"Here," Akagi pointed with her hand. "Last night they delivered the built-in weapon, and this morning new weapon samples arrived after finishing work in our laboratory."
I looked, enchanted, at the colossal weapons containers located in the gigantic hangar.
"Here, read the documentation" I know you'll find it interesting, Ritsko handed me a respectable-looking folder.
So, what do we have now?
New knee and elbow pads with a pointed shape and reinforced construction, suitable for striking. Armored boots with reinforced toes, similar to the heavy Camelot combat boots... This is what I understand from the accompanying order for armor from Russia - not too grandiose, but it could be useful. So, what about my wishes? Yeah, there they are - twin retractable quantum blades built into the bracer for close combat. Hmm... They look a bit like the Predator's weapons from the movie of the same name, although no, that's probably just because they're paired. The shape of the retractable blades is more similar to the shape of the most common office knives - a smooth oblique cut, without any sign of a point. Although, in principle, a quantum weapon doesn"t need a tip... I just wonder how effective they will be?..
So, what about external weapons?
The already familiar quantum knife with a fixed shark-fin-type blade and a small guard. It can be placed in shoulder pads or in a new type of scabbard, fixed on the belt, thigh or lower leg. Nothing was done to compensate for his loss in battle, so what could be done about it? Should I attach a lanyard to the handle or attach the knife to Eve with a cord? No, that's just unnecessary hassle...
Let's move on.
Quantum Spear - resembles a long quantum knife on a long shaft. The last thing doesn't inspire much confidence in me - it looks too fragile...
Now, this is more interesting - a quantum sword. It looks more like a sword than a classic katana, as one might expect. A long, thick blade, shaped like a wrist blade, that is, something like a giant stationery knife. About three quarters of it is enclosed in some kind of protective casing.
So, there is a knife, there is a spear, there is a sword... But why not a crossbow? So what? If a portable generator to power a quantum blade can apparently be placed in a relatively small handle, then why not build some kind of device that fires small, progressive projectiles? If quantum weapons have the ability to penetrate the AT field...
"Doctor Akagi!"
"Yes, Shinji?"
"Why not develop something like a giant crossbow or spear launcher that fires quantum blades? Shells don't penetrate the AT field, unlike advanced weapons..."
"And who told you this?" Ritsko raised her eyebrows. "Quantum weapons don't penetrate AT fields, just like any other weapons."
I was genuinely stunned.
"How so? But I did pierce Object A's defenses with a knife..."
"So what? The AT field surrounding Eva extends to whatever she's holding, and you could penetrate Object A's defenses even with, say, a simple piece of wood. Without Evangelion, quantum weapons lose all their advantages and become a virtually useless, but extremely expensive, toy. Did I answer your question?"
"Yeah," I said sullenly, burying my face in the documentation again.
It was extremely unpleasant to feel like I was in trouble, but all it took was a little thinking. Do I really think I can be better than the best minds on the planet who developed the weapons and equipment for Evangelion? Yeah, right... "Everything's already been stolen before us." Victor, like Odin, is willing to give his eye for the fact that whatever he comes up with has already been developed or tested by someone here. There is no need to consider yourself smarter than others, there is no need to consider yourself smarter than others... I am a humanities student (that is, a complete zero in technology), so to count on the fact that I can teach professors and engineers something in a world where some technologies are decades ahead of the science of my world would be outright stupidity. My main asset is knowledge of events and the characters of key figures, not technical knowledge.
Okay, let's get back to the documentation. What else do we have here? The M1 pistol appears to be an American creation, but its design is more reminiscent of the Israeli Desert Eagle-the same angular and heavy design, with a massive slide casing, only the barrel, with its slotted muzzle brake, protrudes significantly forward. So-so-so... Caliber 203 mm, wedge breech, electric automation with a small internal power source. Hydraulic recoil pad under the barrel, ejector, and muzzle brake. Magazine for ten shells of different types. Designed for continuous carry, the holster is attached to the belt or hip, a spare magazine is included... Twenty rounds? Perhaps even a bit too much - I'm unlikely to have time to shoot more than half a dozen times in close combat, but such a reserve doesn't really weigh on the pocket...
The Gross Gewehr-2 rifle. Judging by its name and design, reminiscent of the Steyr AUG-77, it is the brainchild of Austrian or German gunsmiths. A gloomy Teutonic genius, damn... Bullpup layout - the magazine is behind the handle with the trigger. Instead of the usual small protective brace, there is a huge piece of junk that protects the entire hand, just like on the AUG. There's another small, straight grip at the front, and the buttstock is more simply shaped. The carrying handle with the mounted low-magnification optical sight is missing, which isn't surprising, as aiming in the usual way isn't possible in EVA. The barrel is not thin, as in the original, but is protected by a massive cylindrical casing. The magazine is a classic sector-type, horn-type, designed for thirty 155 mm caliber shells. The automatic system is electrically powered, and the fire mode is semi-automatic... Well, nothing new there...
"So, are you getting to know the new toys?" Shigeru asked as he approached me.
"Uh-huh," I mumbled indistinctly, without looking up from my reading.
...Oh, here's something new! The AK-1301 rifle, 130mm caliber, also electrohydraulic. An interesting little thing, its design resembles a Thompson - a buttstock, two beveled handles, and a large disk in the middle. The magazine is a drum type, holds fifty rounds, features active water cooling of the barrel, and an improved hydraulic recoil compensation system... Well, well, well, what is this for? Wow! Rate of fire up to eighty rounds per minute! Is this really a real assault rifle? And what about the fundamental impossibility of creating automatic systems of this caliber-the prohibitive demands on the mechanism's components and the monstrous overheating of the barrel? So, there is some way around this?
Stop. We had such a system, too-a twin-mounted naval installation on the cruiser Peter the Great and on one type of Russian destroyer. Two 130mm caliber barrels, rate of fire up to 50 rounds per minute, water-cooled barrels... Wait a minute, isn't this the brainchild of my homeland? The perforated barrel shroud/compensator seems familiar... What if we removed the grips and redesigned the buttstock like a PPSh (note: the Shpagin submachine gun, one of the most widespread and famous weapons of World War II)? Hmm, but it turns out to be a PPSh, basically... Heh, someone must have been kidding...
"Aoba, what is this new weapon?"
"Which one? Oh, that... AK was brought from Russia as an alternative to the Gross Gewehr. The German machine gun is just too capricious-the automatics sometimes falter, the hydraulics weren't designed for the loads it encountered, and its rate of fire is still a bit low. And this machine, on the other hand, seems like a pretty good one..."
"Aha, I see..." I said and returned to studying the documentation.
...The long-range VON-13 rifle, which one is tempted to call a sniper rifle. There is nothing remarkable about the exterior - there are simply a ton of rifles like this one with a three-line design in the world. Although, perhaps, it looks quite modern, something like an AWP - a buttstock combined with a handle, a bipod located approximately in the middle of the stock, a slightly protruding magazine. At the top, approximately in the middle of the rifle, there is a massive ball with various additional guidance devices. It looks like the on-board systems of modern combat helicopters...
So, the caliber is 406 mm, ten shells, manual reloading... Looking at the barrel, one gets the impression that this rifle has an integrated suppressor, like the VSS rifle, but this impression is deceptive. No matter how you twist it, it is fundamentally impossible to make a quiet sixteen-inch naval caliber gun. And in general it"s not necessary - stealth and silence are not required from our Eva"s anyway...
Damn, but somehow this is all going to be a bit complicated for me - I won't be able to take down Object A with it anyway, so why bother trying so hard? Just for show? Like, we've made all kinds of weapons, even long-range ones, but whether to use them or not is not up to us to decide...
No, this is definitely not for me - we'll give the sniper rifle to Ayanami...
So, what else? Aha, now it's the turn of the heavy artillery...
The Smerch-R portable rocket launcher appears to be a modified Russian multiple rocket launcher, removed from a vehicle and adapted for use by Evangelion. A massive contraption - a dozen guide tubes in a bag, wide flares at the end, a pair of handles for holding. The caliber is 300 millimeters, the warhead weight is 243 kilograms, the warhead is a cumulative-high-explosive... Hmm, but the projectile, it seems, hasn't been changed, so the launch here is not carried out like a grenade launcher, when the main engine starts working at a safe distance from the shooter. Even if the jet exhaust wouldn't hurt me, it's a good thing I can shoot from it while sitting in EVA... No, this toy is not for me either - I'm only allowed a cold steel weapon and a pistol, and in extreme cases, a rifle, but certainly not this stupid machine...
Warhammer Rocket Launcher. Another rocket launcher, but a much more serious one. Single-shot, tubular - similar to a greatly enlarged thing like the "Shmel" (note: a Russian hand-held grenade launcher with a thermobaric warhead) or the "AT-4" (note: a Swedish anti-tank grenade launcher, in service with many armies around the world), but with a handle and a shoulder rest. It looks like it's disposable, and uses some kind of special solid-fuel rocket as a projectile, most likely a shortened ballistic missile with a new guidance system. Yeah, right... The guidance system is active radar, with a developed artificial intelligence system and memory-stored evasive and maneuvering techniques. The warhead is a single-block unit, weighing four tons, equipped with a special penetrating charge-penetrator. I wonder what kind of intercontinental ballistic missile this "War Hammer" was based on? It's too big for an operational-tactical missile, and who was it that was playing around with solid-fuel missiles? It was the Americans, wasn't it? They probably just cut off an extra stage from a Peacekeeper or Minuteman (note: types of American intercontinental ballistic missiles), stuck it into a standard launch container, attached a couple of handles, and the rocket launcher for EVE is ready! It's as simple as pie - why invent something radically new if you can get rid of the old without any problems?
I slammed the folder shut.
"So, will they let me shoot from all this magnificence today?"