The Gun That Won The Outer Rim [Kerrigan]

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"The Guild of Hammers were able to make advancement towards making a body armor made of Graphite before I went into slumber, I kept it hidden just in case I needed an ace up my sleeve for a trade or another crisis went down."

The droid explained as he reached into the chest and pulled out what looked like a shirt. Coming back to Siobhan he would toss it onto the table in front of her with clanking, it looked like a chainmail shirt,

"Gados Chainmail,"

HK named the product,

"Made entirely out of Graphite."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


"Gados Chainmail? Does this mean you can make me a chainmail bikini made entirely out of graphite. I think Tegs would like me in one," Siobhan said with a completely straight face. Sex jokes around a droid were very inappropriate!


"Ok. Seriously. What are the chainmail's specs?" she ran her hand over the product, examining it. It certainly looked sturdy.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"Gross."

Was the only word HK dignified Sio's joke with, swiftly moving on to work,

"Well to start with positives, it has a degree of lightsaber resistance and energy absorption like other Graphite products, it can stop a bullet and even shattergun pellet, and we do not currently possess a weapon that can easily cut through it. Not to mention it is fairly light when compared to other armor we have available with similar benefits, short of something made out of Phrik, and the rings make it as flexible as if it was made out of clothing."

The droid pulled on the edges of the chainmail, stretching it out and straining the rings against each other,

"It is not perfect, however."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


It was far, far too entertaining to troll the droid by making crude sex jokes. Besides, graphite chainmail bikinis would be a total hit on the fetish market. Just think about the market opportunities on Zeltros alone! "That sounds good. What are the drawbacks?" Siobhan asked, deciding to focus on the piece of armour that actually producted you in a fight, instead of fetish attire.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"Well to begin with, the material itself has a pretty high melting point and energy absorption, a lightsaber will not cut through it, but because of the spaces between the rings, its heat will penetrate it. So, if you were struck while wearing his armor and nothing else underneath, you would get a very nasty and painful burn. While it is much better than being cut in half, it could potentially lead to some serious damage with repeated strikes."

The droid lifted up the suit again,

"It is even worse with blaster bolts and lightsaber stabs, more energy is able to seep through the gaps and cause more dangerous burns to damage the tissue. This could be potentially fixed by making a jazerant, just putting a layer of something to absorb the heat either behind or in front of layer of chainmail, but we do not really have any material accessible to fully take brunt of this without eventually being burned through, unless we are talking about things like armor-weave or Phrik, but right now we would only be able to make few suits like that."

He flipped the chainmail to look over its back, pretty much the same as front but we need to break the text up,

"When it comes to physical damage, any piercing or slashing trauma is pretty much ineffective, not fully though, it is just being transferred as blunt force, which the armor cannot really deal with because it is so flexible, it just goes right through it. So any warhammers, or those flails I make, bashing weaponry like that is pretty effective against the chainmail, just ignoring it. Again, this could be counter-acted with a layer of some absorption material behind the chainmail, but that would also need a layer of heat absorption over it, and it will never really take those flaws away, just buy more time against them."

He pulled on the chainmail sides again,

"We also had rings break with repeated physical trauma, for example more than just one shattergun shot in the same area, and once one break it can leave a pretty wide gap for weapons to go through, usually another ring breaking is not too far behind and the chainmail starts to unravel. Same goes for material of similar density like our Phrik spears, although the mail is pretty good at catching stabs, the Phrik tips were able to eventually break through it much faster than common melee weapons."

He would set it back down on the table,

"Not to mention that because of the gaps the armor is not vacuum-proof, gas will get through it easily, as will electrical attacks like Force lightning, just going right for the flesh, same for flamethrowers. It does not make a good main armor material on contemporary battlefield, but it works well as a supplement to be worn over actual armor."

 

[Judah Dashiell]

A message would be sent back to [member="HK-36"] .


HK,


Sorry, I do not know who General Beyyr is. I don't know any Generals in the Kathol Outback besides General Merrill. You're better off contacting someone who is actually heavily involved in the Kathol Outback,such as a Bryce Bantam. I'm afraid I can only help you at this moment if you would like to salvage something in the area.

-Judah

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


Siobhan listened while the Iron Knight elaborated further on his graphite chainmail design, explaining the drawbacks, then nodded. Blunt force trauma was a weakness that even an iron as tough as beskar possessed. Hit someone on their chest with a mace, and the beskar would not break, but your squishy insides would still feel the pain.


However, she could see his point. Repeated blaster hits would cause nasty burns, gas, lightning and flames would not be blocked. "Ok. I see your point. It's not something to use as main armour then, but it's got potential as a supplement, as you say. Simply wearing it over more conventional armour could give soldiers a boost."

 

[HK-36]

The droid read through the message from [member="Judah Dashiell"] in his mind,

"Well Judah is as useless in this one as his hair is ridiculous. He told me that some 'Bryce Bantam' would be a better contact for this one."

HK quipped to [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] before writing up a response to Judah, again, in his mind, because machines connected to Space Wi-Fi could do that,

Ok, Judah, I will contact that Bryce guy, me and Sio will keep you in mind, you know how much of a mess we leave after battles, salvaging that crap for once could be pretty useful, and we usually conduct our operations in the Outer Rim, at least we did before my latest slumber period. Do you use any droids for salvaging by the way?

Before promptly going back to talking about the Chainmail with Sio,

"Either way, that is right, we could modify the chainmail by making the rings thicker and larger or thinner and smaller. Larger rings will make the chainmail stronger against physical weapon, mail like that will not unravel so easily, but energy weapons will have an easier time just bypassing the armor through the openings between rings to burn the user. On the other hand, smaller rings will create a finer mesh and negate more energy splashing on the armor, there will be less area for plasma bolts or lightsabers to bleed through, but the rings will not be as strong and break easily under physical trauma."

HK shrugged,

"That is why veils, skirts, and tabards made of this material would work well, just another lair of protection over armor. There is another option, however, to use a chainmail mesh to strengthen metal plates like we did with reeds and wire meshes. The mail is a nice combination of both of them, but as a result we would be adding to the weight of the plates and throwing away the flexibility of the mesh."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


HK's response to Judah made her chuckle. "Hahaha. Judah's alright. At least you got another name now. Do fill me about how your conversation with this Bantam fellow goes if you two have a chat."


Siobhan nodded. She could sort of follow the technobabble. "I suppose it'll also depend on the type of armour a soldier wears beneath it. If she has something that has good resistance against energy attacks and lightsabres, then wearing chainmail that's strong against physical trauma is preferrable. Perhaps you can make two prototypes and we can test them. I'll have my researchers explore these options."


One imagined that Siobhan could find uses for a chainmail skirt. Probably something the droid would not like to hear about! "Chainmail mesh has its appeal though. Perhaps you can explore that more."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"Yes, he is a good guy, that does not change the fact his hair looks like he is sleeping in a constant wind corridor. Either way, I will contact that Bantham fellow when we will launch production of the weapons and let you know if I will be able to bend him over and seduce him."

That was a great analogy, anyway going back to the mail,

"I will run it through the tests, there is another problem though, these things take a lot of time to be made."

He would look over the armor,

"The machines we currently have are not too efficient in crafting finer details like the rings, so far we used them mostly for long wires and weapon shafts, and since the rings are much stronger when their ends are connected into one during the crafting process rather than making a larger segment and then cutting them down into rings, it is very time consuming to craft the mail. It does not cost much resources, it is not too difficult to do this, but it takes a while."

HK shrugged,

"We should not have much problem creating single suits or armoring up our forces, but fielding enough suits for a larger army may be problematic unless we develop new manufacturing machines specifically for making these rings. But first we need to test them out in combat to see if it is even worth it."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


HK's stated desire to bend Bantam over and seduce him made Siobhan laugh. "Will you be wearing one of your HRD bodies when you do it?" she asked innocently. "I mean, maybe you get extra credits if you make a vid!"


However, there were more serious issues to address, though there probably was a fetish crowd that wanted more organic-on-droid action vids. "Anyhow, I didn't expect us to be able to field enough suits to equip an army, so that doesn't concern me unduly. Our units are comparatively small, but make up for it through training, experience and the best equipment. It's best to test their performance in combat first. If the prototypes are up to spec, we can give them to select units and expand from there."


Such as the Iron Company and [member="Tempest"]'s Firemane strike force, perhaps elite Angelii. "If the tests are successful and there's outside interest, we can advertise it as something for elite troops."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"No."

The droid answered Sio's first question shortly before looking at her,

"I want him to feel it in the morning."

He focused on the mail to finish up their discussion on it,

"Either way, that sounds fine, I will put the mail into production and send you some for field testing, meanwhile I will also put it as mesh to strengthen metal plates and see where that goes."

HK motioned with his head towards the door then,

"We also have some new high caliber weaponry, ship and vehicle mounted stuff if you want to see it, we are not in a hurry to put it in production just yet, the biggest thing Abregado makes that can mount something like that are our war droids and the walkers we produce together."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


"I'd be interested in seeing those, if you got some to display. Firemane's overhauling its arsenal of armoured vehicles and starships since Ruusan. The battle revealed a few holes I'd like to plug. So having new high calibre weapons to mount on walkers and tanks would be nice. The same applies to shipborne weapons, if you're expanding into that direction."


It would be a new big step, but ARGH's experience with magnetic propulsion and railguns would be useful. Expansion of graphite production would also enable both companies to build more powerful war machines.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

The droid motioned for Siobhan to follow him out of the testing room,

"Well we do not exactly have a shipyard ring to make big enough ships, but we were going to build some starfighters and stick some of the guns on them, we can discuss these later, or put them on land vehicles, maybe end up with some planetary defense guns, or just sell them to ship makers."

HK shrugged, leading Sio through the facility they would eventually end up in a large shooting range where four stationary turrets sat in separate safety booths, one was a volley gun with twelve barrels lined up in two rows, another one was what looked like a mass driver but with three barrels, the third a very familiar rotary cannon except with some bits attached near the end of its main barrel, and the fourth was another rotary cannon, or rotary cannons, three of them attached to one rotating turret,

"The concept is simple, take the larger caliber guns we already make, make them even larger to be mounted on ships or vehicles, combined them with the tech we acquired from Wookies for combining solid projectiles with explosive plasma, and add rotary cannon loading mechanisms to boost the fire rate."

The machine paused,

"I am sure you can find a gun large enough to fill your holes here."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


"I approve of all three options. Firemane's a shipwright, so if you make the guns we can give you credits and mount them on warships. And I intend to build a big fortress to protect Tygara. We have turrets and turbolaser cannons, but that arsenal could be augmented by new cannons. And, of course, we can make tanks and walkers together."


She examined the guns on display, focusing on the three-barelled mass driver and the three rotary cannons attached to a rotating turret. "These look very promising. I imagine the power requirements would be significant if we armed a ship, but luckily Firemane has the Colossus Reactor. We recently secured manufacturing and production for the Vortex MacroCannon some time ago. It's a devastatingly powerful, hard-hitting railgun for capital ships, but more of a support weapon and, on average, a low firing rate."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

The droid nodded in confirmation,

"Yes, we were not so worried about power requirements when designing these guns, vehicles and ships can carry much more weight than handheld designs, which means greater capacity for power output."

HK walked closer towards the three-barreled mass driver,

"Well this gun is based on our handheld mass driver designs, that railgun that fires Bolt Gun ammunition. This is meant to be a hard hitting anti-armor gun, largest caliber we make, although not the most powerful mass driver out there, like the Macro-Guns for example, this gun has much higher fire-rate, capable of firing continuously, a round every second or so, until its ammo magazines are depleted, then it needs to be reloaded, we were able to dial the reload time down to five minutes with experienced crew."

The droid motioned towards the end of the main firing barrel,

"The barrels rotate into the main rail much like they do in our revolvers, the main rail ends in Plasma-Enveloping ring, much like in the bowcasters, although we dialed this process down to make only partial enveloping. Think of it as blowing bubbles with plasma and trapping the bullet inside. Usually the whole projectile is covered but in Partial-Enveloping we were able to leave the tip of the bullet out of the plasma field. When the projectile impacts its target the plasma explodes, because the tip is left uncovered the projectile is not completely vaporized, but instead propelled forward faster into the ship's armor, driven like a metal stake. The bolt gun charge within then detonates, destroying the projectile from within to break it into shrapnel, dislodging it from the hole made within armor so the projectile would not lodge in it like a cork but open it up to the void."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


"Ok. I see the resemblance to the shatterboltgun. I have some concerns about transferring the principle to a shipborne weapon. Railguns accelerate bolts to vast speeds and the mass of the bolt deals more damage than an explosive. A bolt gun shell, opposed to a slug of the same size has less mass because it's not solid. Now, personally it doesn't matter, but on a big gun mounted on a ship it does," Siobhan responded, looking pensive. This was a lot of technobabble! Fortunately, she had researchers and consultants.


It worked for the personal-scale shatterbolter, though there the durasteel slugs achieved the high penetration, whereas the explosive bolts were more used for crowd control and bombardment purposes. "I'm concerned that the bolt rail round would impact and explode the target on contact, voiding a lot of the momentum from the rail gun's speed. Also, could you elaborate a bit more on the rationale behind incorporating plasma and how it's supposed to work?"

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

The droid nodded, agreeing with the first portion of Siobhan's technobabble,

"Yes, the weight does matters, if we would use the same ammunition as bolt guns. Shatterboltguns are our highest caliber weapons, that is why we can load them with solid metal projectiles much larger than our other guns. Or, as we have planned, design a new ammunition specifically for naval combat. Our design is a large bullet with head designed like a screw to drill into ship armor at high speed, and a small precise charged within to break the projectile apart into shrapnel once inside."

He motioned to the gun,

"We are experimenting with ways of delaying the charge, making it smaller for once causes it to be less unstable, so it does not explode on impact. We could also encase it in a graphite capsule, adding to weight of the weapon, and protecting the explosive so that it could be programmed to explode after the projectile embeds itself in the hull. As for the plasma enveloping, well the reason is quite simple, as you well know normal shattergun projectiles are completely solid and not explosive. Plasma enveloping adds an explosive effect more potent in hypervelocity ammunition than the explosive charges in bolt gun ammunition, this is especially effective in point-defense systems like our upgraded volleygun or rotary cannons, even if the projectile itself misses a vital area, the explosion from plasma can still trigger a chain reaction."

He motioned to the big tri-cannon again,

"Now in the capital guns this process is slightly different, we utilize what we call semi-plasmic enveloping field. The plasma field created by this is weaker, it covers only the back portion of the projectile and leaves the front exposed. When such a projectile collides with target the head then embeds itself in the armor and plasma field explodes, driving it further into the hull with greater force. Think of it like driving a stake through the ship with a plasma hammer. As to how it works."

The droid produced one of the ARGH bowcasters, putting it on the table, he pointed to the ring by the end of its barrel,

"It is a Wookiee invention, this is a plasma enveloping ring, this is what makes the bowcaster bolts explosive. When a durasteel bolt is propelled through the bowcaster's rails and crosses the enveloping ring, plasma envelops it in a magnetized field, think of it like blowing a bubble and trapping the bolt inside. Same thing for our guns."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="HK-36"]


MOAR technobabble! "Ok. To be frank, I'm not a space physicist, so I'll pass this on to my experts to get their opinion. And once you're ready, we could arrange a field test some time in the future." Admiral Friedrich Stahlmann was in retirement and his protege Admiral [member="Kyrana Gould"] had resigned her commission in the Silver Coalition's navy, but both still served as consultants for Firemane.


Siobhan was still feeling a bit salty about their refusal to name the Barsen'thor after her or include a Shrine of Ardarvia, so forcing them to suffer through the technobabble was an appropriate punishment, even if she'd have to pay them! "I'd say this has been a very productive meeting. Nice to have you back, old friend."


[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"],

"Well the concept is simple, once the explosion triggers behind the projectile the push from it would add more force into its acceleration, either to speed it up or send the shrapnel flying into the hull."

HK explained, either way that was about all the work they could have had done in one day, and the machine would probably do some time looking over the designs himself after Sio would leave before he green-lighted finalizing the prototypes,

"Enjoy it while it lasts, it will not be long before all my plans for now are finalized and I will retreat to slumber and let them take effect. But yes, it is good to be working with you again, Siobhan. I will let you know once I have models ready for the field test."

Looking over to a nearby group of Gados engineers, he motioned for them to go back to work on the machines and take care of all the guns and chainmail he and Sio left laying around on various tables, it seems they were just idling while the two were busy with their meeting.