Developing New Weapons

Posted on 04 Nov 2018 @ 6:14am by Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale

1,800 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Fractured
Location: Armory
Timeline: MD 3 || 1400 Hours

In the armory after appointing a temporary Assistant Chief of Security, Camila left her office and headed to the armory, tapping her combadge on the way. =^=Di Pasquale to Cooper. Please meet me in the armory=^=

Cooper,just before the call, was sitting in the main lounge still in uniform studying a PADD as she finished lunch. Or dinner, whatever as it was sometimes difficult to keep track when one started work at 1am. She'd been working on training schedules for tactical to forward on in her next report to the Chief when the call came in. =^="Cooper here, on my way Chief." She replied, an efficient member of the wait staff already swinging by to pick up her dishes. With an appreciative smile at the bolian Cooper took the PADD and headed off.

Camila pulled up the information from the LCARS and studied the unusual weapon and then pulled up an inventory of weapons that could be modified to make the non-lethal variable projectile weapon while she waited for Cooper to show up.

Cooper entered the armory, "You wanted to see me Chief?" She asked coming to a stop a few feet away, curious but game for whatever it was.

"Hey, Catherine," Camila said. "How'd you like to help me develop a new weapon? I found schematics for one in the database. It uses foam projectiles, transponder chips and energy nets."

Cooper's eyes sharped in interest, they were alight with curiosity as she considered it. "Would love to." She replied without hesitation, sleep could wait. Now she just wanted to see those schematics.

"Then take a look at it," the Chief said as she stepped aside so Cooper could see the weapon. "I'm pretty sure we can manufacture the parts for it. The ammo may be a bit trickier with the exception of the transponder chips."

Catherine studied the schematics, her eyes roved over it with her full attention. "Shiny..." She muttered as she studied it, "This would be great for dampening fields...", then as she processed what the Chief had

Camila blinked. "How do you associate this with dampening fields?" she asked with more than a little confusion as well as wondering what made it shiny.

"Projectile weapons tend to be more usable than phasers in a dampening field depending on design, I like the flexibility in projectile choices as well. Preserves options nicely." She turned to Di Pasquale, "I see what you mean about the ammo though, the net would be difficult. Perhaps small projector balls in a tube? You fire the tube, the balls scatter and as soon as they hit the proper distance from each other the net activates, connecting all together?" She said spinning an idea as she returned her attention to studying the ammo design.

"Ahhh...now I get it," Camila said. "And that would work perfectly. We'd just need to connect the balls with monofilament wire that produce the stun affect and use the ball as a kinetic energy source to supply the stun effect of the net."

Catherine smiled and nodded, for her this was fun, though resisted the urge to sit cross legged on the table as she would have if she'd been alone. She began to tap on her PADD, making notes. "Right so perhaps something similar to an old fishing reel, easy to spool out and lock into place. Just need to crunch some numbers to get velocity, angle and such." She smiled making more notes.

The Chief raised an eyebrow, but let the Assistant Chief of Tactical ramble for a moment. "Don't forget to factor in European or African Swallows," she said, referencing a weird holomovie she had seen once. "And we can make round spools of the monofilament wire with the replicators. We just need an Engineer to help with creating the energy source to play it out. For now, we'll work on the rest before we submit everything to where it needs to go for the actual creation."

"For the foam projectile, I'd suggest a neodurathal expanding sticky foam capsule," Camila said as she pulled them up on the console. "It hits, sticks and expands to the size of your head in seconds and sticks to anything else it comes in contact with."

Catherine blinked she actually didn't get the reference to swallows but did get that she'd gone too far into engineer territory, "Right, sorry." In in relation to the foam, "makes sense." re-steering her focus. "Are we planning on having all officers carry the solvent? Or would that be for medical?"

"They dissolve after twenty minutes, which is more than enough time to get them to the brig," Camila said. "Now's let get the design of the shells down. A cylindrical tube may work for all three types. What do you think?"

"The tubes I think would make things much easier in terms of the weapon itself, if we were keeping to a standard external design. One gauge as it were." She paused, "In terms of the foam, I'm just concerned we'll have a baddie stuck to a bulkhead or something we can't move even if we stun them in the normal fashion."

"Let me do a check," Camila said as she entered a new search query. "Ah, here we are. There is a solvent for the foam, but it leaves a nasty mess behind. I doubt that people will have room to complain if they board our ship. We should actually use these foam balls as an internal defense."

Catherine nodded, "Good least it's something we can get a hold of at need..." She said thinking of consoles, corridors and other areas a bad guy could get stuck on, then she paused, "Foam balls you mean as part of the ships security systems not just personal weapons?" asking for clarification intrigued by the idea.

"It would require a bit of modification, but it would be feasible," the ombre haired woman replied. "We could put a hidden nozzle above each of the critical areas and take out any invaders that try to go in those areas."

Cooper nodded her understanding, "I love the knock out gas as an option but back up plans are always welcomed, more bases covered that way" She said appreciating the functionality "I was thinking auto triggered for hands and feet when red alert is active for an unauthorized person as well as manual control. Of course if we're worried about computer malfunctioning or other error we can keep it to manual targeting though may slow response time." She said making an observation.

"I can include it in the protocols for General Quarters Four," Camila said. "But I like the idea of manual control in the even we lose all power again. I'm working on a solution for that with Operations and Engineering, though."

Catherine nodded and made more notes, "Wonderful" She said with a smile truly pleased about the news "Nothing like reminding you that your life is in the hands of a high tech tin can in the depths of space that can kill you like a massive power outage. Any news on yet that solution or should I wait for the report?" She asked, not sure how off topic the Chief wanted to get but was rather curious.

"Portable power generators," Camila responded. "I don't want to run into a situation where we can't charge our phasers again or don't have force fields to protect vital areas. Now let's get back to the ammo."

Cooper nodded, it would work so long as the generators had power but it was better than what they had now which was nothing. She refocused her attention, the net seemed set, they had a plan for the foam, so now she addressed the final component. "I have a suggestion about the transponders, that they instantly transport to the brig."

"That's exactly what I had in mind," Camila said. "One tag, one transport. If that fails, then we hit them with the energy nets or foam. One way or another, we won't have to rely on phasers." She brought the simulation up on screen and programmed it with the variables, then launched it.

On screen, the device came up and a target appeared, then it swung around and fired a transponder tag which impacted with the target. A moment later, the target dematerialized and the Chief gave a small cheer. Another target appeared and once more, the weapon fired. This time, three small balls launched and spread out around the target with a monomolecular net between them. Upon impact with the target, a energy burst occurred and the target collapsed.

"Two out of three! Want to try the last one?" she asked Cooper.

Catherine smiled and stepped closer, she reset the simulation and tapped a key. Four black balls, roughly the size of a softball slammed into a target dummy from a spot up high. The dummy was programmed to be in motion so the balls hit one hand and foot exactly. It hit the other foot slightly off center but it was enough to do it's work but missed the other hand completely as the dummy moved. It quickly fired again however, stopping only because it detected successful hit on the target. In all four, well five including the one that had spread on the deck, cases the black foam balls increased in size and essentially locked the intruder into place. It was some how amusing to Cooper as the foam balls did their work, she couldn't say why but it reminded her of an old style cartoon.

She beamed at Lt. Di Pasquale, "Three out of three, though engineering might be less than happy with clean up." Another thought on functionality occurred, "Think we can have multiple types in the clip in the pistols? Being able to choose one over the other at need without changing clips would save time."

"I think that'll do it," the Chief said with a smile. "Now to replicate what we need and give it real trials. Thanks, Cooper."

"Pleasure to help Chief, let me know when you want to go through those trials, be happy to help run it through its paces." She said pleased by the afternoon's work

"I'll let you know when we're ready to go to that stage," Camila said. "For now, thank you for your help and have a good day."

Catherine knew a dismiss when she heard one and nodded, "Anytime Chief, you too" With another smile she headed off, once in the corridor began to review her notes. She was really looking forward to adding this extra functionality to their arsenal, she wondered how soon the Chief could get these to the trial stage.

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