Godular
27-10-2004, 17:40
General Corbox straightened his ceremonial uniform while watching the group of Archonal Representatives milling about besides the firing range. About 50 people in all, including a good number of army and naval officers that had been invited to attend as well.
"You think they're far enough away to avoid the shrapnel?" He asked one of his attendance as they buzzed about rigging up cameras and other recording apparatus useful in maintaining documentation.
Taking a swift glance outside, one of the attendants replied "They're going to be sitting right next to the cannon, remember? Can't get much shrapnel over there."
"Short of the cannon itself exploding, anyway."
"Feh. Damn thing's been tested twenty times just this morning, and examined each time for stress cracks... that thing ain't gonna pop, sir."
Corbox thought for a moment, then sighed slightly in relief. "They're gonna LOVE this."
"Everything's ready sir!" a voice in the back called. "Just remember to have them watch the screen after the firing. We're gonna bring the slab up for them to see afterwards."
"Great," Corbox said, straightening his uniform once again for good measure. "Time to blow shit up."
"AYE AYE SIR!" came the shouted reply from everybody working the cannon controls.
Corbox strode happily out to the gathered notables, realizing that a few more people had arrived in the few seconds he'd been talking. Three more governate reps... I can smell that third StarBurst... promotion material for SURE!
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Corbox shouted, getting their attention. Being true Military and Governate, they shut up and locked gazes on him in the blink of an eye, truly something to behold. "Welcome to our celebration of the completion of the 'Straight Arrow' project! In order to show whether our progress was satisfactory, we have invited you all here today to witness a demonstration of the destructive power of our newest and most potent anti-armor ordinance."
He brought out a small radio and clicked it twice.
Almost immediately, a large "Grappler" ATV rumbled over the hill. A single soldier was visible in the monster's machine gun turret, but... no machine gun, only what looked to be a large metal rod.
"Whoa... you managed to get a rail gun onto a simple ATV?" one of the army officers asked, realizing the design of the cannon.
"Its not TOO powerful, it fires the ordinance at about twice the speed of a normal chemical propellant gun, but its still only a fraction as powerful as a normal railgun of comparable size. We had to use some of our more recent technologies to get it to work even THAT well, though."
"Ah... how big's the powerplant?"
"For a cannon that size? About the size of a footlocker."
The officer whistled. "Wow..."
One of the Governate reps leaned over and whispered a question to the officer, who turned around and began. "Oh, the main problem with rail guns is their tremendous power requirements, you practically need to have a dedicated nuclear reactor just to fire the damn thing, which is NOT the size of a footlocker..."
The Grappler rumbled to a stop about 30 feet from the crowd, at which point the soldier manning the turret turned the cannon towards a metal slab some five hundred meters in the distance.
Corbox began explaining. "You ever hear the story of a plastic straw caught in a tornado?"
Muted silence.
"The tornado accelerated the straw to such tremendous velocities that it went straight through a tree. Left a nice little hole. Well, we're utilizing a similar principle with Straight arrow."
One soldier hopped out of the Grappler and walked up to the table carrying what appeared to be a cannon shell with a giant reinforced spike on the tip, taking up fully half of the shell's length with nothing but battering ram. Judging from the way the soldier carried it, the shell had to weigh about 15 pounds.
"THIS little bastard incorporates the use of a giant armor penetrating spike to break through even the toughest armors. Made of the hardest alloy we can manufacture, the damn thing cleaves through titanium-steel alloy like butter. But in the process of doing so, the forces of friction acting upon the spike, as a result of breaking through such tough metals, superheat the spike to the point that it shatters and ignites the oxygen on the other side."
"Would suck for tanks," the previously chatty officer mentioned.
"Exactly. Anybody inside a tank when this thing hits would both be roasted alive and torn to shreds, to say nothing of the ordinance inside the tank as well."
"It'd pop like a balloon, wouldn't it?"
"Damn skippy!" Corbox answered, then returned his attention to the shell. "BUT! Some of you may ask, wouldn't such a thing only be effective at high velocities? And I answer with: Duh. But at what high velocities would such a thing be effective? We didn't bother to find out, we just decided to set up the shell to give as much oomph to the penetrator as possible.
"You may notice what appears to be a small turbine incorporated into the shell. THAT, my friends, is a nice little scramjet designed to push the shell to even greater velocities than the railgun pushes it to in the first place. We figure we've clocked this bastage maxing its speed out at around mach 6."
Oohs and aahs erupted from the crowd. Everybody knew what a mach was, yay!
"So basically, Straight Arrow incorporates tremendous speed, penetrating power, and sheer viciousness into a single horrifically devastating whole. But as we all know, 'The Proof is in the Pudding', and I intend to prove that this thing will not only live up to expectations, but blow them the hell away along with that huge slab of alloy THATAWAY." Corbox pointed down range at a rather large block of titanium-steel alloy sitting out in the middle of the clearing.
"That slab is 18 inches thick and braced to hell and gone, just so you know."
The soldier with the shell ran back into the grappler, which rumbled off to crest a nearby hill. As the crowd watched the grappler, then returned their attention to the giant metal slab, Corbox brought out his radio.
"Fire when ready."
A few seconds passed, followed by a single split second in which the cannon let fly with a barely audible pop, then a buzzing whistle, then the giant slab of titanium steel flew backwards with surprising force, tearing its braces asunder and landing with a resounding thud.
"Now," Corbox said happily, "I draw your attention to these viewscreens here. We set a camera up to show not only the shell striking, but what happens afterwards."
The crowd watched in awe as a slow motion replay of the shell hitting the slab revealed a beautiful sequence of events. The 18-inch thick slab of metal didn't show much deformation as the Straight Arrow struck, but as the penetrator burst out the other side, armageddon ensued. It seemed less as something exploded as... the world just caught fire. It completely melted a good portion of the bracings, and allowed the slab to fly back a few feet as a result.
"Come!" Corbox continued, as several tow-trucks emerged out of nowhere and began attaching chains to the chunk of metal, trying to roll it over. "Let us inspect the damage."
They walked over to the metal slab, noting first what appeared to be a small crater of glass that used to be the bracing emplacement. The second thing they noticed, as the slab fell over to reveal the damage on what would have been the inside, was not so much the damage itself, but the fact that the entire slab was warped as a result of the impact. The entry hole was not very large, but the exit hole was colossal. It was as though somebody had popped some giant steel bubble, judging from the way the jagged bits of metal protruded from the exit hole.
One of the Governate reps fainted. He was immediately grabbed by two soldiers and dragged into the tent.
"We actually expected somebody to pass out when they saw this," Corbox stated. "We've got coffee and donuts in the tent, are we satisfied?"
A few people clapped merrily, the rest were still staring at the slab in awe.
"I'll take that as a 'whoa'. I don't know about you, but I haven't had breakfast." Corbox gestured to the tent and ushered the various representatives in.
Promotion for me? Hell, everybody here is gonna get at least a new bar.
"You think they're far enough away to avoid the shrapnel?" He asked one of his attendance as they buzzed about rigging up cameras and other recording apparatus useful in maintaining documentation.
Taking a swift glance outside, one of the attendants replied "They're going to be sitting right next to the cannon, remember? Can't get much shrapnel over there."
"Short of the cannon itself exploding, anyway."
"Feh. Damn thing's been tested twenty times just this morning, and examined each time for stress cracks... that thing ain't gonna pop, sir."
Corbox thought for a moment, then sighed slightly in relief. "They're gonna LOVE this."
"Everything's ready sir!" a voice in the back called. "Just remember to have them watch the screen after the firing. We're gonna bring the slab up for them to see afterwards."
"Great," Corbox said, straightening his uniform once again for good measure. "Time to blow shit up."
"AYE AYE SIR!" came the shouted reply from everybody working the cannon controls.
Corbox strode happily out to the gathered notables, realizing that a few more people had arrived in the few seconds he'd been talking. Three more governate reps... I can smell that third StarBurst... promotion material for SURE!
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Corbox shouted, getting their attention. Being true Military and Governate, they shut up and locked gazes on him in the blink of an eye, truly something to behold. "Welcome to our celebration of the completion of the 'Straight Arrow' project! In order to show whether our progress was satisfactory, we have invited you all here today to witness a demonstration of the destructive power of our newest and most potent anti-armor ordinance."
He brought out a small radio and clicked it twice.
Almost immediately, a large "Grappler" ATV rumbled over the hill. A single soldier was visible in the monster's machine gun turret, but... no machine gun, only what looked to be a large metal rod.
"Whoa... you managed to get a rail gun onto a simple ATV?" one of the army officers asked, realizing the design of the cannon.
"Its not TOO powerful, it fires the ordinance at about twice the speed of a normal chemical propellant gun, but its still only a fraction as powerful as a normal railgun of comparable size. We had to use some of our more recent technologies to get it to work even THAT well, though."
"Ah... how big's the powerplant?"
"For a cannon that size? About the size of a footlocker."
The officer whistled. "Wow..."
One of the Governate reps leaned over and whispered a question to the officer, who turned around and began. "Oh, the main problem with rail guns is their tremendous power requirements, you practically need to have a dedicated nuclear reactor just to fire the damn thing, which is NOT the size of a footlocker..."
The Grappler rumbled to a stop about 30 feet from the crowd, at which point the soldier manning the turret turned the cannon towards a metal slab some five hundred meters in the distance.
Corbox began explaining. "You ever hear the story of a plastic straw caught in a tornado?"
Muted silence.
"The tornado accelerated the straw to such tremendous velocities that it went straight through a tree. Left a nice little hole. Well, we're utilizing a similar principle with Straight arrow."
One soldier hopped out of the Grappler and walked up to the table carrying what appeared to be a cannon shell with a giant reinforced spike on the tip, taking up fully half of the shell's length with nothing but battering ram. Judging from the way the soldier carried it, the shell had to weigh about 15 pounds.
"THIS little bastard incorporates the use of a giant armor penetrating spike to break through even the toughest armors. Made of the hardest alloy we can manufacture, the damn thing cleaves through titanium-steel alloy like butter. But in the process of doing so, the forces of friction acting upon the spike, as a result of breaking through such tough metals, superheat the spike to the point that it shatters and ignites the oxygen on the other side."
"Would suck for tanks," the previously chatty officer mentioned.
"Exactly. Anybody inside a tank when this thing hits would both be roasted alive and torn to shreds, to say nothing of the ordinance inside the tank as well."
"It'd pop like a balloon, wouldn't it?"
"Damn skippy!" Corbox answered, then returned his attention to the shell. "BUT! Some of you may ask, wouldn't such a thing only be effective at high velocities? And I answer with: Duh. But at what high velocities would such a thing be effective? We didn't bother to find out, we just decided to set up the shell to give as much oomph to the penetrator as possible.
"You may notice what appears to be a small turbine incorporated into the shell. THAT, my friends, is a nice little scramjet designed to push the shell to even greater velocities than the railgun pushes it to in the first place. We figure we've clocked this bastage maxing its speed out at around mach 6."
Oohs and aahs erupted from the crowd. Everybody knew what a mach was, yay!
"So basically, Straight Arrow incorporates tremendous speed, penetrating power, and sheer viciousness into a single horrifically devastating whole. But as we all know, 'The Proof is in the Pudding', and I intend to prove that this thing will not only live up to expectations, but blow them the hell away along with that huge slab of alloy THATAWAY." Corbox pointed down range at a rather large block of titanium-steel alloy sitting out in the middle of the clearing.
"That slab is 18 inches thick and braced to hell and gone, just so you know."
The soldier with the shell ran back into the grappler, which rumbled off to crest a nearby hill. As the crowd watched the grappler, then returned their attention to the giant metal slab, Corbox brought out his radio.
"Fire when ready."
A few seconds passed, followed by a single split second in which the cannon let fly with a barely audible pop, then a buzzing whistle, then the giant slab of titanium steel flew backwards with surprising force, tearing its braces asunder and landing with a resounding thud.
"Now," Corbox said happily, "I draw your attention to these viewscreens here. We set a camera up to show not only the shell striking, but what happens afterwards."
The crowd watched in awe as a slow motion replay of the shell hitting the slab revealed a beautiful sequence of events. The 18-inch thick slab of metal didn't show much deformation as the Straight Arrow struck, but as the penetrator burst out the other side, armageddon ensued. It seemed less as something exploded as... the world just caught fire. It completely melted a good portion of the bracings, and allowed the slab to fly back a few feet as a result.
"Come!" Corbox continued, as several tow-trucks emerged out of nowhere and began attaching chains to the chunk of metal, trying to roll it over. "Let us inspect the damage."
They walked over to the metal slab, noting first what appeared to be a small crater of glass that used to be the bracing emplacement. The second thing they noticed, as the slab fell over to reveal the damage on what would have been the inside, was not so much the damage itself, but the fact that the entire slab was warped as a result of the impact. The entry hole was not very large, but the exit hole was colossal. It was as though somebody had popped some giant steel bubble, judging from the way the jagged bits of metal protruded from the exit hole.
One of the Governate reps fainted. He was immediately grabbed by two soldiers and dragged into the tent.
"We actually expected somebody to pass out when they saw this," Corbox stated. "We've got coffee and donuts in the tent, are we satisfied?"
A few people clapped merrily, the rest were still staring at the slab in awe.
"I'll take that as a 'whoa'. I don't know about you, but I haven't had breakfast." Corbox gestured to the tent and ushered the various representatives in.
Promotion for me? Hell, everybody here is gonna get at least a new bar.