Chapter 158: (and 259) An Inconvenient Truth... End of an Era

***

Colonel Caron strode into the meeting carrying a black rifle case.

He slammed it onto the conference table with a bang causing everyone to jump slightly.

"Colonel," General Greggs said, raising his eyebrow. "I believe I said not to come forward again unless you had something other than that wiggly shit. From your demeanor, I assume you have that something?"

The colonel smiled.

"Yes, sir," he said as he opened the case and pulled out a black polymer carbine-sized weapon with integrated optics and a rather suspicious sleeve over a suspiciously thin-walled and oddly bored barrel.

"I swear to God, Colonel," General Greggs said wearily, "If that is a fucking gauss weapon, I am going to shove it up your ass."

"It does have a gauss component," Colonel Caron said, "BUT," he said loudly and firmly before General Greggs could get his mouth fully open, "It is NOT a gauss weapon… not entirely."

"You have thirty seconds before you wish you brought lube," the general growled.

"May I present the Frog," he said triumphantly.

"The… Frog?" General Ashton asked, her eyebrow nearly reaching the ceiling. "What's with the name?"

"Oh," Colonel Charon laughed sheepishly, "It's just what the R&D people called it in honor of some of the key components which were developed as the result of reverse-engineering a rather curious piece of alien tech."

"So, it is xeno trash," General Gregg said derisively.

"If you mean it is somewhat based on the most advanced small arm we have ever encountered," Colonel Charon said, "then, yes, it is 'xeno trash'. But, everything has been produced in-house from what was learned from studying that weapon."

"If that weapon is so great," the general said, "Then why isn't your xeno-loving ass showing us that?"

"Because we still don't understand nor can we reproduce it," the colonel replied, "The weapon produces an effect that we have absolutely no idea how it exists in the first place. However, what we can understand is, in a word, revolutionary. We were able to accomplish in a month what would have taken years. The power output is, for lack of a better word, insane."

The holographic projector switched on, showing graphs and tables.

"And just what am I looking at?" General Greggs grumbled.

"Colonel," a man wearing a business suit and ID badge said, "are these numbers correct?"

"Yes, sir," the colonel replied.

"How?"

"We're… We're still working on that," the colonel replied, "But it is replicable, stable, scalable (sort of), and holds up to all standard overload and durability testing. We believe it harnesses quantum fields in some as yet unknown fashion… But it works!"

He paused.

"And we also believe that when we fully understand the device, the result will be an increased understanding of the fundamental nature of quantum field theory and thus reality itself."

"That's a bit of an overstatement, don't you think?" the man replied.

"Oh?" the colonel replied, "Please review this footage of the only test fire of the weapon in question."

A glittery, bedazzled, cute little pink pistol appeared on the holo.

Everyone laughed.

"That is the most advanced small arm ever encountered?" General Gregg laughed. "You have to be shitting me!"

"Just watch," the colonel replied as the weapon was leveled at a target and fired.

"What the fuck was that?!?" the man in the suit exclaimed.

"For lack of a better word," the colonel replied, "ultra-high-velocity coherent electrons in a solid beam. It hits like a bullet, or more precisely a water jet, and then 'devolves' into significant potential within the target. It's an armor-piercing electron gun, sir… And it also has a horrific neural disruption signal carried down the length of the bolt sufficient to destroy the target's nervous system, which seems to be the primary method by which it kills. Even if you are just grazed by one of these beams, your central nervous system will shut down permanently. Unfortunately, we did not test it against armor. Still, based on our readings, it is at least moderately effective… and even the slightest penetration exposes the target to the neural disruption effect. Even if it isn't fatal under those conditions, it would be totally incapacitating."

Another diagram appeared.

"How is the signal that well maintained at those power levels from such a small device?"

"We don't know, and we don't dare fire it again."

"Why?"

"It was made for effectiveness over durability with components of dubious quality under field conditions. Vital components degrade with each shot. It was clearly designed for limited use and subsequent disposal… a true 'burner'. Without consulting the designer, we don't know how many shots it has left."

"Can we get in touch with this designer?"

"Um…" the colonel replied awkwardly, "That is… um…."

"Well?"

"It's not possible," the colonel replied as a picture of Sheloran appeared, "I'm afraid she doesn't like us very much. Any cooperation is not likely at this time."

"Is that… the singing frog?" General Ashton asked, "You know, the one with the…."

She started making crooning noises as she waved her arms around.

A picture of the flayers appeared.

"You mean these?"

"Yeah!" General Ashton exclaimed. "Did you guys see that? She turned those assholes into croutons!!!"

Crime scene photos appeared.

"Jesus!" General Gregg exclaimed. "She turned that one guy into pastrami!"

"We have the whole incident on camera if you want to watch," Colonel Caron said.

"Sure!" General Gregg enthused.

"… Fuck," he said a few moments later. "What do we know about those beauties?"

"They are surprisingly simple," the colonel replied as the disassembled flayers and their schematics appeared. "It's a pair of very elegant monowire accelerators that just squirts the stuff everywhere along with, you guessed it, a horribly inhumane neural disruption signal, the designer's signature. It's even worse than the one out of the glitter gun. There isn't much to them except exceptional control. We are looking at adapting them for boarding parties, but they are, for lack of a better word, 'fiddly'. Getting the feed rate correct and the wire moving in the right patterns without ripping the weapon and the operator apart is much harder than it looks… and she threw them together in the back of a moving cab from things she got at a Barn Mart."

"Is there any way we can get her on board?" General Ashton asked, "Or maybe another member of her race?"

"No!" a primly dressed woman in a cobalt blue pantsuit and ID badge said firmly, "Just… no."

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"That's an issue for another day, I suppose." General Ashton said.

"That's an issue for a never day, General," the woman said. "Just drop it."

"I see," the general said, "So, what did the 'glitter gun', reveal?"

"A rather mysterious component that we believe to be some sort of 'quantum capacitor'," the colonel replied. "It initially appeared decorative, but upon closer examination, the arrangement of coils and ferrites somehow can store a near-infinite amount of potential. It just goes somewhere and then returns. We have absolutely no idea how it works. However, it can be copied. The number of turns, the thickness of the ferrites, the diameter of the conductor… even the spacing all seem to be critical. Any variation of any of these and it just turns into a rather shitty inductor. By carefully copying the ratios, we can scale it up or down, however, only by a small amount. When triggered by a pulse down another set of turns, it unleashes all of its potential in a single instantaneous discharge."

"Can they be used for energy storage?" the man in the suit asked excitedly. "Could they replace the Old Earth supercapacitor?"

"Not at this time," the colonel replied, "They… well… explode isn't exactly the right term, but they cease to exist in a spectacular fashion if the charge is held too long. However, they are both excellent in the charging power supply as well as the main weapon caps and greatly increase power and reduce weight resulting in a far more powerful weapon than normally thought possible. In addition, the reduced weight allows for much more shielding than normally possible."

He looked at the group as he held the masterpiece.

"This weapon is actually harder to detect than the AK."

"What?!?" General Greggs spluttered.

"Our foes, while initially surprised, did eventually learn," Colonel Caron replied, "They now actively search for Terran steel on the battlefield. Fortunately, this still requires them to actively search for it and thus expose their positions, but they are getting better every year. The Federation has revealed scanners optimized for steel during their current unrest. If the Feds can do it, you know the bug can. From muzzle to stock, this weapon is designed for stealth. Along with our new armor and equipment package, it will make our infantry the hardest to find on the modern battlefield."

"But it's still a fucking gauss slugthrower," General Greggs retorted.

"So is the Sabergun," Colonel Caron replied, "and this isn't simply a gauss slugthrower."

He held up a single large 13-millimeter charcoal grey projectile.

"Gentlepeople," he said proudly, "Allow me to introduce you to the Ribbit, the ammunition for this weapon."

"Ribbit?"

"You can change the name," the colonel replied with an exasperated sigh. "This is just what the research team called it. You know, the whole frog theme. It's a play on the word 'rivet'. Hey, they are researchers. You know they can't be trusted with names."

He held up the round and tried again.

"This is a two-stage rocket-assisted geometrically and spin-stabilized projectile. It is electrically ignited during launch and further accelerates the high-density ceramic composite projectile to velocities that make the term hypersonic obsolete."

He quickly turned to General Greggs.

"It is not a gyrojet," he said firmly, "The round is spin-stabilized, but that spin is generated during launch by torque placed on the projectile via electric current."

"Why the rockets?" General Ashton asked.

"Recoil management," Colonel Caron replied, "That has been the one drawback to previous small arms. One can't get around Newton's third law. Even the legendary Sabergun wasn't immune to basic physics. The rocket assist gets around that concern and allows projectile energies that are simply too great for the warfighter or the weapon to withstand."

"Sounds' fiddly'," General Greggs said with uncertainty in his voice.

"It is," the colonel replied, "but it is far less 'fiddly' than our newer 7.62 projectiles. It also requires fewer internal components, isn't pissing valuable tungsten all over the place, and relies solely on kinetic energy. The days of having to support dozens of specialty rounds could come to an end, replaced by a single all-purpose projectile that hits so goddamn hard that it doesn't matter what's in front of it. At their fastest point, currently fifty meters downrange, their speed exceeds the detonation velocity of many high explosives."

A table appeared, and the murmurs got louder.

"How does the projectile not disintegrate?" an elderly four-star general asked.

"The geometry and composition of the round," the colonel replied. "The composite is based on materials used for unshielded reentry of orbital attack weapons. It can withstand the stresses and temperatures, no problem."

The holo display started a slide show showing the results of the round's impacts, destroyed personal armor, perforated, shattered walls, and even light armored vehicles.

"The round hits like an anti-material rifle, and we can put one in the hands of every soldier in the Republic," the colonel said.

"Hmm…" General Greggs mused.

"How does your precious AK look now, Horace?" General Ashton snorted.

"Oh, shut up," he grumbled. "Ok, the performance, on paper…."

"Look at the goddamn slides, Horace."

"I am, Marge," General Gregg snapped. "Alright, the performance… Happy now, Marge?"

"Delighted."

"The performance is impressive," he said, "But those rounds look large and heavy. That has to limit the number of rounds our warfighters can carry into battle."

"By a significant amount," Colonel Caron replied. "However, they will only need one round where a burst was once required. Suppressive fire can be achieved by the sheer shock of a single round impacting every few seconds rather than a steady stream of wasted ammunition. It won't take many of these to convince the opposing force to keep their heads down, I can assure you."

He held up the rifle again.

"To further economize ammunition, each weapon will come equipped with an AI smart sight complete with 'smart gun' technology. Our warfighters will be able to select a target, even one behind cover, and either penetrate said cover or have the weapon automatically fire the instant the target presents itself. This can also be used for long-range targets where the weapon will only fire when perfectly lined up for a successful hit. This system is completely passive and does not require any active scanning or rangefinding."

He smiled.

"To put it in simple terms," he said, "our warriors won't carry as much ammunition, but they will rarely miss."

"I don't like it," General Martinez, usually silent (and bored) during these endless presentations, said. "Over-reliance on toys like that will only serve to reduce the skills of our soldiers. We will be just another pack of xenos with fancy toys… and we all know how that turns out."

"Technology and proper training are NOT mutually exclusive!" Colonel Caron exclaimed. "Yes, the 'toys' greatly enhance the process, but they are not a replacement for marksmanship. A skilled marksman will be able to engage targets faster and more reliably. An untrained user will still benefit, but against a squad of our soldiers, they would be cut apart. The smart feature can also be quickly disabled for training or for applications where it would be a hindrance, such as close-quarters combat, boarding, or urban combat. And yes, thanks to the initial muzzle velocity of the gauss component, the weapon is still very effective at those ranges. Ammunition could also be produced for situations where that would be expected with faster burn rates or could be tipped with explosive or other payloads."

"But you just said that only one round would be required," General Gregg retorted triumphantly.

"Now you're just being contrary," General Ashton said, punching him in the shoulder. "Look at it, Horace, look at it… It's a fucking anti-material sniper rifle in the hands of every Republic soldier!"

"And it does not replace sniper rifles or other special-purpose weapons," Colonel Caron said, "In fact, there is a sniper version currently under development, and gentlepeople… that thing is frightening."

"There is another advantage to adopting these now," the primly dressed woman said, "It would create a flood of surplus late-generation Terran AKs and ammunition. That surplus could easily be used to equip Federation separatists, criminal gangs, and other such organizations. No reason for the gun runners to have all the fun," she added with a wry smile.

"I have arranged a trip to a nearby artillery range if any of you wish to take one of these out for a spin," Colonel Caron smiled.

***

As the dust settled and the fragments finally stopped falling, General Gregg turned to Colonel Caron with wild eyes.

"Did you fucking see that?!?" General Gregg screamed, "We have to get these!!!"

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