One of my favorite things to do is create fictional science.

I absolutely love it. I like to take real facts, introduce a fictional variable, and then speculate on what would happen to a very normal object in a very abnormal situation. Weaponry in my latest novel, TCoU:B ranges from the standard cartridge fired out of a pistol, or rifle, along with pure plasma energy. Imagine hurling a searing hot bolt of plasma at your enemy, and watching him collapse in a heap of burns, screams, and fire. Also, I invented E.A. weapons, which stand for Energy Assisted. This is a solid slug wrapped in a comet of searing hot plasma. I have concept art, for this of course, but right now, I’m not going to talk about that. I’m going to talk about utilizing plasma as a weapon in an overview sense. I’ll get into extreme details later, I promise.

There are a few things that stop us (humanity) from using plasma in a weaponized bolt form. First, energy. We simply don’t have the amount of juice necessary to convert matter into plasma in a small, hand-held weapons system. Second, the tremendous heat thrown out by the weapon would melt the internal components and furniture of any weapon. Third, and unexpected, is brightness. Plasma throws out an enormous amount of energy that is straight-up photon. The user would be blinded completely as the bolt left the barrel of the firearm, along with anyone around him. And last, plasma oozes heat into its surroundings, making the bolt fizzle out long before it reaches its target. I have address each of these problems by adding a fictional element.

1. Energy

I created something called Umbrashard. It’s a common purple salt crystal found all over Urth that converts simple sunlight into enormous amounts of energy when properly refined and placed into battery form. I don’t mean a few gigawatts. I mean, terrawatts. Petrawats. That kinda shit. Fuck, an umbracell (the refined crystal placed into battery form) squirts out a few dozen gigawatts on a bad day. So, if this umbracell was used in a weapon, all the power in the world would be right there, in the palm of your hand. AND because of the unique crystalline structure promotes stable energy flow within Umbrashards promotes energy flow, allowing umbracells to be engineered to deliver the appropriate amount of juice for the task at hand without overloading into a massive plasma explosion. So, the fuel source is ready.

2. Heat

Plasma generated within the weapon would melt it with real world science. I introduced two Urth elements that correct this problem. Within the chamber of any plasmatic weapon there is a sophisticated circulation system that pushes a special gas into the weapon where the plasma is generated. This gas alters its temperature according to the amount of current one pours through it. The more juice you pump through the gas, the colder it gets. The best part is, you only have to do it once. The gas will never change its temperature unless it receives another jolt of energy. The element rushes into the reactor area, where the plasma is formed nanoseconds after the plasma has left the weapon and is on its way to the target. This cools the weapon before it has a chance to get incredibly hot, which also prevents warping. I’ll get into what these weapons are made of and how they fire later.

3. Light

Plasma is fuckin’ bright. Period. So, I had to remedy this somehow, and one day while I was on the shitter, I came up with something. Inside the weapon, there is a man-made lens that absorbs surrounding photons and converts a portion of them into a magnetic confinement bottle (more on this later). The lens isn’t a tangible lens. It’s a thin sheen of Blinthium, an abundant new Urth element. It is held in place by creating an alloy within a rapidly constricting vacuum, literally creating a metallic gas alloy that is so dense,  it can be shaped and held into place WHILE still being a gas. Plasma heats up the particles of the gas, passes through, receives its magnetic confinement bottle via rapid heat reaction with the Blinthium lens, flies out the weapon, and the Blinthium lens snaps back into place just before the delivery of the coolant, ready for use again. The result it a 90% reduction in visible photon energy, having it all converted into a magnetic confinement bottle via the photons’ own electromagnetic radiation through the thermal reaction with the modified Blinthium atoms in the lens.

4. Range

Remember that whole magnetic confinement bottle shit? Well, without that, the immense heat and photon energy of a plasma bolt would bloom out into the atmosphere and never reach the target. However, safe within the bottle, the plasma stays tight and dense, hitting the target with pinpoint accuracy. The bottle ruptures upon impact after interacting with the atoms of a solid surface, delivering the plasma successfully to the target.

WHOO! You think it was tough readin’ this shit? I’ve been working on this fuckin’ crap for years. Being inside my head blows, man. Well, sometimes.

Anyway, I think I’ll stop here. This is the basic overview of how a plasma weapon works in the TCoU:B universe. I’ll post my concept art for plasma weapons, along with a detailed overview of how a plasma weapon works, and what they’re made of, in the near future. I’m going on vacation for awhile, so I’ll write when I get back. Leave comments! I’ll answer them.