Firstly - Hi Cherub, Welcome to OA!
Second - I'm going to suggest that Dusters (and probably Squirts as well) should get a bit of a re-think/re-imagining. As currently written, I'm going to suggest that they are too focused on using exotic/'futuristic' technology to essentially replace bullets for no obvious reason (honestly they sound like they have several disadvantages over bullets or lasers). There is some mention of being non-lethal but then also talk of their ability to cut and scrape, which seems a bit contradictory. Probably some other issues as well. So how might we address this? Some thoughts (in no particular order):
a) Provide a historical framework/background - I would suggest moving the heyday of these weapons to the later Information and/or earlier part of the Interplanetary Age, when habitats were smaller and more delicate and weapons that could readily punch holes through bulkheads or delicate equipment would be rather frowned upon.
b) Take advantage of OA 'smart' technology - Have the 'dust' they fire be used as a marker/tracker for other smart, mobile, and fast robotic weapons such as synsects or bird size flying robots. The 'dust' could act something like the ink packs used to foil bank robberies but also combine in something like acting as a low power distributed radio antenna that broadcasts a tracking signal for the robots to follow. So once you're shot with it, it's extremely hard to get off - and you're marked as a presumed criminal - and tiny but fast flying weapons are going to home in on you (even around corners/behind obstacles/over time and distance if you run and try to hide) and sting you with paralytics or tranquilizers (or maybe something deadly in a pinch). Local cameras and/or other tracking systems in the infrastructure might also be able to track or ping the 'dust' as well, maybe even after it runs out of power or in a way that makes 'onboard' power unnecessary.
c) Looping the Squirts article into this - perhaps Squirts are single target personal use weapons, while Dusters are 'crowd control' weapons because their core unit can fire multiple 'dust' packets at multiple targets, possibly in a 'smart' way such that a user just has to point a Duster in the general direction and then pick targets on a screen or via DNI after which it can independently aim each dust packet. Think something similar to the shoulder mounted multi-gun things in the first Iron Man movie, but firing dust and able to re-target and re-fire at moderately high speed.
d) Perhaps instead of packets of freeflying dust, it would make more sense for Dust and Squirt guns to fire something like a paintball packet with the smart dust inside. Might increase range and accuracy and let us move out of 'futuristic' EM acceleration to compressed air or the like, with the futuristic element being the function of the dust and the synsect/robotic weapons element.
Ok, I think that covers my ideas for now.
Thoughts?
Todd
