Come and Take Them-eARC by Tom Kratman

laser and offset to the right.
    “That’s the low powered acquisition laser, Duque . In use, the gunner will aim that at his target, either visually or via the radar. It, when it gets a bounceback signal that says ‘not clouds, birds, or balloons,’ actually fires the main…gun.
    “Sir, if you would climb inside with me?”
    The engineer and Carrera crawled down separate hatches, into the interior of the vehicle. Carrera took the rearward-stationed commander’s seat, allowing the gunner’s seat to the engineer.
    “Like I said, Duque, we have removed all the ammunition storage except for the top-mounted machine guns. In their place are two generators and a whole shitpot of supercapacitors.”
    The engineer turned away from the generator and batteries. He indicated two boxes, one with a control panel, one with a small television screen. “These are a fairly cheap thermal imager and a computer. We bought the imager from the Volgans. They’re just beginning to turn them out in mass…and they’re not all that good. They are rather cheap, however, and good enough to spot an aircraft with no background but sky and space.
    “There are three ways to make the system work. One is manual. This way the gunner picks up an aerial target on the thermals. He then manipulates the turret to bring the less powerful laser on line with the target. Of course, the lesser laser must be borescoped to the sight. It is also projected continuously if the gunner so selects. When the gunner has moved the cross hairs approximately onto the target, the lesser laser will get some energy bounced back from its own beam. It will then automatically fire the more powerful laser. And the pilot’s eyeballs will be…well, fried, more or less.
    “The second way is more automatic. And we still haven’t perfected it. That’s what this computer is for. We hope to make it so that, when the thermal sight picks up a target, it will notify the computer. Then the computer will direct the main laser onto the target without need of the gunner.”
    For the first time, Carrera interrupted. “Can that. It’s a silly idea.”
    Undeterred, the engineer answered, “It’s true, we don’t need that feature for now; the manual method works well enough. But what we hope to do someday is to mount the thermal on top, where the old radar dish is, then have it sweep three-hundred-sixty degrees until it finds a target with enough heat to be a possible target. Then the computer will automatically bring the main projector around, the ranging laser will fire to get a reflection that indicates the target is acquired. At that point the main laser will fire to blind the crew. Sir, this would be a much better weapon.”
    “Does the thing work as is?”
    “Yes, sir, and we have a third way, which is also automatic. It works, but it is risky. That’s to let the radar do the tracking and control the turret and lasers.”
    Carrera thought about that and decided, It’s actually a fairly minor mod—gunnery-wise—so it probably does work.
    “What about if the pilot is wearing some kind of night vision goggles or extremely thick and dark sun glasses?” he asked.
    “We’d burn out the image intensifier tube in the goggles and any set of sunglasses capable of stopping all the possible frequencies we can use wouldn’t just be dark. They would be black.”
    “Then produce it. Skip the fancy frills on this model. Produce it and I may cut you enough research and development money to continue trying the other, the second, way. But first, show me how this one works in action.”

Chapter Seven

    “Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly,
    “’Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
    The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
    And I’ve a many curious things to shew when you are there.”

    “Oh no, no,” said the little Fly, “to ask me is in vain,
    For who goes up your winding stair
    —can ne’er come down again.”
    —The Spider