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[Parisbre56]

You can do what governments do in real life. Build ships for use now and when they become outdated, take them off the front lines and use them as utility ships. I think in WW2 they used to turn old war ships into hospital ships or transport ships.

Or just sell the old war ships to allies in order to look good. Also happens a lot in real life.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I must not have rolled very well on handiwork for making that prototype. I guess I'm lucky it's not pedal-powered.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

On that note, would it be possible to create some super cheap mini version of the HEP specifically designed for digging through walls or just creating tunnels? with an incredibly short range but just large enough beam to allow of easy passage.
Course, doing that means that the shaped mining charges become kinda useless if such a thing was created, but I kinda like the idea for infiltration.

[Xantalos]

"Well, you certainly have a knack for making guns that look like engine blocks.  Hopefully it'll be as impressive as your previous designs."  The body examines the block for a few more seconds, then turns to Anton and shrugs "So what does it do?  How does it work?"

"It's funny that you ask that, because... I don't actually know. You see, "knowing" how it works would imply activating it, and I was rather hesitant to do it inside the lab after everything I'd done to the poor thing."

He puts his hand on the prototype's top edge, careful not to touch one of the controls. "Concealed inside this little box, is what once was, or perhaps would be, a High Energy Projector. I've... slightly rearranged it, and given what it does to concrete walls, and Battlesuits, I'd like to be out of line of sight when it is activated. But what it does to Battlesuits specifically, got me interested.

I got my hands on the R&D research data from a long ways back, when the Projector was created. Just figuring out how to read those diagrams was an epic undertaking in itself, but I got through and started back-engineering the design from there, looking for ways to alter its output. I then rebuilt most of the weapon from the data, rearranged some of the components, added copies of other components, and put about half of those on a mechanical moving rig that this knob here is attached to. I'm working off a theory and lots of paperwork here, and like I said I haven't actually turned the device on since building it, but here's what it's trying to achieve.

You know how when you fire a HEP, it creates this nice, wide beam, great for making walkable tunnels in rock and vaporizing masses of people in one swing? When that hits a Battlesuit, the amount of energy delivered is so high that the outer layer of armor ablates with enough force to knock the whole machine to the ground, but it doesn't get much in the way of penetration, and fails to cripple the suit because it's so resistant to energy weapons.

What I am trying to do here, with an array of field-shaping deflectors that are attached to that knob, is to compress all that energy, all of that wide tunnel-making stream of power... into a beam about this thick." He brings his hand up to his eye, index finger and thumb curled together, making a little round hole about a centimeter across, which he peeps through at the Saint-bot, and smiles.

Anton spent this whole time manually making a Cutting Laser?

[Parisbre56]

Yes, but much more powerful than a cutting laser, with the drawback that it cannot be fired continuously in sweeps, has shorter range and that it takes a long time to reload. If the cutting laser is a rotary cannon, than what he built is an antitank rifle.
Plus the prototype is heavy, hard to use and likely to explode if you look it the wrong way, but I'm hoping he's going to fix that aspect of it assuming the prototype works.
Edit: Considering that the HEP is the size of a handgun and yet has a very high strength requirement, I assume it also has one hell of a recoil. Recoil that would remind one of Men in Black.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Anton spent this whole time manually making a Cutting Laser?

A Cutting Beam. A Cutting Laser is just a powerful laser. Where the laser would cut a tiny melted hole through a building, the HEP would cut a tunnel with the same ease. Theoretically, compressing the entirety of the output that makes that tunnel into a width more in line with the cutting laser, will proportionately increase cutting power - so where a cutting laser can barely inconvenience a Battlesuit, the Cutting Beam would punch right through, or at least significantly penetrate the armor.

And ninja'd.

Yes, but much more powerful than a cutting laser, with the drawback that it cannot be fired continuously in sweeps, has shorter range and that it takes a long time to reload. If the cutting laser is a rotary cannon, than what he built is an antitank rifle.
Plus the prototype is heavy, hard to use and likely to explode if you look it the wrong way, but I'm hoping he's going to fix that aspect of it assuming the prototype works.

Yes, it's much like an anti-tank rifle. It's an energy weapon designed to defeat energy-weapon-resistant defense. In concept, at least. We'll see whether it works.

And yes, assuming the prototype doesn't explode or do something similarly bad, and works as designed, it will be given to a science team in order to make a usable weapon out of it. As it is now it's a proof of concept, and a step towards making the HEP a bit more scalable.

[Radio Controlled]

and a step towards making the HEP a bit more scalable.

I'm suspecting this thing is just an excuse to develop giant space lasers.

Watch him put it on a fighter next 

[Sean Mirrsen]

I'm suspecting this thing is just an excuse to develop giant space lasers.

Of course it is, who the hell do you think I am?

Watch him put it on a fighter next 

Heh. Well, it's shorter-ranged than lasers, so...

[Devastator]

I must not have rolled very well on handiwork for making that prototype. I guess I'm lucky it's not pedal-powered.

Cly it isn't a prototype.  I know from giant robot anime that prototypes work better than production versions.

[Sean Mirrsen]

"How should I put this...it's becoming increasingly obvious that reality is not as solid or immutable as most would believe. In fact, certain configurations of matter can cause certain interactions to behave differently or become possible. This weapon is simply creating a momentary configuration of mundane matter which causes a sympathetic change in other matter. The "spooky" connections which quantum entangled particles exhibit are merely one example of a similar process."

I am suddenly very confused. I am certain I didn't give PW specifics of my view of the universe, but this is far too close to it.

Mine is talking about Universal cellular automata and energy patterns instead of matter, but still, very close.

So, uh... I'm cautiously optimistic about Anton being able to repeat his backstory experiment. And no, Anton didn't hear that explanation from Aresteve yet.

2. The hole is half as big this time, but twice as deep. However, the prototype got quite hot after the firing and spent several minutes cooling down before being able to be fired again.

Oh goodie. Overheating issues. Well, at least the principle works.

3. Close it all the way? How far away from this are you standing? Just out of curiosity.

Eh, he he he.... Hm, does Anton continue with the experiment as outlined after seeing the overheat? ...Who am I kidding, of course he does. Actually, maybe insert a step there, close it three-quarters of the way and test that first, then if the prototype survives (with appropriate increase in displayed heating), close it all the way and retreat to Mythbusters Safe Distance for the final round.

[Radio Controlled]

4. the effect is projected in a cylinder, straight and 2 feet in diameter. It has a range of 161X1011 Angstroms. During this distance the effect is at 100% strength. It stops precisely at the edges of the zone.

That's 1.610 meter. Long ground range, short space range.

[piecewise]

4. the effect is projected in a cylinder, straight and 2 feet in diameter. It has a range of 161X1011 Angstroms. During this distance the effect is at 100% strength. It stops precisely at the edges of the zone.

That's 1.610 meter. Long ground range, short space range.

Woops, dropped a 0  there somewhere (been a while since I've used scientific notation) Try 16.1 meters.

[Radio Controlled]

4. the effect is projected in a cylinder, straight and 2 feet in diameter. It has a range of 161X1011 Angstroms. During this distance the effect is at 100% strength. It stops precisely at the edges of the zone.

That's 1.610 meter. Long ground range, short space range.

Woops, dropped a 0  there somewhere (been a while since I've used scientific notation) Try 16.1 meters.

When I say 1.610, then I mean 1,61 km. I just realised that americans often use a dot instead of a space for numbers after the decimal point.

So, just to be clear: it's not more than a kilometer, right? Just a few meters? Sorry for the mistake, it just happens to be the exact oposite of what I'm used to.

[piecewise]

4. the effect is projected in a cylinder, straight and 2 feet in diameter. It has a range of 161X1011 Angstroms. During this distance the effect is at 100% strength. It stops precisely at the edges of the zone.

That's 1.610 meter. Long ground range, short space range.

Woops, dropped a 0  there somewhere (been a while since I've used scientific notation) Try 16.1 meters.

When I say 1.610, then I mean 1,61 km. I just realised that americans often use a dot instead of a space for numbers after the decimal point.

So, just to be clear: it's not more than a kilometer, right? Just a few meters? Sorry for the mistake, it just happens to be the exact oposite of what I'm used to.

It has a range of 16 meters.

[piecewise]

I find it odd that no one has been the least bit concerned about ARESTEVE commenting on the fact that the universe is falling apart.