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Operation: Toybox


Abel Cross

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Abel was waiting for Sean to show up.   The outdoor former poolhouse at his parents home  had once been one of the meeting places for the Irregular's gaming nights, but that largely wasn't it's purpose now.   Abel often retreated there when he wanted to work on using his powers, In terms of fine control.   Still it was about to become something more.   


The other Irregulars had fantastic offensive powers that Sean and Abel simply didn't have.   Perhaps some jealousy colored the logic of the two of them, but they were determined to set to righting this, with technology if not the same powers.   Alec was going to be there too, since one of his powers would certainly form the basis of this expiriment.


True to their nerd roots, They had two goals.  The First, a ranged energy blaster.   Abel had gathered data on his own power of that nature, as well as Alec's.   The second was well, a lightsaber.   Once again, Alec's data would form the operating basis for this weapon, as he'd shown the ability to create light blades in his hands already.   


The Trio would work to theorycraft the weapons, with Abel himself generating parts, at least for them to prototype them.
He did have the usual food set out, It wasn't so much that everyone else wasn't invited, if others showed, that was on them.  Still Abel did want to work on this.  Both he and Sean had cleared the area of recording devices, and he  had multiple computers hooked up to work on the project, should the need arise for that too.


"God we're such nerds, even now."


Working on advanced tech weaponry was something he wasn't happy to do, in truth he didn't want to do this for the government or military, he didn't trust them to be that responsible with it, but only after a talk would everyone would he relent and agree to offer the tech up.  They would need it, he knew that, but still, he didn't want them to pressure them for this.  He wanted to have more than a buggy prototype  to show when it came time to do so.

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Sean pulled up to the Cross residence in Little Bigfoot, the customized Challenger/Cherokee hybrid she had built with Abel's and Alec's help. The big wheels crunched on the gravel but the engine was a muted hum, an efficient electric model that could be powered in several ways. She was considered adapting a version of the Asheen micro-singularity power source to give it essentially unlimited range, simply because she could (probably).

Because she could was the reason for a lot of the devices she pondered or actually built. She wasn't oblivious to their greater use or the ramifications they could pose, but the curiosity to see if she could built something fantastic and the satisfaction of bringing it to fruition were driving factors. And what nerd hadn't ever dreamed of possessing their own lightsaber.

She, Abel, and Alec were going to see if they could make a lightsaber - particle-blade to avoid Disney's lawyers - a reality.

Sean picked up the satchel in the passenger seat containing her tablet, a flash-drive of new software for running technical and theoretical simulations and diagnotics and a few rudimentary components she had cobbled together as an intellectual exercise. She strode down the path to the former poolhouse with brisk, unconscious grace, knocking on the door and pausing a moment before entering.

"You ready for this, Abel?" Sean asked, her entrancing eyes bright with excitement. She wasn't nearly as enthused about building a blaster or particle-beam cannon, despite their clear usefulness and efficiency over what was, in essence, a medieval weapon. But a damned cool medieval weapon. She thought in terms of efficiency and expedience all the time, and deadly though it would be, she wanted a lightsaber because she wanted a lightsaber. "First thing to have we have to get straight is what we're going to build isn't a lightsaber, but it'll have the same basic function. I don't want us to get caught going down a dead end path by trying to make the technobabble Lucas and later writers came up with work. We have a great deal more - and more valid - options at hand, and can come up with more as needed."

The prettiest of the mega-brains among the Irregulars tossed Abel the flashdrive who caught it with a thought and plugged it into his computer set-up. "Let's start simple and brainstorm what essential components we'll need."

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Abel tried to not watch as Sean made her entrance.   Even for him, happy with his own relationship, he couldn't deny Sean's attractiveness.  Perhaps his best defense was simply treating Sean like the same nerdy guy who'd always been his best friend.   "Of course Sean.   This is the real world, and we'll break the real laws of physics here."  

His own smile was genuine, and in an Instant Alec appeared, teleporting in.  "Good, now we're all here.  I've got all the pertinent data on the computers I set up, in regards to tests regarding the abilities we'd be using as a basis for these devices."  He handed a flashdrive to Sean.  "This has all the data too, since I knew you'd bring your own."

Once they were all seated, and the computers were networked together, Abel brought up an active program they could all edit, a specs document for both devices.

"Well, first off, we need a sustainable, rechargeable method of powering them.   We need to decide if we want both of these to be something just for us, or for mass production as well.   Another question is a matter of range.  For the firearm, are we looking at a short range handgun, or a longer ranged rifle?  Regarding the melee weapon, I'd say it needs to be no more than a meter, and I'd like something adjustable to the style of fighting.  Another aspect is how do we stabilize the weapons, in form for the melee weapon, and with a set level of output for the firearm?"

Alec chimed in.  "I think we should operate on the basis of making the melee weapon exclusive to those with an active quantum signature.  I can just see them being too much of a danger to the user as well as the enemy otherwise.  We will probably have an easier time with that, and making the firearm a more readily usable device.   The Military will certainly be far more interested in it."

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"The most likely way to stabilize the parameters of the energy blade would be a properly attuned and aligned magnetic field," Sean mused, pinching her lower lip in thought. "I don't see why the field couldn't be adjustable to at least some degree, to fit an individual's style of fighting and reach."

Sean began typing intricate derivations of Maxwell's and Guass' equations for Electricity and Magnetism into the shared program what looked as elegant and sublime as a Renaissance Artist's masterwork painting, made of numerals and symbols, mathematics her infinite palette. Many variables were yet unknown, such as the power and the exactly what the blade would be composed of, but a properly adjusted magnetic field should do the trick.

"For a power source, I had originally considered a micro-singularity engine adapted from the Asheen tech, but I'm not sure if we could make one small enough to do the job, nor if we could direct and focus the output precisely in the way that would be required. My second idea feels more elegant and I think would flow into your considerations, Alec." She nodded at the youngest of the trio of brainiacs. "An active quantum field may be able to power the energy blade, if suitably magnified and aligned. A pro - or con - depending on who's asked, would be that each weapon would have to be attuned to a particular person's quantum field and wouldn't work for anyone else. Hmm... or possibly only at vastly reduced capacity. We would also need some sort of transformer lens or emitter to turn the output into the right frequency of coherent light or particle beam, possibly plasma..."

Sean trailed off as she started adding headings for various concepts for power sources and blade composition. "Some of this will be adaptable for the firearm, though a more 'conventional'," Sean smiled wryly as she made air quotes, considering 'conventional' would be a relative term in what they would come up with, "power source should work. We should be able to design sidearm and rifle configurations readily enough, by increasing power output and adding focusing mechanisms in series. My coilgun firearms work on an analogous principle."

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"Your coil guns remind of the gauss rifles from battletech Sean, save hopefully they don't explode when damaged."  he sat to consider the ramifications of the previous suggestions.  "I'm good with our focus for the melee weapon using an active quantum field, both for activation, and sustained control.   It would take some doing but I'm sure we could make some receivers that would allow it to serve as a focus.  IF we can build in the required safety gear too the micro singularity might work.  We have been working towards miniaturizing them after all and ensuring that the chance of a critical overload is minimal.  The same work will be crucial for the firearms, to keep them from exploding.  I'd love to develop a quantum battery pack, something that would work for the blasters, but we could also use them to prolong our own combat time. "

Alec looked at him.  "You'd have to also work up a method to transfer that power too, or convert it into something usable.  It might be abit beyond what we're trying for here."

Abel gave him a nod.  "Yes, my big fear is that they  immediately want us to upscale the tech, or worse than that, they try to get others who don't understand the tech fully to do so, which brings the risks of major design flaws to satisfy a schedule."   

"So we know we want a blaster, what sort of action for it are we talking?  A solid beam, semi-auto, full auto, three round burst?"   

Abel took up that gauntlet.  "Let's aim for semi auto.  It should be the simplest of them.  Once we've got that hammered out, then we can look into making the others.   I also suspect that the others would require more power, and thus be larger weapons."

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Sean nodded her agreement. "It might look fantastic on the screen, but a solid beam would be a massive power sink to little benefit save collateral damage or a cutting tool. Semi-auto pulses is the way to go as a base. Other firing options could be enabled or added to later iterations, with the bearer taking responsibility for the pros and cons for their use, like overheating the weapon or draining the battery."

Sean pursed her lips. They were starting on a small scale, but nebulous ideas were already percolating in her head on how to adapt the ideas for a larger scale in the future, like spaceship-mounted weapons. The Asheen had been devastated, but that didn't mean the Overlords didn't have other servitor races, let alone their own directly subordinate minions. Earth would need its own - unified - defense force, one capable of functioning in space. Not just so it didn't have to rely on a handful of superpowered teens or a friendly alien race like the T'tauri, but so it could also aid current and future allies.

But those were still plans for a distant time. So far.

"As for the military, well... we're working on this on our own. I have some contacts in the manufacturing sectors and with Abel's talents, we should be able to get or make whatever components we need for a limited supply run. We simply don't share our research and designs until we're ready to share them and more importantly, they're ready to see them. That might sound conceited, but with sharing the technology we develop, we bear at least some responsibility for its use."

It was also a means of leverage. Sean wasn't naive by any means, the military and government, or at least most members, would do anything to manipulate and control them. As long as the Irregulars had something the government couldn't get anywhere else however, they had a means of negotiating on a more even basis. And seeing just what the Asheen could throw at them, Sean knew they couldn't think of things in terms of single nations anymore.

It simply wouldn't be enough.

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Abel already had several ideas of his own, but for now he'd stick to the scale they were talking about,  they all knew that eventually this would involve space combat, so it would be good to prepare.  "Nothing we make will remain secret for long, given that they tend to try to watch us when we fight, so when it's used, expect the military to ask about it.   I think that at least for the early models making them dependent on an active signature is best. "

"So Sean, Alec, if we rule out the singularity for now,  and operating on the basis that we have an active quantum signature to activate and harness the ability of the devices we're creating how do we power it?  How do  we go about creating the effects we want?   For me, I'd want the device to have its own self-contained energy source, preferably a rechargeable one.   It's at least two devices for each, the power supply, and the equipment that actually generates the effects.   The flashdrives have data on Alec's versions of the abilities, blasts of light, and the ability to create weapons of light.   For additional reference, i've included my own ability to generate destructive blasts of telekinetic force too.   Why don't we take abit to look over all the data and then see if anything stands out?"

Abel had extremely detailed charts, graphs, and spreadsheets on the usage and lethality minimums and theoretical maximums, relative energy usage compared to other powers,  and general tests vs other materials.  Clearly Abel had been working with Alec a fair bit to procure this test data before they actually set out to make these devices.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sean reviewed the data Abel provided with a rapidity that would be unbelievable in any other company, but which Abel and Alec had grown used to seeing from the brainy beauty. Even before encountering the first big Asheen assault and discovering their micro-singularity power sources, she'd been pondering on how to manage zero-point - or near zero-point - energy production.

Converting the kinetic energy of continuous vortices in superfluids, precise manipulation of magnets and magnetic fields, corralling the constant fluctuations of the fermions of matter fields and the bosons of force fields in regards to Quantum Field Theory. Sean saw many feasible solutions to the problem of power generation, both on the small scale for personal devices and the large scale, like powering cities.

Of course, large scale power generation had a whole host of other problems to consider, such as other people and their greed, corporations and utilities, how to integrate with or rebuild the energy distribution grid, potential economic instability. To her mind, the technical part was the easy part, but she had been making plans, stored and sorted in the flawless vaults of her mind.

"This is great stuff, guys," Sean said of the data, flashing them an unintentionally devastating smile. "I have several ideas on how to convert the power into a stream of coherent light, bound by a magnetic field. The readings on your telekinetic emanations have given me a clue how to manage it. As for a power source, I have some ideas in that direction too. We can plot out the math and theory, but it'll take some actually testing to see what works and what we can replicate intentionally. Hope your node is rested Abel, we're gonna need you to make us some custom components."

At least with Guild Chat - or a select channel for an express purpose - it was easy to convey exactly what they needed, with a precision that was beyond mechanical, in dimension and composition.

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