Observing Power
Elias stood in the command center, his sharp eyes locked on the live drone feeds broadcasting the railgun field test. Every detail was displayed across multiple holographic projections, rendering in crisp clarity—the ruined sandbag defenses, the twisted metal, the shredded concrete, and the corpses of enemies who never even had a chance to fight back.
He exhaled slowly, watching as Bao and Desmond turned the battlefield into an execution ground from a safe distance.
Each shot was clean, precise, devastating.
The first engagement had lasted less than a minute, and in that time, they had wiped out half the entrenched enemy positions. The railgun's raw kinetic power made traditional defenses obsolete.
Walls, vehicles, armor, it didn't matter.
Elias leaned forward, analyzing the shot trajectories and impact patterns, noting the sheer efficiency of the weapon.
"Beautiful," he muttered.
The railgun had performed exactly as he designed it to, a weapon that ignored conventional limitations and delivered destruction at hypersonic speeds.
A soft chuckle escaped him.
If any military leader from any country had seen this footage, they would be terrified.
The rest of Team 12 stood behind Elias, watching the live feed in stunned silence.
Jiro was the first to speak. His voice was flat, but tense. "This... this is insane."
Aiden let out a low whistle. "They're not even aiming for weak points. It just... goes through everything."
Vivian folded her arms, her eyes still locked on the obliterated bunker that had once been a fortified position. "That's not a rifle. That's an orbital strike in handheld form."
Desmond and Bao were still taking precision shots, each tungsten slug they fired turning more of the compound into a ruined wasteland.
The enemy had no counterplay.
No strategy.
No defense.
Vivian exhaled, rubbing her temples. "You really just gave them that thing? And trusted them not to shoot the rest of us?"
Elias smirked slightly but didn't look away from the screen. "I don't deal in trust. I deal in results. And so far, I'm getting exactly what I wanted."
Jiro shook his head. "If this thing enters full production… war will never be the same again."
"It already isn't," Elias replied simply.
Aiden opened his mouth to say something else, but suddenly, a distant shape appeared on one of the monitors.
At first, it was barely visible—just a flicker of movement in the sky. But as it descended toward the Landing Zone, its sleek black body came into full view.
Jiro frowned. "What the hell is that?"
Vivian narrowed her eyes. "That's... not a normal dropship."
Elias finally turned away from the monitors and walked over to the observation window from where you could see into the hangar. From here, they could see with their own eyes a jet-black transport craft, exactly like the one silently descending toward the battlefield right now, cutting through the air without a single sound of propulsion.
The only noise was a faint, burning hum, like the distant whisper of a plasma torch.
"That," Elias said, watching as the craft landed, "is one of my personal projects."
The team turned to him in unison.
"You built that?" Jiro asked, blinking in surprise.
Elias nodded, crossing his arms. "I designed the propulsion system. The rest was a collaborative effort with some of my engineers."
Vivian shook her head, watching the sound feed as the craft touched down almost soundlessly. "That thing is quieter than a stealth drone. What the hell is it using for propulsion?"
Elias smirked. "Air, pretty much, it is a variation of the railgun technology."
The room went silent.
Elias gestured toward the descending craft. "Traditional jets and VTOL aircraft rely on either combustion engines, turbines, or hybrid propulsion. But those systems are noisy, inefficient, and create detectable heat signatures."
Jiro nodded. "Right. But that thing isn't using any of that. So how is it moving?"
Elias turned to face them, his tone shifting into lecture mode. "It works on a principle I call 'Electromagnetic Air Displacement.' Simply put, instead of using fuel or standard thrusters, it uses a railgun-inspired system to accelerate compressed air at extreme velocities."
Vivian raised an eyebrow. "You're firing air?"
Elias smirked. "Yes. And no. It's more complicated than that. The system pulls in atmospheric air, ionizes it into a plasma state, and then rapidly expels it through specialized magnetic acceleration chambers. That allows it to generate silent, controlled thrust with no need for traditional fuel sources."
Aiden let out a low whistle. "So, instead of pushing itself forward with combustion, it just... throws air out of the back at ridiculous speeds?"
"Essentially, yes," Elias confirmed. "It functions almost identically to a railgun—except instead of launching metal projectiles, it expels charged plasma in a carefully controlled stream. That eliminates mechanical noise, turbine whine, and excessive heat output."
Jiro shook his head, still staring at the ship. "How fast is it?"
Elias leaned against the window, watching as Bao and Desmond boarded the silent craft.
"At near full capacity?" He tilted his head. "Easily Mach 2.5."
Silence.
Vivian's eyes widened. "Wait—you mean this thing is a full-fledged combat jet?"
Elias nodded. "Not just a jet. A transport, a recon platform, and if necessary... a high-altitude strike craft. All in one package."
Jiro exhaled slowly. "And you're saying it's basically silent?"
"To the human ear, yes," Elias responded. "The only thing you'll hear is the faint burning of the ionized air being expelled—way quieter than any turbine engine or rotor system. It's virtually undetectable below standard radar thresholds. Well, you will still hear the sonic boom once it goes supersonic, but no one can change that."
Aiden rubbed his temples. "So let me get this straight. You not only built handheld railguns that can turn bunkers into confetti—but you also built a silent supersonic aircraft?"
Elias smiled faintly. "You sound surprised."
Vivian laughed, shaking her head. "At this point? Not even a little."
As the dropship lifted off, vanishing into the clouds without a trace, Elias turned away from the window.
"Team 12," he said, his tone shifting back to business mode. "What you just saw was only the beginning."
They exchanged glances.
"The railguns, the aircraft, all of this technology—it's not just about making things deadlier. It's about making them smarter, more efficient, and completely untouchable by conventional means."
He turned back toward the holographic displays, watching as the real-time mission report compiled itself.
"The old ways of war are dying," Elias muttered. "And I intend to be the one writing the new rules."
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