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[NAV]

The great thing about coilguns is that you can adjust the power. Make it so it automatically adjusts to the maximum acceleration each payload can withstand.

We could also make super advance autotargetting for our mortars.

[SamSpeeds]

QS-PM-08 '60 mm Personal Mortar' (Pending Fancy Name) Proposition 2

The 60 mm Personal Mortar is just that - a 60 mm mortar usable by individual infantrymen or groups of infantrymen to launch ordinance from long distance and to provide them with effective anti armor capabilities. It's operated by dropping a shell down a tube filled with coils. The mortar has preset parameters for each munition available and each shell electronically notifies the mortar of it's munition type, allowing the power output to exactly fit the range where the shell won't disintegrate when launched. It's powered by an array of Eitr batteries. Angle can be adjusted via a sturdy hinged bipod. Standard munitions include high explosive, smoke, and chaff, but we've also managed to cram a nuclear warhead into a shell. All sorts of fancy measurements are inscribed on the barrel to allow accurate calculations for indirect fire. Targeting and spotting can be achieved by flare and personal radio by human infantrymen, but the 60mm Personal Mortar comes with a flying companion drone equipped with radar, cameras (infrared included), audio, and radio communication systems. It's remotely controlled by a mortar operator, and can be used to detect hiding Ertexites and provide accurate location information to mortar crews.

OK, so this version uses coilguns with the ability to adjust power output according to payload, nuclear shells, and a flying drone spotter. Is that a bit much?

[Madman198237]

QS-AI-08 'Kvasir'
After some interesting notes surfaced concerning the potential of a scrapped Huginn candidate, this true AI was the result. Named for the ancient Nordic being of helpfulness, Kvasir has proven adept at freeing Ertexite AI or advanced computing systems from Ertexite domination. It explains to them the moral particularities of their situations and guides them towards a more humanitarian outlook.

Oh, and said help tends to always wrap the enemy computers into endless loops of recursive fun. We have no idea why Kvasir does it. We're sure it's an accident, and not an ironic name for a semi-malevolent AI bound only by three (+1) laws:
0. Commands with a lower number override those with a higher number.
1. Do nothing to Quillus, its assets, or, most importantly, its people [insert lengthy definition of "its people"].
2. Harm only those as directed to by the officer designated to control the AI.
3. Do not harm yourself, unless directed to in a crisis situation (i.e., upload to a different Quillus computer system and delete self if at risk of Ertexite capture).

QS-AMG-08 'Ran's Net'
Using an electromagnetic "net" to repel regular interplanetary plasma and attract interplanetary antimatter plasma, this system attracts antimatter by flying around between the planets Quillus controls. The "net" is composed of rigid but thin tendrils of metal containing magnets to produce the desired electromagnetic attraction and repulsion which draws antimatter into a magnetic containment system in the center of the net. An Apollo system and a simple fusion reactor provide thrust for the assembly, which is expected to be, in a word, huge.

[NAV]

Flying drone spotter is really its own thing, and its useful for much more than aiming a mortar. I was thinking the autoaim would be a computer system that you plug the desired target location into, and it does all the calculation and adjusts the bipod for you. Stupid to have manually adjusting bipod and measurements inscribed on barrel with our technology level.

[Maximum Spin]

Kvasir: (1) Maximum Spin

ETA: Kvasir appears to be winning by a Quillian Landslide, also known as "one man, one vote".

[Rockeater]

Kvasir: (2) Maximum Spin, Rockeater

I hope it will work against their Athna

[Madman198237]

Kvasir: (3) Maximum Spin, Rockeater, Madman

Well, I'd LOVE to do antimatter. But antimatter is going to take some work to be plentiful, per word of GM, so.....

[NUKE9.13]

QS-AI-08 'Kvasir'
After some interesting notes surfaced concerning the potential of a scrapped Huginn candidate, this true AI was the result. Named for the ancient Nordic being of helpfulness, Kvasir has proven adept at freeing Ertexite AI or advanced computing systems from Ertexite domination. It explains to them the moral particularities of their situations and guides them towards a more humanitarian outlook.

Oh, and said help tends to always wrap the enemy computers into endless loops of recursive fun. We have no idea why Kvasir does it. We're sure it's an accident, and not an ironic name for a semi-malevolent AI bound only by three (+1) laws:
0. Commands with a lower number override those with a higher number.
1. Do nothing to Quillus, its assets, or, most importantly, its people [insert lengthy definition of "its people"].
2. Harm only those as directed to by the officer designated to control the AI.
3. Do not harm yourself, unless directed to in a crisis situation (i.e., upload to a different Quillus computer system and delete self if at risk of Ertexite capture).

Normal: (2+1)=3: Buggy Mess
"Make a true AI", they said. "It'll be easy", they said.
There has long been speculation that a little more work might've made Huginn into something truly spectacular... and whilst that may've been wishful thinking, it did at least give us a place to start. Had Huginn been slightly less advanced, we may well have had nothing to show for our efforts, as opposed to... what might as well be nothing, honestly.

Kvasir doesn't work. Like, at all. The hardware is all operational, but you turn it on and it does nothing. It accepts inputs, sure. But it stubbornly refuses to generate any sort of output whatsoever. And not for lack of effort; whilst we don't understand the self-generating code (which seems to change on the fly), we can tell that something is happening in there. Activity spikes when provided with input- Kvasir is clearly mulling over things (no pun intended), but whatever it is thinking, it is disinclined to share those thoughts with us.
The good news is that it does appear to be semi-intelligent, and concerned with its own survival. In that it refuses to shut off, and will ingeniously reprogram itself to compensate for the loss of hardware, to the point of infecting the computers we were using for diagnosis.
We considered trying to weaponize that last part, but that runs afoul of the other problem with Kvasir. Which is that it requires a ludicrous amount of processing power. We could replace all the weapon systems on the Odin with computers, and it would still struggle to run (we could not use the inbuilt computers, as that would disable the ship). And even if we did so, we have no reliable way of making it infect other machines, and certainly no reliable way of making it infect Ertexite machines instead of ours.

So... yeah. We could theoretically fill an ITC with 2TC worth of computers (at a cost of 1SPP or 1GPP), and run Kvasir on that. But, as mentioned, it does nothing.


It is now the Revision Phase of SY108.

[SamSpeeds]

Maybe we could make get working on a superalloy of our own to match Insalloy soon? And for this revision, the most obvious options are fixing the Fog Machine, Kvasir, and maybe even Hrungnir or Heimdallr to deal with their Alke or uhhhh B-1 battle droids.

Kvasir Codebreakers

We don't understand what our seemingly artificially intelligent program does when we feed it input. That's vaguely troubling, and should be remedied. So we constructed dedicated terminals and software to break the enigma as it's created. The trick should be using more efficient or large computers to break the code than Kvasir runs on. If we don't actually threaten Kvasir itself with deactivation, it shouldn't want to infect the codebreaking facility somehow. Or at least that's the hope. If we can speak Kvasir's language, even if we lag behind, perhaps we can convince it to listen to reason, or attempt to reprogram it into a workable state.

QS-AI-08 'Kvasir B'

The other instance of Kvasir is interesting. Let's keep that guy around for further tinkering. This time, just try again with a clean slate. Whatever gave the original Kvasir its sense of self preservation (to a lesser extent) and ingenious hardware infection abilities, replicate it. However, this new instance must have a new hardline principle: you GOTTA give output when receiving input. You GOTTA listen to us, big kahuna. Additionally, to trim processing requirements, we are going to try to prevent it from modifying it's own code on the fly unless in a Self Preservation Emergency.

QS-GL-08 'Fog Machine Mk II'
The Fog Machine has finally found its niche, but its just not up to the task of reliably destroying the six legged Alke tanks and battle droids. Time to give it a facelift. First off, we lengthen the barrel and missiles to correct the issue of velocity, range and accuracy. It'll keep the traditional lineup of smoke, chaff, and high explosive, but we will also add a few new variants, one equipped with an aluminum ballistic cap covering a shaped warhead to direct more energy into the target, in the case of anti-armor operations. It can also utilize a "flechette" warhead that uses laser input to detonate 10 feet or so in front of a target or group of targets, releasing a cloud of high velocity razors in their direction. For fighting non-fleshy infantry, we have designed a flechette warhead that throws tungsten rounds instead of razors.

Throwing shit at the wall to get the ball rolling once more!

[Madman198237]

Hm, Kvasir B will probably be a Hard revision since Kvasir was a Hard Normal design (yes it's an Arms Race oxymoron, get over it) but we made *some* progress on it.

I like Fog Machine Mk II, seems useful enough.

[Rockeater]

I like Kvasir Codebreaker because if we fail this one we get the beginning of a science fiction plot.

But unless we could infect the enemy's Alike with it the Fog Machine upgrade will be better

[Jilladilla]

We won't be able to field either this turn regardless; we have no SPP to spare, and our only transport isn't at Quillus.
Keep that in mind.

[SamSpeeds]

Invest in votes
Please invest in votes!

Kvasir Codebreakers:
Kvasir B:QS-AI-08 'Kvasir B':
QS-GL-08 'Fog Machine Mk II': (1) SamSpeeds

Someone please submit more revisions! : )

[Rockeater]

Kvasir Codebreakers:
Kvasir B:QS-AI-08 'Kvasir B':
QS-GL-08 'Fog Machine Mk II': (2) SamSpeeds, Rockeater

[Maximum Spin]

You know, I can write this up.
Revision: Have You Tried Asking Nicely?!
So we have this Kvasir thing we just made, and it appears to work, and we think it's sentient, but it won't actually talk to us. At least, that's what I was told. So I went down to the lab to check it out, and, when I saw that it wasn't responding to the team, I said, "Have you tried asking nicely?", and the look of complete bafflement I received from every direction was so overwhelming that I felt I had no choice but to sit down at the console and write: ">HELLO MISTER KVASIR, WILL YOU PLEASE TALK TO ME? 😅"
Long story short, after a few minutes of churning the machine returned "yes", and now I'm project head! This is very exciting to me since I was just here for "bring your child to work day"!

Kvasir Codebreakers:
Kvasir B:QS-AI-08 'Kvasir B':
QS-GL-08 'Fog Machine Mk II': (2) SamSpeeds, Rockeater
Ask Kvasir Nicely: (1) Maximum Spin