Chapter 27: Chapter Twenty-five On the range

Kiru stepped into the firing range, with a bit of excitement. While her hud still told her the weapon was restricted, she was finally going to be allowed to use her cannon for the first time. It was part of her, and she was eager to see what it could do.

“Before I let you shoot. I need to tell you a few things about your weapon.”

She nodded and focused on Megumi. To indicate that she was paying attention.

“Like most Solean ground weapons, your defense cannon is plasma-based. Now do I need to go over the advantages and reasons for that or are you good?”

She shook her head. Kiru was familiar with the advantages of plasma-based weapons. There were a number of advantages to plasma-based weapons. While they lacked the range of other energy weapons, they excelled in firepower. Plasma bolts could burn through most types of armor, and overwhelm shields in short order. That limited range mattered less in ground engagements. They were also fairly robust and could be fitted to infantry portable platforms. Making them quite popular with infantry.

“What about lasers? Are you familiar with those, or does the Neku military not cover them in their education?”

“Vaguely. A bit of an outdated weapon. Why ask?”

“I see you will need a refresher then. As for why, that weapon on your arm is a Plasma Laser. It marries the advantages of laser weaponry with those of Plasma weaponry.”

“I guess I do need a refresher then.”

“Alright, now Lasers are simple directed energy weapons that fire phase-coherent streams of photons. The chief most advantage of laser weapons is their range and accuracy. Lasers also travel at the speed of light. Many young races adopt them as their first energy weapon as they excel at carving through the kind of armor employed by races that young. However, they do lack firepower and struggle against any kind of significant energy shield.

“Plasma on the other hand is the most potent of the conventional trio of energy weapons. Plasma Lasers fire a phase-coherent stream of superheated plasma, the result is an energy weapon that marries the firepower advantage of plasma with the range and accuracy of lasers.”

“Interesting. Although I do wonder, is there a short form of Plasma Laser?”

“They are sometimes referred to as phasers, but that isn’t the official term for them. Anyway, let’s move on to the weapon itself. Your personal defense cannon is thought-controlled with two distinct firing modes. It doesn’t have variable intensity settings, however. So if you shoot, be prepared to kill your target. In fact, get used to that. Solean weapons typically don’t include a Stun setting. In the primary firing mode, your cannon will fire a continuous phased plasma beam. The beam mode is more accurate over range, and is useful for cutting through walls in a pinch. This mode will be your preferred mode at most ranges, especially at long, and close range

“The secondary mode fires compressed plasma bolts contained within a phased flux field. These bolts are quite powerful and will detonate explosively on contact with a target. Hellfire mode as it is called has a lot of firepower but isn’t recommended at close range. Best used at medium range. Very useful against targets in cover, or when laying down suppressive fire.”

Kiru glanced at her arm, and commented, “In other words, I have a grenade launcher integrated into my arm?”

“I guess you could call it that. Although I probably should show you a few Solean grenades, but not today. Anyway, I have unlocked your cannon. Why don’t you try arming it?”

Kiru blinked. Noticing that the restriction was indeed gone. She focused on the weapon, and willed it to arm, in the same manner, she would use the other systems Kiru had taught her to use. The cannon responded instantly, and her arm opened up. Several skin-covered plates extended out and back. Then a small cannon extended above her wrist.

She moved her arm around, and found that the plates didn’t really restrict the movement of her arm. It was really weird to look at. Especially with how she could now see the alien machinery integrated into her flesh.

On the other side of the range, a small object moved onto the range. It was a small sphere, but it quickly changed into an armored figure. She glanced at Megumi questionably.

“What is that?”

“Type 17 Metamorphic target drone. It uses an array of complicated systems, EGM, Holography, Force Shields, and more to simulate any target. In this case, an armored foot soldier. Try shooting at the drone.”

Kiru nodded, and raised her arm. She took aim, and with a thought fired. A coherent beam of blue-green plasma arced across the room, and struck the wall about half a meter to the left of the drone.

“That was okay, but you do need to work on your aim. Both in terms of speed and accuracy. Try again.”

Kiru let out a breath. She fully agreed, it had taken too long to aim that shot, and she had missed. That wasn’t acceptable. Not for her, not for her former teachers, and not for the ship. She adjusted her aim, and fired again. Determined to hit this time.

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A second stream of plasma arced from her arm, and this time it struck the drone. A grazing hit to the side with some plasma striking the wall. The drone appeared to be undamaged.  She groaned, that wasn’t good enough. Kiru knew she was still too slow, and that wasn’t a solid hit either. She needed to do much better against a stationary target.

As she continued her practice, she asked a question that had been on her mind. “By the way. What exactly is EGM?”

“Just a fancy acronym for Energy Generated Mass, in other words, it is matter synthesis technology. The technology for it isn’t all that complicated. The main bottleneck for it is power generation.”

That pretty much answered the question, and she refocused on working on her aim. It didn’t help that she lacked sights. When she asked, apparently she had targeting sensors, and a reticule for her hud, but Megumi had ‘helpfully’ disabled those features. Saying they were mere crutches, and that she needed to be able to quickly and accurately aim without them.

---

She spent the next couple of hours practicing against a single target. At first that target was kept stationary, merely being moved every couple of shots. Then the target started moving slowly at first, and then with some speed. Eventually she was able to hit the target consistently, and actually scored damage with every hit. It turned out to be rather easy. The plasma beam was remarkably accurate and fast. It was really as simple as point, and fire, even against a moving target. Unlike the significantly slower plasma rounds of Neku rifles, pistols and whatnot, she had no need to lead the target. Although it did become harder to hit once the drone was placed past a certain range, but that was mainly due to a lack of sights.

Megumi suddenly had her stop, and then added a dozen additional targets to the field. She glanced at her, and before she could ask, Megumi began, “You seem to have gotten the hang of the primary mode. What do you think of it?”

“It’s amazing. A solid, highly accurate, and easy-to-use weapon. I wonder how long before my people could develop something like it?”

Megumi replied with one surprising word, “Yesterday.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that.”

“The Neku are already advanced enough to produce a phased energy weapon system. The only reason they don’t have one, is that no one has developed it. The only question is how long before someone decides to try.”

“So something like this is already within our reach, huh? Kind of nice to know.”

“Well a surprising amount of science is merely refining upon what already exists. Phased Plasma weapons have been in use in the Empire for millions of years. They have changed over the centuries, but they are still fundamentally the same weapons developed so long ago. Albeit far more powerful, and efficient. It should come as little surprise that many of my toys are merely refined versions of things already within your reach. Not all my toys are that way though. My hull for example is made of materials your shipwrights can only dream about, and will remain out of your reach for several millennia. My drone weapons are also far beyond what your people could develop in your lifetime.”

“Now that you mention it, I guess that is kind of true. It just slipped my mind. Anyway, what do I need to know about this secondary mode?”

“Not much. In hellfire mode, the cannon has three fire mode selectors. Single shot, burst and full burst. Single shot naturally fires a single plasma pulse at the target. Burst fires five plasma pulses in rapid succession. While Full Burst will drain the entire capacitor, and if your plasma capacitor is full that equates to fifty plasma pulses. After firing a full burst, you will need to wait for your capacitor to recharge before you can fire again. In general you will almost never use the full burst firing mode. It has its uses, but we won’t go over them today.

“I assume you noticed that the extra targets are now in a tight formation, and have some cover. Ranging from light to full. Now you could just lob a grenade at them and be done with it, but a burst from your defense cannon in hellfire mode will also do quite well in this situation. Why don’t you try a few practice shots now?”

She took a stance, while internalizing that bit of information. She had already noted the capacitor. In the primary mode, she could fire continuously, so long as there was energy in the plasma capacitor. Although in most cases it was better to keep to a short burst.

  Just as she was about to fire her first practice shot, the deck plates shook. It wasn’t enough to unbalance her by any stretch of the word, but it was noticeable... barely. With a frown hse looked over at Megumi. “What was that?”

“I opened fire on the Inquisitor, a few minutes ago. Those were just the shockwaves from my torpedoes finally reaching the hull. There is a larger, more powerful, shockwave coming up in about two minutes, but we won’t be here to feel it. I am about to make the jump to warp speed. So it’s nothing to worry about.”

Kiru was left wondering what the hell, those torpedoes were packing to rock a ship this big. It was only later she decided that she didn’t want to know. Especially once she considered how powerful the inertial dampers had to be for such an advanced vessel.

---

The captain was just about to step off his bridge, and call it day. Suddenly his officer jolted from her seat. A bit of a panic, in her tone, as she hastily reported. “Sir, long-range sensors are picking up a massive energy burst in sector 57 gamma, inside the Charis nebula. The readings are off the scale.”

“Energy burst? What kind of energy burst?”

“Unknown. There is nothing like it on record. I can’t even tell what kind of energy it is. The computer doesn’t recognize the energy signature.”

“Monitor the energy burst, and forward all data to central command. Alert me if there are any changes in that region,” he ordered before departing the bridge. He had no idea what caused that burst, but the exhausted captain had little doubt that every ship in the area had picked that burst up. A small voice in his head told him nothing good would come of that, but he was too tired to deal with it right now.

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