voicetest | Setting: Spaaaaaace!

"Glad you asked. I've been itching for an excuse to show off some of the new stuff." Jacob gives a slight smile, then leads Heine over to a wall where some especially fresh-looking weapons are mounted. "Check this out."

They appear completely clean and untouched, weapons that have never been fired outside of a few test shots on the range. Jacob takes down a particularly large pistol and holds it in front of Heine as though it were a sample at a restaurant. "It's called the Talon. Fires heavy-gauge shotgun slugs instead of regular bullets. It's heavy and it overheats fast, but you can't find a better sidearm for close range."

He lays it on a counter for Heine to examine if he wishes, then turns to lift a shotgun off the rack. A shotgun with a pointy metal bit stuck on its end. "This is what I'm talking about," he says. "Standard Katana shotgun, but I've modified it. The bayonet's an obvious advantage, and there's also a smart choke installed to boost accuracy. This is a shotgun that works at all ranges, not just up close."

He puts the shotgun next to the pistol, being careful to keep the bayonet pointed away from any unsafe directions. "If neither of those interest you, I've got lots more where they came from. Just say the word."

Beware, Heine- Jacob could go on for most of the day about this stuff. He takes his duties pretty darn seriously.

He eyes the pistol with interest, the most blatant he's shown since arriving in the armory. It's probably heavier than he's used to, but he picks it up to test the heft anyway.

Heine may give the shotgun's added blade a slightly raised eyebrow, but he picks it up, too, after setting down the pistol. The accuracy aid doesn't matter to him that much, and it's with near absent-mindedness that he turns the shotgun in the exact opposite direction that Jacob left it in and lets his fingertip touch the edge of the blade. He's careful not to let it break skin, but he draws his hand back all the same.

"Maybe something lighter." Not that he would mind taking these out for a test run in the shooting range. Heine is fine with talking about firearms, relative to anything else. He turns the shotgun back around, stopping its spin with his hand.

"Theoretically, it's diplomatic, but the shooting hasn't stopped yet," Lafiel said.

"...Yeah."

The engineer's helmet folds up into itself in a matter of seconds, the visor light turning off as his face is revealed.

"This might sound kind of crazy, but do you think it'd be possible to jerry rig a set of sawblades to a mass accelerator while keeping them within a limited mass effect field?" Isaac Clarke isn't a practical physicist, so he doesn't know how the individual components work. How they could work together is more his paygrade, though right now this could run the risk of losing some necessary limbs.

"Sawblades, huh?" Jacob crosses his arms and thinks it over for a moment, looking at Isaac as he does. He hasn't seen a helmet like that before, but the way it just folds itself away looks very convenient.

"Should be doable," he says. "I could give you the parts. Mass accelerators are standard in most guns. You'd need someone with more tech experience to put it together though. Maybe someone from Engineering." Jacob uncrosses his arms and gives a little shrug. He's no practical physicist either, and managing the mass effect field sounds like it would be challenging.

"Seems like a weapon like that would completely rip the target apart. Is there a reason you can't just shoot them?" Jacob's no stranger to the carnage of battle, but mass-accelerated sawblades just seems gratuitous- at least, it does to someone who has never faced Necromorphs.

He groans a little at the answer, maybe having expected a more straightforward answer than having to continue to wander through the incredibly well lit ship looking for technology he's familiar with.

"I'm just looking for something with a bit more stopping power. I found these things called High Explosive Rounds on your.... uh, extranet." What a goofy sounding word. "But they seem to be incompatible with every single weapon I've found manufactured in the past two years."

Jacob tilts his head slightly at Heine's cavalier handling of the bayonet, but doesn't say anything. The man seems to know what he's doing and what he wants- he's not an amateur. Guy doesn't talk much though, does he? "Lighter. Got it."

He grabs a smaller pistol, flips it in his hand, and holds it out for Heine to take, handle-first. "Phalanx sidearm. Don't let the size fool you- it's got plenty of stopping power. This one's been modified with ultralight materials. Doubt you could find a pistol that's easier to handle. Go ahead and feel the weight." Finding Heine the perfect gun is now Jacob's personal mission. Making sure the gun survives its next mission with Heine is a secondary objective.

Heine takes it without hesitation, turning it over before he wraps his fingers around the grip firmly. It feels good in his hands, but he doesn't say anything just yet despite Jacob's encouragement.

"I'll take it to the firing range," he says after a moment. Test it out and all that. He looks back at Jacob, though, and asks, "Any other suggestions?"

Jacob snorted. "Oh. That kind of diplomacy. I'm familiar with the type." He shook his head, a little bitterness from old missions seeping through. "Let me guess: there's a good chance someone's going to try killing you, but you have to play nice for the sake of politics."

"No suggestions, but maybe you can do me a favor. Here." Jacob turns to the rack, takes something down, and holds out yet another gun to Heine, this one an exotic-looking assault rifle.

"Chakram Launcher needs some more testing," he says. "It fires explosive razor discs instead of regular rounds. I've tried it- not sure I like it." He gives Heine a slight sideways smile. "If you give me a second opinion, we can call it even on the trashed rifle. Sound good? The range is just next door."

Well, that one is certainly... something. Heine has to raise his eyebrows at it, but he takes it without comment. Explosive razor discs. That just seems like overkill.

Still, he supposes he owes the guy for ruining the other rifle. (In his defense, it had been a tough spot, and he managed to block the brunt of the attack for the others. The rifle really is a mess, though.) Heine looks at both firearms for a second before he finds a way to carry them without dropping anything, nods, and starts for the door.

Once he's there, he stops. "You want to see your guns in action?" An idle question, really, because if the range is just next door it won't take too long for him to go and come back regardless of whether he has company or not.

Welcome aboard Isaac, this ship isn't filled with flickering lights and undead monsters.

Jacob grunts and rubs the back of his head for a moment. "Yeah, I remember those. There was this big fuss about how they made weapons overheat too quickly, and the whole ammo type got cancelled. Same thing happened to polonium rounds- Council declared them 'inhumane' because of the radiation. Modern guns just don't use them." Bureaucracy always seems to find new ways to complicate Jacob's work, in or out of the field.

"Anyway, maybe I can hook you up with some stopping power without having to jerry-rig something new," Jacob says. "We've got a grenade launcher the size of a pistol if you're interested." Although privately, he's already getting curious how he could make the mass accelerator idea work. It would be an interesting challenge, and he's got the parts...

Edited (Typo!) 2014-03-22 13:43 (UTC)

"Right behind you." Jacob always wants to see the results of his work. He follows Heine onto the range and goes to a console. Beeps drift from its controls as Jacob starts setting up the targets.

Multiple humanoid silhouettes pop up at a variety of distances from the firing position. Jacob makes some of them move side-to-side as an added challenge: he wants to see how the Launcher's slower projectiles deal with moving targets. Those explosive discs probably are overkill against most enemies, but Jacob has dealt with threats nasty enough to make the Launcher look underpowered.

Jacob finishes the setup, then lowers a pair of ear protectors over his head and nods to Heine. "It's ready. Go for it."

While Jacob sets up the range, he sets the guns aside so he can put on the muffs, settling them over his ears. He starts with the pistol first, because he already likes how it sits in his hands. Once Jacob gives him the go-ahead, he steps up into the range, positions his feet, and fires without further hesitation.

It's probably evident that he makes up for his sullen demeanor with being adept in the field. After a minute he shifts his stance so he can go after the moving targets, adjusting to the knockback as he goes. Once he's satisfied, he just sets the pistol down before picking up the Launcher without another word.

"Hm." Based on what he read about the rounds, he didn't entirely disagree with the 'Council's' decision. The explosive impacts were more than capable of rendering limbs from bodies and having military forces equip with that kind of devastating potential would just be a bad idea. The rounds that EarthGov typically use are huge slugs that tend to pulp skulls due to their caliber. He doesn't want to imagine if there was an accompanying ka-boom attached.

"That sounds more what I'm looking for." he reached back, rubbing his gloved fingers across the back of his scalp. "Look, I'm not needing it to carry groundside or anything like that. I just don't..." he rolled his shoulder, "Feel safe without something of sufficient firepower around."

"Not bad," Jacob says, audibly impressed. He speaks a little louder to be heard over gunfire and ear-covers. "Looks like the pistol is a good fit for you."

As Heine picks up the Chakram Launcher, Jacob stops talking to let him concentrate. Instead, he folds his arms and leans back against the wall, watching the show. What the guy lacks in chattiness,he makes up for in shooting. However that rifle got wrecked, it definitely wasn't due to incompetence on Heine's part.

Jacob nods, understanding. "I get it. Feel naked without my sidearm myself. A grenade launcher might not be the best choice if you're gonna equip it on the ship, though." He shifts side-to-side a little, visualizing some unpleasant consequences. There isn't much point in the kind of stopping power that kills the person using it. "Not a great weapon for close quarters."

Jacob thinks for a moment. "How do you feel about cryo ammo?" He asks. "It works against armour, and freezes most enemies in their tracks. I mean literally, turns them to ice." Jacob doesn't mention that it leaves a lot less mess than grenades or sawblades, too.

Cryo ammo. Now there's an idea. He's heard of a few devices that spray a cryogenic mix used in emergency engine and electronic cooldowns but the use of it is limited, and fairly dangerous due to its lack of precision.
He rubs his hand over his jaw in thought.

"What sort of an effect does it have on--" he has to stop himself from saying 'human', as he's still adapting to the idea of not being the only living intelligent species out there, "Organic tissue, exactly?"

"Snap-freezing. Cools down all the fluid in the body, stiffens the limbs, slows down all movement. I can't give you the tech details, but that's the practical effect." Jacob rarely uses that ammunition type himself- he has a preference for incendiaries- but he maintains and handles the rounds often enough to practically be an expert on how they function.

"Hit 'em enough times, and you'll freeze them solid. Maybe even shatter them, and that's an instant kill." A gruesome way to die, helpless and frigid. The more Jacob talks about it, the more he realizes his initial squeamishness at the sawblade idea is a little hard to defend. War is always cruel, including in space. "But it's a temporary effect. Only lasts a few seconds, and then they can come after you again. That is, assuming they have any fight left in them after turning into an ice cube."

His attention perks up at the idea of shattering them. No shit that'd be an instant kill. "So it's something that would make them more susceptible if I got in close after, and--" he swings his fist in the air, gesturing as if he were pistol whipping an invisible foe. He can imagine the scene pretty easily in his head, the freezing rounds acting a bit like a stasis effect, slowing them down and stiffening the extended slashing limbs-- He snaps out of his thoughts, looking back to Jacob. "Something like that?"

"Absolutely," Jacob says, pleased that Isaac is warming (no pun intended) to the idea. "If you're going to get that close? A frozen enemy's an easy target. A few good smacks will just smash them." He's slightly curious about why Isaac would be expecting that kind of melee combat. He doesn't seem the brawling type, but Jacob knows it's hard to judge these things by appearances.

"The rounds can be loaded in any weapon, too. You can get that effect with an ordinary sidearm. We're not talking about the same damage as high-explosive rounds, but for stopping power? It's a good choice."

Almost absently, he nods assent. He'll take the pistol. In the meantime, he hefts the Launcher up to his shoulder, lining up the sights with the targets.

The first kick of the bigger gun is bigger than he expects. Heine makes an annoyed sound as his feet slide back an inch. Even with the thermal clips, it feels warm in his hands, and Heine runs his palms over it thoughtlessly as he waits for it to recharge, watching the disc explode in the target.

He'll need another try before he cements his opinion, though, and as another target rolls into view he takes the shot. A moment after the disc hits, Heine lowers the rifle and rolls his shoulders.

"Not something I'd use," he says after a pause. The combination of razor blades and explosives seems a bit... much.

He isn't a brawler, at least by choice. Hell he can't even remember winning a fistfight as a kid. But when you know a strategy works for an enemy... "Yeah, yeah." he nods his head, leaning back over the console. "That'll work. If you can get a handgun with those for me, I'd appreciate it."
And then the second reason he came to the armory comes back to mind. He makes a furtive glance behind himself before leaning a bit closer towards Jacob. "Look, I'm still a fish out of water here, so I don't mean to be politically incorrect or anything, but--" he gives the man a weary look, "how do you handle having all these aliens around?" It had only been--based on his skimming of the modern historical codices lying around, what, two generations since their first contact with a living species? That's not long enough to take them for granted.

"Noted." Jacob frowns slightly. He had been excited to acquire the Chakram Launcher- it seemed like an innovative and useful weapon. But Heine's experience matched with Jacob's own. Innovation and practicality weren't always the same thing.

Jacob takes off his ear protectors, then rolls his shoulders before stepping forward. He'll need to reset the range, and handle the debris from the blasted targets, but it'll be a quick job for him. "Thanks for testing it out," he says to Heine. "I'll see what I can do to make it handle better, but in the meantime, I won't be recommending it. We've got better explosive weapons on board."

"No problem. I'll let you know when I've got something for you."

Jacob raises an eyebrow at the engineer's next question before stepping back and leaning against a wall, considering it. "Hard to say," he says. "I grew up on spaceships. Met my first aliens when I was pretty young. Guess I've always been used to them." He appreciates that Isaac is admitting it's an adjustment instead of putting up a front. In his opinion, it's always better to be honest about issues.

"Best thing I can tell you is that most of them are just people like you and me," he says. "Sure they look a lot different. Act a lot different, too. But they've got their own personalities like anyone else, good points and bad points. Treat them as individuals first and a different species second, that's my advice." He spreads his hands a little. "Does that help?"

Edited (wording!) 2014-03-24 18:03 (UTC)

Setting: Spaaaaaace!

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