The traditional structure for the barrel of a railgun involved the use of two conductive rails. These two parallel metal rails would create a strong electromagnetic field that then expelled the bolt from the barrel. The longer the barrel, the longer you could make the rails and the higher the velocity your bolt could reach.

  There were some variations on this model, but as a whole, they all tended to stick to the same basic design.

  However, it was something that didn’t work as well for the railpistol, which naturally couldn’t have a long barrel. It was a problem that Trace and Deckard had been on for a while and their two new pieces of equipment were the answer to the question.

  They were going to create two different models.

  The first was a multi-rail version that would be precisely made using the DMSL and then bored with the CNC Machine. Normally constructing such a barrel would pose several difficulties in its creation as it required precise electrical balancing and insulation to prevent arc and overheating. The DMSL would be using at least three powders during its sintering process and two of them would be alloys.

  The second version was similar in many ways, though it would have slightly fewer rails and would incorporate a turned barrel. In effect, the entire barrel would gain a twist or helical spiral to it. Depending on how extreme the winding was, it could act similar to a bullet from a gun, or it could be turned into more of a coilgun than a railgun.

  It was an option neither had thought much of previously, simply because they hadn’t come across any coilguns in the stores. Of course, the same could be said for the railguns. Still, those were at least more well known despite typically only being seen in the hands of corpo hit squads and top edgers.

  Trace was sort of an oddity in having one, despite only being a tier-one edger.

  After working with Deckard on the design of both barrels for the railpistol, or possibly coilpistol, he set about putting the rest of it together. While he was doing that, Deckard was operating the DMSL to construct the first barrel.

  After all his practice working on the railgun and fixing it repeatedly, he was able to finish the construction of the pistol’s insides after only a few hours.

  There was room for improvement, but he managed to make everything fit. After the barrel was attached and tested, then it would be time to make upgrades as needed.

  With his work on the railpistol done for the moment, Trace took a short break to eat and drink. After that, it was time to move on to the android’s head, which is what he ended up working on for the rest of the day. He took a short break to move a completed barrel over to the CNC machine, otherwise he was completely absorbed in the task.

  The next day, both barrels were finished, but he ignored them to finish up the last few details on the head. He wanted to get the android up and running for Deckard. It was also the day he could do another healing session on his spine.

  There were just so many things going on, and he was constantly busy with all these projects he had been ignoring for so long. It was slightly stressful, but at the same time, he was loving it.

  And he couldn’t wait until he started working on the new stealth suit. He had so many ideas on how to improve the original design and incorporate some of the ideas they had gotten from G1gl3- err David.

  ***

  Trace bolted the last body panel back onto the personnel carrier and groaned as he stretched his back.

  Finally, he was done with this stupid vehicle. Taking it apart and checking for locator units had been such a pain. The two SUVs from Gene Bellua had been relatively easy, as they only had two such units installed. Possibly because the SUVs were being used at a secret facility, so if they were captured, they didn’t want them to be traced back to the corporation. Or perhaps that was backward?

  This personnel carrier, on the other hand had twelve locator units! His thinking was that since it was used in the city, Vinna-Kwoi had allocated more resources to it. Then again, maybe it was just the differences between the two corporations. Either way, finding all the units had been a pain, and he was glad it was over now.

  It had been nearly two months since his surgery, and his back was in a much better condition than before. It still wasn’t fully healed, but it was more than halfway there. Unfortunately, after using all six sessions the nanites were capable of, he was left healing the old-fashioned way, with maybe a tiny-bit of help from the regular nanites.

  It left his back feeling constantly stiff, but the back brace helped keep any major problems under control. The nerve block that Ko had been constantly adjusting did the rest, as it managed the pain he would have otherwise been feeling.

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  For the moment, he was still wearing the first stealth suit he had made, though he had also made a couple of standalone back and hip braces. At the moment, Colorado, and subsequently New Denver, were in the middle of winter. The suit was warm and no matter how many heaters he installed, it seemed as though the bare concrete siphoned it away only moments later.

  He had worked with Deckard to create a few metal frames all-around the edges of the room. The idea was that they would later be used to hold insulation material… as soon as they could find some. He had also wanted to seal the acid-water-damaged concrete, only the price for the amount of materials needed had proven extreme.

  Until they managed to gather some more money, he had to wear the stealth suit whenever he went down to the basement. The apartment was comfortable, while the warehouse section was also freezing, as it only had metal plates for walls.

  Thankfully, the suit covered his hands and there was also the helmet portion to keep his head warm. It made continuing to work on his projects bearable, if somewhat awkward at times.

  Deckard’s android body leaped down from one of the basement ceiling rafters. The boots he was wearing flared to life ten feet from the floor, the thrusters whirring into action as they attempted to slow his descent. It was too little too late- again.

  The man fell into a roll as the thrusters abruptly cutoff. Deckard laughed joyfully. He had been enjoying the ability to move around, even if it was just inside the confines of the warehouse still. After fixing the head, Trace had connected it to the body for Deckard and together they had spent several days running down one problem after another. He might have visually fixed it, but fixing it to specification was another thing entirely.

  After Deckard was able to freely move the android body around, he left the rest of the tweaks to Deckard while he got back to work on his own projects. Now, nearly a month and a half later, Deckard had finished fixing the body itself. He had even finished all the countless tweaks to the head that would carry his braincase.

  Braincases weren’t large objects. They were sized to hold a brain, a NetConnect, and the fluid needed to keep the brain alive. In that regard, Deckard’s braincase was actually smaller than normal, as the NetConnect he was using was in a different place than normal.

  Still, a person’s skull was generally fitted for their brain. As a result, no matter how he modified or tweaked it, the head ended up looking just a little too big for the body it was attached to.

  They were attempting to create a pair of thrusters for his new stealth suit that somewhat mimicked the ones he had seen on Jaco’s armor months earlier. Judging by how quickly they had engaged, that model had used some form of chemical propellent. Which had its benefits, but also several negatives.

  Chemical propellants were extremely quick to activate and produced a lot of immediate force. On the other hand, they typically created a lot of heat, and you had to carry the fuel for it. There were other positives and negatives, but those were the most prevalent to his situation.

  The model they were currently testing was known as an ‘Electric Ducted Fan’ (EDF) set up and was a well-known technology, as it was what the eVTOLs used. The fans did work, but they also took too long to spin up and create the needed thrust to save Trace if he was falling.

  They were perfectly useable if he simply wanted to fly at relatively low speeds, but no matter which electric motor they used, it still took a little too long. The EDF was also rather noisy, which didn’t really fit with the stealth suit vibe, even if they were merely attachments and not a permanent part of the suit.

  Deckard pulled the boots off, still chuckling to himself, and gave each a quick once over. “I think we have to call these a failure. They take too long to activate and no matter how tight we make the tolerances, the fan blades will need constant maintenance otherwise, they’ll shake loose.”

  Trace nodded in agreement; he could easily see that sort of situation coming to pass. Deckard’s little roll, just now that he had done while they were still in motion, would have put an extreme amount of pressure on the bearings.

  “Alright, put them with the others. I guess we are moving onto the schematics from your father’s corporation.” Trace glanced over at the next one in line. “I actually have high hopes for this model. VASIMR Thrusters are old technology, but his lab went and shrunk it and then made the entire thing self-contained. It takes the hydrogen fuel it needs from the air and converts it into a holding tank. It’s a nice design.”

  Honestly, nearly all of the design had been reworked and tweaked in some form by him, and all the controller programming had been done by Deckard. However, the basic schematic had been created by David’s lab. It was one of the designs that Trace had taken before his escape.

  There was a reason this particular model was one of the last ones they were testing though. It was large. The boots with the EDF thrusters had been exactly that, boots.

  This VASIMR Thruster required a pair of knee-high boots. They were chunky, with dual chambers running down its back. One held the hydrogen, while the other was a dual-stage magnetized chamber with a helicon RF antenna. The antenna ionized the hydrogen into plasma, while the second chamber superheated it using magnetic resonance.

  All of that took up space, and it was still only enough to give him roughly thirty-seconds of flight time. In a cold state, it took even longer than the EDF to activate. If he left it warmed up though, then it should be able to activate instantly.

  All of that was theoretical. It still needed to be tested.

  Deckard grabbed the pair of large knee-high boots, while Trace went back to working on his new stealth suit. During the last couple of months, the world had gotten complicated for their group, and he was going to need all the help it could give him.

  He wasn’t the only one who had been working tirelessly, after all. Ko had moved forward with her new clinic, and then the testing of the mental component of the G.H.O.S.T. System on a few of her patients. Unfortunately, despite her warnings, a couple of them had still opened their fat mouths, and word had gotten around. Notably, the corporations had begun paying attention to her clinic, and Stick-Point had assigned a revolving set of wraiths to her clinic as guards.

  Monroe, with Sabrina’s help, had been working on his own set of heavy armor, a precursor to what would become his Mobile Fortress armor.

  Then there was Sevorah, Anna, Su-Min, and Hannah, as well. Everyone had been working hard.

  Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to rate the story and to my latest Patrons! I have other stories up on my Patreon, including my current WIPs. Which are now Created G.H.O.S.T. System(My Cyberpunk story), WetWorks2, plus The Restaurateur and His Daughter and DungeonFall. :)

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