosnian system’s other worlds, searing their surfaces clean of life and incidentally obliterating all settlements, installations, and outposts, as well as the hundreds of ships belonging to the Republic fleet. In its wake, the detonation left behind a blazing, spherical mass. The home of the Republic had become a new binary system: one utterly devoid of life.