The firepower of the Sentry Project, now nad the Amaranto, did not disappoint!
Ves, Gloriana, Juliet and Ketis did everything they could to maximize the firepower of their first expert rifleman ch design. They gave up so many useful features and gave up the opportunity to strengthen many different paraters in order to specialize it to the extre.
Despite its stronger-than-average resonance shield, it was poorly suited for mid-range flanking and skirmishing action. Its flight system and other mobility systems were solely ant for positioning and repositioning, not dodging and weaving through enemy attacks. Just because it was able to move faster than a heavy ch didn't an it could dogfight!
Its defenses were also rather lackluster. Due to the scarcity in Unending alloy, Ves was forced to resort to a more generic expert ch-grade armor system that was relatively light, coped well with heat, stable and dampened vibrations. All of these design choices were ant to increase the Amaranto's offensive actions first and defensive needs second.
"All of it was worth it, though." Ves grinned.
After Venerable Stark fired her first fully-charged laser beam, the remaining tests beca a lot more routine.
This was just a familiarization session for the expert pilot and an initial technical review for the Design Departnt.
The more data the ch designers gathered on the Amaranto's performance, the more they were able to revise their models and accurately map out the expert rifleman ch's actual performance as opposed to making educated guesses based on dubious calculations.
This was not sothing that could be completed in a single session. The Amaranto was unprecedentedly powerful, but that also made it exceptionally lethal. If the expert ch ever suffered an accident and inadvertently unleashed its full-powered attack on one of the vessels of the Larkinson fleet, then that would have been an absolute tragedy that could have easily been prevented if the Larkinsons implented additional precautions!
Stress testing could co later. The masterwork expert ch was in their complete control so they could deploy it anyti the fleet was not travelling through FTL.
In fact, if the expert pilots didn't mind the limited maneuvering space and heavy firepower limitations, they could even train in a landbound environnt in the large bios aboard the Discentibus and the Dragon's Den.
The Amaranto no longer fired any full-powered shots. Instead, it stuck with the laser beam but began to vary its attack in different ways.
The masterwork expert ch fired its weapon at various disposable target bots at once by splitting the laser beam.
It fired its weapon in a rapid staccato pattern as it intercepted over a hundred different dummy missiles.
It fired moderate resonance-empowered laser beams that looked deceptively weak but could easily burn a hole through any typical second-class ch.
As the Amaranto slowly churned through its energy reserves, Venerable Stark already looked a bit exhausted.
Ves had been paying attention to the piloting teletry when the red-coated expert ch unleashed its initial attack. Several indicators dropped by quite a margin, signifying that such extre attacks took a lot out of Venerable Stark. She probably wasn't able to fire too many ship-killing laser beams in quick succession before she exhausted herself.
He expected sothing like this to occur. The pattern was not that much different from before when Venerable Stark was still stuck with the Bright Beam Pri. The Design Departnt deliberately reused the sa approach of her pri ch to her current machine.
"The Amaranto can't fire too many tis against powerful opponents, but it doesn't have to do so." Ves remarked with a smile on his face. "As one of our trump cards against enemy expert chs, a singularly powerful attack launched at the most inopportune ti can either instantly take down an enemy expert ch or at least break open its defenses."
Launching a lot of weaker attacks was not as effective against powerful and well-protected chs. The resonance shields and high-quality armor systems of most expert chs were expressly designed to minimize the threat posed by lots of conventional chs. This was what allowed these expert chs to sow terror on a large-scale battlefield!
The best way to penetrate the armor of these resilient expert chs was by moving as far away from the attack profile of conventional chs as possible. This was why the Amaranto excelled so much at single target, single shot attack power.
It was like a Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of unsuspecting enemy expert chs. The weapon only needed to drop down once in order to claim another head!
"I'm glad its performance against regular opponents is decent as well." Gloriana comnted. "It won't be as good as Brutus' upcoming expert ch in this area, but it can offer plenty of support when it doesn't need to guard against powerful opponents."
The luminar crystal rifle designed by Ves was optimized for maximum firepower, but energy weapons were much more adaptable than their physical counterparts. Just dialing down the power setting and making a few other adjustnts was enough to turn it into a rapid-fire turret.
Of course, since the ch and rifle wasn't designed for these firing modes, the overall power and fire rate would never be as good as a more appropriate weapon model.
Ves contemplated whether he should develop a second luminar crystal rifle that could give Venerable Stark an additional choice, but he soon gave up on that. He doubted that his subsequent weapon would be able to reach masterwork quality. Handing over an inferior weapon would only diminish the Amaranto's splendor.
"There are hardly any battles where too much firepower is a detrint." He figured. "If the firepower of the Amaranto is wasted against chs, then it should just point its muzzle at the enemy starships instead."
According to the asurents of the full-powered laser beam attack, the Amaranto was capable of burning straight through multiple layers of thick hull plating.
That didn't an it was capable of drilling through big or heavily-armored vessels such as the Graveyard or the Indigo Tremor. Both ships were clad with thick armor that only capital ships could bear. While the forr was just a big wall, the latter was designed with military standards in mind, which ant she had to carry enough armor to resist long-ranged harassnt from several powerful ranged expert chs.
Therefore, the Amaranto wasn't necessarily a vessel that was capable of crippling a capital ship on its own. Even with several targeted shots, at most it was able to damage an important module or two. That was far from enough to take down a typical fleet carrier since they possessed plenty of redundancies.
The Cross Clan's Antonio Cross was especially good at dealing with enemy expert ch fire. Though her ch capacity was disappointingly low for a capital ship, she was not only highly self-sufficient, but also possessed a clever hull plating arrangent that increased her redundancy factor and compartntalization factor to an excellent degree.
That didn't an that a much larger but more fragile fleet carrier like the Hemmington Cross was easy to cripple. Her sheer bulk and size automatically granted her a lot of buffer. Her density was lower, but there were so many compartnts that a typical penetrating attack was unlikely to drill all the way to the most deeply-nested sections where all of the power generators and armored bridges were typically situated.
"The Amaranto is fair ga against anything smaller and lighter, though. Most sub-capital ships should not be able to remain operational when struck a couple of tis."
Ves already estimated that the Amaranto was sufficiently capable enough to cripple the sub-capital support ships of the Larkinson fleet. The various cargo haulers, ch repair vessels, tugging vessels and so on boasted thin hull plating and lightly-reinforced structures in order to lower their costs.
This made them pri targets for any ch that could precisely locate their critical modules such as their propulsion systems, power generator or FTL drives and punch through all of the hull materials in between!
"What makes the Amaranto particularly suitable to assassinate starships is if it can employ its Beam Bending resonance ability!"
The Amaranto ca with two key resonating materials, which each bestowed the ch with two different resonance abilities.
The expert ch already demonstrated the Overcharge ability bestowed by integrating Electricium in its power reactor and energy transmission system. This was just a straightforward power boost that was primarily responsible for scaling up the Amaranto's full-powered attack to a ridiculous level.
Ves had no intentions of testing out the Beam Bending resonance ability granted by the Opticonium incorporated in the luminar crystal rifle. This was a strategic advantage that Ves did not want to show off in front of too many people. He would have to arrange a suitable test site in order to properly test how much Venerable Stark and the Amaranto were able to curve the beam attack.
The more the beam was able to bend, the easier it was for the masterwork expert ch to target the weak points of both chs and starships!
In the most ideal case, this Beam Bending effect would not only allow the Aramanto to take out a combat carrier, but also immobilize a capital ship by crippling her normally-inaccessible propulsion system!
The existence of the Amaranto was so significant that it opened a lot more strategic options for the Larkinson Army. The expeditionary fleet had much less to fear against large enemy fleets!
Gloriana eventually wanted to move on to the final phase of the testing session. "Alright, we've gained a good idea on the Amaranto's firepower. Before its power runs out, I want to test its accuracy."
Ves smirked and switched to another communication channel. "Tusa! You're up now! Go and build up so speed. You'll need it soon. Oh, and make sure to keep your Dark Zephyr within the designated zone."
The expert pilot in question cursed for a mont, but did as he was instructed.
While the Dark Zephyr began to accelerate in a circle, the Amaranto patiently waited. The red-coated ch still exuded a reddish glow due to all of the power it had expended. Its crystalline rifle was an especially eye-catching elent. All of the different energies coursing through its crystal components had caused it to light up like a rainbow dancing in a nightclub.
The masterwork expert ch presented a notable contrast to the Dark Zephyr. Whereas the latter was coated in black which psychologically made it a lot harder to track in the dark of space, the Amaranto not only created a light show, but also possessed a substantial energy signature as not even its luminar crystals were able to absorb all of the excess heat that its weapon had generated!
All of this ant that most targeting systems would have a much easier ti at locking in the Amaranto than the Dark Zephyr.
"The Amaranto definitely needs to rest behind a solid barrier." Ves noted. "We can't afford to expose its entire fra to an enemy force."
Gloriana grinned. "That won't be a problem. When we finish the Shield of Samar, the two expert chs will be able to pair together. Won't it be great if we can transform it into a masterwork as well? It will be the perfect combination!"
Ves rolled his eyes. That was an extrely unlikely possibility considering they needed to build on top of an existing ch. The inability to start from scratch ant that the upgraded revision would always contain so flaws that would detract from its overall quality. This was a huge handicap that made the challenge of building a masterwork expert ch even more impossible!
At this ti, the Dark Zephyr built up a sufficient amount of speed relative to the Amaranto. Venerable Tusa had even opted to resonate his expert ch and activate its Perception Distortion ability on his own accord!
The Dark Zephyr beca a lot harder to pin down because its visual coordinates did not match its actual coordinates.
Without the help of a few hundred ranged chs saturing an entire area with ordnance, it was impossible to guess where the Dark Zephyr was located!
Venerable Stark did not exhibit any doubt, though. Even though she was no longer in her pri condition, she was determined to land at least one hit against the elusive expert light ch!
"Begin!"
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