"You again!" Justin Han yelled at me when he saw me at the exhibition. The exhibition was held once every few months for us to showcase our products to the military, which was why I hadn't seen him for a few months now. Even so, I couldn't help but be annoyed when I saw his face. The military had yet to find any evidence against him, and so he stood before me.
Unlike the second generation rich kids, Justin Han wasn't somebody the military could easily touch. Like me, he was an asset – not as big as an asset as I was, but still a huge one nonetheless. His company was currently the only producer of exosuits, and they also manufactured a lot of the weapons and ammunition that the military used, such as the laser carbines and power cells.
But then, I planned to show my new miniaturized plasma gun today. Not that I held much hope for that – there were already plasma guns in existence, and they were usually considered heavy weapons held by two men in a ten-men squad. I could purport that my new plasma gun was a more efficient and lightweight version, and it was a lot cheaper to mass produce because I was able to easily convert a plasma torch into a plasma gun. That was my main selling point because I knew that the military was more interested in mass producing bulky shipments of weapons than quality. Not unless there was such a huge difference in quality that it was worth the additional – but often considerable expense. Hence, as long as the military was looking for something cheaper and more easily manufactured, there was hope for my plasma gun to make it to the market.
"You don't even have your damned ship built yet! What are you doing here?" Justin Han sneered. Then he snickered. "Ah, I see. You're just here to steal ideas from me, aren't you? Since you couldn't bring anything to the demonstration, you decided to just watch and rip us off?"
When I didn't say anything, he burst out laughing.
"Don't think I don't know!" he jabbed a finger at me. "I know what you've been doing! You were building a new weapon, weren't you? My intelligence network is pretty competent. They know you're trying to sell a new plasma gun…but it is so much weaker! You're just trying to sell cheap rubbish to the army now! I can't believe you've sunk this low!"
Ah…so Justin had written off my sleeker and more lightweight design as not very different from the current models. Not to mention, it was a lot cheaper, easier to build and maintain, and simpler to replace. But hey, we couldn't have anyone pouring cold water on his parade, could we?
I shook my head and said nothing. Inwardly, I couldn't help but chuckle. His downplaying of the design of my plasma gun was all right – after all, I knew the disadvantages. I had fashioned my plasma gun from a plasma torch instead of using the sophisticated and often astronomically expensive systems that modern plasma guns used. In exchange, the range of my version was inferior and the firepower was drastically reduced.
Not that it mattered, if you asked me. My variant of the plasma gun could still incinerate a single heavily armored soldier – even an exosuit wouldn't be able to withstand a blob of superheated matter traveling at high speed. Probably the only thing that would stop my plasma gun was my own energy shield.
The range was still considerable – about 250 meters as opposed to a normal plasma gun's effective range of 500 meters. But most firefights didn't take place at ranges beyond 200 meters – this was doubly so in areas with a lot of cover, such as forests or urban environments. Plasma rifles were not subtle weapons, they possessed great firepower capable of melting molten holes in reinforced titanium walls a meter thick (even my variant). They were never meant to be sniper weapons.
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I simply smiled and stayed silent. Seeing that he was unable to rile me up, Justin sulked and turned away. The best way to deal with these idiots was to show them that they didn't get to you. Of course sometimes they got under my skin and I couldn't help but be pissed off by their condescending attitudes and arrogance, as well as insults – Dwarkin, for example, was one of the worst people I ever had the misfortune to come across. The racist prick insisted that looking down on other races was part of the great Chinese culture and accused anyone who protested against insulting other races as extremist social justice warriors or hypocritical liberals.
And then he called me a girl even though I was quite clearly a guy, insinuating that I was lying about a gender and taunting me.
Compared to Dwarkin, Justin was mild (if you took away the fact that he was trying to assassinate me). Not only that, I was more amused than offended because Justin Han and his vaunted intelligence agency (operating under Han Industries) had fallen for my trick.
The plasma gun was a diversion, a cover for something much bigger. The fools had focused too much on my plasma gun that they failed to see my real project. Not that it mattered. They would be seeing my new product soon enough.
The demonstrations appeared to fly by without me understanding anything. Before I was aware of it, it was my turn and I came up the stage to showcase my plasma gun to the military bigwigs and government officials from the ministry of defense. They pored over it, and a few of them actually looked impressed.
"It's a lot lighter and easier to carry around," one of the generals said, lifting my plasma gun and spinning it in his hands. "Seems simpler to handle as well."
"It's not as powerful and long-ranged," another general conceded. "But it's about three times cheaper to produce than the current Sun Fury model."
"They both have their place," I said. "This model costs as much as a laser carbine, but is more powerful, though not as long ranged and a lot louder and more unsubtle. Also runs the risk of overheating if you fire too much. However, the best weapon in the world is pointless if you don't have enough of them to equip your army with…which is why I present this as an alternative."
The generals exchanged glances and nodded, seeing my point.
"We'll discuss this in greater detail later." General Gary Goh then gestured for everyone to return to his seats. After they did, he gestured at me. "Now, Mr. Shen, you can display your other product for demonstration."
"What other product?" Justin Han blurted out, jolting up from his seat. Everyone continued to ignore him.
Smiling, I turned on my heel and marched toward the back of the stage. A truck rolled out and the cargo trailer opened, the door slamming down as a ramp. I climbed inside and clambered inside the Hunter. With a flick of the switch, I had the armored glass canopy lower and seal me inside the war walker. Pushing a lever, I controlled the Hunter and had him stride out swiftly.
"That's…!"
"A new war walker!"
"It's smaller than the Titan…a scout variant? It's so fast!"
As I suspected, the generals were amazed by my new product. I had the Hunter traverse the stage swiftly, the barren surface being rapidly replaced by a forest environment. The metal feet clanking on the ground, the Hunter gracefully spun around, deftly avoiding the trees and artificial barriers that rose from the ground. I even made it a point to have him jump up and over a wall, demonstrating his remarkable mobility.
Moving a lever, I then had the Hunter draw the field combat knife. Its power field flared to life and I easily cleaved through a tree. Deactivating and sheathing the blade, I then drew the Avenger laser Gatling cannon and fired off a series of shots that perforated a thick metallic wall, leaving neat molten craters in its wake.
Switching on the speaker, I elaborated on the Hunter's abilities.
"You can say the Hunter is a scout variant, but he's more of an amplified mobility platform, designed to traverse any sort of terrain. He can operate in a variety of dense environments, such as forests, urban settings, and even inside factories and warehouses, without any difficulty. His main strength is his speed and agility. Not only that…"
Micro missiles from a hidden exosuit snaked out toward my Hunter. They detonated harmlessly against the faint blue energy shield that glimmered around the sleek war walker. I spun the machine around and took the exosuit out with a few well-aimed shots, the targeting systems projected in the holographic head's up display overlaying the armor glass canopy.
"He is equipped with an energy shield," I explained as more detonations caused it to flicker. "I won't lie to you – the energy shield installed on the Hunter is about fifty percent weaker than the Titan's. But…"
I stepped on the pedal and the Hunter accelerated forward in a burst of speed, scattering several exosuits that were located in front. They fired relentlessly from several directions, but my Hunter dodged grenades, micro missiles and lasers with astonishing grace. Several of the shots harmlessly pinged against the shimmering energy shield, but by and large I used the Hunter's agility to weave through the incoming projectiles. A few them regrouped and concentrated fire on a specific section of the energy shield, trying their best to overload it and bring it down. However, the incredible speed of my Hunter meant that I never stood still in one place long enough for them to hit that exact spot.
With a grin, I pivoted my Hunter about, and then surged right into their position. Even though they dispersed in multiple directions, I had my Hunter draw his field combat knife and slice through one of them. The stroke was so fast that the A.I. controlled exosuit couldn't escape in time. It fell into two halves, sparks flying from severed wires and ruined conduits.
Twirling the huge combat knife about, I stabbed a second exosuit that was streaking away in the opposite direction before it could get too far. The A.I. controlled armor slumped down, light dying from its eyes. With a flick, I had my Hunter toss the mechanical carcass off his blade and then whirled about to slice apart a third exosuit who had thought that it had somehow gotten to my blind spot. Its location had been detected by sensor arrays and the onboard A.I., which called my attention to it by displaying a holographic screen that provided a rear view.
I then shifted the Hunter and threw the combat knife, which pierced through a retreating exosuit, pinning it to the wall. Drawing the laser carbine, I fired and shot down the last exosuit while making use of the Hunter's speed to evade explosions resulting from its micro missiles.
"As you can see," I proclaimed proudly to the clapping generals at the front row. "having only fifty percent of the usual endurance of the original energy shield doesn't matter if you can dodge over fifty percent more shots than the slow moving Titan…while taking cover and easily avoiding obstacles in the densest environments that have continued to befuddle armored and mechanized units for ages."
At this, I gave a stunned Justin a look.
"While that problem had somewhat been solved by exosuits produced by Han Industries, my Hunter can still fight in the same environments while providing several more times firepower and durability."
Justin Han gritted his teeth, his face flushed red, but he knew better than to curse at me. I smiled.
"Ladies and gentlemen…I present to you the new way to fight a war."