Chương 56: 036 – The Hybrid Cannon

As it turned out, the panels the gunnery team had been removing weren't so they could access the internals of the hybrid cannon. It has been to access the locking mechanisms that kept the heavily armored rear hatch of the cannon locked into place. Apparently in addition to being multifunctional, someone had decided that the cannon should be able to laugh off a direct hit. Thomas could respect that kind of engineering. That philosophy had extended to all other parts of the hybrid cannon.

The triple-gimbal mechanism that supported it was thick and equally heavily armored… on the outside. On the inside, a thick metal panel—although 'slab' would have been equally accurate—revealed a track, which was apparently the hybrid cannon's loading mechanism for physical ammunition.

"Why gimbals?" Thomas asked as the gunnery grew tested the loading mechanism, running a testing round—well, an actual round, as these were merely metal slugs—from the manual loading mechanism.

"Wouldn't a horizontal and vertical traverse be enough? Why three?"

"It allows for more range of movement and faster target acquisition," the Kaedekin who'd been identified as either Amy or Nova—but probably Amy—said.

"A dual traverse system means the whole gun will need to rotate if a target isn't on the same plane the gun is currently on. A three-gimbal system allows for immediate omni-directional movement, allowing for better target acquisition." Thomas frowned.

"Are these intended to be anti-ship weapons, anti-fighter batteries or point-defense weapons?" The size of the hybrid cannon was a little small, but given the size of the barrel and with the right ammunition they should be respectable anti-ship weapons.

"Yes," Sorceress Bunny or Kaguya—both were equally viable as names—replied cheerfully. She was standing nearby, holding the tools and waiting to hand them out when needed. Thomas waited for further clarification, but that seemed to be the only answer he was getting. So… did that mean they were intended to be all-purpose multi-function weapons? That… sounded like a terrible idea. There was a reason why ships had different guns for shooting down different things.

It just wasn't practical, since different targets needed different levels of tracking, reaction and payloads to counter against. Although… well, the hybrid cannon was supposed to act as a kinetic ammo launcher or a plasma cannon as needed, so perhaps that was why…? Once more, he buried the speculation. There was time for that later, after all the information had been collated and studied.

"Okay, we're ready!" Amy-or-Nova said.

"Thomas, do you want to see the inside of a hybrid cannon?"

"If it's all right?" he said, accepting Marie's help to get back to his feet.

"Sure! It's pretty basic stuff, anyway. Even after hundreds of years, the principles behind the standard US Army 1990's plasma rifle design still works. It's just scaled up and using more advanced materials," Paladin Mana—because Thomas was almost certain that even the Kaedekin wouldn't use 'Stronger' as a proper name for someone—said, identifiable by her yellow armband.

As Thomas had no idea how the primitive army from over eight-hundred years ago would somehow be able to develop handheld plasma weaponry—it was apparently a rifle design—he simply had to take her word for that and hoped that it was as simple as she said, because if so the Venture's engineers should hopefully be able to reverse engineer it from his helmet footage and any descriptions he could manage to get out of the Kaedekin.

He walked to the now-open rear of the hybrid cannon, looking inside into what had now been revealed. It was full of components that he couldn't readily identify, save perhaps for the very thick power conduits that connected components together. Most of the interior of this end of the hybrid cannon seemed to be filled with a large vessel, which was surrounded by a cylindrical arrangement of…

"What exactly am I looking at?" he said. Knight Amy-or-Nova pointed at the vessel inside the cannon.

"This is the most important part of the cannon, the plasma ignition chamber. It's where we inject the water to turn it into plasma inside the ignition chamber's magnetic field. It's empty right now because we're doing maintenance, but usually there's a pilot light charge of plasma when the cannon is on standby mode to help bring the cannon up to a full combat pressure.

When it's pressurized, the hybrid cannon is capable of indefinite sustained rapid plasma fire or a thirty-second sustained plasma beam before we run out of pressure in the ignition chamber and need to cut off so we can reload." Thomas did his best to get his helmet camera as many angles as he could. Their engineers would want every shred of data they could get to try to replicate this technology.

"For kinetic rounds," Knight Amy-or-Nova continued, "the ignition chamber rolls back to make room for the payload, which is loaded into the firing chamber. From there, it's suspended in a magnetic field to begin spin-stabilizing it, before it's accelerated by the cannon's railgun or gauss gun fiel—" An alarm suddenly cut through the air, interrupting the Kaedekin as red lights that Thomas hadn't noticed previously started to blink.

All the Kaedekin around him stiffened, before the gunnery crew started moving quickly and began replacing the components they had removed with the controlled haste of people who'd done timed runs of this exact sort of thing before. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"What's happening?" Thomas asked. Flashing red lights and an alarm were not a reassuring combination.

"Marie? What's going on?" He was answered almost immediately as a voice sounded through hidden speakers, and from all the devices the Kaedekin were carrying." Extradancer incursion detected,"a smooth and vaguely comforting female voice announced." This is not a drill. Extradancer incursion detected. This is not a drill. First contact scenario imminent." The analyst heard Marie hum thoughtfully as she looked at the device on her arm.

"I'm sorry, Thomas. It seems we need to cut your visit short. I've received orders to get you all back to your ship. Rain decided it would be best to get you all back to the Venture for both your safety and peace of mind. Come on, we need to go. Sorry, everyone!"

"Don't worry about us, go get Thomas here back to his ship," Bunny said, only glancing back at them briefly. Marie nodded, opening the door for Thomas and letting him out first.

"Follow me. Can you run in that suit?" Thomas shook his head, then realized that might not translate very well because of his static helmet.

"Not for very long, or very well. The backpack's too heavy. These suits weren't really meant to be in gravity." The Kaedekin frowned.

"Can you move faster if I support the pack's weight?" He blinked.

"Well, I suppose, but it's not really meant to be carried by someone else."

"It won't be a problem. Hold still a moment, I need to see what I'm working with." Marie stepped behind him and out of his view, and Thomas hurriedly activate the suit's rear camera. He saw her quickly examining the suit's backpack module, hands gently moving just out of camera where he knew the packs attachment points were.

"Your suit's pack weighs about fifty kilograms, correct?"

"About there," Thomas confirmed. Marie nodded and pressed her hand against his pack.

"Please maintain your position and don't move, you might unbalance yourself." There was a mild tint of bluish color through the rear camera, and Thomas suddenly felt the pack on his back grow less heavy. With the order fresh in his ears, he managed to keep himself from moving around to test the evidence of his senses, even as the weight of the back got progressively smaller, until it seemed like he wasn't wearing one at all.

"All right, that should do it. I used venngravity to neutralize the weight of your pack, but the mass is still there, so move carefully." Carefully, Thomas turned in place. The movement came easily, but he could feel the pack still on his back, even if its weight was no longer pulling him down.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"Gravity venngram," Marie said briskly.

"We need to get moving, everyone will be getting to battle stations. Come on." Reluctantly, Thomas dropped the subject and began walking. With fifty kilograms no longer weighing him down, he was much lighter on his feet, even if he had to be careful so the pack's mass wouldn't push him over when he turned or slowed down.

"Marie, why are we cutting this visit short?"

"Because the presence that just entered the Dancer system hasn't been identified yet," Marie said, repeatedly glancing down at the device on her arm as she led the way.

"We don't know what their sensor or FTL capabilities are, so there's a possibility they might come straight to Surcease to try and invade the planet. When the fighting breaks out as a result, it will no longer be safe to try and transfer you and the rest of our guests to the Venture. While you're welcome to stay aboard Stargazer, we can't guarantee your comfort and safety once the air in your suits run out." Any further words were interrupted as the voice that had spoken through the speaker earlier spoke again."

Extradancer incursion identified. Extradancer incursion identified. First contact with Shinkamrai Hegemony imminent. First contact with Shinkamrai Hegemony imminent." Thomas went cold, and it was only the momentum of his pack that kept him moving. The Hegemony had found them. The Hegemony was here. How many were there? What ships did they have? Would the Venture be able to send another maildrone to update the navy or—"Oh! They're here!" Marie exclaimed, pulling Thomas back from his spiral. She sounded…

excited as she looked at the device on her arm.

"Two in the same year! This is so exciting! Ah, I wish this was the year I'd won the tournament, Rain's so lucky!" As Thomas stared, her excitement turned into a concerned frown.

"Unless they're here to invade, in which case… well, that would be sad. Things have been going so well." The analyst frowned, footsteps slowing for a moment before he remembered he needed to get back to the utility boat.

"You think the Hegemony is here to invade you?" Marie sighed.

"It's looking like that might be the case. Which is unfortunate. They seemed like such nice people in their transmissions. But I suppose if the Confederacy isn't invading us—which we're very grateful for—then the Hegemony must be. Now that we're encountering aliens, we should start getting used to being invaded at least once a year…" Ah. That strange superstition of theirs. Or… whatever it was. It was probably something more suited for an anthropologist—sorry, sophontologist— to analyze.

Or possibly a psychologist, who can find the root cause and then fix them with therapy. The Kaedekin's mythology was just so… sci-fi that there had been bets going on about whether some Kaedekin science fiction writer had started a cult whose beliefs had become mainstream. The captain had obviously stopped trying to figure it out and had just nodded along, and that was probably the right course of action. People could be very irrational when their superstitions were challenged… Thomas shook his head. Not the time.

"It probably won't come to that. It's just one ship. One ship isn't an invasion force." Marie turned to look towards him. There was something about her expression…

"One ship can definitely be an invasion force. It's happened before." She shook her head.

"Well, never mind. I'm sorry your visit was interrupted. Hopefully Rain can sort this out and you can come visit again."

"All right… Extra air, check. Water supply, check. In-suit food, check. Writing board, check. Picnic basket, check…"