SOL

The Severely Oversized Laser was an invention of Rian Wildfire at some point in the Course Books series.

Using refractive laser technology and a whole lot of duct-tape, he had modified the Saratoga’s weapons array to emit a massive omni-directional charged particle blast. It was his solution to dealing with the fast, maneuverable Romoni fighters.

Unfortunately, like most half-assed inventions, it didn’t work. The main generator could provide enough power, and the weapons array could handle the load, but the super-conductors that connected the two couldn’t.

In later iterations of the ship, more powerful superconductors were added to fix the problem. Since SOL was the inspiration for the weapon used in The Concourse to Victory(Story), it is likely it was kept on hand as a secret test-bed for the mission.