OK, so I'm looking over weapons and its doing my head in. Here is an example from books - the Lambda-Class Shuttle:

Two forward-mounted twin light blaster cannons
Fire Arc Forward
Damage 4
Critical 4
Range [Close]
Linked 1

Two forward-mounted twin light laser cannons
Fire Arc Forward
Damage 5
Critical 3
Range [Close]
Linked 1

Aft retractable twin light blaster cannons
Fire Arc Aft
Damage 4
Critical 4
Range [Close]
Linked 1

OK, so here are my questions:

1A) When it when it gives a number at the start (e.g. Two), is that the number of weapon emplacements? By way of example, the first weapon listed has the word "two" at the front.

1B) Does this mean that two characters could effectively take one each?

2A) When it says the word Twin, Triple or Quad in the body of the weapon description, is this referring to the weapon itself rather than emplacements.

2B) Is this where you get the Linked quality from?

Please support answers with page numbers from core rules please, because I can't find it anywhere

That's correct, except where mistakes occur...

OK, so is that listed anywhere in the rules? And if so, where, because I can't find it ANYWHERE.

ITT: I learned the Lambda has some really redundant weapon systems....

I mean, who uses blasters on ships???!!!

I just used the Lambda as an example as it was the one that was open in front of me

AoR p 241: description of Quad Laser Cannon gives some idea of the meaning behind Quad (and i infer Tripple and Dual from it)

AoR p 170 gives the mechanical description of the Linked Quality.

also AoR p 287: Upgraded weapons, including table 7-17 gives some more crunch to the how of linking weapons

between these two i take it that when weapons are installed on a ship with the intention of being fired together they will be labeled as twin, triple or quad. So yes, a Twin Light Laser Cannon will be 2 separate guns, controlled by a single firing system. they can not be fired separately.

the linked value of this weapon system will then be given the Linked quality of the number of guns minus 1 (quad = linked 3, triple = linked 2, dual = linked 1).

this is because you don't need to activate the first gun in the system with advantage, only the remaining guns after the first hit.

in an x-wing the guns are in separate locations on the ship, but linked to make it easier for the pilot to fire

when mounted to a turret the guns are obviously in the same place, a good example is the CR90 (AoR p274), it has 2 separate Turrets that mount twin medium turbo-lasers, thats 2 separate weapons systems. The CR90 also has 4 separate light turbo-lasers. on this ship then 6 different Gunners can fire at the same time.

on your example of the Lambda there are 5 separate gun systems

So the first number descriptor is the number of weapon systems, while the second number descriptor (twin, triple, quad) are the number of weapons in the emplacement. Right?

So the first number descriptor is the number of weapon systems, while the second number descriptor (twin, triple, quad) are the number of weapons in the emplacement. Right?

kind of. The Link() represents how many extra guns are in the emplacement. They do try to keep them consistent (dual or twin being link(1)).

Consider the Falcon. It had two emplacements, each were quad lasers, so would have link (3).

So the first number descriptor is the number of weapon systems, while the second number descriptor (twin, triple, quad) are the number of weapons in the emplacement. Right?

yep, first number is how many emplacements or systems of that weapon are on the ship, the second is how many gun barrels in each emplacement or system.

Consider the Falcon. It had two emplacements, each were quad lasers, so would have link (3).

something like this:

1 Dorsal and 1 Ventral turret mounted Quad Medium Laser Cannons (Fire Arc: All; Damage 6; Critical 3; Range [Close]; Linked 3)

Some of the language they use seems contradictory, but that clears it all up for me. Thanks FFG community. Crisis averted.