One of the greatest advantages of humanoid chs was that they could change their external equipnt with minimal fuss.
It was not an advantage that the Larkinson Clan utilized often. Ves designed most of his chs with a singular purpose in mind where they only had to do great in their own intended roles.
There was nothing wrong with this approach, but the ergence of chs such as the latest generation of Bright Warriors showed that there was still a huge amount of value in providing more choice of loadouts.
From a ch designer's perspective, the ability for humanoid chs to utilize their limbs to grab any pieces of equipnt they could was the oldest modular ch system in existence.
The modular connection system was virtually universal, allowing for any ch to pick up any weapon or gear no matter whether their purposes matched.
A rifleman ch could theoretically hold a tower shield while a swordsman ch could wield a cannon.
The chs might even be able to achieve acceptable results under the right circumstances!
However, there was a big difference in being able to hold a weapon and being able to utilize it well!
If Ketis wielded a sword, then she could probably slaughter an entire infantry battalion by herself!
However, if she was ard with an assault rifle instead, then it was questionable whether she could defeat an infantry squad!
The sa dynamic applied to chs.
chs designed for lee combat usually featured great chanical strength but did not possess enough stability and fine control to facilitate accurate shooting.
chs designed for ranged combat were the opposite in this regard.
What was relevant in this case was that rifleman chs and cannoneer chs were not identical to each other.
Perhaps layn assud that they were almost exactly the sa and only truly differed by the size of their primary armants, but there were many deep and fundantal differences in their designs.
Rifleman chs occupied the middle ground among ranged chs. They were decently fast, accurate, agile and possessed good staying power.
Cannoneer chs leaned towards the more hard-hitting and cumberso side of ranged chs. Their mobility was usually low to average but their armor was a bit better to compensate for their lower evasion ability.
chs such as the Eternal Redemption line designed for the Penitent Sisters also featured large to monstrously-sized cannons.
While heavy artillery chs generally relied on multiple cannons to sustain a high consistent output of damage, cannoneer chs expressly relied on one imnsely powerful gun to deliver piercing shots.
While big and heavy cannons most certainly had their uses, they were not as accurate or as efficient as smaller and more controllable rifles. It was difficult to maintain perfect accuracy at long range unless the target was a fortress or a huge and lumbering starship.
Therefore, different ranged chs equipped with different weapons generally excelled in diverging modes of combat.
Rifleman chs just happened to be the most popular in both spaceborn and landbound combat due to their excellent combination of traits.
Cannoneer chs were less common but there were certain ch forces that succeeded in maximizing their value.
When Ves studied this topic on the galactic net, he found that cannoneer chs worked best in large, set piece battles like the previous engagent.
That was because there were a lot of rigid formations and large, static targets such as orbital space fortresses where the cannoneer chs could unleash their firepower without worrying too much about missing their shots.
Their huge but relatively inefficient cannons would not waste their firepower in such a target-rich environnt!
However, cannoneer chs perford progressively worse when the scale of an engagent grew smaller.
Their lack of flexibility and other faults increasingly weighed them down.
All of this was interesting information and helped him put the Amaranto's second weapon into context.
Ves gained a much clearer idea on how he wanted to expand the masterwork expert ch's weapon options.
"The Instrunt of Vengeance rifle is a good general purpose sniper rifle for a marksman ch. It is already sufficient against most targets, but it still has trouble with taking down the biggest or the most well protected targets."
The Amaranto's current weapon was not a sieging weapon and it didn't have to function like one. Ves originally envisioned it as a powerful precision weapon that could take down its targets by focusing on their weak points.
This was why the weapon integrated the resonating exotic known as Opticonium. The express purpose of this exotic was to enable the Amaranto to bend its energy beams, which would enable Venerable Stark to avoid the strongest frontal protection of her targets and strike their weaker sides instead!
However, there were situations in battle where precision and flexibility couldn't cut it anymore.
Replacing a sniper rifle with a cannon provided Venerable Stark with a different set of advantages that worked especially great against large astral beasts such as the Titania or alien warships like the ones that regularly road the deep frontier!
In fact, granting the Amaranto the ability to effectively deal with non-human enemies was the primary reason why Ves decided to embrace the cannon as the basis of its second weapon.
"This way, the Amaranto can still stick to the Instrunt of Vengeance rifle when fighting against human ch forces but switch over to its new cannon when fighting against alien forces.
The indigenous alien races still fought their battles in a similar fashion to humanity before the Age of chs.
Warships and large guns were ubiquitous among their warfleets. Though it was not unheard of for certain alien races to employ small craft such as starfighters, their roles were often supportive in nature.
"In short, it is better to carry a bigger gun in battle that can more effectively overco the thick hull plating of the most threatening warships." Ves concluded.
Transphasic cannons happened to be even more effective against these targets!
Their amazing penetration capabilities might co at a cost, but it didn't matter if the Amaranto only needed to fire a handful of shots to cripple a threatening alien vessel!
As Ves continued to flesh out the design for the luminar crystal cannon, he completely embraced the idea of turning it into a siege weapon.
The design choices he made during this ti constantly increased the cannon's damage output at the cost of accuracy, control and energy efficiency.
One of the more difficult choices that Ves had to make was to add an external battery module to the weapon fra. There was no other way for the Amaranto to keep its hungry cannon active for over five minutes!
While the new addition made it easier for the Amaranto to swap spent battery modules for fresh ones, their considerable size and mass added even more bulk to a weapon that was already overburdening the Amaranto.
When Ves took a step back, he could see that the proportions of the cannon and the ch did not match at all! The Amaranto literally looked like a skinny man that was attempting to hold a tree trunk!
The cannon looked so out of place that it completely ruined the majesty of the masterwork ch!
Ves didn't care for that, though.
"I would rather use a crude shovel than an exquisite spoon if I need to dig a hole in the ground."
This encapsulated his thought process towards the cannon. Whether it harmonized with the Amaranto or whether Ves was able to turn it into a masterwork weapon did not fall under his consideration at all. He just wanted to equip his expert ch with the right tool for the right job.
Ves showed little restraint and went almost completely wild as he beca more engrossed in the design process.
His passion beca more and more stoked as he developed various small but novel design solutions that made the cannon more savage.
However, his progress slowed to a crawl after reaching a certain junction in the design process.
Though he was able to complete the weapon all by himself, it would miss out on nurous advantages that couldn't have been added to the cannon if he brought in contributions from other ch designers.
This was why he invited Gloriana and Master Benedict to a virtual eting. He first presented his half-complete weapon design to them before inviting them to help design the rest.
"What are you asking from us, Ves?" Master Benedict asked.
"My new cannon can't beco a qualified expert ch weapon if it can't effectively resonate with Venerable Stark." Ves replied. "The Instrunt of Vengeance is embedded with Opticonium, and I think my new weapon ought to be matched with another powerful resonating exotic. I have a decent collection of materials in our strategic materials reserve that can potentially play a useful role here, so I would like you to help maximize the firepower of the Amaranto's upcoming sieging tool."
The Master ch Designer of the Cross Clan thoughtfully studied the incomplete design schematics.
"I can do that, but… I cannot stand the internal architecture of this weapon. It may not be representative of the final version, but there are fundantals here that are unnecessary wasteful in my eyes."
Luminar crystal weapons worked differently from conventional human energy weapons, but science and engineering was still universal. Master Benedict could still implent many tweaks to make the weapon more efficient in its use of energy.
Ves nodded in agreent. "I was just about to ask you that. My luminar crystal cannon could sorely use your help."
"What about , Ves?" Gloriana asked. "What is my role in this project?"
He turned to his wife. "I would like you to apply your god body tech to this luminar crystal cannon. If you have studied its design closely, you will see that I have already taken this factor into account, so it should be relatively straightforward for you to enable this weapon to evolve its quality by absorbing external energy."
Gloriana did not imdiately agree.
"I can understand why you would want to do that, but it would make this weapon even more out of tune with the Amaranto."
"That will only be a temporary condition, Gloriana. We already ford a plan to upgrade all of our existing expert chs into god bodies, rember? While it isn't ti yet for us to revise the overall design of the Amaranto, we can start with a preview by applying your design solution to the luminar crystal cannon first. Besides, this will be an excellent test case for you to study its characteristics from a different ch from the Mars."
"Hmmm… you are right. I agree, then. However, I want to add a number of touches of my own to your weapon design. It is too barbaric in its current state."
"That's the entire point of this weapon, Gloriana!"
Bringing in other ch designers brought a lot of trouble, but Ves had little choice. He could not replicate the strengths of Gloriana and Master Benedict so he accepted the need for compromise in order to elevate the power and capabilities of his upcoming weapon.
Fortunately, the three already had a lot of experience with collaborating with each other, so they resolved their disagreents fairly quickly.
Progress accelerated as two more ch designers shared the workload that Ves originally bore by himself.
Both his wife and Master Benedict developed an increasing amount of interest in the outco of this project.
How powerful would a new blessed weapon beco after incorporating several powerful design solutions in a single package?
Was Ves right in claiming that this powerful luminar crystal cannon would enable the Amaranto to efficiently take down alien warships from afar?
The only way this could co true was if his new blessed weapon concept successfully amplified the penetration capabilities of the cannon by an enormous margin!
The Phase King had already shown that it could do so for smaller infantry-sized guns, but could the design spirit still accomplish the sa task for a large and imposing cannon?
This was the mystery that all three ch designers wanted to solve!
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