"Yes, Lloyd. They have been invaluable. Already we have attained a forty percent increase in our production levels and only three percent of that is rejected as battle perfect." Burman sounded proud and Boyce was pleased. Boyce remembered the day that he and Lloyd first set foot inside Alugean. It was a huge lifeless place full of silence, machinery and cratesful of supplies. They went into the test lab and watched a half dozen men and women trying out the strength of the small, hand-sized weapons. Twenty meters from them were sheets of different materials, that came down automatically after the weapons were tested out on each piece of the materials. Materials of plastic, glass, wood, splintered and burned up after a single blast of the small guns that had both laser and electrophoric capabilities built into them. The power of the small weapons evenly cut into the strongest metal slabs that they had on which to test these devices. Burman was pleased to flaunt the devices that he helped to construct and both Lloyd and Boyce were impressed. Lloyd looked at the weapons and tested the weight in his own hand. He fired a shot of the electrophora at one of the foot thick pieces of the wood and it splintered into a countless number of pieces. "I'm glad that the ones I was hit with, when you found me, were not like this one." Lloyd commented to Boyce with a slight grin. Boyce studied the weapon for a moment switching it from the electrophoric to laser, and back again until he was satisfied with its performance. "These guns, Burman -- they use the same source of power for both elements?" Boyce questioned Burman. Burman looked confused for a moment and questioned Lloyd with his eyes and Lloyd knew what it was that had confused Burman. "Gun, is an ancient term for such a weapon of aggression." Burman then remembered that word 'gun' and he answered Boyce letting him know that its power source was indeed common for both settings. Boyce was satisfied with the answer, and so was Lloyd, since he had thought of asking a similar question. Now both of them knew that, once the source of power was used up, that was the end of that energy cell. They each took a belt case and a spare cell, as their armament for the trip. They did ask Burman to show them some of the larger-gauged weapons that were to be used in the invasion and these had a strength five times that of the small hand guns. Everything seemed to be going well with the production and already the weapons were being sent all through the Northern United Alignment, to the armies that would get two more weeks, so it was hoped, of training with them until the invasion. Impressed and fully satisfied with what they saw, they made their way back to the upper levels of the mountain. "We have prepared your quarters for tonight." said Burman. "You will find food and baths, and if you wish, women can be sent to you at the completion of their shift?"