Jal snickered, shaking her head. "Keira, if you tried to use that gun on my 'mech, even if you aimed for the cockpit screen, all you'd do is chip paint. There's a reason Construction 'mechs have walked out of buildings that have collapsed on them, and it's not because of a weakness to kinetic energy. Sure, energy weapons are on the rise, but there's always going to be a place for Projectile weapons, even if its a case of using Dum-Dum ammo in a spacecraft to avoid depressurizing the entire ship."<br/><br/>She paused, firing the last shot in her magazine and watching the video replay of the shell disintegrating the target's head and upper torso. "My point is that each type of weapon, which can roughly be lumped into three categories, has its own advantages and disadvantages. Ballistic weapons, like these rifles and pistols we're using, have limited ammo supplies but are portable, and are reliable, and can fire with little to no reduction in efficacy when filthy.<br/><br/>Jal Paused, unloading the rifle and setting it aside as she lifted her selected pistol, the heavy-looking automag using a Spiral magazine that fed from under the length of the barrel, and held a dozen bullets of .45 calibre magnum. She then continued speaking as she set up her latest target. "Missile weapons, be they Man-Portable SRMs or 'Mech-mounted, have longer than average ranges, and can penetrate armour fairly effectively, but are bulky, requiring individual tubes for each missile, and tend to scatter impacts over the majority of the target, instead of focusing its entire impact upon one or two parts, like a Laser or Autocannon does."<br/><br/>Lifting the Pistol in a classic 'Weaver' Stance; both hands holding the pistol, elbows slightly bent to absorb recoil, and leaning very slightly forwards, Jal aimed down the open sights and fired three times, punching a trio of ragged holes into where a person's heart would be. "Energy weapons are, for the most part, still in their early stages of development, but have a lot of potential. Just look at what a combat laser does; It focuses a beam of Super-excited energy to cut into armour plate, but at the same time much of the beam's energy is ablated by interacting with air molecules, as well as the molten metal of the armour itself which absorbs much of the latter third of the beam's impact."<br/><br/>She paused, firing another three-round group, this time slightly sloppier, and putting one bullet in the heart, one in the head, and one in the right shoulder. "Now, Plasma weapons are interesting, but at the same time, what you're doing is taking a magnetic 'bottle' and pouring raw fusion reactor energy into it, and hoping the bottle holds until it hits the target. It's like juggling nitroglycerin, and has a good chance of blowing you up as well as your targets. Personally, I think the idea of tesla-based weapons, like the Experimental PPC-types look good; The EMP effect of getting hit with a few Billion volts of electricty, combined with the kinetic and energetic impact of charged particles will do a number to nearly anything, Plus, If I recall, correctly, a solid hit around or near the cockpit of a 'mech could short out the Cybernetics in the pilot as well, which could cause anything from blindness, to temporary paralysis, to a complete Psychotic breakdown, and would likely count as a 'Pilot kill' regardless of the damage to the machine."<br/><br/>Jal frowned, then fired her last six rounds into the target, deliberately aiming for the target's crotch to create a simple frowny face on the thick paper. "So they all have their advantages, but they also have a Lot of disadvantages, too. Projectile weapons need ammunition and prefer cleaning, especially if they're finicky. Missiles are bulky and tend to scatter badly, while Energy weapons have problems with too much damage concentration, which prevents them from causing More damage easily, and they can, at the moment, be easily de-focused by impact damage, as well as requiring a Huge energy source for the draw of power to make them work."<br/><br/>Jal reloaded her pistol, placing the empty magazine to the side as she looked at Keira. "I read a lot of books about historical warfare, so the patterns are easy to read. Ever hear of the Sword versus the Shield Debate?"