1.1

[Via Dolorosa]

The hardest part about running any company, minus keeping it financial afloat, was making the tough decisions on which projects got the green light and which got scrapped. Mr. Dr'iol had a slew of hardcore and highly educated engineers at his disposal, something his boss had stressed repeatedly that was a necessity, to work on fleshing out creativity to reality. Many holodiscs laid on his desk that required his attention, but one had been already examined and approved by him.

"Mizz Wirlon," he said after pushing the small button on the communication device attached to his desk.

"Would you be so kind as to send in Mr. Herlow in?"

Mr. Herlow was the engineer that had spent weeks working on the schematics for a blaster dubbed with the name 1.1 for now. All projects until approved with the go ahead was assigned a designation number to prevent other engineers from stealing fancy names. The engineers were encouraged to be cut-throats but they were also encouraged thievery of any kind would not be tolerated.

The short, robust human male, Mr. Herlow, entered the office of the TDI's CEO. The man always seemed to have a nervous tick about him. Whether it was from a genetic disorder or the uneasiness of being in his office, Mr. Dr'iol didn't know; but regardless of the reason Mr. Herlow was a genius.

"Please. Take a seat and in your own words describe the nature behind your submission."

 

[Via Dolorosa]

Mr. Herlow nervously took a seat across from the CEO, folding his hands in his laps while attempting not to make eye contact with Munn. Mr. Dr'iol, not known for his patience, coughed once and made a swirling gesture with his right hand; a sign for the engineer to get on with it. Mr. Herlow smirked in response, yet continued to look down as he spoke.

"Well as you have read Mr. Dr'iol, the weapon is designed mainly for assault troops. I was going for a more balanced weapon with both a high rate of fire and a high ammunition count."

The old, lanky Munn began to stroke his chin while letting the words soak in. There were many different designs out there for assault blasters, and he wanted something that stood above the TDI's competitors. The schematics had shown this to him, but there were some explanation needed for some of the special features.

"I'm aware of the ROF and the high ammunition count, Mr. Herlow," he said with a heavy sigh.

"I'm more interested in knowing about the special features."

Mr. Herlow laughed nervously earning him a stern look from TDI's CEO.

"Which ones, sir?"

"All of them," he answered pinching the bridge of his nose.

 

[Via Dolorosa]

Again the engineer squirmed in his seat as if waiting the words of explaining the schematics would magically appear out of thin air. And again Mr. Dr'iol coughed and gestured with his hand. Having lost what little patience he had with the engineer, he moved to press the button on his desk when the engineer piped up.

"The scope!"

"What about the scope?"

"The scope itself has some interesting features. I had included a trajectory evaluator on the lens so troops can measure the distance from themselves and their enemy. In meters of course."

"Meters. Naturally. So I'm to understand this scope is intended to do what...."

"Protect them."

"Hm. Sounds feasible enough to include on the weapon. All battlefield soldiers seek an advantage over their opponents."

"Exactly! And that's not all. The scope also has tinted lens that fade in and out whenever bright lights such as the sun, er, suns to prevent the soldier from even being temporary blinded by the lights. Excellent, huh?"

"Very. Please continue."

It only took him to threaten to push the button to have security drag this engineer back to his workshop to turn him into a chatterbox. The two features on the lens would be cost efficient, while up staging their competitors.

"And one more nifty addition to the lens is the infrared option!"

"Infrared option?"

"You know! So they can..."

"Yes, yes, yes. I know what an infrared is."