Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Spectrum Weaponry

A Light in the Darkness
During the darkest days of the Great Aquilan-Voshkod War, when the Alliance of Hawke, one of the players involved in that conflict, were at their most desperate and the Voshkods along their allies seemed virtually unstoppable, many research projects were commissioned. Scientists all around the world were directed to work on finding ways to develop new technologies to use against the Voshkod and their allies, or to find potential military uses of existing technologies.

Many successful weapons and technologies resulted from this massive surge in scientific research during the Great Aquilan-Voshkod War, from GAP technology and the Chronosphere, to the early attempts at weaponizing particle accelerators that would later lead to Proton Collider weaponry.

One of the greatest successes arising from this research was the development of Spectrum technology, pioneered by a group of physicists working at Bell Labs. The group, having been ordered to work on the development of a "death ray" to counter the Voshkods Tesla technology, made a breakthrough, when in 1953 V.C. they created a microwave amplifier, a device that could produce a coherent beam of microwave radiation. Work continued, now branching into the visible spectrum, leading to the creation of a coherent optical oscillator capable of producing a monochromatic beam of light. The technology now existed, but it was far too weak to be weaponized.

Tesla's Competitor
Spectrum technology in the form that most people are familiar with today would have to wait for 1958 V.C. when an Orlais physicist by the name of Nicolette Truchon created an optical oscillator that could produce a beam of light powerful enough to be weaponized. One of the side effects of the oscillator was that the beam produced had a rather colorful nature, which would lead to some person dubbing it a "spectrum ray". The name became stuck in the public consciousness, quickly eclipsing other terms such as L.O.S.E.R. (even for beams of light that weren't multicolored), despite the best efforts of scientists.

Alliance scientists were now focused on improving upon Truchon's "spectrum" beam generator (though research would continue into the other, less powerful versions, with the Federation of Aquila creating what is known as a "laser" a few months later), finally leading to the creation of a greatly improved spectrum beam generator in 1963 V.C., which, in addition to being powerful enough to melt through armor-grade steel, also had the additional property of refracting when it struck a target, causing it to strike additional targets. With tensions with the Voshkod flaring up and war looking like an increasingly likely prospect, the decision was made to arm the then-prototype Mirage tank with the new spectrum weapon, as well as to work on the creation of handheld and stationary base defence variants. Spectrum technology would claim its first victims soon enough...

Other Uses
In addition to the use of spectrum technology in military weapons, there are other uses of spectrum technology. At lower intensities, spectrum beams can be used to designate a certain target, as seen by the "Spyglass" target designator on the Grizzly Tank.

Spectrum technology can also be used as a sensor, as shown by the Stormchild, in which a spectrum sensor is used to allow the Stormchild to achieve levels of accuracy that would not be possible otherwise. Spectrum rangefinders, which are used to gauge the distance to a target, are standard on ALliance Grizzly Tanks and many other vehicles. Spectrum sensors have many civilian applications as well, such as in the fields of archaeology, geology, and atmospheric physics, but to name a few.

Spectrum pointers, which shine a low-intensity spectrum beam, are now widespread on the commercial market and have to some extent replaced traditional pointers. However, after several incidents where people were permanently blinded when the spectrum beam of a spectrum pointer was shined in their eyes, the Allies made a crime to possess a "blinding spectrum weapon" and immediately confiscated and banned the sale of pointers that fell into the category. Of course, the definition doesn't apply to spectrum weapons that are powerful enough to kill as well as blind.

One of the newer and more interesting applications of spectrum technology is that of Spectrum Cooling, which uses spectrum beams to lower the temperature of an atom to near absolute zero temperatures. Spectrum cooling works by applying two specific wavelength spectrum beams from opposite directions, which results in the atom absorbing and emitting photons. The end result of this process is that through the emission and scattering of photons, the average velocity of the atom, and thus kinetic energy, is reduced, thus resulting in a corresponding drop in temperature.

The technology has a number of applications, from creating Bose Einstein Condensates for use in Gravametrics to using the technology to cool and trap atoms in atomic clocks. Experiments in quantum technology are known to make use of spectrum cooling, in order to allow Allied scientists to observe the unique quantum effects that only occur at temperatures close to absolute zero. Spectrum cooling has also seen some applications in the field of Cryotechnology, where it is sometimes used to cool down substances to extremely low temperatures, although the amount of power, size, and having to constantly watch it means that, unlike the cryo weapons wielded by the Andorans, its use is only limited to laboratories.

The Great Argument
It's also best advised to never praise, and to many even mention it unless its insulting, the Aquilan lasers within earshot of an Alliance scientist, and vice versa.

For its a known fact that one of the greatest debate within Gaiaterra is this. Which is superior, Alliance Spectrum or Aquila Laser.

It has been recorded that when the Aquilans first sent out soldiers armed with laser weaponry that the Alliance, for lack of a better term, threw a fit. Accusing the Aquilans for stealing and making a shoddy knockoff of their Spectrum weaponry, while the Aquilans accused the Alliance for stealing and making a shoddy knockoff of their laser weapons. And it's known that every time both sides fight each other it always ends in one side destroying the other Spectrum/Laser weaponry.

As for the difference, it's actually notable if subtle, and saying that both are the same would likely be the only time an Alliance and Aquilan scientist would agree to something, that is beating up the person who said it.

The difference lies in how they fire.

Spectrum weaponry fires by first shooting a beam inside a prism and letting its bounce, creating more energy, before releasing it. Thus Spectrum weaponry hit far harder, not to mention its refracting properties, compared to a laser, and also producing a bright array of colors in which it got its name.

Lasers on the other hand directly fire the beam through a focusing lens, with a more powerful version also amplifying the beam through multiple lenses. Thus Laser weaponry fires a lot faster, thus making it suitable as point defense weaponry, and can hit far harder with enough lenses.

Though both weapons do have one similarity, just don't say it to an Alliance/Aquila scientist, is that both weapons hit with pinpoint accuracy and little recoil.

But who made it first, was it Aquila or the Alliance that stole the other's tech, or even if both made their own without realizing is still a known, and most cases lethal, debate.