That Macks use steel armor is well established. Less widely known is that the
quality far exceeds that of pre-First Emergence human-made steel armor.
On average, Mack armor needs only 40% of the thickness to be equal in resistance.
– Hank Fisher in the NRA magazine (online edition)
Monday, November 18th, 2047
I had just sold the first production model of my 3D printer, and more customers had signaled interest. At least on the business front, things were promising.
On the combat front, I wanted to somehow reproduce the effect of the lightning Ladybug had used on the Macks.
In the Esoteric Single-Use Explosive Devices catalog you already unlocked, there is a Class I EMP grenade that should suit your needs. You would have to buy the blueprint for 50 points, then I can adapt the design for your limited means of manufacturing.
“OK, I'll take it.”
Purchased: Class I EMP grenade (blueprint)
Points left… 301
That evening we met at Roger’s place. Ellen was back, apparently they had reconciled the little spat from eight weeks ago. We also had a new member, Phil. Apparently, Phil was ex-military in good standing and the regular militia would happily take him. He just liked our irregular little outfit better for whatever reason.
We avoided talking openly about explosives to keep Ellen from getting upset again, but the discussion turned to military surplus and what weird stuff there was available sometimes. Especially Phil seemed to have good information. At the mention of old airbags my ears perked up. I asked Phil
“Say, where could I get some of those?”
“Come, let's get some fresh air.”
Out of Ellen’s earshot, Phil said “You know, these don’t make good hand grenades. Even if you combine the explosive from several”.
“That’s fine. I don’t need maximal detonation power, but something controllable”.
“Then you can get them at the HANAF supply depot, on Saturdays from 08:00 to 11:00”.
Back inside, we had another round of beers before we finally parted for the day.
Next Saturday, back from the supply depot, I had eighteen old airbags. Those gave me enough explosives for four so-called explosively pumped flux compression generators. Which totally existed pre-First Emergence and before the Advent contacted us. But thanks to Elya and my blueprint purchase, I had a pre-optimized design without doing extra research. Dumbed down due to manufacturing limitations, but I hoped the product would still do the job.
Over the weekend, I built four EMP grenades. Soda-can-sized cylinders with a trigger button below a safety cap on top. I also made a suppressor for the rifle. The EMP grenades were technically illegal, but I could argue they were not designed as anti-personnel weapons. For what that would be worth in court.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
After that, I started to gather parts for my next generation 3D printer. It would be a lot more complex and expensive to build than my first model, but a necessary step towards building Protector-grade fabrication equipment.
We did regular training with the militia now, and were getting better acting as a unit. Roger appeared to be a competent leader. The rest of us at least worked better together than a month before. Of course, there was also the usual banter about the best equipment. When I asked Alan what ammunition he used, he answered
“For Macks, old NATO ammunition someone salvaged from Seattle. Armor piercing, very hard to get these days.”
He quoted a price that made my eyes water. Still, it might be worth the expense. Something to keep in mind.
Tuesday, December 10th, 2047
Faster than expected, I managed to complete my second generation 3D printer. First tests showed greatly improved precision. With the new model, it was also possible to mix my own alloys and even print a small selection of plastics. The new printer could make much larger parts and was almost as large as an office desk itself. No way I could have stuffed the thing into my old apartment.
The first use of the new printer would be a more powerful rifle. Instead of a specific model, I went for purchasing the underlying technology and otherwise cribbing from existing designs.
“Elya, I’m thinking of a new rifle. Preferably an existing caliber where we can adapt existing tech. Also, suitable ammunition.”
To underpin the tech cribbing with a solid technology base, I recommend the Lorekeeper Tome of Mechanical Engineering for 100 points. You do not need to buy any specialized catalog for that. Similar to the book about teleporting technology, it is digital, interactive and comes with integrated CAD software.
For ammunition I recommend Class I Kinetic Ammunitions for 50 points. It gives access to a wide range of ammunition, including explosive and guided projectiles. Within reason, these are scalable to weapons of different sizes. You would still need a reloading press, gunpowder and primers, as you can only make the metal parts so far.
“Does it have designs that are suitable for my printer?”
Yes, there are some. In particular, there is one type of armor piercing projectile that will significantly exceed the performance of the M993 Ralph has shown you. Blueprint price is 30 points.
“So, 180 points in total. I’ll take it.”
Purchased: Lorekeeper Tome of Mechanical Engineering
Points reduced to… 421
Class I Kinetic Ammunitions unlocked!
Points reduced to… 371
Purchased: Tungsten alloy core AP ammunition Type II (blueprint)
Points reduced to … 341
After that, I sent Elya cribbing existing weapons designs from the internet. As diminished as it was post-Emergence, there was still a lot of valuable data to find. After some mixing and matching I ended up with a bullpup rifle in caliber .277 Fury, also known as 6.8×51mm Common Cartridge, complete with integrated suppressor. At short range and with my custom ammo, it would at least match Alan’s much larger Lapua .338 in armor penetration.
Saturday, December 21th, 2047
My new rifle was ready, as well as a first batch of ammunition. I had also splurged on a decent scope. Today was range day, and I was curious what the others would say to my new toy.
Alan was only moderately interested at first. After he got to try it out, that changed to fairly impressed. When Ralph brought out the Type 4 Mack plate and six out of six rounds went through, I got a lot of incredulous looks. I wondered if I could trust these people enough to tell them my origins. But on second thought, it would come out eventually anyway. I’d better tell it myself, that would cause less trust issues in the future.
“OK guys, I have to tell you a story. A few months ago, there were rumors about some kind of Magical Girl from a parallel world being stranded here. That was mostly true.“
Roger still did not quite believe it. “And you claim to be that one?”
“I am, but the ‘magic’ works differently from what the locals have. Much of their power comes from implants with incredibly advanced technology. Mine is based on stuff I carry around.” I neglected to mention Elya.
“Sadly, the alien sponsors from my home universe do not deliver hardware here. But I still have some access to their engineering knowledge, and now I’m building up manufacturing capability here. My 3D printers are the first thing that exceeds non-Advent engineering, and parts of this ammunition are made with the latest model.”
Alan was the first to respond. “Say, could you get me that sort of ammo for my rifle?”