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[Doubloon-Seven]

The GBAL isn't infrastructure. It's a design to reduce the complexity of further designs in that field. I agree that infrastructure is a good idea, but I want to see how much things cost, generally speaking.

Also what do you mean about Fallacy?

[flabort]

Also what do you mean about Fallacy?

You would think he would be crazy about genetic engineering, what with the catgirl obsession thing.

[Madman198237]

Aggravated Evrasium Reactor
So Evrasium always has a higher energy state than the surrounding environment. But this is boring. For the purposes of this design, we'll be saying that it is an angry rock that hates light. And we will be using its punches to power our ships. But we can just have a smug feeling that we may have probably broken thermodynamics, constantly in the back of our minds.

Aa-nyy-waays. While it undoubtedly has much more complex, precise, elegant, etc., applications, for now we figured we can start by using it to power things. Simply, for now, since we kind of have a time constraint. Turns out that when held in a strictly-controlled atmosphere of inert gases with confounding variables removed, we can actually predict and even control where the punches releases of energy will happen.

The Aggravated Evrasium Reactor, or AER, makes use of this phenomenon. A single chunk of Evrasium crystal is suspended (by sound waves, turns out it cares not for sound) in the middle of a large spherical chamber with a controlled inert gas atmosphere. Rotating rings covered in high-powered lasers are placed on the inner edges of the chamber, along with a few sensors to evaluate the status of how angry the rock is current crystal aggravation. When a crystal is placed inside, the reactor has to be calibrated for its specifications to be able to provoke energy releases in a controlled matter.
Upon activation of the reactor, the laser rings begin spinning up to operation speed and precise laser pulses at precise spots in the crystal allow it to release punches energy in an adjacent sub-chamber, where several turbines convert the kinetic energy into electrical energy. Sure, turbines are crude and with something like Evrasium you may think there's a better way to gather energy, but let's keep it simple(, stupid) for now. Energy for the lasers is a concern, and they're powered by a separate battery that can be powered by the reactor itself, tertiary/emergency generators and, if you've got about 3-6 hours to spare, a hand-crank.   

We're not quite sure about "fuel" here. Crystals do have to occasionally be replaced, but that's just because of (initially) unexpected decrease in energy output. We're not actually sure if the crystals are "running out" of energy (there's a good chance they literally do not run out as long as they're intact), but that's not a huge concern for now. We'll just pencil Evrasium into our supply chains and think about it more later.

Angry Rock Reactor
Difficulty: Very Hard
Roll: 4+4-2 = 6 = Above Average

Evrasium is a naturally-occurring material on our planet. We're...not entirely sure what's up with it, actually. It exhibits a rather...violent response when exposed to sufficiently concentrated light. Like, a really, amazingly, catastrophically violent response. It punches things. We've suffered several critical injuries and about fifteen separate broken noses (some of them broken multiple times), but we've finally nailed down how it works and how to control it. Well, partially. Sort of. Anyway, in a tightly controlled environment when exposed to the right kind of laser light Evrasium creates a physical response outside itself. How it does this is a complete mystery.

Anyway, we suspend a specific kind of rock in the middle of an inert gas and then we point a laser beam in its metaphorical eyes, making it angry. The rock then punches back at the light and overshoots, probably because we're a bunch of horrible people pointing a laser pointer in its eyes so it can't see clearly, which results in the "punch" spinning a turbine mounted behind it, creating a substantial amount of electricity due to the raw force of each punch, which appears to be powered by some store of energy that we can't locate somewhere in the crystal matrix, as with each punch (and corresponding directly to the energy released in the punch) the matrix breaks down a little more, until the matrix is nearly completely destroyed and cannot produce any more punches, at which point the reactor requires the angry rock to be replaced with a new one.

We have managed to achieve energy density on par with nuclear fusion, but with no radiation or extreme heat or containment needs! Of course, it does use reaction mass at a semirandom rate due to the nature of vaporizing matter inside a crystalline matrix, but still, it's an awesome achievement!

This revolution would provide 2 SPP and 2 GPP as it replaces most normal sources of power, but it requires a lot of Evrasium to run, and Evrasium is fairly rare anyway, and so most of its ground-based production benefits are dedicated towards extracting enough Evrasium to power our requirements, leaving it to provide 2 SPP.

Cost: Not independently deployable, ship or ground vehicle costs dependent on size and power requirements.

“Eyebite” - MCLC - Modular Chemical Laser Cannon:
The Eyebite is a modularly designed cannon that can be placed upon a spaceship or really any mobile platform that can utilize a cannon, that starts with our first array into beam-based technology for our first deployed weapon. The cannon is a directed-energy weapon that deploys a deuterium-fluoride laser of the IF spectrum that due to speed of light and the weapon sensors connected to a ship’s fire control, should be able to continuously bombard a target from faraway that delivers its radiative damage. (especially in terms of space warfare engagements), melting the armor and more weaker substances as it continuously shoots a wavelength of heat against the material and overcooks it. The cannon comes with an inbuilt heavy-duty battery that allows it to continuous beam a target for a lengthened period of consecutively cooking/melting a desired target before overheating and than let the barrels of the chemical laser cannon re-cool and than start its shooting again. The cannon has an internal auto-loader that reloads the gas discharge tube of deuterium-fluoride and recharges itself for another blast of chemical laser power. The mobile location and efficient battery design eliminates most weight, size and power restrictions especially due to being a chemical laser, and is designed to be modular for the first combat ship that we deploy.

"Eyebite" MCLC
Difficulty: Normal
Roll: 1+1-0 = 2 = Utter Failure

The Eyebite Modular (Not really) Chemical (Hazard) Laser (define "laser") Cannon (sorry?) is a trainwreck of epic proportions. Some genius decided it'd be a great idea to exchange perfectly normal deuterium-fluoride laser generating compounds with exotic chemical compounds. Initial results WERE promising, though, so we kept at it. Then they decided "let's just use some fluorides, those do great jobs at reacting with things!", and proceeded to melt the lab, the five levels of storage below the lab, and the highway they tried to ship another batch of the stuff in on.

In short, the Eyebite is a set of drawings that look like a child's work of what a laser cannon SHOULD be and how it MIGHT work had we done anything right. However, we really didn't do anything right, so now everything is on fire, covered in fluorine metal, or both. We did learn what not to do, and theorize that the next attempt may be somewhat less....terrible.

Cost: Refer to civilian market prices for chlorine trifluoride spray bottles.

It is now the Turn -1 Revision Phase, you have two revisions.

Spoiler: Side Two Tech (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): A less-than-stellar spacecraft, the ITC is a version of the ships landed on your planet when you first colonized it. It is prone to malfunction, slow, and generally unpleasant. The rocket shuttles used to get equipment from the ITC to the ground have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops and things that can be broken into much smaller parts, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC capacity in total and uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armor or armaments.
Cost: 2 SPP

Units
Basic Military Unit: (you may rename this if you so wish) A capable group of soldiers trained to operate any equipment you can give them. Field training allows them to keep up to date on the best way to operate the newest deathtraps and self-destructing gizmos you send them even after they’re deployed.
Cost: 2GPP

Ground Weapons
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards on the colony ships, the only real weapon both colonies have. They are 3D-printed out of plastic, a process which is not entirely reliable, meaning the gun has a tendency to break after prolonged use... or any use, really.
Cost: Cheap

Space Weapons
Eyebite MCLC: A self-destroying tank of fluoride compounds. Warning: DO NOT USE, DEATH OR SERIOUS INJURY MAY OCCUR.
Cost: You have got to be kidding me, right?

Equipment
Basic Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmored and cumbersome to walk in. At least it works well enough, and has a self-sealing lining meaning a single shot isn't an immediate death sentence... most of the time. Necessary for deployment to worlds without breathable atmospheres.
Cost: Cheap

Other
Command Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets, ships, and/or other planets. Currently only useful for taunting your enemy. The transmitter dish comes in a single piece and cannot fit in an ITC shuttle.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 1TC (requires 2 shuttle TC)

Infrastructure
Colony Defense Grid The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to defense the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery now, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

Aggravated Evrasium Reactor: Using the remarkable properties of Evrasium, this device extracts kinetic energy by shining laser light on a crystal matrix, which then punches the hell out of a set of turbines, generating power.
Provides: 2 SPP

Spoiler: Side Two Logistics (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 18
  16 points: Unassigned.

Ground Production Points: 20
  20 points: Unassigned
 
Units
Nope, nothing to see here.

Ships
Your shipbuilders have been really lazy lately, haven’t they?

[TricMagic]

Revision: Metal Printing
One thing that's been a bit lost for a while is metal printing. It's pretty simple to switch some of our stuff to print with metal rather than plastic. So we can now print metal things. This also has the advantage of actually printing a Metal Gun, rather than the current plastic model. Printing ammo for it is also doable.

AER Shockwave Grenade
Made using a bit of Evrasium, and aggravated with the most powerful light we can produce. Most specifically, a Chemical reaction from that laser we were supposed to produce. Add a Timer for activation, a button to start the countdown, and we have a very powerful Shockwave Grenade that will kill just about anyone in it's range. Doesn't work in Space, but the force will create plenty of shrapnel to tear into targets, in or out of atmosphere. It's fairly cheap too, only requiring a bit of Evrasium, the chemical, and the metal casing & timer. AER in this case stands for Aggravated Evrasium Reaction.

Revision 1
Metal Printing(1): TricMagic

Revision 2
AER Shockwave Grenade (1) TricMagic

[flabort]

Revision: ITC Mark 2 - Kinetic Storage Engine (KSE)
Rather than working around a faulty power source, and a malfunctioning chemical engine, we feel the need for a more reliable ship, for troop transport and resource hauling, as well as a basic platform for weaponry, is required. Replacing the presumably chemical powered generator with a Evrasium Reactor is simple enough, but how do we replace the chemical engine? Well, that's simple. We harness the punchy power of Evrasium for thrust as well, using a heavy system of hydraulic springs and dampeners to translate a big punch from a hunk of Evrasium into a store of kinetic energy released more slowly to push the ship "gently" as the springs slide back into the extended position. Even in vacuum, the equal-and-opposite reaction of the springs sliding one way will cause the ship the slide the other way, and the punches outwards will slam the springs back in while providing an opposite force to prevent the ship from sliding backwards by retracting the springs. There will need to be a dense material within the mass being acted upon by the Evrasium to give it the power to move the ship, but the ship will need to be similarly weighted to prevent the KSE from pretty much ignoring it and carrying it along for a bumpy ride. The additional mass requires the ship itself be larger on the whole, and while the KSE has more moving parts than a chemical engine, maintenance should be simpler as those parts are mostly just the same kind of hydraulic spring repeated over and over, rather than hundreds of discrete types of part.

Since the ship must be made larger to fit the engine, it makes sense to put some of that towards storage space, but much of it towards armor to make up the weight to balance out the engine, and a few hardpoints for weapons.

Spoiler: 3rd law in motion (click to show/hide)

Please excuse the awful scaling

[TricMagic]

Directed Angry Energy Mutilation Of Nations, or DAEMON

The DAEMON is simple. It's a Giant Cannon mounted inside the front of a spaceship. Normally, it's covered with plates so it doesn't ruin a launch or entry profile. Once those plates open though, it's a hole straight to the back of the cannon.

We shine 1000 Laser pointers on the Angry Rock suspended by metal cables, and the energy produced is fired straight out of the gun, the emptiness of space being more free to it's kinetic energy than the barrel. As a result, it is focused straight ahead, and lo betide any ships in it's path. This does tend to completely destroy the angry rock and cables in the process, but it's easy enough to refill with another via an airlock hanger in the back of the cannon barrel.

[Chiefwaffles]

Hi here's my lore thing.
It still follows the Technocratic Meritocracy. Just with a lot of surrounding fluff.

===1===
Kaden slams his back against the aluminum wall as his body falls to the ground. The sound of fighting -- of gunfire, how did they even get guns -- so overbearing that it almost made ignoring the bleeding wound in his chest an easy task.

NO CONNECTION[/color]
Damnit damnit damnit damnit damnit. Just barely managing the impulse to punch the dim console terminal, Kaden takes a step back. Banging on the door. They probably had weapons now. If contact couldn't be regained then this ship is done. Kaden knew he just needed to regain contact with the first Lander.
His eyes glanced over to the slouched-over corpse of the Captain. No actual authority anymore, apparently. Especially when they killed the goddamn Captain. No amount of emergency first aid gauze could have saved him. At least, that's what Kaden told himself repeatedly. But he needed to focus. The Captain's mistake was in admitting the loss of communications, and thus effectively ceding his authority. If Kaden could regain contact, if he could just find out what the hell is happening in the communications link, he could regain authority. Save his life and the lives of everyone on board the Lander.
A tiny screen on the wall next to the emergency airlock blocking his potential killers lit up. Of course, they're using the safety override. Damn designers couldn't factor in a blood-starved mutiny.

Endless numbers of commands are typed into the communications console. Same result, until--
RECEIVING EMERGENCY COMMUNIQUE DOWNLOADED. ORIGIN: LANDER ONE. SEVERE INTEGRITY FAULTS. AS FOLLOWS:
----
An^#@ out there? Pl#%[corrupted data]* Booster ()!%@& --gone, %@&!!&#only survivor.
----
TIMESTAMP SUGGESTS CRITICAL FIRMWARE ERRORS. REPLACE IMMEDIATELY BEFORE SEPARATING LANDER FROM TRAVELLER.
Kaden almost sighs in relief before realizing just how bad the situation is now. Sure, it became a lot clearer -- something broke the communications equipment. How? No idea. Why? Zero idea. Hell, something like this may very well be affecting every Lander.
But then there's the worse bit of information. Piecing together the annoyingly sparse bits of uncorrupted data, Lander One is gone. And with it, his authority.
Rumbling vibrates the entire ship as it starts to tumble through the atmosphere. The rumbling almost drains out the sounds of the banging against the emergency airlock. The Lander would hit ground soon.

Kaden hits and slouches against the wall and slowly falls to the floor as the retrograde thrusters fire.
He's past thinking about himself here. The entire ship--no, every lander sent to this planet, is doomed. Since the launch, it's all been doomed. Maybe he could buy time to let himself find a way out the ship once it impacts. Probably not. No matter what he does, Kaden knows that he'd never see anyone in the other lands again. Especially not the brave and talented commanders sent on Lander One. Maybe they'd make a city or town around the lander, but that's all it ever would be. Nothing more.

Impact.


===2===
What we know of the Founders is sparse, at best.
We do know them for their legacy. For their achievement. The Network. What brought us all together again, and what powers the planet.

While we all call them the "Founders" and it's likely that's what you call them as well, their actual name is unknown. To this day, we haven't found that out. Despite interviewing anyone we can and looking at every piece of remnant data left behind, we don't know. Maybe they never had a name. But for us, it's fitting we call them by their achievement, and they were the ones that created the single most important piece of infrastructure and technology.
Hence, the Founders.

What? No, the Founders didn't engineer the chaos during the landings. The creation of the Network and likely the creation of the Founders as a group started years after all that. Chances are, the chaos and isolation was just --yes, yes: a fluke. A coincidence. Not something we could have predicted, and not something we could have prevented. The designers of the Traveller definitely wouldn't have sabotaged it, or designed it poorly. It just... happened.

 
Regardless, the work of the Founders is remarkable and Government researchers are still amazed at what they discover about the Network every day. It was built perfectly. Based on how it's made, we can predict that it was originally intended to just connect the cities. We believe that the Founders had cells in every city formed from the isolated landers. These cells were completely separate and independent at first, and just naturally came into being in the omnipresent chaos and lack of order in every city; but somehow they found each other before anyone else from their cities did, and formed into a single group. From there, they started creating the Network. Perhaps to coordinate amongst themselves. Perhaps to garner power. But whatever the reason, they did it.

The Network as it was originally created is not the Network you've heard of today. Its strong base and foundation and core protocols and technical aspects are still identical, yes, but once the Founders dissolved -- we'll get to why we think they did another day -- and eventually others stumbled across it, it was built upon.
Our actual communications networks and the internet do not use the Network. But they're built on top of it, using it as the base for practically everything. While this has allowed for stunning growth of technology and communications, it means the Network has access to practically every computer or piece of electronics there is, and access to what that thing does. The Network is omnipresent. You should stay away from it, but you need to know to respect it and what it's done for all of us.



===3===
Morgan rubbed her temple with her hand.

Already a great number of years from the chaos of the landings, yet she felt as if she had done nothing in that time. But with this discovery, maybe there could be something done. If her informant was right (and they usually were), then somehow there was a network connecting the area to another Lander-city. Maybe even to more cities than just one other one.
Morgan had an opportunity presented, and needed to take it.

Unfortunately, this opportunity came with its caveats. Compromise. Something Morgan had avoided until now, but needed to finally confront. The city had a dozen different groups claiming to be the official government, including hers. She would have to get some of them agree to help her gain enough influence to properly investigate and exploit this Network to use it. Then they'd have to work with whoever was in charge (if anyone was in charge) in the other city. And so on.
But it'd be worth it. The city has never known order or law. Just constant anarchy. She could protect some, but there were too many under the control of despotic groups and gangs. She needed to expand her power and influence to help them. She looked out the window of her room. While quite stubby, it still dwarfed the other buildings of the city in height. Nothing like a symbol of power (regardless of one's actual power) to get the others under control.
But she needed to work now. Her terminal screen tempted her attention with its orange glow. She could access so much through just text commands and output if she got access to this Network.

...

"So you're actually telling me that it can't be shut down?"
"Er--yes. Yes. It's... it's too ingrained already. Our comms needs it. Citizens need it. Everything needs it now."
"Tremendous. And we can't restrict its usage?"
"Nooo... nope. You see, it's j-just that it's already there. And built up--on top of. You can tell people not to use it?"
Morgan didn't respond. Not verbally, at least. Her body language strongly requested that the consultant should go somewhere... not here. And the consultant dutifully listened and shuffled off somewhere. Probably to his office. Doesn't matter.

Her place of work was much more extravagant now. Relatively, at least. Still dwarfing every other building in the city, but overlooking a more developed city and much taller itself. Her office had an official title appended to it now. Director. Director Morgan. She figured a proper title would help set the precedent and maybe lean things her way in the ongoing constitution creation taking forever. It didn't help that the opposition used the Network just as gleefully as Morgan used it to create the Government. It wasn't as useful to her anymore, but unfortunately, as she just officially discovered, it would not be going anyway anytime soon.
Policing usage wouldn't work. Not many people have the know-how to gain access and actually use it, but they'd raise up a storm anyway. Likely ruining the delicate balance she achieved.

It was frustrating. Tremendous amounts of work, yet still the people considered her Government to be more of a suggestion than an actual essential part of society. Elections only did so much. The coming years will be tough, she knew. But she also knew that she's already made a difference. Her Government may in fact always take second priority to those who can use the Network, but at least it can keep a single nation across the planet and unify people. Even if whoever was the top dog of the minute over the Network would have more influence than the Government.
She sighed. A long road lied ahead, likely with no reward, but she was determined.



=======

Basically, there's a government controlling the planet but it doesn't have extensive/good control over its citizenry. Instead, most of the power and influence is limited to those who can use the underlying network of the planet, suitably named the Network, while not being killed/eliminated/ran out by others. Influence via this Network is short-lived, but very useful. It's not like one person has "control" at any given time. It's a flowing non-static entity. People know about this and its power over the government, and are generally fine with it. Most can't do anything with it/don't bother. The elected government covers more mundane stuff (uuussually) and, along with vigilantes, acts as a moderating force over most people that try to use the Network for especially extreme/objectionable purposes.

[flabort]

Well, there's no point in me writing any lore after that. That's pretty much what I was thinking based on the government type. Those with the skills to use (and abuse) technology are the ones making the decisions based on their ability to make those decisions.

[Madman198237]

So reference: Flabort, that drive makes no sense---Evrasium pushes something OUTSIDE itself.

I guess that Evrasium could be used to push the ship since it doesn't actually care about Newton's 3rd law, and thus could provide a reactionless drive. In my formerly-hardish-sci-fi game....Ah well, not going back on that now. Besides, it's at least cool.

[Doubloon-Seven]

Since Madman is allowing reactionless drives, apparently.

Why send the sons and daughters of our planet off to fight? Why, when we can use the magical, newly discovered properties of Evrasium™ to instantly annihilate the enemy?

The RKI-1 (Standing for Relativistic Kill Impactor) is a computer-guided missile that uses an agitated Evrasium crystal to push itself forwards. Upon firing, it accelerates over an extended period of time, until it reaches a speed that is a significant fraction of c. Roughly the size of a large telephone pole, it is made of titanium and is launched from a satellite with a spinal railgun.

Before firing, it is pre-cooled with liquid nitrogen and is painted black to prevent enemy missile defense systems from detecting it. If we launch enough of them, we should be able to utterly destroy the enemy with absolutely no cost to ourselves, all thanks to our special little physics-breaking rock!

jabbers in salt and fury

[Shadowclaw777]

“Civet” - Bullpup Service Rifle - BSR1:
The Civet is what you would expect when make sure that you are deploying your soldiers with weapons that can actually defend your assets and downsize “infrastructure” of our enemies. A polymer selective fire detachable magazine-fed rifle that utilizes a intermediary cartridge of somewhere between 5.56mm, that is also a bullpup in designed so can retain a heavier barrel for added muzzle velocity and accuracy of the projectiles while allowing us to reduce the overall weight and increasing compactness. The Civet is deployed through fabrication plants for assembly instead of the 3D printing thus would take mechanical effort, in terms of our ground production, but allowing our soldiers to maintain old valor of a service rifle in hand and having a actual effective weapon for our personnel against opposing enemy troops. All painted in a midnight blue sheem on the metal to represent the technate.

Revision Choice 1:
Metal Printing: (1) TricMagic
Kinetic Storage Engine
RKI-1 Thunder From Down Under
Civet - BSR1: (1) SC777
Revision Choice 2:
AER Grenade: (1) TricMagic
Kinetic Storage Engine
RKI-1 Thunder From Down Under: (1) SC777
Civet - BSR:

I don't know whether to go for the Kinetic Storage Engine or RKI-1, but they achieve the same purposes in intent of creation (?), so their should be minimal difference there. A improvement to engines for the first warship and improve personnel weapons would be greatly appreciated, and maybe we can spend a revision on improving our suits to be more... flexible and armored in terms of combat.

[Madman198237]

I'll note here as I did in Discord that the kinetic thing Doubloon posted was out of salt and not out of reason---it's not really a valid design. It can't achieve a meaningful fraction of c, it won't be nearly impossible to detect, and it's going to get shot down by the planetary defenses anyway, because they're optimized for taking out projectiles built like that or something.


In short, relativistic bombardment of your opponent's planet is just not possible.

[Doubloon-Seven]

Yeah, it's effectively just the distillation of my disgust at the notion of a reactionless drive in a hard sci-fi setting. It seems pretty clear now that it'd be better for me to just not treat it as one.

Some serious ideas:

Civilian EVA suits are quite obviously not suited to combat. The least we can do is to try and make them better, or at least give the wearer some time to try and evacuate or patch themselves up.

The proportion of aramid fabric to other materials in the suits has been increased, allowing the suit to take at least a few shots from a Printed Pistol. The life support backpack's casing is slightly thicker metal, and added pockets on the suit's chest area allow for the placement of protective ceramic plates. The polycarbonate visor is slightly thicker as well.

We have also included a basic patch kit, consisting of a tube of quick-dry resin and a few latex patches.

The only decent part about having your gun printed out of plastic is that changes to the base design are as easy as a few hours on a CAD program. The receiver has been strengthened to prevent the gun from exploding every second shot, and a stock has been added to aid in aiming and control of the weapon.

Speaking of aim, the sights are now a separately manufactured component, made from machined steel. From that point, they can be installed and aligned as needed. Without having to rely on the 3D printing process for such a delicate component, aim is sure to improve.

[Madman198237]

Yeah, it's effectively just the distillation of my disgust at the notion of a reactionless drive in a hard sci-fi setting. It seems pretty clear now that it'd be better for me to just not treat it as one.

Probably. Consider you reaction mass to be the spent Evrasium you'll be tossing out of an airlock or something like that.

[Chiefwaffles]

Revision: AER-KSD (Aggravated Evrasium Reactor - Kinetic Storage Drive) (Works off the same principle that Flabort uses in his ITC revision, so thanks)

A ship propelled by springs may not sound fun, but boy is it fun to make reality cry. Or at least imagine reality crying. That's what's keeping us going here.

So, we have the Reactor, referred to as the AER. Right now it generates power by spinning a turbine with its metaphorical punches. We figure that we can same time, money/resources, and effort by using this same reactor to generate thrust in our ships.
The Kinetic Storage Drive is basically an add-on Module for the AER. It's... not that fancy. A bank of springs meant to store as much kinetic energy as possible. In addition to creating the term "military-grade springs", the Kinetic Storage Drive will be placed adjacent to the turbine module for an Evrasium reactor and will be able to have the punches directed at it rather than the turbine. Kinetic energy from the aggravated Evrasium is dumped into the springs which then naturally extend back, moving the ship by Newton's third law. We should hopefully be able to get the reactor to switch as needed between power and thrust by changing very precisely how the lasers are applied (as it was already a science there to get it to punch in a given location with the current setup, so it shouldn't be too much of a push to get it to output in one of two places); if we can't, we can move the turbine/KSD themselves to gather the energy of the remaining-static-in-position punch, or we can just have a reactor setup for a turbine and another new one for just the thrust.

So in other words, put a box of some non-crappy springs next to a reactor and let the angry rock inside punch the springs instead of the turbine every now and again. Springs store kinetic energy and as they extend themselves releasing it they move the ship via Newton's 3rd Law.


Revision: "Beacon" Evrasium-Burst Explosive
Put a small rock (evrasium) in a box, and put a nice flashlight in that box. Turn on the flashlight to make the rock really angry, blowing up the box and everything around it.

Or in other words, an Evrasium-Burst Explosive is a (very scalable) assembly. Just take an Evrasium crystal and put it in some casing with a really strong capacitor-powered laser. Activate it and the capacitor will instantly dump its energy into the laser aggravating the Evrasium and causing a large explosion. We don't plan to spend much time on the laser -- it's single use itself and we only have to worry about packing just enough power to start a chain-reaction inside the Evrasium. Unlike the Reactor we don't have to consistently aggravate the Evrasium and unlike the Reactor we don't have to not blow itself and everything around it into smithereens.

For now, this will be issued to infantry as a grenade with a pin and timer. Extremely tiny evrasium crystal + moderately powerful laser with enough power to shine for far less than a second, connected to a pin. Unpin it and throw it at your enemies and it should produce a nice explosion. It won't be a catastrophic explosion as we like our soldiers living, our soldiers not blowing up our own stuff by collateral damage, and not spending unnecessary amounts of evrasium for our soldiers to blow themselves and others up. Just enough to be a powerful grenade.


So we will get a Research Credit if we design a combat-capable spaceship by the end of turn 1. For best results we need a good reactor (done), a good engine, and a good weapon. And some other stuff but said other stuff should be able to be done in the same design.
Neither of these posted revisions are meant to fully solve either engine nor weapon issues, but rather get us closer to fixing them fully while improving our tech. Developing explosives tech means all we need to do is give them a rocket and some guidance for a missile. The Kinetic Storage Drive should either be a competent engine, or if not it can make making an engine much easier, whether in a revision or design.