Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: [n--sa--o] at [wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu] (Neil Asato)
Subject: BTRC: final article part 3 of 4 
Date: Wed, 26 May 1993 19:30:22 GMT

          A Thesis of Underlying Features of Realities and the Matrix
                                        Part 3 of 4

copyright 1993 by Neil Asato
Those components dealing with subjects covered by BTRC products
are copyrighted by Greg Porter.
For those who wish to use portions of this work, please include
proper references, such as, "Asato, Neil. "A Thesis of Underlying 
Features of Realities and the Matrix". Internet, 1993. A supplement
for the published works of BTRC."


1993 to 2040 - This time period is known by some in the medical communities
as the plague years. Inappropriate/overuse of medical drugs resulted in an 
increasing resistance in diseases that affect humans. This trend is concealed
to prevent world wide panics. Careful use of drug therapy is used to help slow
this effect, until medical technology can advance sufficiently to deal with 
the pandemics. Politics, government regulations, and unfocused (and somewhat
hostile) policies dealing with medical drugs and genetic-alteration therapy
allows a number of pandemics to occur before the development of more modern 
medical therapies. After this, it truly becomes possible to truly cure someone 
who has been infected by intracellular diseases, even if they wrote themselves 
into the victim's genetic code.
     In the fall of 1993, China becomes a major player in genetic engineering
when it begins selling bio-augmented agricultural aids to farmers of other
countries, including so-called “super crops” resistant to disease and dip-on
rhizobium bacteria that allows nearly all crops to be highly fertilized
without having to buy fertilizers. This was used by China to gain influence
in areas like South America (The farmers of these countries were upset
with the European Community for using trade restrictions to prevent their
crops from being sold in Europe. The farmers were offered deals by China
to re-coup their losses and to sell agricultural products superior to those
grown in the other countries). China focused on major agricultural products 
that countries it did not care for to wreck their economies while gaining
influence, like grain and fruit plants. Britain managed to maintain control
in a section of the market for biological-engineered products with its
research into potatoes and “milk drug farms” (basically an animal, usually
sheep, would have the genetic instructions for making valuable drugs inserted
into the milk instructions. This allowed the production of cheap medical
oral drugs that was tasty too.) Despite having some genetically engineered
crops, U.S. never used them on a wide scale, losing the market in the bargain.
In addition, a number new government regulations and bureaucratic red-tape
was instituted which slowed bio-tech developments. Certain parts of the U.S. 
government, realizing what is happening, managed to ensure the development
of direct genetic therapy in humans to be able to control that section of the
biological market. This was an extension of the so-called “super soldier” 
projects (which could be cloaked from normal laws when necessary) to
make humans resistant to the effects of damage from various sources. It
was initially used to treat genetic and diseases and provide a powerful
resistance and cures to diseases of viral, bacterial and parasitic
natures (a popular one was to have antibodies that killed mosquitoes that
took in the blood of the treated person). When the public grew more accepting
of genetic alterations of their own bodies, various “vanity” alterations were
put into the market (increased physical attributes, especially appearance,
weight control, and muscle tone, and mental capabilities for learning).
     While there is  conventional warfare (a lot and all over the world) and 
wars using strategic weapons (mostly chemical and biological warfare), the 
most spectacular developments are in the area of so-called ultra-tech like 
powered armor and energy weapons. The need for powered armor was due to the
increasing amounts of small-time dictators who hide out in solid bunkers
with mazes (some of the powered armor users referred to these missions
as “hack-and-slash dungeons” from fantasy role-playing games). The
energy weapons were developed because the use of missiles to shoot
down other missiles became impossible when a certain country studied
the systems of the anti-missiles and designed their missiles to be able to
counter them and sold them off to anyone with the money. Not too
surprisingly, those missiles resistant to anti-missile missiles tended to
be capable of carrying chemical, biological, nuclear, and large conventional
explosive warheads.

Ultra-tech
     This section contains an overview of various topics that might be
considered under the heading of ultra-tech, though not necessarily
above TL15. Some of this overlaps with the “Armor and Armor-piercing
for BTRC” article. The listing is in no particular order.
     For those who want to actually get some practical experience making
some near-weapons level directed energy devices, check with Information
Unlimited in the U.S. They have produced 2 books on constructing some
devices and sell the components (assembled, if desired). The author of
the 2 books is Robert E. Iannini. The books are “Build Your Own Laser,
Phaser, Ion Ray Gun and Other Working Space-Age Projects” (ISBN 0-
8306-0604-1) (by the way the “phaser” is an arrayed sonic projector)
and “Build Your Own Working Fiberoptic, Infrared and Laser Space-Age
Projects” (ISBN 0-8306-2724-3) (ignore the over-hyped photographs on the
front cover as you will not be dealing with devices that are that
powerful).

     Biotechnology
     As mentioned in the above timeline and indicated elsewhere. There are
many features for biotechnology. This can range from research to making 
various drugs (medical or otherwise) to direct genetic modification of a 
living being. The main benefit for using a third party animal/plant to make a 
drug is that it allows for a relatively cheap way to mass produce a substance 
(like drug manufacturing genes in the milk producing genes of a sheep or cow).
The main benefit of direct genetic modification is that the modifications
are relatively permanent and can be passed on to the next generation. It is
also the only real way to cure intracellular diseases. In areas with 
relatively easy movement and high population densities, these two methods
of resisting disease have to be constantly upgraded due to the ever mutating
nature of most diseases and influx of diseases that were previously not
known in the area. While there are some people who oppose the idea of
genetic modification of a person, it is the only way to “de-bug” “time bomb
genetic programs” like Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and various
cancers. Unless the changes are drastic or the person wants it done quickly
(which are done in the so-called “vats”, most direct genetic modifications is
done over a period of weeks and the changes are subtle). The long period
of time is due to the need to change the programming in every cell and the
limits of how much energy and materials that the body can handle without
ill effects.
     Those people who manage to achieve “immortality” has some other 
considerations to keep in mind. The first is that unless that person has
access to cloning and mental pattern imprinting, accidents and violence 
has a very good chance of killing a person before they reach 500 years old,
as mentioned in TimeLords. Another is that upgrading one’s body needs to be
done roughly once every 10 years. This is due to changes in the diseases
and other effects. As an example, for the True Immortals in CORPS, they
evolved about 5,000 B.C. This means that there bodies are adapted to the
conditions of that time, which means for that time and location most humans
were adapted for a relatively nutrient-poor food with a lot of roughage.
In the modern world, they would probably have a problem of over-weight, 
constipation, strokes, and high-blood pressure from the rich soft
foods unless they rigorously watch what they eat. There would also be the
problem of resisting viral infections that reprogram their genes for
their own purposes, perhaps interacting with their immortality metabolism
to create severe malignant tumors (cancer cells are usually considered
to be immortal...) The Vampires in CORPS have a different problem to
worry about with regards to disease. While they are not susceptible to
human disease, being a kind of colony of bacteria, they are susceptible
to diseases that no human gets. The main problem that they have is that
they no longer have the same biochemistry as humans. This results in 
their being susceptible to fungus infections (brings new meaning to
the term yeast infections), various soil bacteria, and bacteriophages. 
This creates a problem as there rarely is any known cure for their 
diseases, and most of the agents that might cure it tends to have bad 
interactions with their bacteria. A vampire suffering from a fungal disease 
will have several appearances: mildew on the skin, some sort of mold 
(particularly near the orifices), and a dusty whitish coating on the surface 
(primarily yeast type of infections). There are a lot of soil bacteria that
eats other bacteria and emits antibiotic substances (a tough competitive 
environment) and these can cause problems for vampires as they attempt to 
work on the vampire’s body. Bacteriophages (viruses of bacteria) can
directly attack the bacteria of the vampire’s body. These disease do not
 normally have any effect on normal humans, except for those who are 
immuno-suppressed (and they can be helped by various antibiotics). The effects
of disease on a vampire tends to ranges from a corrosion-like destruction of 
tissues to abscesses to a cheese-like appearance in the tissues, and they all 
cause pain, weakness, and exhaustion. Since the remains of human tissue was 
not designed to ever have to worry about these sorts of infections the 
infected vampire will have try for some outside source for a cure. Another
note is that vampires have problems with things like chlorinated water and
food that has been treated with anti-bacterial agents like most sausages and
hot dogs. It is up the GM if alcohol causes similar problems.
     A societal side-effect of immortality includes that suicides and active
birth control measures not only becomes a right, it is recommended (usually 
for those who lack the money to get the genetic modifications for immortality
and slowed reproduction ability). This was considered by some to be genocide. 
Another problem was the Social Security Crisis; an amusing portrayal of it
was in the Walker Wars by BTRC. There were a number of laws set up to protect
people from undesired genetic manipulation. The most important was that 
written contracts must be done before the operation, willingly and knowingly,
or the one doing the manipulation is considered guilty of a felony with a 
penalty equal to first-degree murder (the harsh penalty was so that people
who would abuse the technology can be executed to protect the public from 
anything else that person might do in the future rather than a deterrent), 
and the victim had to be restored out of the violator’s expense.

     Cyberspace
     The network described in Renegade Dreams of SpaceTime is not intended
to be used solely for people out to destroy or steal information. Its main
purpose is similar to networks like Internet, to exchange information. Legal
access to a network is about 200 credits a year for basic services like
news, newsgroups, e-mail, simple drafting programs, dictionaries, etc.
Extras like the latest issues of magazines, books, information searches,
professional advice, etc. cost extra. These usually only allow you to see
a copy of the table of contents and summaries, and send you the rest upon
payment (runs between 1 credit to 30 credits depending on the skill and
demand). The reason for most people to use a network is that it allows you
to get a lot of paperwork done. The ten-to-one time perception change
affects non-hacking activities too. This means someone could do research,
design, and paperwork for an output of 30 hours worth of work, while only
spending 3 hours real time in cyberspace. There are some further advantages
like being able to use the computer programs like an extension of your
body. Cyberspace is a very busy place with a lot of work being done, which
is why most megacorps keep their computers hooked up despite the
danger of hackers.
     When responding to wrong I.D., the security programs do not just
start blasting away, since mistakes do happen. The person with wrong I.D.
is told to wait and more security programs are brought in to verify and
do a check on the person. If the person does anything suspicious, the 
programs attack. Otherwise, the matter is cleared up and the person is 
escorted to the appropriate area. Records of these events are kept for
the security AI to analyze in the event someone is attempting
to check the security out before an attack.
     There are security on-line services offered for the average person in
cyberspace. For about a 2,000 credits per year, you get some “watch dog”
programs of moderate level that protect your home node (and break the
connection upon attack), protect you from attack while traveling, and
help “carry” things for you. These services are only for legal purposes,
and will not help during attempts to crack ICE. For this reason, hackers
just get and assemble their own Flatlines for this type of job. Megacorps
offer the service for free for their own employees (helps to deter attempts
to “pick the brains” of the employees).
     Black Cats are often very well off due to their skills. They usually
make most of their money selling skill modules (the one-hundred +1 ICE 
breaking skill programs that is apart of most professional hacker’s expenses)
usually at a rate of 1 Kilocredits to 5 Kilocredits (the single +10 skill 
module). Due to the great effective time difference, the average Black Cat can
make one full skill module in about 4 hours cumulative of work in the real 
world (actually they can usually do it faster with personalized aids that they 
use from experience). Most black Cats can make 600,000+ credits per year on 
just selling these skill modules, and stay in practice. Some make even more by
doing the occasional consulting work, usually worth a few Megacredits each.

     Sonic Weapons
     These devices use sound waves to disturb the object. The closer that the
match is for the frequency of the attack to the object, the greater the 
effect. Another effect is that the sonic attack has to be in pulses, to
counter the ability for living beings to mentally block the effect impacting
on their auditory system, which can disrupt their equilibrium. More 
practically, there is an attempt to just be in the area of effect by having
the device “go up the scale” in a series of steps in the frequencies, then
pause briefly before beginning again. The sonic attack does not have to
be audible, if the weapon is designed to impact areas not connected with
hearing.
     For 3G3 design, most will use the microwave (masers) design rules. The 
exception is that laser efficiencies are used. The beam weakening with 
distance is the same. If the device is designed to match frequencies with
the target’s structure, then guidance of some level is needed and the damage
can be up to Type III damage (half lethal, half non-lethal). If the device
just uses the general frequency range with intermittent pauses, then the
damage is considered to be Type V damage (stun only). 

     Laser Arrays
     The idea behind these is to take advantage of the use of adaptive optics
to compensate for distortions along the path of a laser. One example is the
limit of how much energy can be sent along a laser for a given cross-sectional
area with minimal interaction from the atmosphere. The use of laser arrays
is the most simple solution, though some guidance is needed to ensure proper
aiming and manipulation of the controls of the paths of the lasers. The main
goal is to use a series of relatively low-powered lasers and have them meet
in the area of the target to get the effects of a single powerful laser. Some
modified versions use the idea of having a series of lasers that are nearly
parallel and have them constructively interfere with each other along the path
to compensate for losses due to diverging of the beams.
     In 3G3 terms, the designer can design beams that exceed the amount of
energy per cross-sectional area of the beam. This requires that the designer
design multiple lasers of roughly equal power of the same beam diameter and 
must include some degree of guidance (at least +2). The lasers must be set at
least four beam diameters apart from one another to prevent unwanted 
interference before they are needed. The second type that was described is
treated as having a range multiple of the number of the number of lasers
used (multiply the range values in the designed Range Class by the number
of lasers). DV is treated as being only a single laser (it would actually
be slightly higher at close range, but this number would be more in line
at the greater distances due to energy losses). The second type does not
require the use of guidance.

     Composite Armor Extras
     There are some contradictory statements as to what the armor of the
M1A1 tank is. Some say it is a combination of spaced armor and layered armor.
Yet, the ratings of it compared to steel of the same thickness seems unusually
high (6+ times). If so, then using reinforced and prestressed armor
technology should be able to get results to the point that no practical
conventional missile will be able to kill a tank from any angle. I suspect
that it actually makes use of a more advanced composite type.
     It might be worth considering the never-ending battle between the sword
(the weapon) and the shield (the armor). There are two statements that are 
both true even if they seem contradictory. They are “If you know the exact 
design for an armor, you can construct the weapon to defeat it” and “If you
know the exact design for a weapon you can construct the armor to defeat it”.
What this means is that you do not let the anyone you do not trust to have the
specifications for the armor construction, and you never let them know the
exact weapon specifications you will be sending against their armor.
This forces both sides to have compromises and try to have weapons and armor
that have an overall increase in ability to cause or resist damage. The actual
performances of these armors are unknown. Though one might base their 
estimated performance on similar structures correcting different material
use and manufacturing processes.
     Laminated/bonded layered armor does get some development beyond just
stacking layers onto one another. They are chosen for their ability to
interact with the energies of an attack. Against explosive and energy
attacks, limited ablation plastics are used to counter them. These
plastics are not particularly flammable, but they do vaporize under
high temperatures. This serves to serve as a cushion for the underlying
material and the vaporization effect is designed to soak up a lot of energy,
so that it actually cools the area to a limited extent. One variation
of the idea was developed in Britain under the name “Starlite”. These
materials can protect against the thermal effects of reentry for a 
spaceship or the fireball of a nuclear explosion (it does not protect
much against the radiation or kinetic energy effects, though).
Another type of development for the bonded layer armor was the
use of dynamic and potential barrier analysis for better design. This
allowed the development of relatively thin armors that can reflect
radiation. The idea is to have alternating layers of materials of
specified thicknesses of high and low absorption/transparency/reflection
to create a net effect that allowed the reflection of radiation or the
absorption of them. This was also used to make extremely effective
sound barriers using the same principles. For 3G3 design, the first
type has an AV that applies toward explosive, high temperature, and
directed energy attacks which can be hundreds of times greater than
an equivalent thickness of steel, but that it is eroded by the damage
by an equivalent amount. The second type is treated just like the
reflective armor in SpaceTime. While it is not always necessary, it is
standard practice for the layers to be tightly bonded together to reduce
delamination effects. As a side note, this technology was used to make
energy conversion devices of photoelectric and thermoelectric types
considerably more efficient by giving making the energy conversion
process occur over depth (the layers) to extract whatever energy was 
possible as it passed through the materials (with layer thickness and
number affecting how well it “traps” and converts the energy.
     Reinforced armor is essentially based on the reinforced concrete.
There is the ceramic or plastic matrix that corresponds to concrete.
The plastic or metal reinforcement help distributes the stresses and
takes the tensile forces. Shear reinforcement is very important for
the armor, since quite a bit of attacks apply shear forces on the
armor (these resemble stirrups in reinforced concrete). Hard “aggregate”
is used in the matrix to help improve distribution of attack’s energies
Bonding among the materials is very important. These can be used as a 
sub-base material structure for bonded layered armor to get the
mechanical support. AV compared to steel of the same thickness is 
probably 1 to 10 times.
     Pre-stressed armor is an improved version of reinforced armor, with a 
corresponding increase in cost. The armors have a lot in common with 
prestressed concrete. The basic idea is to have the reinforcement inducing 
beneficial stresses to improve the resistance of the armor and to have the 
materials act as a single unit (this helps counter debonding effects from 
repeated damage to the armor). This type of armor allowed a fantastic 
improvement in the performance of armors for any given thickness. It has a 
built in safety factor in that when the prestressing operation is done, 
defective armor tends to fly into fragments (workers have to be behind shields
for this reason). Like the reinforced armor type, the use of bonded layer 
armor is included to provide radiation and explosive resistance. While it is 
the most expensive type of armor, all of the most heavy-duty personal body 
armor and powered armor uses it for their unmatched protection. The aggregate 
used tends to be the very hard materials like borazon or diamond. Performance 
of this type of armor is unknown, though prestressed concrete can have far 
superior performance than reinforced concrete for the same thickness.

     Solid-Medium Electron Lasers
     This is not particularly high tech, though it is relatively cheap.
It is essentially a electron-laser device derived from resonant cavity radar/
microwave devices. It is made up of thin strips of wire bent into sine-wave-
shapes set into a resonant cavity. This device can project into the infra-red 
part of the e-m spectrum. The frequency used depends on the resonant cavity,
the dimensions of the wires and the applied power. It became popular
among scientists who wanted a cheap approximation of a free-electron laser,
and was called “synchrotron-lite” (a weird pun).
     For 3G3 design, most of these would be designed as per microwave weapons,
though the advanced ones might use the rules for lasers.

     Force fields
     The idea behind this is essentially to have some sort of energy 
projection that can protect against an attack. There have been two main 
initial views of how it started and should be done with light (primarily 
lasers). One is the physics version, of which a summary can be found in “Laser 
Manipulation of Atoms and Particles” by Steven Chu, in Nature 23 Aug. 1991 
page 861. It uses the idea that “optical tweezers” work by induced dipole 
moments. This view says that you can’t get any sort of force field, and it is 
not readily apparent as to how to use them beyond manipulating atoms. A 
different view of events is from the biologists who independently discovered 
it, though history seems to have covered over this. Basically, some biologists 
(in the mid-west of U.S.?) were experimenting with an optical microscope and 
noticed that an organelle at the focal point of a lens using normal light was 
held in place despite the movement of the cell around it. They later tried to 
figure it out empirically to  better study cells. Among the improvements were 
to use a low-level infra-red laser instead of visible light (which more easily 
damaged the object at the focal point). They also had taken the idea from the 
point of view of a dynamic wave analysis, which resulted in these basic ideas:
1) The object to be manipulated must be at least in size equal to the wavelength.
2) The object must be either transparent or have a lot of holes to the e-m 
wave.
3) The beam must establish a pattern of waves flowing through the object
that imparts controlled kinetic energy like the use of waves to propel
a surfer.
Even if these ideas are wrong, they do offer an interesting alternative
explanation. The requirements is basically for the object to allow it 
manipulated by the laser. The third requirement was basically to make sure 
that the beam converges to the area of consideration and diverge from it. From 
the side that converges, the beam acts as a channeling smaller within the 
objects medium causing the object to be pushed away from the beam. From the 
side that diverges, the beam act in reverse causing the object to move toward 
the beam.
     The previous paragraph shows the basic idea behind a force field for
a point. It is probably better described as a micro tractor beam. One idea for
its use as a defense was that it might be adjusted to hold matter in the air 
(perhaps placed there, or using plasma created by the lasers from the air to 
get different densities) to make a solid wall held together by an array of 
lasers, making use of adaptive optics and interference effects to cut down on 
the amount of lasers needed and improve the efficiency. This would basically 
be a series of points that are in the shape of a wall. Further studies were on 
how to use it to resist energy based attacks. Against opposing lasers and 
other e-m based attacks, the idea was to use the principles of “thermal 
blooming” (the different densities caused in the air by the force field, 
leading to different refractive properties) to cause divergence and by the 
size and placement of the focal areas to control the resonant properties, 
which influences the frequency of the passing e-m waves. Against particle 
beams, the effect is shift the path and stability of the beam through 
interaction with the electro-magnetic properties of the beam.
     A number of improvements were made later as better understanding of
holography and quantum mechanics were obtained. One improvement was the
ability to set up multiple “walls” of points. This required keeping track
of how the previous wall affects the energy for the next wall, which means
knowing and using the various interference effects. This had the significant
advantage in forming multiple quantum potential barriers that could actually
use wave theory to form true reflective properties. This primarily involves
having layers of high energy and low energy to influence attempts to pass 
through. The effect is similar to making a dielectric mirror with alternating
layers of materials with different refractive properties. This improved the
efficiency dramatically. Eventually the use of force fields in a near-vacuum
environment against laser weapons was attained by improvement in the 
understanding of quantum mechanics in how vacuum potential energy can be 
induced to have preferred states of stability, The basic idea was that there
is a kind of resisting inertia in the vacuum energy that allows the various 
energies to interact with one another. This principle was used to form quantum
potential barriers in the vacuum potential energy of reality, affecting the
passage of the incoming weapons. The development of force fields led to 
considerable ease in the development of “nanotech” devices by the use of 
“tractor beams” to manipulate molecules, and the ability to use holographic 
imaging to do it on a mass scale.
     An interesting controversy is whether or not it is necessary to have
the points of effect overlap to form lines to be more efficient. And, if
it is, whether forming them into continuous three-dimensional surfaces would
be even better. Those who say it does not, say that the lines would just form
easier paths for the attack to flow through. This is supported by the use of
laser-plasma mediated beams projector. Those who say that it does, say that
the wave dynamics are set up differently, and that they actually help 
encourage the distribution of the energies by going along the field.
     The use in 3G3 design is given for the GM use. GMs might want to adjust
the efficiencies to reflect their idea of its practicality. The main rules
are for laser design. The efficiency is half that for laser weapons. The AV
given is the average damage (not the DV). Use the area of the beam as the
area covered by a beam. When designing, a single beam can be split up into
smaller beams and beams can be “stacked” (a series of “walls”). If desired,
the GM could rule that multiple walls of three or more gets to use half (round
down) of the values of the DV itself as the AV. The use of multiple walls
adds the AV cumulatively. Note that the area covered by each beam is 
relatively small. To cover most areas requires vast amounts of power. For this
reason, some are used as a flash defense powered by capacitors or super 
conductors that require recharging between uses. Others would use
some vast power source, like some sort of nuclear reactor. In either case, it
is designed as if for a continuous laser.
     All force fields are detectable by the stray e-m energies released.
Military force fields would, also, produce a lot of heat detectable to infra-
red sensors and create. Military force fields do damage to whatever touches 
them like a “laser wall”, which it is, though civilian force field projectors,
like for interactive laser light shows (popular in the 21st century for 
allowing touchable holographic entertainment media) are restricted to non-
damaging levels.

     Laser-Plasma Mediated Beams Projectors
     The goal behind this was to have a practical way of having directed 
energy beam projector that had a reasonably long range in the atmosphere
and did a lot of damage. It was primarily intended to be am anti-missile
defense device, though it proved effective for other purposes as well. The
device is fairly complicated as it used a number of technologies combined
into one device.
     The basic principle for the creation of the lasers is to use a two-stage
process. First a solid-medium electron laser is used to accelerate electrons
form a vacuum tube. This part is used in all accelerators of the type known as
laser accelerators. This uses the electrons like “surfers” riding on the e-m
waves. The electrons then slam into a force field wall (created by solid-
medium electron lasers with a reflective resonant cavity to improve 
efficiency; these have to be set up so their is minimum interaction between
the force field and the e-m emissions), causing them to give up their energy
as a burst of e-m emissions far more intense and at a higher frequency than 
the solid-medium electron lasers. This is used in turn to accelerate another
set of electrons for a higher frequency, better purity, and a greater 
intensity in the final output of the beam. This output beam can have the 
frequency and intensity varied as desired, mainly subject to the limitations
of the power supply and heat dissipation.
     An array of the previously described lasers are set up in bunches.
Part of the inner lasers are set up to either focus or interact with another
beam to create a plasma droplet. In atmospheric medium, the atmosphere
can be used as the material. In near-vacuum conditions, the material will
have to be injected into the system. Some of the other lasers use the 
principle of the laser accelerator to propel the plasma droplets at high
velocities. The other lasers act as a sheath after that. The sheath
ahead of the plasma droplet serves to blaze a path for the droplets
to travel within with minimal interference and to help weaken the surface
of the armor encountered. The part of the sheath around the plasma droplets
protect the droplets from any surrounding e-m fields including themselves.
This provides some resistance to force fields. The part of the sheath behind
the plasma droplets serve to constantly accelerate the plasma droplets to 
the target.
     For 3G3 design purposes, treat them as a particle accelerator folded
three times (4 times the length). They are treated as lasers for malfunction
chance (rather robust devices). They can be designed to get the benefits
of laser arrays. They do not take recoil penalties, since they cause
minimal flash or momentum effects. They are not normally designed to be
continuous beams, but they can be.


     Plasma Filament Projectors
     The goal of these types of devices was to have extremely long-ranged
directed energy weapons that worked in under the near-vacuum conditions of
space. It was based on the plasma filaments studied in stars, which reached
vast distances through space before dissipating. It was also studied to see
if some might be indications of a space war was occurring. These types of
devices are primarily strategic weapons, rather than tactical, as they are
used as part of the opening shots as you close in with your space ship.
     It works by projecting streams of plasma that follow helical paths
that is caused by, and held together by, the e-m field produced by the
component streams. This is done by firing each stream of plasma with
a counterpart around a center of axis. The plasma projectors are usually
laser-plasma mediated beams projectors without the laser sheath (the
sheath would prevent e-m fields from interacting well) and includes
a material dispenser for making the plasma. The system requires some
guidance, since the direction that each plasma stream is fired depends
on the energy in the plasma and the amount for optimum efficiency. The
drawbacks to this system is that it does not work well under
atmospheric conditions due to disruptions in the paths of the plasma
streams (and therefore the e-m fields holding it together) and that it is not
as efficient as laser-plasma mediated beams projectors. For these reasons, the
guidance is usually set up so that all of the plasma projectors can all aim in
the same direction and to fire (with laser sheaths) like a vast array of
laser-plasma mediated beams projectors. By the way, the plasma filament in 
space can be very visible as stray e-m waves are given off in every direction.
It can be fired so as to follow other e-m fields to partially loop around
planets to hit ships hiding behind them, though this requires an AI to do
the necessary calculations and positioning of the projectors. For those
with the resources, some solar system defenses are possible, by tapping
the local star for the plasma stream. The drawbacks are that each shot (though
powerful) takes a few minutes of life off the star, and that it will usually
take 10 minutes plus to reach most targets due to the lack of anyone getting
nearby. This lag time is offset by the fact that the beam is traveling 
relatively close to that of light propagation, so there is little warning
time for the opponent to get out of the way (evasive maneuvers is effective,
if you know someone is trying to hit you).
     For 3G3 design, use the particle beam design rules. The beam area is 
at least four times the minimum beam area for particle beam design, for
a given amount of energy. Guidance of some degree is required. Like the
laser-plasma mediated beams projectors it gets the benefits of the inherent
folding and the reduced malfunction chance. They are usually designed to fire
a continuous stream to maximize stability of the plasma. With respect to
range, it is modified for damage, though it still uses the RC table. For RCs
of 1 to 3, multiply the distance values by a factor of a 100. For RCs of 4 to
6, multiply the distance values by a factor of a 1000. For RCs of 7 and 8,
multiply the distance values by a factor of 10,000. If fired within an
atmospheric environment, the weapons tend to have a damage RC of around 1,
unless the can change into a laser-plasma mediated beams projector. The 
combined weapon will have an “accelerator” of 25% more mass due to the more
maneuverable motors, slightly different supports, and conduit connections.

     Stunner Extras
     Most of the simpler forms of distance stunners use two conductive paths
from the stunner to the target and running a burst of voltage through the
target. While the use of firing two thin wires is a well known one. An 
improved version used water guns to do the same job. It is composed
of two high powered water guns, with each hooked up to a different terminal.
The water guns are filled with salt water for high conductivity. Upon closing
the triggers and firing the streams of water, the circuit is closed and a
burst of electricity is sent across the streams. The effect can be very
incapacitating and there is no burn marks like the metal wire version.
With the use of pressure vessels (on a back pack with the battery) and hand 
pumps, portable stunners (RC of 1/1) can be used with power being used 
only for the stunning effect.

     Pepper Guns
     These have nothing in common with the historical gun of the same name.
These are a type of not-lethal type of chemical weapon that became quite
popular in the U.S. and eventually replaced Mace as protection against 
muggers for those who did not want to carry guns. Police also used them,
as they were quite effective, and preferred the general public to use them
too (you can’t kill someone with them). The agent is essentially made up 
peppers of extreme “heat” that have been dried and powdered. The powder is 
usually in a saturated mix of a liquid designed to allow the pepper to be
easily fired at someone and to enhance the pepper’s effects. I do not
know what the properties of the “shot” is like, but it can be based on the
drug Mace. People who have been hit with them are usually incapacitated with
a burning pain that seems to soak itself into every available duct that
is exposed to it. A variant of the idea is to have an aerosol form that can be
used in closed in spaces against large numbers of opponents by powered armor
users (who are protected from this). A paint with these types of peppers is
used on objects to deter animal growth (like the bottoms of ships).
Interestingly, people use these peppers in food.