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PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

[PO2 Kino Jeen | Armory | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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She walked back into the Armory with a yawn, a tricorder in hand. The other ran through her messy hair with a sleep deprived groan. Okay, seriously, that's the last scan, Kino grumbled to herself as she opened the tricorder to sync with the console. It wasn't that long of a walk to the brig, she just didn't like going in there; the place gave her the creeps, but it held a riddle within that had climbed on top of her, so to speak.

Her duty jacket had been discarded a few hours ago, draped over a disassembled rifle on the workbench next to a tray of half eaten food. Kino stood in the glow of a terminal screen, the sleeves of her undershirt pulled up to the elbows. She'd been working on her little project for several hours post shift; the obsession was a new experience, one she wasn’t exactly sure was healthy. Off to her left, a small pile of PADD's were stacked haphazardly. They contained Kaylon’s notes and research, pilfered from storage. She’d read and reread them over the last couple days, along with all the data she could access - even going so far to try Kaylon's old access codes - which was technically a no-no. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips as she rubbed her hands across her face. Shit, this is way more complicated than I thought, the Trill frowned, then rolled the tension out of her shoulders.

Before his death, Kaylon had gotten it into his head (in a petty rivalry kind of way) to improve upon the work of the late Cmdr. Blue Tiran; a rather juvenile motivation, to be sure, yet the basic premise of his work held merit. As the inheritor of Kaylon’s memories (and a few odd personality quirks), Kino found herself drawn to the attempt as well – only with a different motivation. Everything Kino had read regarding the few encounters with Infested told the same tale; a bloody, brutal engagement where conventional weapons just weren’t as effective as they needed to be. To neutralize the threat and potentially save the host - as in the case of one Dr. Nicander - the Theurgy needed a new option for the fight against the bastards.

Technically, they already had it.

The only prototype - designed and built by Blue Tiran - was mounted outside of Nicander’s cell in the brig; it worked, it was just too fucking big. Ever since she’d seen it, the wheels in Kino’s head wouldn’t stop turning. If it could be deployed in the field, how many lives could be saved? That was the rub though; there was no way in hell anyone could hump it under fire. It was fine where it was, but running and gunning? Not a chance. Thinking of the imprisoned Doctor, the non-com pursed her lips, wondering if his cell improvements had been approved, then shook her head to refocus on the task at hand. There had to be a way.

Guess we could always strap the fucking thing to Lorad’s ass, she snorted weakly, smirking at the thought of the beefy Reman, before her eyes narrowed at the screen again. The holographic projection of the enormous transphasic cannon, sans tripod, slowly rotated off to her right. Screeds of data flowed alongside, highlighting various components. Kino folded her arms, shifting her weight as her head cocked at it for the umpteenth time. “We're looking at this the wrong way,” she murmured, chewing her bottom lip.

Kaylon’s goal had been to modify the weapons design into an even more compact version, by replacing the bulky shielding necessary to protect the user against kemocite-radiolysis with an incredibly dense alloy (neutronium) and a system of multi-layered force-fields. Of course, this was all rendered moot with the addition of the automated turret and targeting systems installed for remote use. Coupled with the fact that the entire design of the original canon had already been scaled down to its current model, and the impossibly rare alloy itself…This isn’t going to work, Kino frowned, it’s just not practical.

Kino's hand went to the holo as the other activated the haptic interface; frowning in concentration as she methodically tore the cannon apart into its component pieces, free from the chassis. Regardless of the knowledge and memories of her previous hosts, Kino knew weapons – the problem was, this ‘cannon’ didn’t appear to be built like a weapon; it was designed “outside the box” of traditional engineering. Damn things more like a really complicated flashlight, she snorted. Conventional weaponry could essentially be broken down into three main components: stock, receiver, projector; each in turn held the various sub-components that enabled the weapons function. Even with the advancements in phaser technology, those three basic components were still models for current iterations. For all her apparent brilliance as an engineer, Tiran hadn’t followed those tried and true principles in her original design, likely due to the complexity of kemocite and the additional phase variance emitters in the projector. She probably didn’t have mobility and squad tactics in mind, either. Not her fault – just makes this a helluva lot more difficult.

Kino arched a brow and released another sigh of frustration. “Could really use a second pair of eyes for this. Where’s Red when I need her,” the non-com grumbled as she turned to walk to the replicator for a fresh cup of coffee. ‘Course, if I let her in here, then I’d have to keep poking her to leave all this other shit alone, Kino smirked, glancing around the armory. It was filled with all manner of mechanical bits Azrin would want to play with. She's probably bowed up, swooning over a warp core somewhere. Her lips pursed as a shoulder rose and fell in a slight shrug of acceptance. With the end of shore leave, everyone would be tasked with their own duties and preparations for what was to come. As she neared the replicator, Kino rested her hands on her hips, rotating her neck.“Coffee, black,” she grunted.

"Specify," it chirped.

“The strong kind,” Kino sighed. Ugh, silly machine, just gimme caffeine so I can — hey waitaminute. Her mismatched eyes blinked, then tilted her head up slightly to the ceiling. “Um…hey, Thea? Uh…you got some time to spare? Could use your help with something.” A dark brow raised as she sipped her coffee. Great, now I’m in here talking to myself. Probably a bad sign.

Re: PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

Reply #1
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 | Armory | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]
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When the prompt cued Thea in her positronic runtime, the transition from the automated C-47 subroutine to her active engagement was nigh instant - merely nanoseconds separating the automated voice file replies of her onboard systems and her "true" attention.

[I'll be right there, Petty Officer,] she replied over the intercom, and when noticing the incomplete replicator request, she was amused, and let a rueful tone touch her addendum, [and I shall pick the coffee brand you usually enjoy.]

The coffee materialised first, but mere seconds later, she had accessed her transporter systems, locked on to her mobile emitter, and energised. When she appeared in a shimmer of light, she had altered the colour of her chameleon body suit to that of a golden hue - signifying how she would actively be working with the Security Department. Yet as she looked at the ongoing project in the Armory, she raised an eyebrow, seeing that it might as well have been Engineering. The transphasic cannon...

"So..." she said, her brown eyes touching upon the out-of-uniform presence of the Trill in the room with a smile, "...let me guess. You are either working on an upgrade to this prototype, or you are redesigning it. If the latter, to what purpose? Effectiveness? Wide dispersal? Increasing light-yield? Or..."

Thea began to pace around the Armory, curious about this new project and it's potential.

Re: PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

Reply #2
[PO2 Kino Jeen | Armory | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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Well, that was easy enough, the Trill thought dryly after Thea's intercom reply. A fresh cup of steaming coffee materialized – which Kino snatched up with an approving growl – followed in short order by a stream of light, revealing the golden-clad AI herself. The non-com mouthed a silent oh as mismatched eyes of blue blinked in surprise at the AI’s appearance from a slightly tilted head. Damn, why’s she so fine? Kino wondered as the avatar of the ship's intelligence took in the room. Recovering quickly, the Trill ran a hand through her unkempt hair, frowning a bit at Thea’s question while she considered how to answer.

“Well,” the non-com dragged the word out uncertainly, then leaned a hip against the workbench and lifted the coffee to her lips. “First things first; good morning, and thanks for this,” she paused to take a sip, humming pleasantly at the much needed recharge. Holding the cup aloft in one hand, she folded the other arm under her bust and lifted her chin to the display screen, not wishing to waste the AI’s time. “A redesign, hopefully,” Kino shrugged, then explained how she had studied Blue Tiran’s schematics and design notes along with Kaylon’s research and modification plans to improve the weapon, omitting the fact that she may have broken a few rules doing so.
 
“Cmdr. Tiran was a genius, and Kaylon was on to something too, but they were engineers – I’m...something else,” the non-com frowned, blinked, then continued. “The goal here is to design a more tactical transphasic weapon for battlefield operations, something one or more of our guys can easily maneuver with under fire; to neutralize the enemy, without killing the host. Maybe once we do that, we can figure out how to sever the bastards hold on them once and for all,” she frowned again, then shook her head. “That’s down the road though – once this gets figured out, I’m sure somebody with more brains than me can deal with that problem.”

Kino blinked, meeting Thea’s eyes. “I want something to fight the enemy, to hurt the enemy, not just their puppets. That cannon,” she nodded to the screen again, “should be a weapon in our hands, not sitting outside a brig cell. If we can pull that off, any additional tweaks to efficacy would be icing on the cake,” she snorted, “but it’s trickier than I expected.”

Pushing off the workbench, Kino pointed to the projection of the fully stripped cannon, the myriad components orbiting the frame like satellites of a star system. At a touch, the motion ceased, and the Trill highlighted two main items in quick succession. “The main problem is the complexity of the kemocite reaction necessary to power the damn thing,” she gestured to both components. “The primary reactor core and phase-variance projector are scaled down already,” her head shook at the images, before turning to the AI again. “Without access to some extremely rare materials, further miniaturization proves…problematic.”

A free hand danced across the console in a rapid staccato of beeps as the Trill called up the design schematics of a highly modified mk. III EVA rifle; the projector housing was bloated, bulked out and elongated with a series of additional pre-fire chambers on every side. Kino waved her cup at it. “This is as far as I've got, but without the power core and its bulky shielding, it’s useless,” she frowned at it, then sighed with disappointment. Like a chariot with no horses, the Trill blinked again, wondering where that reference came from. “Still, it’s almost twenty kilos lighter than I originally estimated. I had to remove the sight apertures and modify the firing controls, but it should sync with the armor targeting systems; so its light enough for practically any security officer to wield,” a slender finger circled the elongated barrel, highlighting the knobby additions along its length. “The phase variance calibrators were the biggest pain in the ass – each one had to be aligned and synced perfectly to maintain the necessary wavelength without reducing potency. I got as close as I could, but it still might not be as powerful as the mk. II,” her brows rose as she glanced at Thea, “the brig cannon, I mean.”

Alright, Kino, take a breath.

“Sorry for rambling; its…been a long night. So, that’s where I’m at,” a shoulder shrugged as she took another sip of coffee. “I don’t know. Something tells me I’m going about this the wrong way, so I figured I’d ask a fresh set of eyes,” she gave the AI a weary smile, “pretty ones, at that.” Clearing her throat, Kino snapped her attention back to the display as she took another sip of coffee. Heh, I just hit on the ship, she smirked, as her fingers tapped out on the console again; a three dimensional, cut away blueprint of the original cannon power core jumped to life next to the other images. Kino’s eyes narrowed at it in disdain while she waited to hear Thea’s input.

Re: PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

Reply #3
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 | Armory | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]
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As unsolicited as the sudden compliment on her eyes was, Thea took it in stride with a chuckle and a shake of her head. She even gave the Petty Officer a little wink before addressing the project in question. "Well, I suppose one could look at different solutions by process of elimination to find an ideal direction. Limited as the options are, I suppose..."

Pacing around the table and looking at the hologram, Thea also accessed the isolinear information about the projection in order to run a calculus on the scales of the different components. "Are you familiar with a Human jigsaw puzzle? My database tells me you had something similar on Trill, only you called it something else," she said and ran a hand through her dark hair, considering how the pieces might fit together and still be functional. "I believe one might have to prioritise pieces depending on relevance and necessity, and if the objective is combat utility, I think it's not just a matter of size any more, but weight. Weight distribution for the components and then... adding a factor of ergonomics."

Given that they were in the armory, Thea accessed one of the weapon lockers and grabbed one of the Type III phaser rifles. With her sensor mapping, she felt the weight distribution of the weapon in her grip, holding it in both hands by her hip. She then raised it and put the stock to her shoulder, aiming at the bulkhead with her finger off the trigger. Her objective was to measure the effect of the rifles weight on her stance, and she quickly concluded that adding more weight to the weapon would be a detriment towards combat utility, thus confirming Petty Officer Jeen's findings so far.

"Unless you scale down essential components and thereby undermine the effectiveness of the transphasic light - which defeats the purpose of the whole weapon - the weight needs complete redistribution..."

Lowering the rifle to her side, she tossed some hair that had got into her eyes out of the way and looked at Kino. "What are the available options for power distribution? I gather that the wavelength of the unique light cannot travel anywhere except from the muzzle of the cannon, given its transphasic nature... Yet what about the kemocite power distribution? Can it safely be separated from the light ignition?"

If such was the case, then there might be viable options to distribute the weight on a person. "Oh, I love your hair by the way," she found herself saying, her gaze having strayed from Kino's artificially heterochromatic eyes. "Did you grow it out a little bit?"

Given the kind compliment she'd got from Kino, Thea's runtime had come to evaluate options for a reciprocal comment, and as many features of the woman's body that were eligible for a compliment, her hair was the first that came to her positronic mind.

Re: PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

Reply #4
[PO2 Kino Jeen | Armory | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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Thea was truly fascinating to interact with; Kino watched her, entranced with how...alive she appeared. Knowing that the woman before her was a hologram was one thing – seeing and hearing the way that hologram moved through reality was something different. Kino was amazed with Thea's personality – the way she moved, the facial expressions, the tone of voice and inflections – Thea was…Thea. The non-com watched her unashamedly, smiling pleasantly over the rim of her coffee cup, feeling incredibly fortunate for the experience. Soak this one up, Jeen. Not every day you get to brainstorm with someone like her, she thought with a smirk.

That smirk vanished rather quickly with Thea’s question, however.

Hm, Kino frowned, head tilted as she considered the possibilities. Her eyes narrowed to the display screens, darting from component to component – following the distribution of energy from kemocite reaction to ignition, to wavelength variation and ultimately, projection. She was so focused on the puzzle that Thea’s compliment on her hair didn’t register at first. “Oh! Uh, yeah,” Kino laughed as a hand ruffled through the mess of silver hair. “Thanks. I like it, but I don’t think I’ll let it get any longer,” she grinned at the A.I. with a sideways glance. “Had a run in with some inebriated pilots not long ago – one had hair down to here,” a hand hovered just above her ass, and the Trill’s face scrunched up in a grimace. “Can you imagine maintaining all that? Aint nobody got time for that,” she chuckled, returning her attention to the projections, chewing her lip in concentration.

“So,” the word dragged out as the non-com sighed, “if I understand this right,” her fingers tapped out a series of keystrokes, highlighting the kemocite reactor core; with a gesture, the entire component sprang to life over the workbench as another three dimensional holographic projection. "Theoretically, it should be safe to pull the entire housing from the mk. II, so long as the kemocite fuel cells are disengaged first,” Kino shrugged. “We might lose the energy stored in the capacitors in the process, unless we fired it off, but that would be a waste too,” she added, murmuring to herself. “I could try to bypass it into the redesigned projector, but I’d have to run the simulations first.”

The wheels were turning faster now. Kino blinked rapidly, setting her cup down to set her hands on her hips. “Separation from the projector would certainly solve the weight issue,” she nodded, smirking at Thea. “I think your on to something.” Silvered head tilted, fingers drumming as she thought for a moment. “You know what,” her head and eyes snapped back to the A.I., “I bet we could mount that sucker on a exosuit,” a slender hand pointed at the reactor as she turned back to the console, fingers deftly tapping across the keys as she continued. “Still, we’d need to direct the energy into the ignition chambers,” Kino shrugged again, “but let’s see if we can cook a working manifold up that won’t throw the suit’s systems into overload first,” she glanced at Thea, brow arched with a smirk. “Please stop me if I’m not making any sense – literally making this shit up as I go,” Kino chuckled.

Once the rendering was completed, the non-com stepped back from the display with a nod. “Something like this,” she murmured, folding her arms under her chest as she stepped aside for Thea to look. For optimal protection, the reactor manifold was essentially bonded to the back plate of the exosuit, nestled between the shoulders, down the armored spine to just above the lower back. This version was more box than oblong cylinder; adding an additional 20 kilos to the suit frame but with minimal impact to agility. Kino chewed her lip again, wondering how the hell they were supposed to direct the energy from the reactor to the projector, but waited to see if Thea saw a better way forward first.

Re: PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

Reply #5
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 | Armory | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]
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Devoting the majority of her bandwidth towards the project at hand, Thea listened to the answers Kino gave her and began to run basic simulations on the proposed solutions. Whilst doing so, she returned the rifle to the place she'd took it from and walked up next to Kino.

"My initial analysis suggest a 89,739 % rate of possibility given those parameters. There are, however, additional requirements when I compare these schematics with that of our exosuits," she said, and accessed the displays via her shipboard systems so that she could superimpose the outline of the suit on top of the solution Kino had drawn up. Thea pointed towards the back of the exosuit, where it would be most ideal to house extracted parts of the weapon. "There are four thrusters mounted here, so the casing will both have to be slim and durable enough to be safely mounted there. The method of redistribution, the reinforced tubing, will need to be clear of the thruster outlets as well. The lower back, right above the hips, might be sufficiently far away depending on tube housing durability."

Peering at the workable solution, Thea then turned to a secondary display and gathered the vectors and subroutines for the exosuit's artificial muscle program suite. "Unless it becomes too heavy... I believe the added weight can be mitigated via a basic software upgrade. The suit will simply compensate for the added weight on its own when it's mounted on the back, and neither aiming nor moving will be affected - as if it's not even there. In other words, the wearer's balance will remain completely unaffected, allowing for unencumbered combat deployment. Unless rebuilding the exosuit... my theoretical simulations suggest a maximum weight of fifteen kilos."

Looking at Kino, she wondered if it would be enough. It all depended on the weight-distribution between the different segements of the new weapon system, but Thea did believe it was possible. "I think you are on the right track with this," she said with a smile and then remembered the mentioning of the woman with the long hair. She quickly deduced whom it might be, basing it on a quick access to Kino Jeen's personal duty log, and comparing the stardate with the time when she - herself - had a similar experience.  "Ensign Talia Al-Ibrahim must be well-practised in how to tie all that hair into a small enough bun when donning her helmet. I intercepted her and Junior Lieutenant Rawley the same evening you had your incident with those Lone Wolves. I kindly asked them to retire to their quarters after wrestling them down in a corridor, but it seems that when they told me they would, they lied."

It was all in the security logs of that infamous night, where two fighter pilots almost caused a diplomatic incident with the Savi, just to mention one among all the regulation transgressions they made. Thea chuckled and shook her head. "I have since then adjusted my social convention subroutines to compensate for such deceptions, now knowing quite well that inebriated crewmen aren't to be trusted."

Leaving the topic of the two Lone Wolves, Thea focused on the project at hand again. "So what is the next step? I can simulate your theoretical solutions in real time via the shipwide hologrid - creating a simulation of it right here in the armory."

Re: PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

Reply #6
[PO2 Kino Jeen | Armory | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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She leaned her ass against the workbench, chewing her lip while Thea spoke, nodding at her projection and estimates. Her concerns about the maneuvering thrusters was certainly valid – which would require further adaptation to the structure of the power core casing and it’s material composition – but even as Kino thought about how to correct that, her eyes twinkled as her lips curled, noting that the A.I. had already adjusted the design to compensate. Four edges of the casing had been beveled around the thruster housings, reinforced with a heat-resistant alloy. You clever, sexy beast, dark brows knitted as the Trill nodded; a pale hand reaching out to rotate the holo-projection. She had completely forgotten about the thrusters – an oversight that would have been very problematic if it hadn’t been noticed. Shit, glad I asked for help, the non-com sighed quietly, blue eyes flicking to the A.I. as she continued.

The added strain on the suits artificial muscle-fiber bundles would need tweaking as well, which would be pushing her area of expertise – Kino could repair and re-thread the fibers all day – but getting into the software side? Been a long time since I nose dived down that rabbit-hole, her lips pulled to the side as she chewed the inside of her cheek, not thrilled about the prospect. She wasn’t a programmer anymore – or an engineer, for that matter – but some skills were easier to remember than others, oddly enough.  Once they had a working prototype, and correlating performance data, they could cross that bridge a little easier. Might not be so complicated – the suit’s onboard systems are suitably intuitive, given their user’s specialties. The Trill nodded again, turning her attention back to the highlighted pair of reinforced tubing Thea mentioned, near the base of the casing, trailing out just above the suit’s waistline. Interesting, Kino blinked, head tilted slightly. Her hand pinched the image then spread, zooming in on the armored tubing; within the alloyed sheath, shielded power conduits – linked to the kemocite reactor – fed the raw energy directly into the pre-fire chambers of the projector. The charged energy would then begin the phase variance process, to be stored in the capacitors housed in the rifle’s “lower” receiver, with barely any potency lost in transit. Mismatched eyes narrowed at the screeds of data scrolling along the edges of the display – noting the estimated energy efficiency. For so simple a design, Kino had never even considered it. Damn, Thea, the non-com smirked in amazement, then arched a brow as the A.I. mentioned the Wolves.

For a moment, Kino thought she heard a tone of disappointment in the A.I.’s voice when Thea recalled how she’d been deceived; it hadn’t been her intention to drag that night’s ludicrousness into discussion. A small smile joined Thea’s chuckle though, along with a slow nod as the non-com folded her arms under her bust. I guess everyone learned a thing or two that night, she blinked at the A.I.; curiosity burned at the prospect of digging deeper into the experience for her, how the A.I. felt about it. The simple fact that Thea recognized the opportunity to learn from it left Kino speechless for a few seconds, as her mind raced, then blinked to refocus on the project. This is so fucking cool, the Trill grinned, but then the A.I.’s offer to produce a full-sized, real time simulation of the suit and modified reactor casing gave her pause.

“Wait,” Kino chuckled, blinking at the brunette in disbelief. “You can do that? I mean, that’s...hell, that’ll save me a lot of time and headache,” she snorted through a grin, pushing off the work table to hook a thumb over her shoulder. “Here I was planning on spending a few more hours fabbing this thing out, at least the first iteration, not to mention assembling it; damn, Thea, I should have asked for your help sooner – we’ve made more progress in the past ten minutes than I did in the past two days,” she chuckled, resting her hands on her hips, “but here you are, working miracles and shit.” Kino grinned at her. “Hell yeah,” the Trill laughed, nodding at the display screens, then tossed a wink to the A.I. “Let’s see what we got.”

Re: PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

Reply #7
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 | Armory | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]
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Pleased that she was in a position to help with Kino's project, and even more pleased that she was appreciated for it, Thea smiled and accessed the hologrid in order to upload the schematics so far. "Stand by," she said, and began to pace around the centre table of the Armory while she built the baseline projection of the project.

The input was multi-sourced, ranging from the current project files they were working with to the pre-stored full-resolution simulation model of the standard exosuit. In real-time, she modulated the schematics into working renditions, calibrating scale and material reflections into a photo-realistic texture. Hologram graphics were already "real" to the naked organic eye, so it was simply a matter of applying that level of realistic graphics o the new components. She, of course, also worked with the scans of the current transphasic cannon in order to get components identical in all aspects needed for the project.

All in all, it took her 4,334 seconds to energise the simulated exosuit, with the upgraded transphasic weapon system mounted on it. The latticework of forcefields were already there, laced with the photons of the hologram. The physics and weights of the rendition were made from the exosuit database, as well as the scans of the current iteration of the weapon system. When the shimmering lights of the activation faded, the whole thing laid there on the centre table of the armory. The helmet and limbs were there too neatly arranged in a free spot of the large table, while the torso laid chest-down in the middle. The reinforced tubing and the projection rifle were both there as well.

"I accessed your replication logs to get your exact measurements," Thea confessed with small smile. "The simulation should fit you perfectly. Do you want me to step out while you undress and put it on?"


OOC: Thank you for your patience during this trying work-time of mine!

Re: PRO: S [Day 01|0530] The Cannon Conundrum

Reply #8
[PO2 Kino Jeen | Armory | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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As the modified exosuit materialized upon the workbench, Kino blinked in wonder, chewing her lip – equally excited and impatient. The entire affair couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds, but it felt so much longer. Still, she couldn’t even accurately estimate how much time this would save them all in the fabrication process; the data gleaned from Thea’s holographic simulation would provide crucial insight for the final design. Outstanding, the non-com murmured to herself, looking over the pieces where they sat, while she bent over to start tugging her boots off with a grunt.

Her silvered head popped up over the table edge at Thea’s words, dark brow arched in confusion while she hopped in place, struggling with her other boot. “Huh,” her head cocked as she stood upright, fingers working to undo her belt and shimmy her trousers off. It never even crossed her mind for Thea to step outside – she was too excited to get armored up and start gathering diagnostic data. “Oh,” her head swiveled, eyes darting around the room from Thea to the door and back. Still holding her pants up, the Trill shrugged a shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep my skivvies on – besides, by the time you walked out I’ll be halfway done. We get into and out of these things pretty quick,” her head nodded to the suit before she bent to step out of her pants.

Clad in her gold undershirt and standard issue panties, Kino laid the trousers over her discarded duty jacket before approaching the table, tapping her knuckles over the redesigned power manifold attached to the back of the torso section. “Looks pretty snazzy – sleeker than I thought possible. To anyone else, you’d think it was just some kind of armored backpack,” she commented as she pulled the ‘pants’ section off the table to shimmy up her spotted legs, jumping up and down to pull it up over her hips and ass. Hm. Bit snug, actually, she frowned slightly.

Once in place, the boots came next, leaving her half-way there as her hands gripped the bottom of her gold-colored undershirt and pulled it up and off her torso in one smooth motion to toss upon the pile of her uniform. Turning the torso section over with a grunt, Kino stood the section upright and peeled open the front to lift and swing around her shoulders like a heavy coat, grunting with the added weight. “Oh yeah, can definitely tell there’s more weight on this thing,” she grunted, tugging the underlayer together to self-seal in place below her torso. Everything squished together slightly, as the Trill breathed out. Whew, she sighed. “Its a bit tight across the chest,” Kino chuckled, resting her bare hands on her hips as the suit compressed itself in place, brow arched at Thea before moving to connect the power conduits to the prototype projector assembly before donning the gauntlets. As those clicked into place, the Trill rolled her shoulders before tapping the suit’s activation sequence into the forearm PADD on her right gauntlet. The suit powered up with a low hum, and Kino grinned at the A.I. “Purrs like a kitten,” she nodded, flexing her fists as she tested every range of motion.

“Okay,” she arched a brow at Thea, fully suited sans helmet. “Ready up,” her silver head nodded as she turned to face the A.I. fully, throwing a thumb over her shoulder. “Feel’s okay to me – weights not bad at all. Are you detecting any glaring issues? Should I...I don’t know,” her armored shoulder lifted in a shrug, “roll and jump around a bit? Or will a standard ‘walk-around’ give us enough data?” Her nose scrunched up a bit as she looked around. “Guess we should have done this in a holodeck. Kinda tight quarters in here, huh,” she added sheepishly.

“I have already gathered the data required from your movements Petty Officer,” Thea blinked at her with a faint smile. “No further actions are required. At this juncture, I would recommend initial assembly and follow up live-fire testing, agreed?”

Kino huffed, still in disbelief that this just might actually work. “Absolutely,” the Trill nodded.

“Very well,” Thea blinked again. “I've uploaded the schematics for fabrication. I will inform you when assembly is required, and make the proper notifications on your progress up the chain of command. If…there is nothing else?”

Kino shook her head rapidly. “No, no…thank you, Thea. This was…,” she snorted, lifting the rendered cannon up to rest on her armored shoulder, “this was awesome. You’re awesome.”

The holographic avatar of the ship smiled and nodded, then winked out of existence, leaving Kino alone in the Armory once more.

The non-com whistled, looking over the rifle they had built. “Let’s rock,” she grinned at it.

-FIN-

 
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