Kondracki-Meija Integrator

The Kondracki-Meija Integrator is another device created by the Flagg Institute, also in the same vein of the Leighly-Braun Manifold. Unlike the manifold however, KM Integrators are perfectly available for public purchase.

Like the Manifold, the KM Integrator accepts powdered dust, however it does not use the dust to fabricate physical objects. Instead, the Integrator taps directly into the dust to fire "elemental" laser beams.

Origins
The creation of Ivette Meija and her partner Zoja Kondracki, the KM integrator originated as a "bastard" manifold where the two engineers were attempting to see how many parts could be removed from an LB Manifold before it ceased to work. During the testing, the lack of heatsinks caused the Manifold's fabrication deck to melt off and it fired a red dust laser blast which burned a hole in the testing range. Amazed by the outcome, Kondracki and Meija went on to attempt to refine the device and market it as the Leighly-Bruan Manifold Mk. 4. However, each of their attempts only resulted in severe overheating or some other mechanical failure.

Exasperated, Meija proposed that perhaps the solution is not to repurpose an existing manifold, but to build a dedicated device from scratch. 72 hours of hard labor later, and the two created the first functioning example of the device. Considering that it was more-or-less a completely new device with a different internal architecture than the Leighly-Braun manifold, they were able to patent it as a new device and called it the Kondracki-Meija Integrator.

Usage
The KM Integrator is meant to supplement the LB Manifold on the battlefield by allowing for the easy usage and deployment of laser weaponry. Moreso, the Integrator actually addresses many of the LB Maifold's flaws.

LB Manifolds have cooldown times between fabrications, even if the majority of said cooldowns are merely milliseconds. The KM Intergrator however, can continue to function so long as it has a stable supply of dust. During initial testing, overheating was shown to stem mostly from how quickly the device consumed dust and that issue was ironed out far before the device entered production. All KM Integrators produced by the Institute have a hardlocked consumption rate which balances firepower and heat-production; there is absolutely no need nor gain to make any adjustment.

KM Integrators have also proven to be much cheaper to produce, mainly because they do not have to be so extensively calibrated for the weapon they are to be installed in. So much so that the Institute is now in the process of constructing a dedicated factory to mass-produce KM Integrators to be sold across Remnant.

Drawbacks
Despite what the KM Integrator is capable of, Flagg researchers do not anticipate seeing the new device replace the LB Manifold in the future.

The LB Manifold is still the more versatile of the two systems because it can create blades and grenades while the KM Integrator is only capable of generating lasers. Likewise, dust mixtures that work with the Manifold have reliably caused severe failures or inefficiency within the Integrator. On the topic of efficiency, conservative calibrating or not, the Integrator still consumes dust far faster than a Manifold. In addition to that, many combinations of dust are usable with the LB Manifold; the KM Integrator will only accept pure mixtures.

Like the Manifold, the Integrator is still costly to maintain and operate, requiring high-grade dust to prevent jamming and tender maintenance to ensure functionality.

While the Manifold can create conventional bullets through the use of White dust, that sort of dust produces no effect with the Integrator and there do exist situations where inert, non-elemental bullets have better use over elemental attacks, E.G. in a room containing volatile chemicals. Also, physical projectiles can potentially knockback an opponent; only the green "wind" laser fired from a KM integrator-weapon can do this.

KM Lasers, unlike Manifold bullets or real lasers for that matter, produce highly-visible beams which have a nasty habit of giving away the operator's location.

Dust Recipes
Most of the pure mixtures that work with the Leighly-Braun Manifold also work for the Kondracki-Meija Integrator with similar results.
 * Pure Red: fires a high-heat, incendiary laser beam, capable of reaching 660 degrees Celsius (the melting point of aluminium).
 * Pure Yellow: fires an electrocuting laser beam. So long as it remains on target, the target will receive an average 550 volts at .05 amps.
 * Pure Green: fires a powerful concussive laser. This is the only laser type that can knockback an opponent and it does so at 2000 newtons per second.
 * Pure Blue: fires a laser that lowers the temperature of the impact point exponentially. Used for freezing targets solid.