Location: Chiron

It had been a month since the last weapons development and Hubert was adamant to start work on the newest designs immediately. Thus, his chance had finally come and here he was, again working with his assistant Doctor Miles at the weapons work bench in the lab, awaiting the Colonial Marine, Corporal Isaac's arrival.

The weapon that they had now developed was a replacement to the standard issue UNSC sniper rifle. The new sniper was designed to be much more lethal than its predecessor, substantially so. It was Doctor Miles who imposed the idea of using coilgun technology used for their ship-mounted Mass Accelerators and scaling the technology down to a handheld weapon.

Thus, the concept for a coilgun sniper rifle was born. The weapon had lined within its barrel a series of electromagnetic coils. Like other sniper rifles, the barrel was quite long to aid in accuracy. The magazine fed the weapon ten rounds before reloading would be required. The ammunition to be used for this weapon was a 5.4mm/.21 caliber round fed directly into the barrel through an internal mechanism. The round was composed entirely of metal. Sequential activation of the row of electromagnetic coils would initiate upon the pull of the trigger, which would accelerate the projectile to extremely high speeds. The muzzle velocity of this weapon was estimated to be at 15'000 meters a second.

The projectile, while small, would be travelling at supersonic speeds and upon impact against its target, would generate shockwaves capable of completely tearing apart the human body. The issue of immense recoil was realised by Hubert but the quick suggestion of implementing mini jets on the sides of the weapon that would activate in a burst just as the weapon was fired. In this way, the jets would reduce the recoil and allow for the weapon to be used continuously without the risk of dislocating the wielder's shoulder.

When Isaac arrived, they moved him and the prototype weapon outside to an actual testing field. The field was 5 miles long and wide - more than enough to assess a sniper rifle in action. Isaac was instructed to hit concrete targets at differing distances, which an overwatching AI would assess and feed results back to the scientists' data pads.

The concrete targets this time were 2-meter tall, one meter wide blocks shaped into cuboids and cylinders. Isaac proceeded to fire shots at the targets. Each concrete cuboid or cylinder took one shot each, shattering upon impact of the projectile launched at them at high speeds. The difference between how long the projectile would take to travel hit targets between a few meters to three miles away was miniscule, only distinguishable if microseconds were taken into account.

The results were impressive. The projectile traveled at speeds of 9 miles a second with enough kinetic force to shatter concrete targets. Isaac's shoulder was also still in one piece which meant that the implemented jets had also worked. However, a complaint that Isaac had was that the weapon's scope could do with a longer-range zoom function as he struggled to adjust his aim on the targets further away from him.

Hubert and Miles prompty assured him that the changes would be made and sent him off to attend to his duties.

An hour later, the new scope had been fitted onto the weapon. It now allowed for an optical zoom to reach distances of around 2 miles with a thermal vision and night vision integrated into the scope.

The issue of electromagnetic coils overheating also raised concerns of how long such a weapon would survive on the battlefield. Fortunately, Miles was able to produce an alloy that was a lot more insulative than the previous one that they had used.

Isaac was called back to the lab following the changes and was asked to test the weapon again. The immense range on the scope allowed him to shoot targets to pieces with less hesitation this time and increased his effectivity by a margin. All in all, it was another successful weapon developed and Hubert planned to submit it for review the following day.

A week later, and a prototype for the fifth weapon in the GSU's future arsenal had been developed. This time they were working on a new variant of the Rocket Launcher. This particular design would allow for five rockets to be shot between reloads. Like the sniper rifle and the weapons they had developed before it, the weapon was composed of Kalgenite which made it less heavy than the traditional UNSC Rocket Launcher.

The weapon was also capable of a limited zooming capability, along with which there was also a lock-on function. The weapon was able to lock onto a maximum of five targets, after which all five rockets would be fired in a burst and use their heat-seeking capabilities to track down and hit their targets. All that was needed now was the weapon to be tested and as such, Doctors Hubert McMillan and Miles were stood out in the field again, waiting for Isaac.

Isaac arrived within a few minutes and now had the Rocket Launcher slung over his shoulder, ready to fire. He was first instructed to fire at individual targets without the lock-on system. After that, he was instructed to lock onto five different targets and initiate the weapon's burst-fire mode. Finally, he was then instructed to use the weapon's zoom-in function to lock onto five different targets at varying distances.

The weapon's performance was promising. For the first test, each rocket hit its intended target, showing that the sights on the weapon were accurate. For the second test, Isaac used the holographic screen projected by the weapon to lock onto the five targets and successfully eliminated them. For the third test, Isaac made use of the holographic screen's zoom-in function to again, successfully eliminate all five targets.

"Each rocket's blast radius has shown to be at around five meters maximum." Miles said.
"Good." McMillan replied. Isaac walked up to them. "Assessment, Corporal?"
"Everything checks out but I noticed a slight delay when locking on." Isaac reported.
Miles looked at McMillan. "We'll be needing to upgrade the weapon's on-board computer software in that case."
McMillan nodded. "Indeed."

After an hour, the prototype's on-board software had been upgraded. Upon further testing with Isaac, he replied a definite increase in the speed of the weapon's locking on capabilities. Apparently it felt "instantaneous".

Another change added to the weapon was the inclusion of a sixth rocket per magazine, which caused the weapon to be slightly upsized to accommodate the larger magazine size. A few more tests were run before the weapon was submitted for review.

As for the next project, Hubert McMillan proposed a new grenade type to be introduced. The initial idea was for a cluster bomb-like effect where the grenade would explode into smaller explosives which would further explode to amplify the damage dealt. However upon Miles's insistence, they settled upon the idea of a multi-purpose grenade.

There would be some sort of switch on the grenade which would allow the user to set the explosive to their desired type. Miles again proposed three different types: Fragmentation, Cluster and Proximity. Fragmentation would detonate with all of the combined explosive force within the grenade. Cluster would instead explode with an initial, smaller explosion than that of the Fragmentation setting but then the smaller explosives ejected from it would explode again to amplify damage dealt. The Proximity function would cause the grenade to leak a sticky gel that causes it to stick to any surface it touches. A rudimentary sensor system built into it would then cause the explosive to detonate when a target reaches within a certain proximity of it.

A week later and several prototype grenades had been developed. Isaac was once again called to test them. They met in a large hall that was a mile wide and long. The flooring was made of some sort of fibreglass that was coloured a dark blue with a lighter blue grid pattern covering it. The walls and ceiling were simply dark blue. Isaac was given a crate of these grenades to throw wherever he wished.

He threw the first grenade with the fragmentation setting. The grenade exploded with the radius of five meters as recorded by the base's AI with a further potential damage radius of 15 meters due to shrapnel. Luckily enough, these prototypes were not finalised versions and as such, none of the three were effected by the shrapnel.

However when it came to using the alternate modes, a problem was encountered in terms of malfunctioning and an almost-lethal premature detonation. It was therefore decided that the grenade be revised and that three separate grenades be developed for each type instead of packing all of them into one.

Three prototypes were successfully developed. The first was a fragmentation grenade, the second was a cluster-bomb, the third a proximity mine and the fourth a more experimental plasma grenade.

The fragmentation grenade was calculated to generate an explosive radius of three meters, making a lethal radius of five-six meters and up to 15 meters of potential casualties caused by shrapnel. The cluster bomb was worse: the initial explosion would release four other, smaller explosives which would arbitrarily ricochet and again explode further away from the initial one. The lethal radius was calculated to be anywhere between 5-8 meters however the very nature of the bomb meant there couldn't be a reliable enough figure to represent this.

The proximity mine was a lot like the fragmentation grenade calculated to generate an explosion large enough to cover a 3-5-meter radius with anyone immediately outside the vicinity also being affected by fragmentation. The mine would detonate if a target had reached anywhere between 0.5-2 meters of it depending on what setting the user wished to utilise. The experimental plasma grenade was in a way another version of the fragmentation grenade. However instead of damage dealt through shrapnel, the plasma grenade would deal damage through heat after the initial explosion. The lethal radius was calculated to be at 4 meters and the casualty/damage radius at 13 meters.

Overall it was decided that the cluster-bomb was too unpredictable and difficult as an explosive to be used as a grenade. There were complications in terms of how far individual soldiers would be able to throw in the thick of battle, making sure friendlies were not in the way as well as the unpredictability of the grenade itself. This is why the decision was made for it to be used as a secondary ammunition option for the Rocket Launcher. While the ammunition would lack the heat-seeking ability of the standard rockets used, the potentially 5-8 meter potential blast radius was enough of a trade-off.

However individual cluster bombs were still to be produced on a lower scale just in case.

"I'd say that's a successful line of developed weapons, wouldn't you agree Miles?" Hubert asked as he sipped on his coffee.
"Indeed Doctor," Miles replied as he stirred his own cup. He looked over to Isaac who was instead sipping on a cup of tea. "It is good to have you with us Isaac, we couldn't have done it without your expertise."
"Heh, don't mention it doc. For a guy like me to be chosen for this stuff is a God-send." Isaac said with a smirk. "Besides, you're the real experts here."
"Here's to many more successful developments then." Hubert said as he raised his cups. The other two did the same and they all drank in unison.

"Say, what's next on the list?" Isaac broke the silence after a minute. Hubert put his cup down.
"Well that depends." He replied. "Miles?"
"I would recommend starting work on a sub machine-gun." Miles said. "We have a few more areas to cover.. including reworks of some of our more... exotic weapons."
"What like the Spartan Laser?" Isaac asked.
"Perhaps."
"Very well done, we shall begin development after a fair break." Hubert decided.
"I don't mind," Isaac said with a smile. "I'm here whenever you guys need me."