The light from the sun shone down on the men, hot and heavy, like a thick blanket in the middle of summer. In a top secret location in the Afghanistan mountains, American scientists and military leaders met for the conducting of several classified tests. The tests, to be supervised by Major Clayton and ran by Dr. Harrison, involved a recently-developed, multi-million dollar laser weapon.
The laser weapon, designed to look like its many predecessors, sat firmly on the back of an army truck. In a second truck, an enormous battery sat, which would provide the 400 kW of electricity needed to fire the laser one time. The laser weapon could be mounted to a physical location and hooked into a power grid, but the two trucks were necessary for bringing the laser weapon somewhere it could be tested, safely.
While Dr. Harrison typed away into the integrated keyboard on the laser weapon, Major Clayton stood next to him and investigated the exposed wiring. Around them, half a dozen two to four star generals lazily talked about their plans for later in the day.
“I thought you said this wasn’t going to take all day,” Major Clayton complained to Dr. Harrison as he waited for the scientist to finish readying the laser weapon.
“All in good time,” Dr. Harrison replied to the major. “It’s harder to set up the device when I don’t have my team of engineers with me. Maybe if you gave them clearance, we could’ve been drinking scotch by now.”
“Whatever, just hurry up with it,” Major Clayton said and turned away from Dr. Harrison to sit on a folding chair he brought with him. “Thanks for at least giving me some warning.”
“You’re welcome,” Dr. Harrison said, smirking when he turned his head and saw Major Clayton sitting on the folding chair he recommended him to bring.
Dr. Harrison led a team of five other top scientists from their field. Two were supposed to come with Dr. Harrison and help him calibrate the laser weapon before they tested it for Major Clayton, but their security clearance was denied mere hours before they were scheduled to leave the research facility.
Besides Major Clayton and the surrounding soldiers - all of which were focused on the terrain rather than the laser weapon - everyone present had better things to do than watching the first outdoor testing of an experimental weapon. They had meetings to conduct in cool, air-conditioned rooms.
Dr. Harrison, as well, wanted to get back to his lab. Many years ago, when he was just a child, Dr. Harrison played with his father’s laser pen that he bought online. Over the next few years, through middle school and high school, Dr. Harrison constructed his own lasers out of cheap diodes and modules.
In college, Dr. Harrison had little time for anything other than his hobby and profession, directed-energy weapon engineering. When he wasn’t assembling new laser systems or trying to find a solution for the looming problem, Dr. Harrison frequented a local laser tag arcade. Though few graduates would hang their first place international laser tag championship medal next to their Ph.D. in optoelectronics, Dr. Harrison felt no shame.
One could say that Dr. Harrison’s entire life had been leading up to this moment, where he would show top-brass the worth of his research project. After four years of development, his weapon could finally prove it wasn’t just a money pit.
Dr. Harrison took a few more minutes to ready the laser weapon, then stood proudly at the side of it while waiting for the generals to notice.
“Alright, gentlemen, we’re ready to conduct the first test of the LRL-43,” Dr. Harrison said once a few of the generals looked his way. LRL-43 was the classification of the laser weapon, which was written on the top of every evaluation form the generals had in their hands. Not only would this test see if Dr. Harrison’s laser weapon worked, but if the Department of Defense would fund another four years of development.
“The weapon is transported on the back of a truck, no mounting required,” Dr. Harrison continued to speak. “Due to the nature of the energy beam launched, there is no kick-back when the laser is fired, and the weapon can easily be mounted to any structure. It can be mounted on the ground, walls, or even the ceiling.
“In this test, the calibration and configuration terminal is embedded into the weapon, but it can be taken out and placed along with other control panels. The LRL-43 is the perfect addition to any ship or base needing a tool to instantly respond to aggression.
“So, you’re probably asking yourself, what kind of offense can the LRL-43 bring? The weapon offers emittance from low-power dazzle beams to extremely powerful annihilation blasts. Whether it’s hitting your opponent with a little glare or turning them and the tank they’re sitting in into dust, the LRL-43 has you covered.
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“The LRL-43 can support one maximum strength blast of 400 kW, with a five-minute pause. Subsequent usages can be…” Dr. Harrison continued to explain the laser weapon’s technical capabilities for several minutes, all the while pointing to external parts of the weapon.
The generals barely understood what Dr. Harrison explained to them, and Major Clayton only understood bits and pieces Dr. Harrison had explained in the past. Besides Dr. Harrison, nobody knew exactly how the laser weapon worked. After taking a dozen minutes to explain all the selling points of the LRL-43, Dr. Harrison readied to fire the weapon.
“Now, for our first test, we’ll be using ten percent power to take out a drone,” Dr. Harrison took the controller for a small drone and hovered it 200 feet away and fifty feet in the air. “The LRL-43 does not experience any drop in power or accuracy up to a range of three miles. Here, I’ll demonstrate how quickly the LRL-43 can acquire a close-range target.”
With the drone hovering in place, Dr. Harrison pressed a button on the laser weapon’s terminal, and the barrel of the laser weapon oriented itself to face the drone. The time between Dr. Harrison pressing the button and the laser weapon targeting the drone was less than a second.
“The LRL-43 has two methods of operation. The first is Lock and Pass, where the targeting system will switch between automatically selected targets and allow the operator to select them as something to fire at once all targets have been selected,” Dr. Harrison explained. “Because the LRL-43 is set to 10 percent power, it will allow the selection of nine more targets.
“The second method of operation is Lock and Fire, where the weapon will fire upon the target once it’s selected by the operator. In either case, the operator can also manually position the targeting system,” Dr. Harrison spoke and moved the weapon back to its original position. “Now, I’ll have the LRL-43 annihilate the target.”
Dr. Harrison pressed a second button on the laser weapon’s terminal, and the barrel turned to face the drone and shoot out its beam - all in less than a second. For two seconds, the laser stayed on the drone, which exploded just before the laser weapon turned off.
“As you can see, the LRL-43 is quick to obliterate anything in its path,” Dr. Harrison said, turning away from the drone and facing the audience of generals. “The LRL-43 is also useful in delivering high precision strikes on enemy outposts. Up to a range of half a mile, the outputted laser can hit a target the size of a dime.”
Dr. Harrison turned back to the weapon but hesitated after seeing the terminal. In the upper left corner, a bright red warning label flashed. It said that core temperatures were reaching their maximum limit and damage to the system might incur if use continued. Of course, Dr. Harrison knew all about it. He turned off the audio alerts earlier, hoping he’d test a few of the weapon’s features before calling it a day - and with minimal damage to the weapon.
Right now, securing funding was more important than the survival of the prototype.
“I have another drone with me,” Dr. Harrison said and used another controller to make a small drone hover next to him. “A US dime has been attached by two feet of string to the drone, which I will now have the LRL-43 target,”
Dr. Harrison pressed a couple buttons on the terminal, swiveling the barrel to be pointed at the dime. The target acquisition took longer, because Dr. Harrison manually performed it, and yet it still did not take longer than a few seconds.
“Now, I will send the drone out to 2,000 feet and test if the LRL-43 can hit the dime,” Dr. Harrison used the controller to move the drone, and the weapon automatically tracked the dime. Not long after that, the drone arrived at 2,000 feet away from Dr. Harrison’s demonstration, and Dr. Harrison fired the laser weapon. “Now, we’ll see how that dime fared.”
When the drone arrived back at Dr. Harrison’s side, the dime was missing, but the drone still had two feet of string dangling from the underside. Though the test was successful, the weapon reached a new critical warning for heat.
‘One more shot,’ Dr. Harrison hoped as the drone landed.
“For the final test, I will be using the LRL-43 at 50 percent power to blast through one of the rocky outcrops we can see in the distance,” Dr. Harrison said and turned the laser’s barrel to face a row of rocks several miles away.
He stood tall behind the laser weapon, sighed, and pressed the button to fire the weapon. In this moment, if the laser weapon could destroy the terrain and not fail from overheating, he would have funding for another ten years and over a hundred million dollars.
The laser shot straight and true, and an explosion could be heard by everyone present. Dr. Harrison was the only one who could see the warning message take up the terminal's entire screen, warning him of imminent failure.
“What was that,” A general said, softly but enough for the generals around him to hear.
The laser weapon kept shooting its beam - Dr. Harrison had disabled the automatic shut-off when he was preparing the weapon, earlier.
Then, in less time than it took to blink, the laser weapon’s crystal diode exploded. Super-heated metal flew across the desert and impacted upon everyone present, along with an enormous dose of gamma radiation.
For Dr. Harrison, who stood closest to the laser weapon, the damage was the most severe. His vision went white and he could not see what happened to anyone else.
In the end, his dream failed.