What are gaussian batteries? I tried acquiring some in a random mission that never popped up again, Something about a research vessel with very powerful equipment. It's sad I no longer can do the mission, I just wanted to get an addon scanner to see what it was. I'll grind my alts to do this mission, but anyways, What are they? They seem like powerful weapons

This must be a new addition with the big wave of new missions we've had. Have never heard of these until now!

Sorry, I forgot to mention, the mission is named "Gravitational Anomaly Detected". Someone inquired about this beforehand 2 years ago wherein Luxen passed it off as the weak gauss turrets and claimed less than true stuff following their discussion. It was in fact, not a turret.

I'm not able to find whatever old conversation you're thinking about (link it using the discord relay).

but, regarding the item and mission...

The mission has an NPC state "[player], stay clear of our Gaussian battery: it's incredible we're even able to fit any instruments onboard with these things"

It is only flavor text of the mission. It only appears in this mission the two times (once in a PDA message, once in a HUD message, so technically it only appears once).

It is not a game item. Its just part of the lore of this particular mission. If you see it pop up elsewhere, I can investigate further.

It *could* be referencing how NPC behemoths get capital cannons for their weapons, even if they never use them (or i've never seen them successfully triggered?).

We have not released any new addons. Addons have a very different release process from missions, and support for a new addon has to be explicitly created for the mission editor.