1283/Project Sunray 2:The Enlasering

Project Sunray 2:The Enlasering
Date of Scene:	06 January 2015
Location:	Earth-115
Synopsis:	XCOM is still researching and iterating their Laser tech. Some designs show promise, others, not so much. Time to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 62, 300, 571, 673

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Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Once more the call has gone out. Once more XCOM needs assistance with a research project. Sunbeam has been one of the most long-term and ongoing projects to date, taking up thousands of man-hours and clogging up the Research Lab with project designs, schematics and prototypes for the last couple of months.

    Last time, several options were relayed by various parties, this time, those prototypes are being tested and evaluated. Doctor Vahlen is standing as normal, her Datapad in the crook of her right arm, tapping at it with her left hand. She's waiting for the various people to arrive, her Team showing nervous energy as their prototypes sit on a counter. They look similar, a basic aesthetic of white with the acceleration coil exposed, though the trigger mechanism and some of the back-end are radically different. One has an ejectable thermal 'clip' system, another has a large backpack with coolant fluid and a heat exchanger, yet another is a far scaled down model that might be designed to simply produce less heat. There's several models, both Rifle and Pistol variants.

Staren has posed:
    Staren's here to see what they've come up with! He's brought his trusty laser pistol with him for comparison, of course... "Good to see you again, Dr. Vahlen!" He smiles and waves, then stops and looks slightly surprised at the array of prototypes. "You got them all ready /this quickly/? Nice job!" He hurries over to inspect them, and starts reading the data on his implants, matching up which design theory was applied to which prototype.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Argonaut Engineer Rory white does not specialize in energy weapons. Heck, she doesn't even know ballistics terribly well. But she knows plenty about the systems that make all gadgetry work. Metallurgy. Power generation. Materials engineering. Behind that is a large database of proven designs - albeit, offworld ones that rely on slight differences in physics, available materials...

    Just enough to make a copy-and-paste job not exactly feasible, really.

    Which is why Rory's taken a different measure. She's all but still in her seat, a strangely blue-haired scientist and new sight at the labs. She's seated near the others, with a datapad of decisively non-XCOM design on the table. It's attached to a holoprojector and all sorts of designs are floating in the air above it in wireframe schematics. Some are animated, some aren't.

    And Rory's hard at work at them.

    Apparently, she's attempted to load up all of the metallurgical and materials data available in the XCOM database and import it as all new classifications of the materials she's familiar with and is working on her own 'virtual testing facility.' In fact, the projector's showing a setup similar to what's laid out in the physical world here: all the physical prototypes and anythingg they might be being fired at for a test.

    "Thermal clips, cooling backpacks and... lesser output models. The core problem is heat but that can be tackled in many ways. Until I understand the materials we're working with and what we can do with them though, my aid's pretty limited. Comparisons between contemporary models in the Argonaut database and the XCOM designs suggest these prototypes may have several times greater output but suffer from less efficient laser emitters. The more tightly the beam is focused the less waste heat we'll have to deal with..."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis has opted to dress a bit lighter today, given the fact she doesn't quite need to comply by XCOM uniform standards...yet, anyways. Despite her sidearm being holstered, she's pretty much going unarmed as well, but that's generally habit on her end. The cyborg's been a semi-regular to this part of the base, having spent time being repaired by SHen's techs the best they can and whatnot, but this is the first time she's actually seen any work done on lasers.

    /This/ ought to be entertaining, and Alexis is rather relaxed as she shows up with a cup of steaming hot ramen in hand and chopsticks in the other, grabbing a seat as she waits on the demonstration to begin, nodding to Vahlen and Staren. "Hiya doc, kiddo."

    Rory will also get a moment of consideration, but she seems a bit busy with tech to chitchat, so she begins to nibble on her meal while observing the presentation.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
this was a bit out of her area of skill but there was ways she cxould help and at the very lest? She can info gofer with her cyberbrain for information the research team might need. She's casual as she normally is looking more like she just fell out of a night club somewhere. She had a data pad in hand however and comes in on Alexis with a bit of a grin.

"I should get you to get some actual scratch made ramen at some point Alexis, your missing out on the real deal."

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Vahlen nods politely to each in turn as they enter. "Doctor Staren, always a pleasure." she falls in step with him as he approaches the prototype display. "We have been working feverishly the past two weeks. We have been assisted by some... unusual methodologies granted by a pair of friendly Aliens." she goes a bit dreamy for a moment. "I only wish I could study their device more closely... a marvelous feat of technology." a sigh. "None-the-less, with some assistance from our allies, we have these designs, in various combinations."

    The group near Rory are /still/ giving her funny looks, even with the holographic emitter showing what she's doing. Such an /odd/ girl, but then, genius and insanity...

    Kotone's pulled aside by one of the groups. "Hey, you can help us testfire. You've got a better heat tolerance, right?" asks one.

Staren has posed:
    Staren also waves to Rory and nods to Kotone and Maaka. He raises eyebrows at the mention of fabrication assistance. Ah, did they use Rory's DCM after all? Hmm. Well, makes sense. it's okay to speed up the prototypes, as long as they can make the production models the regular way, right?

    When NPC Scientist #2241612 asks Kotone about heat tolerance, Staren is just reaching for one of the pistols, his ears flick and he YANKS his hand back as if from a stove. He looks at Kotone, then at the prototypes, then reaches down and activates his belt henshin, armor appearing around him.

    Heat tolerance is now not a problem.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Genius or insanity, who can say? Either way, dozens of derivative designs are forking off from the given ones even as Rory's speaking. Is she coming up with ideas WHILE observing everyone else and the things around her? The heck?

    Oh well, she's a computer-person. That might explain it?

    The progress does noticeably slow every time she turns attention to speaking though! "The Matter Manipulators fascinate me. I'll go far out of my way to acquire one or two for study. They could revolutionize terraforming and colony building!" Which apparently holds her attention far more than military technology does.

    The data she's collecting about the differences between identically named materials from the same world will be invaluable research...

    "All ready for the test. Hopefully the sensors on the prototypes can give some good data about what kind of heat buildup we're facing. If the data matches my models then I can start working on tweaking it!"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    And then Staren just utterly changes outfit faster and more intensely than any smart clothing. Rory whirls about in her chair to face him. "...What did you DO?!"

Staren has posed:
    Matter manipulators? What are those?

    Staren turns around when Rory shouts. "Huh? It's a protoabstractum!" He explains, then blinks. "I made it to /not die/ if I get caught in a combat situation unarmored. I can't get morphs easily and my clones only finished growing a few months ago." Caught off-guard, he forgets to explain what a protoabstractum is first.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa asks the Doctor "Albert and Moonfin, fight?"

She takes a moment to look at the progress on things. She's then pulled away to help with the test firing.

"Yes I do, better than someone ending up with bruns, right?"

She could shut her ability ot feel pain and physical senstation off if it came down to that.

<<Your telling me Rory, I want to get my hands on one of those someday myself.>>

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Vahlen shrugs. "Anyway, we should begin the test phase. Doctor Staren, Miss Yamakawa, if you would like to take the Prototypes into the Test Chamber, we have a set of targets ready."

    Each gun is labeled with a letter and number. A-1, A-2, etc. There's about twelve in total, mixing the various design schema together. Three baselines, using only one of each. Three mixing one of the others into another, then a third set doing it another way around. The fourth set of three mix all three together in different levels.

    The teams just look between Rory and Staren then back again. The catboy hasn't done anything /they/ find odd, but they've been around him more.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "... It's a what?!" Rory blurts, curiosity raging out of control after Staren's explanation doesn't quite make much sense. But she stands up to watch what shall soon happen: the test! "The output on these models is more than I'm seeing in other designs. Let's see what they can do!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks. "Oh. I... I'll explain later, I guess." He selects some of the prototypes for testing -- favoring the small pistols closer to what he's familiar with, and the big backpack models because his armor can carry them.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa loosk to Vahlen and nods.

"All right."

She'll take a moment to collect all the prototypes anf get them all to the testing chambers. She'll take the weapons and get set up in the firing range and she'll get to work calling out.

"I'm ready to go, just give the word."

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Vahlen nods. "Sensors ready, feed is good and stable. Begin test, A-1, 'Thermal Clip' Rifle." she calls, tapping at her Datapad, as the Thermal Clip team monitor their sensors from the prototype.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa takes the prototype in hand and rises it up properly for a firearm. Yes she's been paying the heck attention to things it seems with what combat training she's been getting. She lines up a shot takes aim and pulls the trigger on A-1.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Hooray, Kotone!" Rory tamely cheers Kotone on while bringing up all kinds of data. Sensors showing the beam's output, targets, all kinds of things. she brings up infrared scans too to verify the sensor data... she's ready to double-check EVERYTHING!

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Test A-1. The rifle is a High-Output design, with a Heat Sink system built into the 'barrel' that draws excess heat out through Alien Alloy conduits into an ejectable 'clip' of premade elements that diffuse heat rapidly. These can be ejected and a new one put into place as easily as one would reload a projectile magazine. The target is a set-up dummy of a 'Sectoid' an artists childish rendition on an Alloy plate. It has sensors throughout it that show heat diffusion and radiation tolerance.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone sees the blast from the laser seems to go all right for A-1 and she looks and she takes a moment to eject the clip and test putting in a new one before setting it down. She takes a moment tilts her head and picks up the second weapon, A-2 to give it a good look over before she makes ready to fire once more wondering how this one is going to be and the little cartoon alien does amuse her quite a bit. It seems someone had fun with it and actually can draw...humm she wonders whom the artist might be.

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches. He's picked out any pistols and heavy coolant backpack designs Kotone didn't want. Making mental notes on the performance of the rifle versions so he can compare them to the pistol versions.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    A-2 is the Backpack coolant pack design. The backpack is /very/ heavy, maybe impractically so for unaugmented troopers, but the heat generated by the system is much more thoroughly and quickly dispersed. The backpack realocates the heat into a dynamo system charging a capacitor. This might be more useful for a MEC than a regular Trooper. THe output is far higher too, but it becomes unstable at the impact point, scattering the damage over a wider area.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "The main heat sources are the emitter array and power unit. Most of the heat's caused by creating the laser. Focusing the beam more tightly would generate less waste heat..."

    As she speaks the overall emitter the design uses 'zooms in' on her holoprojector and is sliced apart into sections. The most heat-susceptible areas are marked with red splotches...

    "I believe the best way to eradicate the heat issue is to increase the reflectivity within the emitter array so it absorbs less of the stray photons... this fiber laser is already pretty impressive... if I can just figure out how to improve how efficiently it uses the energy..."

    Rory's tactic is apparently lowering the heat itself... "Graphene-based electrical systems is one angle to look at. But I don't think we can cheaply create enough graphene..." Rory's explaining herself to the others around her while keeping an eye on the testing!

Staren has posed:
    Staren steps into the test room with the second prototype. "Is anyone besides the MECs going to be able to use this?" he wonders aloud, then takes aim and fires! "Hmm. Hits a wider area, like a shotgun." He turns towards Rory. "That might be useful!" he calls out. "But if you would prefer a more tightly-focused beam, I'm sure I could help with that."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is fairly impressed all things conisdered after she fires off the laser she hefts the large things down and looks over to STaren for a moment and nods.

"I was thinking that maybe this could lead into a MEC trooper weapon at the lest it's a heck of a cooling system."

SHe notes before she starts to take off the weapon and go for unit A-3 which she'll make ready to fire with almost mechnical precison.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    A-3 is the Reduced Output design. It's exceedingly light, and has none of the other modifications like the others. The sensors show negigable heat build-up in the barrel area, but the beam itself is increadibly weak, barely registering on the target sensors. It would likely work better as a spotters tool than a weapon, but perhaps the hybrid designs based on it would function better?

    Staren's pistols have similar design concerns to the Rifles. A-1 generates a lot of heat that's drawn into a disposable 'clip' just behind the generator coil, it's ejected by pulling back the guard cover, which causes the assembly to be ejected out at a high speed to one side, away from the operator. A new clip can be inserted easily. The A1-2 version has a wrist-mounted cooling unit, but again it's very heavy for its size. The A1-3 version is little better than a high-power laser pointer, it doesn't even register on the target sensors.

    Rory's musings cause the science team to discuss amongst themselves. "Well, we've been experimenting with Carbon nanotubes, but manufacturing them enmasse is beyond even the best manufacturing company... Graphene is something we've attempted in small scale, but the amount we'd need is prohibitive. Good lines to address though, may be something to look into once we beat these aliens... refine the processes."

Staren has posed:
    Staren sees how fast he can shoot, and how many shots he gets per 'clip', with the first design. On the second, he asks, "It occurs to me... we could experiment with different sizes and positions of cooling devices. And since we're offloading the cooling anyway... have you thought about a multi-barrel design?" He draws his pistol for comparison, showing the two barrels.

    Finally, he tries the third design. "No good... you just can't get enough power in this." He looks back to Rory. "How much could we increase the power if we fixed the focusing problem?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory turns to meet Staren's gaze, and shakes her head. "Not enough to matter! Maybe 30 percent? The production cost would skyrocket though. Most of the designs I've checked for laser weaponry use a lot of materials XCOM cannot produce... as was just pointed out. ... ... This is frustration, isn't it?" It might be, but Rory's not doing a very good job of expressing it besides tension in her voice!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa finds the A-3 is interesing it's light she looks over the rsult it seems ot be a pretty good range finger form the looks fo it and she now looks over to ROry as she finish up the shots."

She lowers the weapon now and moves to grab the next for firing.

"This must be stone knives and bearskins for you, eh Rory?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren sideglances to Kotone. "She's not Zwei. More like revolvers, I'd think."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "It's also a refernce to an very old and classic SCI-FI show, I guess it didn't happen on your world huh?"

Kotone shakes he rehead a little bit, and restrains comments about Zwei.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Vahlen correlates the data. "Hmm, overall it looks like the A-1 series works the best. The A-2 set has better cooling, but the system is far too bulky for practical application... Alright, begin B-series tests!" she taps a command into her Pad, and the target is cycled out. Same material, same sensors, but this time it's a Thin Man done in the same cartoony style. "Fresh target, fresh readings."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Even stone knives won't cut the user unless the user makes a mistake." Rory points out straightforwardly without missing a beat. "Until we fix the heat issue, stone knives perform their function better than these sophisticated lasers."

    Burn.

    Although it probably isn't meant as a burn. She said it in too even a tone.

    "Energy weapons aren't as widespread for military use as popular fiction might lead 21st century imaginations to believe. The problem we are dealing with right now is the same one that prevents them from being so much better than kinetic impact. Lasers harm through heat. If armor is nearly impervious to heat then lasers become very ineffective. Even plasma throwers aren't effective at piercing armor. The most destructive weapons are still derived from conventional firearms. While magnetics and similar technologies replace chemical reactions, a metal shard at supersonic velocities is far more damaging than a laser beam. Lasers have the advantage in accuracy and modulated output so they make for very effective non-lethal suppression weapons."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa sets down her next weapon and just is grinning at Rory.

"It was a bit of a joke I'm sorry. As for that ... woah."

She caught the burn but the tone was off. She pauses and listens with intrest.

"The most lasers have been used are ship or vechile mounted ones as anti air and missile weapons. Over heat the fuel supply and boom."

She notes as she also gets a lesson in Rory's world's firearms.

She gets the first of the b series and goes to work test firing it, so far nothing's over heated to hurt her yet, so things are going well on her end.

Staren has posed:
    Staren carries the A-series weapons back out. "Huh. Energy weapons work just fine on my world. We'll have to compare designs some time. From what I've seen, your world developed much more advanced computers and nanotech, while mine focused on military development and human enhancement programs." He suddenly stops and hmms. "Now there's an idea. Kinetic weapons? You could take the cooling solutions developed here, and apply them to railguns too!"

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    B-1 is the first Hybrid. It's a THermal Clip with a wrist-mounted auxillary cooling unit. Overall the design is heavier, harder to wield and the wrist unit makes holding a steady aim more troublesome... but the thermal output is barely noticable. It holds the same characteristics as the A-1 unit, high output and overall good performance... but perhaps it could be pushed further, sacrifice the light frame for something heavier and a larger emitter lattice.

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches. "That looks heavy... a MEC could use it though... And there's barely any heat build-up! So you could afford to turn the power up a lot... That'd be expensive though, hmm..."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "My approach might be flawed. We might have better luck developing several specialized designs. This one looks like a candidate for 'high power, low rate of fire.' The lower-output model with some output improvements might be a suitable sidearm!" Rory postulates, letting some excitement be heard... though...

    Both Kotone and Staren get awkward stares from her for a bit. Her lips press together thinly, but whether this is being disheartened or showing confusion isn't so obvious...

    "We should focus on the problem at hand. Once I have more data on how the materials behave I can run simulations of alternate designs..."

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Vahlen nods to Rory. "So far, the -1 set are showing the most promise. The idea came from a certain woman who showed up, well, it didn't come from /her/ she just reminded one of my staff about the idea. We're using compounds we can recreate, brought to our attention by Doctor Benson."

    She gestures to one of the spent 'clips' on the floor. "They can be reused. I believe the military term is 'police your brass'?"

Staren has posed:
    "Mm." Staren nods. "They seem the most promising for the original purpose, yes. The -2 and hybrid series show promise for being modified into special-purpose weapons, though."

    Staren blinks. "Oh, sorry." A tendril of electric-blue energy suddenly connects between his chest and the spent 'clip', which levitates over to him so he can set it back down on the table.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is going to start cleaning up the spent clips on the floor and make tus they can be picked up and used again for further testing. She takes a bit and humms ove at the radio. She keeps out of that.

Staren has posed:
    Some time later, Staren sends over plans for a new focusing array. "It was quite a challenge to figure out a way to make it work without materials that haven't been invented yet, but I think this could work!"

    Unfortunately, when it's tested, the prototype it's been put in... There's a loud POP and a lot of smoke and soon some very expensive electronics have been reduced to slag that's dripping on the floor. "...Oops. I don't get it! That should have worked!"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis has been here, quietly assisting with the laser prototypes as best she can. Despite the limited amount of shots they carry, she manages to get over the bugs through the sheer glee she has a goddamn /laser gun/ in hands. All the same, she mentally jots down notes about ergonomics and recoil patterns, as well as output and all that. Complicated stuff, but it should be info useful for Vahlen and the other R&D staff. That, and also jotting down potential suggestions including a venting function to help with heat buildup in the middle of battle. All of this is put together in a neat little file before it's essentially uploaded to the datanet.

    And she does this while miming making laser noises with the gun in hand when she thinks nobody's looking.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Whatever method Rory's using to be working on several projects at once is astounding to watch. Three separate designs are being modified with results appearing between all three, as if three seperate people were constantly checking each other's work to accomplish this magic.

    The tweaks Rory's making to proposed new designs are minor at best. A shaving off of material here, a slight angle change or a slightly different allow manufacturing suggestion for a part there. But bit by bit she's streamlining some of the internals to allow for better heat tolerance, if not resistance, and better transference. Several 'wild and impractically expensive' derivatives are also showing up, including one that appears to have a barrel made entirely out of a macro-sized fiber optic material... and one that's a layered thermocouple using the heat of each shot to charge the emitter's capacitor...

    Most of these designs are being 'tested' in the holoprojector in an almost identical method to the real thing with only marginal improvements on the simulated data. The weapon fires a beam at a digital target and burns it.

    But holy crap, it's a fully simulated test. Who knows if it's accurate to reality though. Probably 'kinda close.'

Richard Stadler (300) has posed:
Stadler, unfortunatly, isn't an... energy weapon sort of person. The word 'Obstinate' seems to have been made specifically for him, and one can tell that he's looking at the 'weapon' strapped to the wall with a mix of contempt and confusion. "Never understood these Technology Division things in the first stages. Wait until they smooth out the prototype work, yes, then I can get the hang of it, but my work's always been in the biolgoical sciences." He mutters to whoever's listening. At the very least, he does jote down a few notes, less on the operation of the weapon, and more 'tactical viability'. He doesn't exactly know /how/ they'll get to a proper sighting system, trigger mechanism, and minimal spread, but he does know it /will/ need that sort of thing.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has been well helping but she's been doing mostly grunt work and she's moved in to see if Rory needs any help for the moment she kind peers at the young AGI and watches her as she goes about her world and she tolts her head while she also looks to Rick whom she's never met in person before.

"Hello and hows it going Rory?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory can onyl operate at such speeds by ignoring most other things going on. When Kotone addresses her she seems to drop out of the speed trance and turns about in her chair to smile at her. "Making some progress, Kotone! ... Without more advanced materials I can't do much, but these simulations show it's possible to improve power efficiency and heat tolerance by around 5 to 15 percent! ... That may not seem like much, but every small bit adds up. It translates into firing more often... hello!" The greeting is aimed at Stadler, whom shes only just spotted!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks over at Rory <<Need me to curnch numbers for you I can ... go faster than a human can if you need more processing power.>>

She does seem to be in a good mood however.

"That is good every bit does help, it's how you get forward it's normally little bits forward than just massive leaps. Leaps are generally pretty rare like with the technology behind my body."

Staren has posed:
    "Stadler! Long time no see!" The man gets a smile and a wave. "How've you been?" He heads away from the testing chamber and approaches Rory. "You've got a lot of stuff running here at once. Are you forking?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory shakes her head. "No. I save that for emergencies. this Cyberbrain has some mental speed augmentations but not a Multi-tasking unit!" So she was doing that based on... pure speed and 'natural' multi-tasking. But well, AGI, probably a specialty of hers.

    "I've got some IDE's running but the automatic engineering suggestions are getting a little ridiculous. They don't like the parameter changes and I don't know this field too well." But apparently she's got enough overall knowledge to take it to some degree!

Staren has posed:
    Staren ahs and nods. "Yeah. I have concerns about it, myself. But from what I've heard, aura will prevent it from working on most elites anyway. Except for that one time when I cheated using Abstractum..." He moves in for a closer look at the screen. "/I/ know this field. Hmm. Reusing the waste heat is an interesting idea in theory, but in practice it's only going to be a tiny fraction of the energy needed to fire another shot. And a fiber-optic barrel... is that really going to /do/ anything? If the beam is focused, what's a few more inches of air to go through? If it isn't... well, the fiber's not really going to help, is it?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "Ah I see fair enough and wait what's forking or do I want to know?"

Kotone seems curious but gets the idea she might not like the answer for a moment. She looks to Staren and ponders for a moment.

"Air diffusing a laser is indeed a issue isn't it?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Depends on the materials. After all, an extremely reflective material won't be heating up. It has to absorb energy to heat up!" Solid physics in theory but good luck coming up with a way to do it. "For that you'd need some very hefty metamaterials though. I tried restricting everything to materials available here and... oh well. These results aren't good. However!" She beams up at Staren happily!

    "There's other ways to improve efficiency. The tactical network programming the squads use!" She blinks over at Kotone after the sudden question...

    "Forking. Creating a modified, stripped-down copy of your Ego to carry out some task on your behalf. Most Forks are called Delta Forks, AI templates with an imprint of your personality and some basic skills for the task. Beta Forks are limited copies of an Ego. Standard practice involves remerging the Forks after at most an hour or two, as a Fork that runs independently too long diverges and makes integration difficult. So in very, very rare cases a Beta Fork might become rogue. This is why I don't use Forks save for emergencies. Several habitats also are suffering problems involving accidental backup restorations from backup insurance where a person went missing for a year and reappeared, resulting in two iterations of the same person being active at once. These cases cause plenty of legal confusion and other trouble. Consequently it's not unusual for Forking to be heavily regulated. Frequent Forkers are not viewed too kindly."

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks at Kotone. "Yeah, but what's a few inches when you're shooting at something dozens of feet away? If the beam diffuses /that/ fast, you'd pretty much need to hold the fiber-optic barrel right up against them and pull the trigger."

    He nods after Kotone's explanation. "That's why I don't do it." He scratches the back of his helmet, realizes he's still armored, dismisses it, and scratches the back of his head. "Hm. I thought Rebecca said it was accepted in some places. Well, different iteration of your world, I guess."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Some societies are very open. Some are not." Rory explains more gently to Staren.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa Says "A few inches are everything to a sniper or someone taking a shot, Staren. XCOM needs the best they can put out, even a slight boost in accuracy is imporant. Or have you forgot all the strike teams are /not/ immortal?! Also done a sniping work? Every bit counts."

She's not yelling but she's being very foirm at this point. She also nods to Staren on the forking bit.

"I mean it's possible for someone to operate another body remotely, some people do so from home to work or work dangerous jobs sometimes. but that that's ... ya that raises a lot of unplesent questions."

Staren has posed:
    Staren facepalms. "Which one of us is the weapons engineer here? Barrel length matters in conventional firearms and railguns because as long as the round is in the barrel you're adding more kinetic energy to it. Once the slug is out, the gas just escapes or the circuit breaks. In a /laser/... Doing it like that, at best you're just letting the beam start spreading a few inches later. That's like holding a conventional firearm further out in front of you for more range. If it /did/ matter, you could get the same effect by just moving the laser emitter itself forward a few inches."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Staren is correct on the lasers. The barrel matters for physical weapons by focusing the momentum. Lasers don't have momentum and for the scale we're operating at won't be meaningfully affected by gravity. But the less diffusion the better! Lasers are only effective if the beam stays intact instead of scattering. The atmosphere will diffuse even the best laser past a point!" Rory does know her science at least!

Staren has posed:
    Perhaps too late, Staren tries to look a bit less condescending before turning to Rory again. "We've got some solid stuff here. Just need to refine the type-1s, and try more special-purpose designs for the type-2s and the hybrids. Sooo... I was wondering... How can we get some experts to my world to teach people nanoprogramming, and to modify medical technology to work on aliens?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Relying on clips or coolant backpacks seems crude and inelegant!" rory announces, somewhat complaining. "But it seems we have something, you're right." She nods agreeingly to the results...

    Then answers. "Simple! A request to Mitre Station for consultation services is easy to lodge. But adapting medical technology to aliens is asking a lot! There won't be overnight results..." Of course Staren probably knows that.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa listens and just nods as he bring sup the weapon eingeer thing anf shrugs, she may mention it to the Docs later but that was a maybe either She litens as they talk and she thinks for a moment and hummms.

"Heh I'd been wondering about that being applied to proethics given they do have basic self repair to a point, but unless your some high end military model your not going to have /too much/.

Staren has posed:
    Staren shrugs. "You heard Dr. Vahlen. They insist on stuff they can make here. And yet, use of alien materials is okay..." he shrugs again. Then listens to Rory, and nods. "Of course. But slow progress is better than none. I can cheat, but the results... it's not always clear how they /work/. When it comes to medical technology, I'm sure everyone would feel better if someone knew how it actually worked, right?"

    He blinks at Kotone. "Huh? Applying /what/ to prosthetics?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "They may be working on a way to reproduce the alloys too. I mean they figured out how to produce the grenades with earth spec materials if I recall right."

She looks to Staren.

"Err sorry the medical patches or some analog to them."

Staren has posed:
    Staren tilts his head. Then he reaches into his bag and pulls out a little spray can. "Repair spray. If it were programmed with the prosthetic's schematics, the nanomachines could repair the damage as long as there are enough materials to work with. Of course, it's not very fast, but then, neither are medical options short of healing potions."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Repair Spray's only good for small damage." Rory quips. "But it's very useful for those small things!" She seems to have let her development project idle for now in favor of this discussion.

    "I can understand the desire to use their own materials. This just means that the optimal course would be to develop Nanofabrication hat's made entirely of local materials. ... Far beyond my knowledge though, I'm afraid!"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa nods a little bit to Rory and Staren.

"Maybe we could look into that even if it was for small things like synth skin damage tht would be greatr. Such technology does exist but as I said it's expenive to the point only militaries tends to be able to get it."

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods to Kotone and looks back at Rory. He pulls up a chair and sits. "What about 'consultation services' in return? Does 'Mitre Station' have any need of mercenaries or mages?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Information's always in high demand at Mitre Station! On other worlds especially. Technology, history, scientific studies... each world is a..." There's a noticeable pause, rory's eyes glaze over, then she offers uncertainly, "treasure trove (thank you Rolan) of data to pore over. But services for services also is great! Money is not turned away either - it has some uses for where it came from!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "Well, I'd be happy to see what else we can help with."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa adds "IF they need some resoration work or custom vechile orders I could likely handle anything ground related."

Someone got a earth era bike or car in need of fixing up? She could likely restore it.

"I mena I do pull things from the tokyo ruins that have been cleared of bodies things the salvage teams left behind."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Anything of Earth is always in high demand, Kotone! ... I can get you in touch with some groups that might be interested." Rory offers, though she sounds unsure. That's waaaay out of her area of expertise...

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "Well... we'll keep in touch, alright?" He stands up. "Good work, everyone." Handshakes are offered, and then he turns to head out.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa grins "I'd been hoping to expand my business a bit and this sounds like a place to do so."

Also hopefully perhaps get some interesting things in trade in kind. Also Rory there's a place I want to take you that might be fun to unwind after this."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "What palce would that be?" Rory piques with some interest! Voice lilts and everything, but her smile's a simple pleasant one!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "I know this little club we could go to, to relax a bit after this unless there'ds something else you'd rather do?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "A... club? ... You know I don't eat or drink or other things. What happens at this club?" Rory's still interested but now blinking a little...

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "Music, dancing, socialization I figure that might be fun and ... sorry I forgot you can't eat or drink. For obvious reasons mine can at least still do that even if I can't get drunk.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Oh, one of those clubs!" Well at least Rory sounds familiar. She doesn't show too much emotion besides that spark of recognition though. "... I've only ever watched, never gone to one. Well... I'm willing to try, but this Morph's not suited for it..." And only as she says THAT does she starts sounding... apprehensious.

    Yeah she doesn't want to sleeve into a Biomorph.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "Humm I'm about as synthic as you are as I can enjoy it ot at least get a chance to observe how people behave on my planet you can likely also jack into the local network and have a look about japan's network and beyond."

Kotone isn't even thinking about body swapping.

"And if your rorry about your body at wore you's just be seen as being a full conversion Prosethic like myself."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Ah-ah..." Rory makes an unhelpful noise, but nods quickly enough afterwards. "Then it might be fun! I'm not... worried about myself, but... well, no, I don't know what people do... it's complicated. They're complicated."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa Says "So some one lets go you will have a chance to see what people do, and yes people are complicated, so are you your a person right?"

She looks to Roay and soon is dragging her away to go out unless Rory really fights it.