Maratix Labs Technology

[Cirrial]

This is a thread for the explanations and further workings of any Maratix technology 501 is likely to mention, use, or maybe make a copy of given the right resources.

Or if the aformentioned happens and if you get given to you a piece of Maratix technology, refer to this thread what it can and cannot do.

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Technology Item #1: The Vector Clamp

Overview and Background

The Maratix vector clamp is a most fascinating item of technology. Simply put, it is essentially a warp gate/star gate/portal/whatever your preferred term is. It forms a triangular portal through adjacent universes, and produces, as artefacts to the tunnelling process, wisps of blue energy from a universe identified to Maratix as "Bluespace", ID number 0.

Vector clamps are surprisingly reliable, given the potential for catastrophic malfunction, but there have been one or two instances where circumstances on either side of the portal formed have caused damage to the fabric of reality, either causing new portals to form uncontrollably, or just shutting a portal down.

Sometimes damage to a vector clamp portal is much more subtle, only manifesting any symptoms months, years, or millenia later.

Appearance

When closed, it looks like three semispherical domes attached to a surface, such as a wall, each with a thick spoke, covered in spikes and vents, towards the middle. The spokes meet and are locked into the closed position with a hexagonal lock split into three sections.

When open, the vector clamp forms an equilateral triangle with the spokes, with the hexagonal lock components sliding across the spokes and inside the anchoring semispheres. The vents keep the vector clamp from melting or exploding, and the fine spikes on the inside of the spokes generate a thin membrane between the space this vector clamp occupies, and the space occupied by another vector clamp elsewhere. Looking at the vector clamp in this state would let you see as if looking through a blue-edged window to your intended destination.

Clamps come in a variety of sizes, from handheld ones to be placed on a table to retrieve stuff from a suitable vector clamp compatible desk at home, to the moon-sized vector clamps used for transporting armadas in a single jump. The majority of vector clamps are the right size to let a six foot humanoid figure through with plenty of room to spare.

Requirements

A vector clamp is largely self-sufficient, drawing the energy it needs to power itself through the same process used to open the portal to another vector clamp, which in turn also draws energy it needs through the exact same process.

All Maratix vector clamps are voice activated and have keywords assigned to them to portal to them from other vector clamps. If you ask, a vector clamp can tell you its keyword if it is public access.

Usage and Applications

A vector clamp is a handy two-way instantaneous means of travel, requiring a few minutes for the two clamps to warm up, lock onto each other and tear space open neatly. From there on, all the user has to do is step through the triangular space. This may not be so simple for users of bulky or unusual frame, but vector clamps can be set up to make portals larger than the clamps themselves. This is, however, highly risky.

A vector clamp can only link to another vector clamp, and the other vector clamp must be fully operational. Damaged vector clamps automatically shut down to prevent damage to the fabric of space, and the spillover damage that can cause to nearby bystanders of many universes.

A vector clamp can only be set up against a surface such as a wall. If nothing is behind the vector clamp or it is set up precariously, then there is a danger of the vector clamp portal being knocked out of alignment, potentially sending the user to Bluespace, where they will likely suffer death by vapourisation within seconds.

Risks

As mentioned, the vector clamp has a low probability of failing, but can cause damage to several universes at once if it does fail. If precautions are taken not to overuse a vector clamp or move it while the portal is open, then the risks are very low.

Having said that, if a vector clamp fails, either unstable portals can form and split and split until the surroundings explode with Bluespace energy, or Bluespace energy can start pouring out of the broken portal. Either way, things will be vapourised, and it will not be a pretty sight.

There is also the very, very, very low probability of a vector clamp sponataneously opening an unstable portal and sucking someone nearby into a strange new world, but so far, that's never happened. Ever.

[Cirrial]

Technology Item #2: The Ion Pistol

Overview and Background

The ion pistol is a triumph in Maratix weaponry. Not because of its power, not because of its accuracy, but because of how overall cheap it is. The ion pistol is renowned and revered for its lifespan, both in terms of ammunition and overall weapon durability, and is the firearm of choice of most of Maratix's security staff.

It fires a beam of electrical energy excited to the extent that it causes whatever gas it passes through to shine light. Due to the nature of beams of electrical energy, it forks due to uneven charges in the atmosphere, but not to an extent that it deviates far from where it was aimed.

Of course, usage of the ion pistol underwater, around uninsulated metal apparatus and during stormy weather is highly inadvisable and not encouraged by Maratix's legal department.

Appearance

True to Maratix aesthetics, the ion pistol is a functional, conventional T shape, with the barrel facing forwards, the coils facing backwards, and the handle perpendicular to both.
The entire metal device is coated in black, shiny plastic resins, with brightly glowing blue ridges and ribs on the barrel, a Maratix decal on the opposing sides of the handle, and blue glowing coils wrapped around the generators. The coils hum, and look as if they contain some fast-moving liquid gushing through them.

As well as this, the ion pistol's barrel is also covered in fine black spines, for no other reason than because it can be. It also makes it particularly uncomfortable if you grab it by the barrel, in addition to potentially burning you if you pick it up by the coils. The handle, however, is ergonomicly designed - for 501's four-digited hand, anyway.

Requirements

The ion pistol draws the power needed to fire beams of energy from the coils, which constantly generate a charge from a self-contained Maratix made fuel, comprised of several volatile acidic compounds, and a few trace (but important) catalytical compounds synthesized in labs.
Luckily, the fuel burns with such efficiency that the ion pistol can last for a good fortnight of sporadic use, or a few days constant use, before needing new fuel. Compared to the ammo requirements for most weapons, this is why ion pistols are now favoured over projectile-based weapons for Maratix security.

Being the ever-prepared robot keynain he is, 501 has vials of the trace elements on him and can, given the right equipment, synthesize the ion pistol fuel should he ever need to refuel it.

Usage and Applications

Quite simply, as all weapons, the ion pistol is most suited to applications where you would desire to inflict injury on someone. Like the majority of Maratix weapons, the ion pistol has variable strength, but this usually only means the difference between death by electrocution and becoming a pile of vapourised dust. The ion pistol doesn't even have a reliable stun feature - those who have been shot by ion pistols on low settings have variously walked away, apparently fine, or suffered fatal heart attacks, or ended in comas lasting from months to lifetimes.

To use the ion pistol, all someone has to do is hold it and pull the trigger. Such an elegant interface really couldn't be improved on.

Risks

To the user, there's the risk of accidentally burning oneself on the otherwise mostly insulated coils. There's the risk of the ion pistol overheating and exploding, as it's a pistol and not a machine gun. There's also the risk of dropping it and breaking it, or running out of fuel at an inconvinient time.

To the victim, anything and everything between a mild painful shock to a new found existance as motes of carbon depending on the strength and distance the ion pistol was fired at, and the victim's resistance to electricity.