Gamma Ray Burst

Gamma ray bursts are a somewhat common sight in space frontier, at least when it comes to disasters. Gamma ray bursts can be incredibly dangerous, capable of causing severe burns to skin and damage to bases and ships. GRB is short for gamma ray burst.

Formation
Gamma ray bursts form in 2 variants: short and long. Short gamma ray bursts form when 2 neutron stars collide, or when a black hole is consuming enough matter in a short period of time. Long GRBs form when a huge hypergiant star dies and becomes a black hole. These gamma rays form when black holes emit energized gamma rays down the poles of their magnetic fields. These gamma rays are capable of wiping out life on entire planets, causing apocalyptic damage to structures, and damaging starcraft and starbases. Thankfully, Vortexian technology can USUALLY survive this madness.

HOWEVER, the longer a gamma ray burst travels, the weaker it gets, BUT, it gets much larger. After 100 light years, the gamma ray burst goes from about 100 kilometers in diameter, to 100 light years across.

Damage and Scale
Gamma ray bursts are ranked on the GRB scale, from 1-50. 1 for example, does hardly any damage, usually dissipating at shields. level 5 GRBs can cause minimal damage, but bases and even medium ships are unharmed. Level 30 GRBs can cause substantial damage, causing extreme damage to almost anything, but shields take most of the beating. However, a level 50 GRB, which has likely never been recorded, or possibly only once, can flatten anything. Blowing up planets, weak bases and mid-range ships.

Quasars
Quasars also have something to do with GRBs. Quasars are simply huge black holes emitting GRBs and a lot of other radiation. This makes quasars super bright, in fact, so bright, if you were even 1 light year from one, and staring at one, your retina might kick the bucket very quickly. Even the black hole Bargoyle can be thought of as a quasar.

Trivia

 * A gamma ray burst may have caused a mass extinction on Earth
 * one of the strongest gamma ray bursts hit Deep Space 9, causing devastating damage, rusting parts and breaking ships
 * Sneaky is a common source of gamma ray bursts.. Darnit, you sneaky sniper.
 * Gamma Ray Bursts are often associated with grey fog in-game.