Writing: Input Wanted Future weapons that are portable....and destructive

[Melbourne Guy]

I'm running out of ideas for portable - which means single person carry, assuming the 'person' is a biomech Royal Guard bred for strength - weapons. I've used blasters, proton canons, disrupters that generate beams of spin-entangled top quarks...

So, I'm up for suggestions that aren't the hackneyed standards of sci-fi. In terms of scenario, it is the year 2670, we have FTL, AG, AI, brain implants that support fully immerse and communal AR / VR, and over a trillion people are spread across thousands of colonised planets, moons, and orbitals mostly within one hundred light years of Earth. Violence and war still exist, deliberately and provocatively supported by the intelligence that guides humanity because they trigger innovation and, hey, 'just in case'. A species extinction event because we are fat and lazy when the aliens come is not on the agenda. (And the aliens are coming, eventually!)

Even with that, life expectancy for most is two or three hundred years of ruddy health, and because extreme genetic engineering is uncommon, most people are still recognisable to us. Having said that, the Royal Guard would stand out for their height, bulk, strength, speed, and immobile facial features.

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

 

[.Scott]

Weaponized drones, kamikaze or not, with reconnaissance ability. You got to give your scifi at least we give the Ukranians.

 

[Melbourne Guy]

I'm using drones as weapons, but they are not generally weaponised, @.Scott. Which is an imaginative oversight on my part though, as the action is set on a navy warship, so there will be such drones aboard, good pickup, thanks

 

[.Scott]

Ahhh. Then some USB hacking devices that can be used to take over the ships comm, nav, weapon, propulsion, and flight support systems. Make it CVN-78, my personal favorite.

Oh wait, you're Australian. So make it HMAS L02 Canberra or HMAS L01 Adelaide. I've been on both those ships - the Adelaide when it was in Melbourne, then both in Sydney. Those are interesting ships because they were built to both military and civilian (SOLAS) standards.

 

[Melbourne Guy]

I'm hoping USB will be a thing of the past by 2670, @.Scott, but the same concept is used with hacking methods deployed that sequester ship AIs, they just come in via entry points such as the gamma-ray tight beam ship-to-ship comms networks or hidden in situationals, which are like a database but smarter.

When were you Down Under?

 

[Algr]

in a world with rocket launchers and suitcase nukes, the only real progress in weaponry can be towards better control and less lethality. Perhaps an EMP ray that works on people's brains and causes them to pass out? Or just forget what they were trying to do for 30 seconds? A gun that shoots smart rubber that will entangle the target and tie them up.

Targeting could be done by contact lenses. You just look at what you want to hit and press the button.

In a less benign world, those EMPs might do permanent damage. If people have brain implants, they may secretly have kill switches in them. If someone powerful doesn't like you, they type in your SS number, and you have a stroke or commit suicide. For something more classical: A dark matter gun turns you into... apparently nothing. Such a ray would be impossible to shield against, and might dig instant tunnels miles long into the ground.

Current real-life grenades have an issue of creating blasts so large that the thrower might not be able to throw it far enough to avoid injuring him/herself. If the AI ruling the world thinks it is funny, it might actually play off of these problems by giving too-eager troops guns that shoot micro black holes.

 

[Melbourne Guy]

If people have brain implants, they may secretly have kill switches in them.

That's what actually caused the plot point that has led to me asking the OP, @Algr. And the kill switch is so secret that the protagonist has to twist and turn to clean up the mess of the switch being stolen by the antagonist without it being further revealed.

Current real-life grenades have an issue of creating blasts so large that the thrower might not be able to throw it far enough to avoid injuring him/herself.

That's worth exploring, thanks

 

[.Scott]

I'm hoping USB will be a thing of the past by 2670, @.Scott, but the same concept is used with hacking methods deployed that sequester ship AIs, they just come in via entry points such as the gamma-ray tight beam ship-to-ship comms networks or hidden in situationals, which are like a database but smarter.

When were you Down Under?

I arrived in Melbourne first, mid-September 2014 for 2 weeks and then Sydney in November. I was getting the internal "MC" communications, including the loud hailers, working on those two ships.
Melbourne was nice. I stayed at the Quest near the Jawbone reserve and often walked to work at the BAE Systems shipyard in Williamstown.

 

[Lren Zvsm]

In military scenarios, weapons that incapacitate might supersede weapons that kill, because dead bodies are more easily abandoned than live but incapacitated soldiers, whose injuries demand attention. With this in mind, flying robots or transgenic organisms ranging from mosquito-sized to sparrow sized, could deliver seizure inducing chemicals to their targets. Since they could fly under their own power (e.g. some super-efficient solar & ambient light power), they would not need to be carried at all--which is better than being portable.