Connie would be glad to ramble at length about her projects. Usually, the only ones willing to listen to her were Papyrus and Futaba, and Papyrus was busy with his old friend while Futaba was... well... Shaking off those depressing thoughts, Connie first gestures to her gauntlet. "The glowing circle at the center of my palm here is actually a small forcefield designed to protect some very, very delicate machinery inside, designed to perform one of four functions. I used to have to snap my fingers to choose the laser's mode, but my helmet has rudimentary thoughtscan technology to detect simple triggers and activate one of my gadgets.
"Anyways, the way that this gauntlet either fires a gout of highly focused light--your classic "laser"--or rapidly cools the air from the point of origin to the target in a narrow column, then launches the condensed ice crystals with extreme force; or generates an overwhelmingly negative charge that produces a small burst of lightning; or gathers moisture from the air, compresses it, and launches a lance of highly pressurized water. With the last function, as it's hard to aim when you're firing a projectile that fast and that small, the gauntlet creates a simple hologram of rushing water. If I need to be stealthy, I can deactivate this projection."
Connie lowers her hand, and a large cannon rises from the back of her armor and rests on her shoulder, swiveling back and forth. "This weapon works on the same principles as the gauntlet, but it exchanges power for the ability to fire sustained blasts. I can target multiple enemies in one go with the beam. My gunblade design is likewise a minaturized verison of the gauntlet weapon, as each of the bullets pass through the chamber they pick up a small magitek wiremesh that wraps around the projectile. One mesh superheats and melts, turning the bullet into molten metal; one mesh cools the air around the bullet, coating it in sharp ice; one mesh has an overwhelmingly negative charge to the bullet's positive one, electrifying it; and the last uses less powerful iterations of the water lance to soften the target before the bullet impacts.
"Unfortunately, as the gunblade has to create these meshes in the middle of battle, it also needs specialized materials to manufacture them," Connie pops open a small container on her hip, revealing a variety of metal cylinders, each shining a shade of either red, blue, cyan, or yellow, "and the process to change out the raw materials used in the process is incredibly fiddly, so I can't hotswap modes in battle.
"Then there's the force nodes," Connie points towards the small circles of light contained within ornate gold rings all across her armor. "Like with the gauntlet, the light is really protecting some of the smallest, most delicate machinery I could get my hands on. Placed across my armor in this way, the force nodes can rapidly accelerate my body's regeneration process, but I can only use it in short bursts or risk developing cancer from rampant cell growth.
"The force nodes also serve a secondary function: to absorb a portion of the energy delivered by elemental magic, and funnel some of that energy to the Moonlight Module--that magical sword I showed you earlier--and some to my nervous system, which increases my reaction time and allows me to immediately strike back with the Moonlight Module while still having some space to activate the force nodes to recover or to follow up with another attack.
"Finally, there's the Moonlight Module. I wish I had an ultrascientific explanation for this one, but it's the device I've 'cheated' on the most. It projects a plane of magical force similar to size, shape, and cutting power to a sword, or overlays an additional layer onto my gunblade if I want to go for two-handed strikes rather than a a faster, but less powerful, dual-weapon flurry. Either way, the damage amounts to pretty much the same, due to how fast I can cut with the Moonlight Module in my other hand.
Sorry for the wall of text
"Anyways, the way that this gauntlet either fires a gout of highly focused light--your classic "laser"--or rapidly cools the air from the point of origin to the target in a narrow column, then launches the condensed ice crystals with extreme force; or generates an overwhelmingly negative charge that produces a small burst of lightning; or gathers moisture from the air, compresses it, and launches a lance of highly pressurized water. With the last function, as it's hard to aim when you're firing a projectile that fast and that small, the gauntlet creates a simple hologram of rushing water. If I need to be stealthy, I can deactivate this projection."
Connie lowers her hand, and a large cannon rises from the back of her armor and rests on her shoulder, swiveling back and forth. "This weapon works on the same principles as the gauntlet, but it exchanges power for the ability to fire sustained blasts. I can target multiple enemies in one go with the beam. My gunblade design is likewise a minaturized verison of the gauntlet weapon, as each of the bullets pass through the chamber they pick up a small magitek wiremesh that wraps around the projectile. One mesh superheats and melts, turning the bullet into molten metal; one mesh cools the air around the bullet, coating it in sharp ice; one mesh has an overwhelmingly negative charge to the bullet's positive one, electrifying it; and the last uses less powerful iterations of the water lance to soften the target before the bullet impacts.
"Unfortunately, as the gunblade has to create these meshes in the middle of battle, it also needs specialized materials to manufacture them," Connie pops open a small container on her hip, revealing a variety of metal cylinders, each shining a shade of either red, blue, cyan, or yellow, "and the process to change out the raw materials used in the process is incredibly fiddly, so I can't hotswap modes in battle.
"Then there's the force nodes," Connie points towards the small circles of light contained within ornate gold rings all across her armor. "Like with the gauntlet, the light is really protecting some of the smallest, most delicate machinery I could get my hands on. Placed across my armor in this way, the force nodes can rapidly accelerate my body's regeneration process, but I can only use it in short bursts or risk developing cancer from rampant cell growth.
"The force nodes also serve a secondary function: to absorb a portion of the energy delivered by elemental magic, and funnel some of that energy to the Moonlight Module--that magical sword I showed you earlier--and some to my nervous system, which increases my reaction time and allows me to immediately strike back with the Moonlight Module while still having some space to activate the force nodes to recover or to follow up with another attack.
"Finally, there's the Moonlight Module. I wish I had an ultrascientific explanation for this one, but it's the device I've 'cheated' on the most. It projects a plane of magical force similar to size, shape, and cutting power to a sword, or overlays an additional layer onto my gunblade if I want to go for two-handed strikes rather than a a faster, but less powerful, dual-weapon flurry. Either way, the damage amounts to pretty much the same, due to how fast I can cut with the Moonlight Module in my other hand.
"Any questions?"