Plasma Guns and Hot Knives

[Hayden]

Hayden ordered full operation, and then immediately buried his nose into work the day the order came. He had spent that night dismantling the Former Grand Councilwoman's throne and learning its innerworkings, connecting the speaker to various rigged areas through the room that he could access. They didn't look very professional or well integrated. In fact any amount of observation would reveal how little aesthetic care went into their installation. Hayden was being pragmatic about it at the beginning. A tangle of wires and speakers was fine to adorn the chamber. He would worry about appearances later. It was more important that, should the need arise, communication be viable.

It didn't matter now, to be honest. Hayden had much work to do. He was currently balls deep in examining the weaponry of the fleet. It was very nearly everything he had hoped. So close in fact that, even where it failed his expectations he couldn't help but be excited by the knowledge he stood to gain.

Plasma. Weaponry. This stuff was beyond even what the top minds of Radiant Garden, what with their CLAYMORE system an all (something he would definitely look into... soon). Certainly they could dream of it. Certainly they could conceive of it. Science has known about plasma for a long time and equally as long have warmongers with even a passing knowledge of the subject jacked their johns off to the idea of plasma weaponry. Yet, now here it was. Not fiction or theory but functional fact. Better yet: it had been here all along.

He took the weapons apart, broke them down, ran a charge through them to simulate firing... these weapons were ridiculously complex and optimized. Rugged to be certain. It must have taken decades of dedicated study and development to get them this far. Their internal workings were not at all wasteful. Everything was made with purpose, yet the greatest insult would be that not all of the weapons were up-to-date. Many of them were obsolete, though even the most old-fashioned Plasma Pistol vastly outperformed any other modern handgun, save probably in the speed department. The older models were larger and clunkier. This was because they were actually disposable. They didn't have a method to replace their magazines, and they were terrible at holding a charge for anything more than a day if used sporadically, or an hour ifused constantly.

The newer weapons were chargeable, and while the magazines themselves weren't replaceable they could be refilled through an external process. The batteries on these as well could last days, of use. But, this was only the very surface of what Hayden had learned. And boy oh boy, Hayden had been learning quite a bit in just a short time.

So, unlike conventional weapons with magazines meant to hold solid rounds, this weapon series held a reservoir inside its internal magazine. This reservoir contained weapons-grade hydrogen-based liquid-fuel. Hayden reasoned that the magazines were insternalied because of the expense it would take in developing a material suitable for mass production that could contain the fuel without eroding or reacting. As a result they were using a cheap and naturally magnetic metal that was augmented via a slight, ever-present current. If this container were divorced from a charge, then the fuel would react with it and explode.

From there, when the trigger is pulled the magic happens. Some of this liquid fuel is ejected or siphoned (depending on make and model) in a another magnetized chamber, this time in the shape of cylinder, which actually has been lined with a mass-produced coil. It emitted a different kind of magnetic field compared to the rest of the weapon- one that attracted and direct the plasma rather than contained it. When pulled into the cylinder anywhere between one to sixteen high-powered micro-lasers situated within the weapon flash-boiled the fuel from liquid to super-hot plasma.

The field the coil projects, in conflict with the rest of the field from the cylinder, causes the plasma to accelerate, where it is deposited into a secondary chamber that further accelerates it. The conflicting forces condense it further. The moment the plasma leaves the barrel of the weapon it is no longer magnetized and blooms outwards like a hot balloon-flower-thing of horrible doom. Depending on the length of the chamber, the bolt of plasma can go anywhere from one-hundred feet to a mere five-feet before dissipating. Potentially he could quadruple that range, but likely wouldn't be able to get it more effective than that. However, that was only true for an atmosphere. In space, he could potentially create a larger, deadlier beam. Perhaps one he could mount on a ship? Questions for later.

And of course, Hayden's immediate question was, "How do I make this into a sword?" After all, if he were to revive the Union of Blades why would he arm them with mere handguns? Or rifles? it was called a motif, and it was important for moral.