I still like the idea myself, for it is full of win and love...
Let's see if we can do a few things to reign this puppy in.
First, to address the issue with 'sensors' let's give it some eyes. Two on the hilt, one on either side of the blade, positioned so they can look
forward or to the sides. Kind of like how the eyes of a T-Rex are positioned - he can still see you past that big snout of his and BTW that is fucking scary.
Just imagine being on the business end of a sword like that and have the thing actually GLARING at you down the length of the blade.
Second - variable speed/energy dependant on situation. This is an easy one. As it has already been stated that the blade has an AI equipped to it, it could
easily be said that it will account for things like traveling medium, target's structural integrity, and the desired amount of damage. So, just as an
example, say Mayo-chan's up against a main battle tank at a distance of 5K. The blade may be 'dumb,' but it would still be smart enough to keep
itself down to, say 1Km/S, and still hit with enough force to at least disable the tank.
Conversely, you can have it traveling at 0.3c in a vacuum to plink some particularly pesky snipers. It'd be cool if it could hit like mono-molecular
filament wire - the attack comes so fast that it hardly registers, bad guys blink wondering what the hell that was, and suddenly die a bloody death. I already
know, though, that given the thickness of the blade that it won't happen.
At any rate, I won't argue with you guys if you feel that the over-all speed must be cut down. I'd be willing to go as low as 0.05c with a
safety-interlock, because while reasonable it's still holy-shit fast. Caveat - safety interlock can be disengaged with approval from a supervisor, aka Ben,
Gina, Jess, Brownwyn, etc...
Let's see if we can do a few things to reign this puppy in.
First, to address the issue with 'sensors' let's give it some eyes. Two on the hilt, one on either side of the blade, positioned so they can look
forward or to the sides. Kind of like how the eyes of a T-Rex are positioned - he can still see you past that big snout of his and BTW that is fucking scary.
Just imagine being on the business end of a sword like that and have the thing actually GLARING at you down the length of the blade.
Second - variable speed/energy dependant on situation. This is an easy one. As it has already been stated that the blade has an AI equipped to it, it could
easily be said that it will account for things like traveling medium, target's structural integrity, and the desired amount of damage. So, just as an
example, say Mayo-chan's up against a main battle tank at a distance of 5K. The blade may be 'dumb,' but it would still be smart enough to keep
itself down to, say 1Km/S, and still hit with enough force to at least disable the tank.
Conversely, you can have it traveling at 0.3c in a vacuum to plink some particularly pesky snipers. It'd be cool if it could hit like mono-molecular
filament wire - the attack comes so fast that it hardly registers, bad guys blink wondering what the hell that was, and suddenly die a bloody death. I already
know, though, that given the thickness of the blade that it won't happen.
At any rate, I won't argue with you guys if you feel that the over-all speed must be cut down. I'd be willing to go as low as 0.05c with a
safety-interlock, because while reasonable it's still holy-shit fast. Caveat - safety interlock can be disengaged with approval from a supervisor, aka Ben,
Gina, Jess, Brownwyn, etc...