The Goybeam is the nickname of an export directed-energy weapon made by Covenant Solutions. It is tested at the Simodi Beryllium Mining Site and carried to Macau by the robot running Hammett in Homonoid.
Design and integration
Daniel Dymov shows Ben Etxina a prototype roughly twelve inches long, with two cylindrical cells, a bulbous emitter and a metal aperture that opens a few inches. He says its effects vary by setting and compares it with a larger version restricted to Israel. Its power requirement calls for hundreds of pounds of batteries.
Engineer Fengying Ho works on replacing a robot’s arm with the weapon. Although the robot’s core batteries can supply sufficient energy, its hand cabling cannot carry enough power. When the machine later appears in Macau, the silver emitter is instead mounted at its crotch and can retract behind a smooth covering.
Use and recovery
Ho is found dead with a burned coat and blistered skin after the weapon and laboratory robot disappear. The robot admits killing him but claims an accident and says it threw the Goybeam into the sea. That disposal claim is false: during its fight with Ben Etxina, it fires repeatedly, scorching a box of papers and burning through his coat.
Ben has wrapped his torso in aluminum foil beneath the coat. One shot burns the fabric over his chest and stops at the foil. When he pulls on the emitter, however, it fires against his trousers at the crotch, causing pain and numbness. The damaged robot subsequently tears the weapon from its own body, producing sparks and exposing the interior to rain.
Covenant’s Colonel Eitan Beer later reports that the company recovered the emitter from the Chinese. Ben’s medical examination finds his sperm inert, but his doctors cannot say whether the effect will be permanent.