[Chatter Call]
*ring*
"This is Grif."
"Hey, boss, this is Frankel over in Jullun R&D."
"Oh, hey. What's up? Good news, I hope."
"Actually, yeah, we've been going over all the stuff you gave us, the demo readings and schematics and notes... You said that stuff came from the early 21st?"
"In an alternate universe, but yeah."
"Right, right. Anyway, this stuff is amazing. Uh, as you know, Bauchau's the only one of us with any actual weapons engineering experience, but he says he's not sure that even the military could've come up with some of the stuff in these things anytime soon. We certainly wouldn't have been able to invent them."
"I'm not hearing much in the way of good news, there."
"Well, no-- I mean, yes, you're right, but while we couldn't have invented them, we can improve on them, some. Not so much with the Gluon Gun, the best we could was clean up some of how the MJOLNIR power interface was integrated, but we were able to adapt that work to the Tau Cannon. You'll only be able to fire one at a time, but then, you can only hold one at a time, so that's not so bad. Also, Walsh has a connection that can get depleted uranium for us on the cheap, so we can provide you with a steady supply of ammo. Oh! Which reminds me, Bridger's worked out consumer applications for the micro-fission tech they use. You'll have to look into the regulatory licensing if you sign off on the project, but he expects it could make you enough bank to make up what you spent on the Jullun Industries merger."
"Right. Okay, that's cool. What about that 'long-jump module' thing?"
"Oh, man. You think we're impressed with the guns? That thing is unreal! Micro-scale jet gear? I'd be making fun of it, if we'd come up with something this small since we stopped using jets so much, but failing that, this design is genius. The integral power supply and its cyclical self-recharging system, though, we still haven't cracked, but we can work around that."
"So can you scale it up, make it capable of actual flight?"
"Well, yes and no. We've worked out how to make the engines themselves larger, and how to re-arrange everything so it all fits with the Gluon Gun pack and all, over your regular MJOLNIR reactor pack. The power requirements, though, are higher than anything else we've ever seen on this scale except for the Gluon Gun. Actually, that's just the spin-up draw. Sustained activity takes even more juice. We can do the same trick of hooking it up to the MJOLNIR reactor, but even so, we'll have to buffer power for it rather than run a direct feed."
"...Is that a yes or a no? Speak small words, I'm not that good with the science."
"In a low-G environment like that Xen place you mentioned, yeah, that'll be enough for full flight. In Earth-like conditions, though, the best I can give you is a high-powered boosted jump with limited thrust vectoring while in the air. It'd be kind of dangerous to use, really; at the maximum elevation it could get you to, you'd have to keep an eye on the buffer recharge cycle, falling speed, and elevation, and be ready to use the jets again to provide retrothrust, or else it'd injure or possibly kill you. Oh, and, of course, while you're recharging the buffer, you can't use either of these energy weapons, or vice versa."
"That's... actually kind of cool, as next-best-thing measures go. How soon can any of this stuff be ready enough for me to use?"
"The Gluon Gun's already done. The Tau Cannon mods, probably tomorrow. Actually, make that tomorrow for both; Kober's reworking the Gluon Gun's backpack so it uses the back rifle carrying clamps instead of straps, and adding an array of those clamps on the other side, so you can carry multiple guns on it. Fabrication and initial testing are gonna push the jump pack out to at least a couple of weeks, though, if not longer."
"Mm. Yeah, okay. Anything else?"
"Uh, yeah. heh. Howell says he's got that other thing all taken care of. A... crowbar clamp?"
"Oh! Ha. I'd forgotten about that. Awesome. You'll see when I come by tomorrow for the other stuff too."
"Well, you're the boss. We'll be looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, then."
"Excellent. Thanks, Frankel. Later."
*click*
"This is Grif."
"Hey, boss, this is Frankel over in Jullun R&D."
"Oh, hey. What's up? Good news, I hope."
"Actually, yeah, we've been going over all the stuff you gave us, the demo readings and schematics and notes... You said that stuff came from the early 21st?"
"In an alternate universe, but yeah."
"Right, right. Anyway, this stuff is amazing. Uh, as you know, Bauchau's the only one of us with any actual weapons engineering experience, but he says he's not sure that even the military could've come up with some of the stuff in these things anytime soon. We certainly wouldn't have been able to invent them."
"I'm not hearing much in the way of good news, there."
"Well, no-- I mean, yes, you're right, but while we couldn't have invented them, we can improve on them, some. Not so much with the Gluon Gun, the best we could was clean up some of how the MJOLNIR power interface was integrated, but we were able to adapt that work to the Tau Cannon. You'll only be able to fire one at a time, but then, you can only hold one at a time, so that's not so bad. Also, Walsh has a connection that can get depleted uranium for us on the cheap, so we can provide you with a steady supply of ammo. Oh! Which reminds me, Bridger's worked out consumer applications for the micro-fission tech they use. You'll have to look into the regulatory licensing if you sign off on the project, but he expects it could make you enough bank to make up what you spent on the Jullun Industries merger."
"Right. Okay, that's cool. What about that 'long-jump module' thing?"
"Oh, man. You think we're impressed with the guns? That thing is unreal! Micro-scale jet gear? I'd be making fun of it, if we'd come up with something this small since we stopped using jets so much, but failing that, this design is genius. The integral power supply and its cyclical self-recharging system, though, we still haven't cracked, but we can work around that."
"So can you scale it up, make it capable of actual flight?"
"Well, yes and no. We've worked out how to make the engines themselves larger, and how to re-arrange everything so it all fits with the Gluon Gun pack and all, over your regular MJOLNIR reactor pack. The power requirements, though, are higher than anything else we've ever seen on this scale except for the Gluon Gun. Actually, that's just the spin-up draw. Sustained activity takes even more juice. We can do the same trick of hooking it up to the MJOLNIR reactor, but even so, we'll have to buffer power for it rather than run a direct feed."
"...Is that a yes or a no? Speak small words, I'm not that good with the science."
"In a low-G environment like that Xen place you mentioned, yeah, that'll be enough for full flight. In Earth-like conditions, though, the best I can give you is a high-powered boosted jump with limited thrust vectoring while in the air. It'd be kind of dangerous to use, really; at the maximum elevation it could get you to, you'd have to keep an eye on the buffer recharge cycle, falling speed, and elevation, and be ready to use the jets again to provide retrothrust, or else it'd injure or possibly kill you. Oh, and, of course, while you're recharging the buffer, you can't use either of these energy weapons, or vice versa."
"That's... actually kind of cool, as next-best-thing measures go. How soon can any of this stuff be ready enough for me to use?"
"The Gluon Gun's already done. The Tau Cannon mods, probably tomorrow. Actually, make that tomorrow for both; Kober's reworking the Gluon Gun's backpack so it uses the back rifle carrying clamps instead of straps, and adding an array of those clamps on the other side, so you can carry multiple guns on it. Fabrication and initial testing are gonna push the jump pack out to at least a couple of weeks, though, if not longer."
"Mm. Yeah, okay. Anything else?"
"Uh, yeah. heh. Howell says he's got that other thing all taken care of. A... crowbar clamp?"
"Oh! Ha. I'd forgotten about that. Awesome. You'll see when I come by tomorrow for the other stuff too."
"Well, you're the boss. We'll be looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, then."
"Excellent. Thanks, Frankel. Later."
*click*