@TIMFENNER Hello! Please write @wizzwizz4 or reply to my messages so I get notified of your messages.

Okay… you've written classified quite a lot.

Otherwise you're basically holding up a sign saying "here's the secret, this is the bit you should reverse-engineer".

Who's this document aimed at, anyway? Buyers (hence marketing) or users (hence focus on those kinds of details)? (Given the classification of certain sections, I assume it's not for the weapon maintainers.)

> sonic dissipation system reduces the resultant thunderclap

This is a really sensible idea. It's probably possible to emit a rarefied superheated gas behind the bullet, to balance out the pressure, though it would make the weapon more dangerous to use.

Hang on… perhaps not that much more dangerous; about as dangerous as a jet of steam, probably, and with less damage from shockwaves.

Oh, I've figured out how this can depend on the round!

Atmosphere scatters light, and absorbs enough energy that it'd quickly become plasma, which absorbs quite a lot of light, so if you're using the light-based momentum transfer system then you'd need to leave a tunnel through which the light can travel – thus shockwave. It would, however, let the bullet keep travelling at the same speed as it gained mass.

If you want no shockwave, then you could have it working like an ordinary jet engine, except really narrow-beam; so long as the Delta-Ten can absorb a high-pressure jet stream of compressed gas, it'd be not much louder than a blow-dart (if you wave your hands over it a bit and say that "dampening" is also involved).

Of course, these details shouldn't probably make it into any in-world public document; they'll all be confidential, classified details that only the engineers and perhaps high-up repair technicians know about.

However, they'd affect how you write, say, the instruction manual.

"Before firing a BD-type round, ensure that the atmospheric retention tank is no more than 25% full. It is recommended to set the retention valve to 10% if you anticipate you will fire multiple rounds in quick succession."

The sound of this would be a loud "phwoosh" at the gun, a faint roaring noise immediately followed by a sort of muted balloon-popping noise as it goes past, and a pneumatic-like hissing sound coming out of the valve. At least, the way I'm imagining it; there might well be better designs.

> a stream of rainbowed coloring

By the mechanism I described, it would have to be just one colour; not rainbow.

Although, perhaps you could have integer frequency multiples of something? I don't know.