Military Mining
General John Wheatley was disappointed and his day was ruined. The new laser weapons were the most disgraceful excuses for "weapons" he had ever seen in his entire career. Pop guns which couldn't take out one unit of communist enemy infantry in a single shot. He had seen pistols and BB guns could deal more damage to the communist scum than these pathetic toys. How the hell could some of the smartest people in the world fail at creating a better laser rifle with millions in funding? As he saw some scientists trying and failing to stay out of his sight while moving something through the hallway and decided to stop them.
"Excuse me for just one minute. What is that?"
The eggheads attempted to ignore him before he quickly stepped in front of the cart and blocked them. He didn't have his power armor on him at the moment, but he was still stronger than both of the bundles of sticks in lab coats.
"Oh. Don't worry about this thing. It's just a prototype of a laser mining cutter that we are developing for Garrahan. You would not be interested in such a boring thing at all."
The scientists were trying to hide it from him and he wasn't born yesterday.
"I am actually very interested in this mining laser. How about we arrange a test to see this laser in action. The boys in China could use it to clear some barricades."
It had taken John quite a bit of negotiating to be able to see this "laser mining cutter" in action and at full power. One of the theoretical eggheads had spouted some technobabble with something about a "cascade scenario" and the potential of overheating causing an explosion. That meant the weapon could only be fired for about ten seconds, but he had a good feeling about this if the pale faces of the eggheads meant anything. There were some cardboard cutouts of Chinese soldiers, some very old American tanks meant to be Chinese tanks, and a reinforced wall in the back of the testing area to stop the laser from potentially damaging civilian property. He would have like to use some prisoners rather than cardboard cutouts, but an egghead was going to be firing the weapon and he didn't want to risk them vomiting on the prototype that could potentially be improved. He put on the goggles to protect his eyes from the light and waited for the test to begin.
It took a few seconds for the weapon to charge up once the test began. Part of John worried that it would break down since this was the first time it was going to be fired beyond 50% power. Those worries disappeared once the the weapon started firing and made the cardboard cutouts vanish. Time seemed to slow to a crawling pace over the next ten seconds. The poor egghead was clearly struggling with the laser to the point where it looked like he was fighting with the gun. The tanks practically melted as the scientist finally managed to gain control of the gun and the test was halted. John struggled to tear his gaze away from the hole in the reinforced wall as he was escorted away from the area.
John had finally solved the problem on how to get the C.I.T and Commonwealth Preservation Bureau to make the best possible weapons for the military. They seemed to struggle when directly focusing on weapons like lasers and guns, but when given something that wasn't a gun they had the best change of effectiveness. The robots and upcoming war co*cktail were nice, but they were not the bonus of GigaGro or the potential of Ultracite. This mining laser proved that he needed to watch for projects that were not a weapon, but could be utilized as a weapon. He could use the potential undersea mining robots as tools to destroy any Chinese submarines off the American coasts.
The laser mining cutter would need to be improved and John had some ideas when the military eventually got their hands on that beauty of a weapon. Changing the name to something more appropriate was the most difficult part of adapting the weapon for military use. The placeholder name would probably be the BFL. He would need to speak with West-Tek about making a special model of power armor directly connected to the weapon. He didn't need a flood of those things getting into the hands of communists and having special groups (that worked under him) of power armored heroes deleting entire hordes of Communists and collapsing infested buildings.
John knew that the BFL would only be useful in the most intense fights of the war. The Chinese had been relying on spies and developing stealth technology as the war progressed in favor of the United States of America. This wouldn't help out in the villages or farms, but that was where Gaia's Blood would be used. The cities would be where the BFL could shine and show those filthy communists that nowhere was safe from Uncle Sam. John had seen the hole in the reinforced wall and the hole in a nearby hill that was caused by the laser and knew that the cheap scrap that communist buildings were made out of couldn't stand up to the power of the BFL. It could also be used for breaking into bunkers. Charging wasn't an issue as long as his men were not ambushed, but that wasn't what power armor would be meant to fight.
The C.I.T and CPB were giving him the tools to crush any organized resistance against Uncle Sam. Once the United States of America had secured the Chinese nukes it would be game over for communism. There would still be fighting, but use of Gaia's Blood and sending their own nukes to the more remote villages would stop that. There was no doubt in his mind that the entire world would be controlled by the United States of America by 2100.
AN:
Not close to canon. Imagine combining the name of the Starfield mining laser cutter, the damage of the Doom BFG, the laser length of the Gluon Gun from Black Mesa, and the charging and sound of the Micro-HID from SCP: Secret Laboratory.
I like the idea that the CPB accidentally makes extremely strong military weapons while trying to make normal civilian products.
Oledoms
Please apply the bonus from this omake to the Research section.
