Greek Fire

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A darkened sheet of uranium armour hang silently in the long thin tunnel, hanging from a pair of thick iron chains from the ceiling of the tunnel. All was eerily quiet, a light in the tunnel flickered from red to green and then a fiery bolt of yellow shot down the tunnel at unbelievable speeds striking the armour square in the centre. The initial impact created an eruption of flames as uranium combusted and flew away from the main plate, afterwards came the thundering clap of the sound waves generated from the impact and then the clouds of particles form thick smoke around the plate.

“Armour integrity is down to 79%…”, reported the chief test engineer.

Jovien clapped his hands together, “Excellent, outstanding work!”, he announced.

“We’re not over yet Governor Jovien…”, informed the chief test engineer.

With that the chief rised his hand and signalled for another test. The smoke had started to clear in the test chamber and it was apparent that the armour wasn’t exactly fairing to well against the might of the new rail gun. A jagged and deformed blackened crater lay within its centre. Evidence of an explosion was clearly visible as well.

“Fire!”, commanded the engineer.

A second bolt of yellow shot down the test chamber impacted the armour once again creating an equally impressive display as the first. Loud tearing sounds travelled down the test chamber and into the observation room.

“Armour down to 59% integrity.”, announced the monitoring engineer.

Jovien laughed, “Wooooo, that is one hell of a gun you have developed there Raynolds.”

A man standing to the far right of Jovien turned his head towards the Governor and pulled his fingers from his ears, “Sorry Jovien, were you talking to me?”

Jovien smiled, “Yeah Raynolds, I said that is one hell of a gun.”

Raynolds grinned, “Yes well that what you get for giving use access to some of the more exotic minerals you’re found.”

Jovien nodded, “Yes it is apparent that using a selection of much more rarer minerals have definitely improved the design of this weapon.”

“Not half.”, laughed Raynolds, “You know you have a good design when researchers from Milso’s empire are asking you how you got the power consumption so low.”

Jovien chuckled, “Milso still has much better gear than us, makes me thankful that he is still in an alliance with us. God only knows what kind of crazy weapons he has laying around in his research labs.”

Raynolds sighed, “Ahh yeah the weird and wonder labs of Milso, oh what I would give for just ten minutes in one.”

Jovien frowned, “What? Your life? Since that would be the cost.”

Raynolds nodded in agreement, “Yes you’re right, Milso would NEVER let anyone of his secret go without a fight first.”

The chief engineer butted in, “Sorry Governor Jovien, would you like to see a rapid fire test now?”

Joviens eye widened, “Exactly what do you mean by rapid fire?”

Raynolds walked over to the chief and pointed towards his test console, “Go on show him just how good this gun really is.”

Jovien inched forward towards the two men trying to get the best view of the console and the test chamber. The engineer pressed a button on the console and another familiar yellow rail round launched from the test weapon and shot down towards the armour plate, but this time it was followed in extremely fast succession by what seemed to be an endless line of rounds.

Each round impacted the suspended armour plate with a deafening clap of metal on metal and its explosive aftermath. But this time before the armour plate had time to recover several new round slammed into the same area of the plate, tremendous waves of sound echoed down the testing tunnel.

Jovien placed his hands over his ears to protect them from the increasing volume of the sound. A second later the prototype weapon ceased firing and Jovien could clearly see a torn hole through the plate of armour.

“How long did it take to breach the armour?”, queried Jovien to the chief engineer.

“About 4.9 seconds.”, replied the engineer.

Jovien looked around the room in amazement, “You’re telling me you have gotten the firing rate down to just a few seconds???”

“Nope…”, grinned Raynolds, “Try just 1 second.”

“1 second!?”, beamed Jovien, “Woo that is really quite impressive… No wonder.”

Raynolds smiled, “We aim to provide the Kaidan Imperial Navy and Military establishment with the latest in military hardware, I’m glad you are happy with our latest product.”

Jovien nodded in agreement, “Yes indeed this weapon design will certainly win a good number of production contracts from the Kaidan military. I can reassure you that once the weapon goes through the final test phase you will be getting a lot of business your way.”

Raynolds was pleased to hear this and offered his hand out to Jovien. Jovien shook his hand, “To the final stages of testing then gentlemen.”, insisted Raynolds.

“One thing though Raynolds, whats the codename for this weapon?”, asked Jovien.

“Why it’s Greek Fire…”, Raynolds replied.

Jovien laughed, “A fitting name really.”


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