The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4388

As the design of the Amaranto's new weapon became functionally complete in a surprisingly short amount of time, Ves and his fellow collaborators only had to optimize it before they could complete the project.

One of the difficulties of doing so was that the new luminar crystal cannon made use of extremely expensive materials.

Ves did not limit the budget of this weapon design project too much. He made liberal use of expensive high-grade exotics and tried to maximize the amount of phasewater he could stuff into the cannon without making it too unstable.

This made it unviable for him to build a prototype and forced him to make do with testing the performance of the new weapon in simulations.

The MSTS provided him with a surprisingly effective simulation environment. It was capable of testing the basic performance characteristics of the new energy cannon with a high degree of accuracy.

This was mostly because the MSTS already possessed countless pieces of data on the performance of many different luminar crystal weapons.

The only issues that the MSTS had trouble with was reproducing the effects of newer and less familiar phenomena.

The MSTS could not accurately produce results on blessed weapons because no such items existed in the past. Ves did not possess a database that could be used to accurately model and extrapolate the performance of different blessed weapons.

This was not a new occurrence to Ves or any other mech designer that worked on high-ranking mechs. So much about these powerful machines defied established natural laws so the only way to verify a lot of features was to build an actual copy.

Ves could only rely on his confidence in his latest innovation to carry this weapon design project forward.

Still, both Gloriana and Master Benedict believed that the final product would be able to present revolutionary results once it was made!

"The estimated firepower and penetration characteristics of this new energy cannon are so exaggerated that it may cause alarm once it is put into use." Master Benedict told him one day.

"What do you mean by that?"

The projection of the Master Mech Designer gestured at the latest iteration of the energy cannon design.

"According to our latest estimates, our upcoming weapon has the potential to become so effective at its job that it can almost match the firepower of an ace mech. In other words, it can threaten weaker ace mechs by piercing through their Saint Kingdoms and high-quality armor."

Ves briefly smirked. "That doesn't sound like a bad outcome to me. It is unlikely that the Amaranto can strike an actual ace mech, though. If the target is anything like the Neo Amadeus and the Mars, then the enemy machine moves way too fast to guarantee a successful hit. We need to impair the mobility of the hostile ace mech before the Amaranto can come into play."

"Be that as it may, the MTA has always paid close attention to the destructive potential of any weapon. The mechers may be willing to tolerate weapons that bend or break the limits in the case of high-ranking mechs, but they are only willing to extend so much leeway a second-class expert mech. If this new energy cannon allows a mid-tier expert pilot such as Venerable Davia Stark to come close to matching the offensive power of an ace pilot, then that will spark alarm within the halls of the Association."

Ves relaxed his posture. "Oh, that? Don't worry, Master. I already thought about this problem beforehand. I already shared my plans to Master Dervidian of the Transhumanist Faction. I have a decent relationship with him so he gave me his blessing without too much fuss."

That surprised Benedict.

"He let you off too easily. I would have expected the MTA to exert more scrutiny towards this weapon design project."

Ves smirked in response. "You may not have paid attention to this, but the MTA officially recognizes me as a senior contributor of restricted technology, specifically with regards to luminar crystal technology. That means I have much greater leeway to try out different stuff related to this tech. I just have to make sure to abide by the conditions that the mechers have specifically imposed on my work."

Master Benedict didn't buy this excuse. "The key innovation of your upcoming weapon isn't limited to luminar crystals. It can be applied to more than luminar crystal weapons."

"Hahaha!" Ves laughed. "That may be true in the future, but for now my blessed equipment concept should be treated as an extension of luminar crystal technology."

"That… is not an intellectually honest statement, and you know it, Ves."

"Didn't you advise me to cozy up with the MTA so I can get away with more stuff? I am still working on it. I need to buy more time right now so I can seek out a new patron that can offer stronger support to my research. I can make a better case for myself if I can present dramatic examples like our upcoming energy cannon. Nothing excites mechers more than introducing them to powerful new tech!"

Seeing that Ves already took this potential problem into account, Master Benedict did not pursue this matter any further.

As the lead designer of this project, Ves bore all of the responsibility for its success and failure. It would be him who would attract all of the heat if anything went horribly wrong.

p-A- n-d-A-n-0-v-e-1、(c)om Just as the weapon design project neared the point where Ves was about to finalize it, the expeditionary fleet had reached an important waypoint.

"We've arrived in the border region, sir." General Verle spoke to Ves over the comm. "Not only that, we have entered the Norbit System, which is an important and highly frequented stopping point for many pioneering fleets that come from the same direction as us. It is highly advisable for us to travel to the inner system and visit the temporary trading post that a coalition of highly entrepreneurial pioneers have established."

"Oh?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "What is this trading post that you're talking about?"

General Verle transmitted an image that depicted a large and well-defended commercial space station.

What was special about this space station was that it was not a single enormous space construct.

Instead, Ves could clearly see that the overall structure of this floating space station was made up of five different capital ships that had been merged together!

"This is Pentahull Station, a temporary hub that is engaged in commerce and entertainment." Verle introduced. "It is owned and managed by the Pentahull Coalition. I think you can already guess how it works. The coalition regularly searches for regions that have become hotspots and moves its entire fleet to a traffic node before setting up its semi-modular space station." pand(a-n0vel.c)om

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