: So I was trying to sleep but thinking about Marathon, and I got to wondering
: (not for the first time), what the fuck is a fusion pistol / plasma
: pistol? It doesn't burn its target like a familiar plasma should, it's not
: nuclear in any kind of explody way at least, so what does fusion or plasma
: have to do with anything?
: So I had a thought. This is made of handwavium but so is a lot of Marathon
: lore. We know it fries electronics, so my idea was this: "cool
: fusion" is not just a fun level title, it's describing the function
: of the gun. The fuel cells contain ordinary water, which is split into
: hydrogen and oxygen by simple electrolysis, but then it gets weird. The
: hydrogen is fused with itself in some kind of handwavy cold fusion process
: that generates the power that runs the whole cycle, and then the oxygen is
: the ammunition: it is transformed with the cold fusion energy into some
: kind of "cold plasma", inasmuch as it's a weird kind of fluid
: that's been stripped of its electrons. Some kind of exotic state of matter
: with plasma-like properties but low temperature, and I guess it must have
: liquid-like properties as well in order to maintain its volume as it flies
: and not just disperse like a real plasma would. The gun propels a blob of
: that stuff at its target, which proceeds to rip the electrons out of the
: target (to neutralize itself), inducing an electric current through the
: target in the process. So what kills you is electric shock, which is why
: it fries electronics so well. It's just a crazy high-tech way of
: generating and throwing electric charges at a distance, producing only
: ordinary oxygen as a waste product.
The problem I have with this is that plasma is supposed to be the state matter reaches at its highest temperature (fire and electricity are really hot carbon and oxygen, or something). Cool plasma isn't an unfeasible and it's kind of a cool idea (pun not intended), but in order to make a plasma, you need to heat up a gas that's even colder... so those fusion batteries could be full of freezing gas? "Coldness" is how slow the atoms/molecules are moving, and there is such a thing as absolute zero, so what are the boundaries for this stuff existing? Having both plasma and water properties seems nonsensical with this logic, but there is such a thing as dry ice (a type of matter that has no liquid state), so maybe something interesting can happen where there's such a thing as viscous plasma.
But I kinda just picture the plasma as being an electric shot (or something similar to electricity) as it does a good job frying the hunters and juggernauts.
