Once we got back to New Haven we split up as there were different things we all wanted to do. Lil and Roland went to talk with Marcus who apparently had a job he wanted done while Brick and Mordy went to the bounty board to look at what was there. I myself headed back to the room above Zed's clinic to set up my house again. While they were busy with their things I had my own to deal with. For example Ladon who was growing rapidly and might soon reach the right size and strength needed to fly finally. -
It should be remembered that nearly seven or so Pandoran days had passed since he had hatched with each day being over ninety hours long. For a newborn this was no small period of time and his growth showed it as he had nearly doubled in size coming up to my waist at his shoulders. That is to say he was currently people sized and showed no sign of slowing down. Considering the type of saurian he was originally this didn't surprise me at all. Tyrants tended to be massive creatures and the Chomp stomp version was even larger than normal.-
Even with his final height being cut in half because of his quadruped physiology he was still going to be at least seven feet tall at the shoulder. That doesn't even cover his length which was almost triple his height and would no doubt stay that way as he grew. Perhaps that was small for a dragon but I personally thought it was an ideal size as it was large enough to have serious power but not so large that flexibility and movement were inhibited.-
Still I needed to adjust the shield he had as soon it wouldn't be strong enough to cover his full body which due to the way shields work meant that it wouldn't work at all. Needless to say that was fucking unacceptable. Taking the shield off of Ladon my big lizard watched curiously as I headed to the crafting room with it. Once I was there I got to work with my tools. I cracked the casing open and began to look over the wiring and all around design of the shield to see where I could improve. This was standard practice for me as I was a firm believer in flawless upgrades and not the upgrades that come with a trade off.-
This sounds easy to those who don't know any fucking thing about tech like this but obviously it wasn't so simple. Most people have forgotten that shields haven't always been a thing and that meant someone had to create a design, test it, refine it, then test it again. The process of creating something like this wasn't easy unless you got really fucking lucky and took years of research and development. The same logic applied to gunsmithing as well, it was a gradual improvement process over many years and tests.-
This was always the way of humanity, we build our futures off the hard work of those who came before us. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I was fairly certain this understanding was why I was so good at innovating and modifying tech I found. I wasn't stuck on tradition or any other preconceived ridiculous shit like that. I saw what I was working with and then I overlaid my imagination of what it could be before moving to make that a reality. In this case I saw how the shield functioned, it's defects in manufacturing, the wiring, energy reservoir and projection matrix.-
From there I mentally started moving things according to my knowledge until a new, better design was overlaid with the original. Remove this, swap out this, change that entirely, expand this, the works to make it reality. It sounds straightforward but that was only because I knew what I was doing. I garun-fucking-tee that if someone who didn't tried they'd fail at best or kill themselves at worst. While shield tech was obviously defensive in nature a few small tweaks could easily invert it to offensive. -
'In hindsight that'd be an interesting way to assassinate someone.' I thought offhandedly as I sawdered the new miniaturized Eridian battery in place.
Honestly speaking the biggest problem I had to overcome with Ladon's shield was the sheer energy requirements needed to extend a shield over a thing so big without trading mobility. Naturally I simply used that library of Eridian engineering knowledge in my head to find a easy solution, hence the battery. Something I should probably clarify here is that that library of knowledge wasn't a "I know everything" type deal but more of a "google it" one. I didn't just automatically have full knowledge of the whole libraries contents but rather had to sift through it bit by bit to find what I wanted.-
Thank fucking Christ the Eridians were considerate enough to build in a search function to the knowledge or it would be like literally reading each book in a library one by one with no labels to find anything relevant, tedious. The Seraph cores naturally weren't the only method of energy storage the Eridians had developed since otherwise that'd get awkwardly bulky in some of the smaller pieces of portable tech.-
Finding a small recharging battery with some serious juice in it took me no time at all since I was quite specific in what I was looking for. One quick use of the maker thing later and I had the shiny new battery no bigger than the sort you'd find in a watch on Earth with enough power to kickstart a fucking sun in it. Maybe a bit overkill but that description fit the Eridians to a gods damn tee. The whole race was straight up overkill according to everything I could find about them. WAY smarter than everything else, stronger than nearly any human and with lifespans counted in the thousands of years.-
Like I said, overkill. Still they were gone now and their tech was mine so I could do whatever the fuck I wanted with it. In this case that meant overclocking a shield so it worked on a siren created dragon. The final product after I fully refurbished the shield was legendary quality as I expected it to be. I didn't stop there though and started drafting a new weapon up. This time I wanted to create something that Brick would actually use properly unlike that shotgun. Don't get me wrong he'll absolutely use the shotgun, just not as a gun.-
Nothing wrong with it but the guy just prefers melee over guns even if it puts him at a disadvantage. With that in mind I wanted to design a weapon that perfectly incorporates both. My current idea was a kick ass pair of cestus that serve as both gauntlets but also guns. The trick with something like this however was getting the firing mechanism just right so it doesn't go off whenever he moves his arms. A manual trigger also wouldn't work since it wouldn't smoothly mix firing and punching things.-
After thinking on it for a bit the solution I came up with was a series of sensors in the knuckles and forearm that would detect muscle movement and impact force to set off the shots upon his fist hitting his target. I would have to find the right sensitivity for these sensors as well since otherwise fist bumps would be very dangerous for everyone's health. For this I needed Bricks help as I needed to get data on his forearms and punches both casual and serious. Sadly this wasn't going to happen at the moment since he was off on a job with Mordy.-
I settled with sketching out a blueprint for the rough design of the weapon for the moment. It consisted of a glove that covered the hand with raised points on the knuckles. From there it swept back to a row of several barrels surrounding the wrist at a slight angle to prevent self harm but not so much as to throw off the trajectory too much. from there a solid part over the forearms that holds the ammo and loading mechanism as well as the firing mechanisms for each of the barrels.-
The idea was that for each punch thrown a single barrel will fire and only once all the barrels are empty will the loading mechanism move a new shell into place while removing the old one. It would work similarly to a standard machine gun that ejects the spent cartridge out the side though this time through the top instead. The final design looked a bit bulky but there was nothing for it unless I lowered the caliber size of the bullets from fifties. The design itself though looked oddly similar to cufflinks with how it covered the wrist and stuck out like fins to the sides.
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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
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Alexander Drake
Lifeforce:368,697
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade]X4, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits: [Flame projection gland], [Mechanical engineering expertise(degraded)-Common grade]