Wettic Confederate Marines

[Five Civilized Nations]

Not really. It costs a lot of money to go through the enrichment process to produce uranium and synthesis to produce plutonium.

[The Mindset]

I dunno, nukes are expensive, but pretty damn simple.

Nukes are only expensive because of the materials required for fission.

[Kanuckistan]

No sights, and only intended for close and medium ranges? Sounds like you'd want an SMG, not a rifle.

As for the ZPE, well, might I sugest importing SAPL thermocouple-impegrenated barrels for the weapon from Kanuckistan, combined with a long-shelf-life battery(we can provide those too)?

The only advantage a ZPE might have is the fact you don't need to recharge it - with the above mentioned set up, heat from the combusting propellent would be used to recharge the battery, which powers the ignighter. Same end, but absurdly cheaper.

[Wetland]

(Ahem, Zero-point energy is a reality and as far as I know, some professor has already managed to tap into very small amounts of it. You see nobody knows exactly how much power you could draw, some say a lot while others say that the return is hardly worth the effort. But back to NS.)

ZPE cores have already been around for quite a while in my nation. As stated the suit and weapon took decades to develop and the suit does run on batteries. But they are internally recharged by a ZPE core, because mine don't produce increadable amounts of power.

Only large ones can do that and those are fitted on starships. My cores are also made out of very few moving parts making wear and tear less of an issue, although marines do carry a spare ZPE core for the rifle.

As for not being a rifle, well the previous gun used by marines was the AK-47 and compared to that this rifle is more accurate.

[Kanuckistan]

So they do run down? Why use it, then?

What I offered would cost ~$100 bucks, including solid-state voltsink batteries, and only have to be replaced when the barrel eventually wore out from normal use(well, unless you don't mind your rifle eventually turning into a smoothbore).

[Wetland]

I like to produce components for weapons in my own nation, and although theoretically the cores should last 20 years, on the battlefield things tend to brake down a lot faster so they have a replacement just in case.

Also usefull in the case of an EMP attack.

[Kanuckistan]

I like to produce components for weapons in my own nation, and although theoretically the cores should last 20 years, on the battlefield things tend to brake down a lot faster so they have a replacement just in case.

Also usefull in the case of an EMP attack.

I supose.

As far as EMP goes, we basicly just sheath vulnerable things in a really thin layer of superconductor; works wonders

[Wormia]

Yep, but when you make such a small core you don't get any meaningfull amounts of energy so there is barely enough power to ignite the propellant.

The one in the suit is larger and already provides many times more power then rifle core but it is still not enough for the power hungry suit.

Um, what Mindset and CF are saying is basically on the right track, except that Zero Point Energy is found where matter is not. As long as your ass is made of matter, you will find none there.

IF I may be so bold, however, ZPE isn't what you carry in a standalone gun that thousands of deployed troopers are carrying at once. A small amount of it is all that it takes to unleash hell. And no, I don't mean A nuke sized explosion. Even a tiny amount, 1 cc, would vaporize the Earth's oceans.

ZPE is an energy that is uniformly distributed throughout the universe, at least as far as concurrent physics can discern. By that, I mean that 2 "cc's" of it here is the same aas 2 "cc's" of it at Apha Centuari. There are no spots that are more dense, and none that are less dense. It is observable by through multiple means, most commonly, the Casmir Effect (two metal plates really close to one another snap together).

Furthermore, it is hypothesized that some "negating" force is keeping ZPE from doing with us what it pleases. Physicists have already calculated that we all should be dead, in fact, should never have been born because ZPE was supposed to have torn apart all material and energy bonds. Some "negating" force is the current hypothesis as to why I am, irrecovably, still typing.

I know it's a little odd "measuring" energy in terms of cubic centimeters, but it comes from several very credible sources, namely NASA, Popular Science (who stated it was a coffee cup full that could boil away the oceans, perhaps they were looking at an Espresso cup or some poetic license) and wwwl.physicsweb.org.

Knock yerself out. Or vaporize the oceans.

[Kanuckistan]

Even a tiny amount, 1 cc, would vaporize the Earth's oceans.

That is the theoretical maximum amount of energy that can be yeilded from that volume; you're totally disregaurding hardware efficency.

[Wetland]

That is the theoretical maximum amount of energy that can be yeilded from that volume; you're totally disregaurding hardware efficency.

Exactly, I don't.