Rusty didn't bother yelling again. The capacitors were charged, and if he let them build up any more juice, they would likely blow and kill everyone within a ten block radius.
He yanked the firing lanyard, and all hell broke loose.
On the surface, an ion cannon and a disruptor are two vastly different weapons. One uses discreet packets of ionized particles to short out electronics, while the other used an unstable energy bolt to disrupt the atomic bonds that held molecules together. Ion cannon were generally nonlethal, though getting shot by one was not pleasant, and once you get into capital grade weapons there's pretty much no chance. Disruptors, on the other hand, were invariably lethal, highly illegal, and widely regarded as barbaric.
Combining the two concepts into one coherent weapon should have, by all rights, been impossible. Unfortunately, no one told that to Rusty.
He had experimented several years ago with using harmonics to increase the effectiveness of ion cannon. Though the overall experiment was a failure, he learned that, with enough energy, patience, and space tape, it was possible to set up the same sort of harmonic resonance within the particle beam of an ion cannon that one would typically find in a disruptor beam. The resultant energy discharge didn't so much fry electronics as vaporize them, often with amusingly fatal consequences for anyone nearby.
The results were undeniably effective, but the high cost and the fact that firing destroyed the weapon kept it from being commercially viable.
That said, there were certain missions where the Shard couldn't resist throwing one together. Every time he refined the idea just a little, and today, he had the bright idea to bring two devices, one for each speeder.
Streaks of actinic fire streaked towards the speeders, bathing the surrounding buildings in a harsh, shadowless light. The noise was terrific, like a million bolts of lightning striking all at once. The street was immediately coated with a uniform layer of molecular soot. This time, instead of just shorting out electronics, the weapons would vaporize anything conductive within their targets, including but not limited to the armor, the frames, the drives, and the nervous systems of the pilots.
The desiccated remains of the speeders clattered to the ground, and the thoroughly nonconductive duraplast cargo boxes spilled out.
"That wasn't so bad," Rusty shouted as the twin cannon immediately started smoking and arcing. He killed power, and ran over to Kairon. "What do you think, buddy?"
[member="Kairon Rees"]
[member="Jyakod Ozen"]
[member="Robb Killian"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
