McCulloch Test Range, New Texas
2324
"Welcome, General," Colonel Adams said, saluting as Richardson and his entourage got off the shuttle. "Welcome to the Test Range Command Post."
"Thank you for your efforts, Colonel," Dick said, returning the salute before walking into the station. "I'm looking forward to seeing the work you and your subordinates have put in."
"Wouldn't call for you if it wasn't interesting," Adams said, catching up and directing everyone down a corridor. "The Outremer Theradectans have been useful in the application of wofleonium in the new programs."
"Good to hear," Dick said, nodding as they came up to a busy manufacturing bay. "So, let's go over the main points of your efforts."
"Sure," the Colonel said, gesturing to the manufacturing machinery. "The main problems we faced in implementing nuclear devices into missiles before now were two fold. First, the nuclear taboo made it difficult to get funding for research into making them into effective offensive weapons. Second, the limited research seemed to point to the lack of cost-effectiveness for the weapon system, especially with the rise in anti-missile capabilities. The first problem was eased by the Assembly’s first usage above Uruk. The second, hopefully, has been eased with wofleonium and the knowledge that the spiders have brought in.
"Here in the manufacturing bays, we've demonstrated the construction of wofleonium enhanced nuclear fission reactors. There are a few benefits to the inclusion of wof. First, the lower requirement of a critical mass of fissionable material, due to the careful channeling and reflection of neutrons by the virtual boundaries made by the wofleonium patterns. Second, thanks to said boundaries, shielding can be drastically reduced since it's trapping the harmful radiation.
"Of course, there's downsides. The radiation wears down the wofleonium overtime, so we either have to accept that, using it in throwaway applications like missiles, or be reapplying the pattern. And the cost of course goes up, though at the moment it's mostly due to pattern casting is limited by the amount of casters we have. Mostly spiders at this point, though we're finding some humans and Aos Si here and there."
“Well, you will be footing the bill personally.” Ein chimed in. Unlike many of the others here, his uniform was a well tailored suit. The broad shouldered man’s wardrobe likely costing more than some of these soldiers made in a month. The cut and material had been carefully curated to show that he was a man of means, but not one that was aggressively flaunting their wealth. “Stellar’s production of Wof in New Texas is on track to meet new production goals this year, and our partnerships with the Aoi Si and Daqin do let us further scale production of the materials if so required by ISOC.”
"True, but if the systems are too expensive, we'll be limited in the number of them we can deploy," Adams said.
"Don't remind me," Dick said with a sigh. "Budget hearings are a pain enough as is."
"We're hoping to bring costs down, but for now, we're limiting our developmental systems to penetration aids for our normal missiles," the Colonel said, pointing to a line of oversized missile bodies with extra panels and protrusions. "This is the first system, Harlequin. It uses the wofleonium reactor design to power an onboard e-war suite. Actively jams enemy radar, contains smart 'flares' that can look like our current missiles, etc."
“And one of the best ways to bring down unit cost is to increase the planned purchase of these systems. More budgeted for procurement, means we can plan our own production ahead of time, and more cheaply scale. If you’re looking to make a few bespoke systems, you’re going to have a very difficult time in those budget hearings,” Ein added.
"Ewar is a niche case anyway," Richardson said with a shrug. "Looks like they'll only be able to be launched out of Speakers?"
"The first generation, yes. We weren't able to shrink the reactor needed for the radar down to the point where it could fit in the normal missile body," Adams said with a nod, before leading the entourage down to a new line of smaller missiles with Theradectans crawling over them. "Now these are what brought our attention to the capabilities of wofleonium in the first place. The Excalibur system, a fusion device pumped laser."
"Kept the old name?" Dick asked with a chuckle.
"Seemed fitting," the Colonel said, pointing at the nose of the missile. "In the case of the warhead, the wofleonium focuses the x-rays created from the explosion down a lasing medium, briefly making a long range, powerful shot."
“I would be more interested in how these spiders are self-organizing. How do you coordinate your industrial operations with them?” Ein asked.
"For now, we're hiring the Outremer casters on an ad hoc basis, but that's set to change with the other spiders showing up and apparently emigrating," Adams said. "Our main liaison with them went back to Outremer to help work out the political implications and set up a political entity. Hopefully we can get the process standardized and start mass hiring once we get appropriations laid out and can bring Stellar onboard."
"We'll have to work out how to compensate them," Dick said as he looked at the new lines. "Guess that's for the diplomats and corporate representatives to sort out."
"Anyway," the Colonel said, leading the group to an observation room, "here's where we'll be able to watch the test shot of Excalibur. Please, sit and the test will begin shortly."
As the test neared, the clear view out the armored window into the rings of McCulloch was accompanied by data from the launcher. In ancient tradition, peanuts were offered around the room as a countdown was started, the General joined in, tossing the legumes into his mouth with proper ceremony. A pair of Theradectans who had come to watch chittered at the unique foodstuff, but joined in the fun.
Ein would pull out some oversized tinted goggles from inside of his suit that offered full wrap around eye protection. There was a bit of a smile on his face, after all he’d always wanted an excuse to wear something like this and it’d been centuries since atomic testing had been in style.
“Soft launching the missile,” Adams said, before the Excalibur system was shot out from the leisurely push of compressed air into the rings of McCulloch, followed by a probe with cameras. “We want some distance between us and the device before it’s activated. It can only fail as a fissile, but we don’t want any extra irradiation if we can help it.”
“How big is the bomb anyway?” Dick asked, watching the track of the missile slide away into the black.
“Relatively small, a bit smaller than the conventional warheads in the main anti-ship missiles, but the yield’s one megaton,” the Colonel said. “Boosted by wofleonium, it’s much smaller than we could have ever made before. Which is good, because the lasing rods take up the rest of the space. Theoretically, we can hit multiple targets with a single system. In practice, we’re just going to concentrate the lasers on one target until we get more data. Especially against real world targets. We’re just going ice fragment hunting today.”
“Is it going to be visible this far out?” Ein asked.
“We’re doing as much as possible to disguise this from the inner system,” Adams said with a shrug. “We’re on the farside of McCollough, closer to the gas giant, etc. It won’t absorb everything and there’ll be reflections off the ice. But it should be a messy enough signal that the information anyone will be able to gain will be limited. I’m almost more concerned with the media finding out about nuke testing than the MA learning what exactly we’re doing.”
“Already made the testing official back at Sol,” Richardson said, leaning forward as the missile’s engine ignited and sent the package closer to the gas giant. “Made a big declaration of needing to go tit for tat for nuclear use in Uruk. Both Atlantica and Sol are shared systems, so New Texas is the only real place for this kind of testing.”
“I won’t say anything,” Ein said, though he was a bit disappointed he wouldn’t get a great use out of his new anti-flash goggles… quietly taking them off and putting them away. “Have the Theradectans expressed any interest in purchasing these weapons?”
“Which ones? The Outremer?” Adams asked, “I’m sure they’ll want them, but they’re looking for ships first. I know they expressed interest in Whips. I hope the Atos spiders don’t know about this. Would hardly seem fair for them to know about our secrets and not the other way around.”
Now at a safe distance, Excalibur armed its nuke, data streaming on the window, including the countdown to detonation. The probe’s view popped up as well, flying to the side of Excalibur to get a record of the shot from that angle. The dirty ice debris, a fragment of the planet’s rings, came within the crosshairs of the device. As the count hit five seconds, four ports opened and rods shot out, followed by arms that pressed them together on the nose of the missile. When the countdown reached zero, from the station’s perspective, there was a large flash of light, the probe’s feed went white, then signal was lost, then the ice fragment cracking and breaking under the barrage of invisible x-rays.
2324
"Welcome, General," Colonel Adams said, saluting as Richardson and his entourage got off the shuttle. "Welcome to the Test Range Command Post."
"Thank you for your efforts, Colonel," Dick said, returning the salute before walking into the station. "I'm looking forward to seeing the work you and your subordinates have put in."
"Wouldn't call for you if it wasn't interesting," Adams said, catching up and directing everyone down a corridor. "The Outremer Theradectans have been useful in the application of wofleonium in the new programs."
"Good to hear," Dick said, nodding as they came up to a busy manufacturing bay. "So, let's go over the main points of your efforts."
"Sure," the Colonel said, gesturing to the manufacturing machinery. "The main problems we faced in implementing nuclear devices into missiles before now were two fold. First, the nuclear taboo made it difficult to get funding for research into making them into effective offensive weapons. Second, the limited research seemed to point to the lack of cost-effectiveness for the weapon system, especially with the rise in anti-missile capabilities. The first problem was eased by the Assembly’s first usage above Uruk. The second, hopefully, has been eased with wofleonium and the knowledge that the spiders have brought in.
"Here in the manufacturing bays, we've demonstrated the construction of wofleonium enhanced nuclear fission reactors. There are a few benefits to the inclusion of wof. First, the lower requirement of a critical mass of fissionable material, due to the careful channeling and reflection of neutrons by the virtual boundaries made by the wofleonium patterns. Second, thanks to said boundaries, shielding can be drastically reduced since it's trapping the harmful radiation.
"Of course, there's downsides. The radiation wears down the wofleonium overtime, so we either have to accept that, using it in throwaway applications like missiles, or be reapplying the pattern. And the cost of course goes up, though at the moment it's mostly due to pattern casting is limited by the amount of casters we have. Mostly spiders at this point, though we're finding some humans and Aos Si here and there."
“Well, you will be footing the bill personally.” Ein chimed in. Unlike many of the others here, his uniform was a well tailored suit. The broad shouldered man’s wardrobe likely costing more than some of these soldiers made in a month. The cut and material had been carefully curated to show that he was a man of means, but not one that was aggressively flaunting their wealth. “Stellar’s production of Wof in New Texas is on track to meet new production goals this year, and our partnerships with the Aoi Si and Daqin do let us further scale production of the materials if so required by ISOC.”
"True, but if the systems are too expensive, we'll be limited in the number of them we can deploy," Adams said.
"Don't remind me," Dick said with a sigh. "Budget hearings are a pain enough as is."
"We're hoping to bring costs down, but for now, we're limiting our developmental systems to penetration aids for our normal missiles," the Colonel said, pointing to a line of oversized missile bodies with extra panels and protrusions. "This is the first system, Harlequin. It uses the wofleonium reactor design to power an onboard e-war suite. Actively jams enemy radar, contains smart 'flares' that can look like our current missiles, etc."
“And one of the best ways to bring down unit cost is to increase the planned purchase of these systems. More budgeted for procurement, means we can plan our own production ahead of time, and more cheaply scale. If you’re looking to make a few bespoke systems, you’re going to have a very difficult time in those budget hearings,” Ein added.
"Ewar is a niche case anyway," Richardson said with a shrug. "Looks like they'll only be able to be launched out of Speakers?"
"The first generation, yes. We weren't able to shrink the reactor needed for the radar down to the point where it could fit in the normal missile body," Adams said with a nod, before leading the entourage down to a new line of smaller missiles with Theradectans crawling over them. "Now these are what brought our attention to the capabilities of wofleonium in the first place. The Excalibur system, a fusion device pumped laser."
"Kept the old name?" Dick asked with a chuckle.
"Seemed fitting," the Colonel said, pointing at the nose of the missile. "In the case of the warhead, the wofleonium focuses the x-rays created from the explosion down a lasing medium, briefly making a long range, powerful shot."
“I would be more interested in how these spiders are self-organizing. How do you coordinate your industrial operations with them?” Ein asked.
"For now, we're hiring the Outremer casters on an ad hoc basis, but that's set to change with the other spiders showing up and apparently emigrating," Adams said. "Our main liaison with them went back to Outremer to help work out the political implications and set up a political entity. Hopefully we can get the process standardized and start mass hiring once we get appropriations laid out and can bring Stellar onboard."
"We'll have to work out how to compensate them," Dick said as he looked at the new lines. "Guess that's for the diplomats and corporate representatives to sort out."
"Anyway," the Colonel said, leading the group to an observation room, "here's where we'll be able to watch the test shot of Excalibur. Please, sit and the test will begin shortly."
As the test neared, the clear view out the armored window into the rings of McCulloch was accompanied by data from the launcher. In ancient tradition, peanuts were offered around the room as a countdown was started, the General joined in, tossing the legumes into his mouth with proper ceremony. A pair of Theradectans who had come to watch chittered at the unique foodstuff, but joined in the fun.
Ein would pull out some oversized tinted goggles from inside of his suit that offered full wrap around eye protection. There was a bit of a smile on his face, after all he’d always wanted an excuse to wear something like this and it’d been centuries since atomic testing had been in style.
“Soft launching the missile,” Adams said, before the Excalibur system was shot out from the leisurely push of compressed air into the rings of McCulloch, followed by a probe with cameras. “We want some distance between us and the device before it’s activated. It can only fail as a fissile, but we don’t want any extra irradiation if we can help it.”
“How big is the bomb anyway?” Dick asked, watching the track of the missile slide away into the black.
“Relatively small, a bit smaller than the conventional warheads in the main anti-ship missiles, but the yield’s one megaton,” the Colonel said. “Boosted by wofleonium, it’s much smaller than we could have ever made before. Which is good, because the lasing rods take up the rest of the space. Theoretically, we can hit multiple targets with a single system. In practice, we’re just going to concentrate the lasers on one target until we get more data. Especially against real world targets. We’re just going ice fragment hunting today.”
“Is it going to be visible this far out?” Ein asked.
“We’re doing as much as possible to disguise this from the inner system,” Adams said with a shrug. “We’re on the farside of McCollough, closer to the gas giant, etc. It won’t absorb everything and there’ll be reflections off the ice. But it should be a messy enough signal that the information anyone will be able to gain will be limited. I’m almost more concerned with the media finding out about nuke testing than the MA learning what exactly we’re doing.”
“Already made the testing official back at Sol,” Richardson said, leaning forward as the missile’s engine ignited and sent the package closer to the gas giant. “Made a big declaration of needing to go tit for tat for nuclear use in Uruk. Both Atlantica and Sol are shared systems, so New Texas is the only real place for this kind of testing.”
“I won’t say anything,” Ein said, though he was a bit disappointed he wouldn’t get a great use out of his new anti-flash goggles… quietly taking them off and putting them away. “Have the Theradectans expressed any interest in purchasing these weapons?”
“Which ones? The Outremer?” Adams asked, “I’m sure they’ll want them, but they’re looking for ships first. I know they expressed interest in Whips. I hope the Atos spiders don’t know about this. Would hardly seem fair for them to know about our secrets and not the other way around.”
Now at a safe distance, Excalibur armed its nuke, data streaming on the window, including the countdown to detonation. The probe’s view popped up as well, flying to the side of Excalibur to get a record of the shot from that angle. The dirty ice debris, a fragment of the planet’s rings, came within the crosshairs of the device. As the count hit five seconds, four ports opened and rods shot out, followed by arms that pressed them together on the nose of the missile. When the countdown reached zero, from the station’s perspective, there was a large flash of light, the probe’s feed went white, then signal was lost, then the ice fragment cracking and breaking under the barrage of invisible x-rays.