The Minerva Mark II Project was slowly coming together. The first-class ace command ch would beco a sight to behold.
She may lack the Saint Kingdom of regular ace chs, but her ability to empower friendly units and manipulate the battlefield would reach a whole new level.
The configuration of the Minerva Mark II was pretty much complete. Ves and Gloriana had already made every design choice that mattered. All they had to do was to fill up the increasingly more complete ch design.
This still amounted to a lot of work. If not for the fact that Ves and Gloriana wanted to maintain at least a certain degree of confidentiality and information security, they could have delegated or outsourced more work to design teams and consultants. However, the pair did not want one of the most important assets of the Larkinson Clan to be transparent to his potential enemies and rivals.
They had to pick their help very carefully for that reason.
They only delegated work to the most trustworthy design teams in the Design Departnt.
They also sought aningful contributions from fellow Journeyman ch Designers despite their obvious lack of qualifications.
Ves invited Viktor MacMillan to employ his specialization to develop the most luxurious and powerful close-surface azure energy shield system that he had ever realized.
"I am not qualified." Viktor said as he looked overwheld by the offer. "The Minerva Mark II is a first-class ch. Not only that, it is an ace ch. I... am still a second-class ch designer. I have been working hard to pass all of the courses required to beco a first-class ch designer, but it is still too premature for to work on such a high-end project."
Ves responded by casually placing his hand on the other ch designer's shoulder. "Tough luck, Viktor, because we don't have much to choose from besides you and a few others. I can easily look for outside consultants. There are plenty of third party Seniors and Masters that would salivate over the opportunity to put their mark on the Minerva Mark II. However, no matter how much we isolate all of the more sensitive and confidential parts of the ch design, they will always be able to learn many of the properties of our future ace ch. Since this is the case, I would rather turn to a fellow clansman than rely on the discretion of a stranger. Do you understand?"
Viktor felt ambivalent about this. He understood what Ves was getting at.
Personally, he looked forward to contributing a small but still important aspect of an ace ch that was bound to beco a legendary machine among the Larkinsons and
the rest of red humanity.
However, his integrity as a ch designer forced him to acknowledge that he was far from the best at improving the design of a first-class ace ch.
It was only because Ves himself insisted upon his participation that Viktor was reluctantly able to set aside his misgivings.
"If you trust that much, then I will do my best not to disappoint you." Viktor eventually said. "I may not have completed my studies in first-class high-technologies, but I think I can whip up an extrely powerful azure shield generator so long as you permit to license an existing first-class component design and give permission to obtain the necessary phasewater as well as other expensive materials.
"You will have it, Viktor. Please coordinate with Master Laila Rebecca Devos for your licensing needs. You can also talk to her about purchasing the rare exotics and hypers that you want to use to build the shield generator."
The Journeyman frowned when he heard that na. "Is Master Devos involved in this ch design project?"
"Yes." Ves sighed. "Proper ace chs can only be designed by Master ch Designers. We used to have an understanding with Master Benedict Cortez, but he has recently beco more preoccupied. Certain events have also put our relationship with him under strain. This is why we reluctantly turned to Master Laila Devos to design the aspects of an ace ch that only a Master ch Designer can fulfill. She has actually provided a lot of help as she is able to leverage the full resources of the Devos Ancient Clan. We actually had to decline many of her offers since we don't want the Minerva Mark II to beco a fully-fledged Terran ace ch."
The Terrans and the Rubarthans had refined their ch design capabilities considerably ahead of other groups.
They were only slightly inferior to the chers in this regard!
The Red Association generally fielded the most well-regarded chs because it encompassed a huge variety of high technologies.
This allowed the chers to mix and match a wide selection of tech and design philosophies to form the most synergistic ch concepts.
The Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact employed plenty of ch designers as well, but they could not beat the Red Association in terms of quantity and variety. This was why the colonial first-raters chose to narrow their focus and specialize in a limited selection of broad fields.
For example, the Terrans chose to put more emphasis on the developnt of lee chs while the Rubarthans typically put more weight on the evolution of their ranged chs.
By narrowing the focus of their R&D and industrial developnt, the Terrans and the Rubarthans were still able to design and field excellent first-class multipurpose chs that remained sowhat competitive in comparison to RA chs.
In any case, the Terrans could offer a lot of good stuff to the Minerva Mark II Project, but Ves and Gloriana were hesitant to accept them because they did not master the proprietary tech themselves.
As much as Ves had developed good relationships with the Devos Ancient Clan and Streon Ancient Clan, there was a limit to how much he wanted to make his most strategic assets dependent on other people's tech.
Viktor MacMillan went to work. As a Journeyman who had proven his competence during the Fey Shaper Contest, he was much more competent than the average ch
designer.
He urgently studied the most essential pieces of knowledge that were necessary to fulfill his latest assignnt and proceeded to understand and modify the Terran azure energy shield generator according to his limited expertise.
There was room for another contributing ch designer.
Ves thought the Minerva Mark II needed a stronger bite. Hebriefly thought about involving Zanthar Larkinson, but Gloriana insisted on bringing in Beatrice Hendrix. "Your luminar crystal rifles are already strong enough." She said. "There is little added value to substituting the next version of the Irvan luminar crystal rifle with one of Zanthar's strange 'EEE Weapons! As far as the Saint Commander is concerned, her subordinates are her weapons. It is best if we invest in additional defenses. Enemies will focus more and more on eliminating the Minerva Mark II as she becos increasingly more famous and powerful."
"Then who do you want to suggest instead?"
"Beatrice Hendrix has made strides in improving her Adaptive Modular Armor Systems. She is able to design a basic but functional first-class edition of the Battle Skirt System that will provide an extra layer of adaptive protection for the Minerva Mark II as well as the Victrix. The modular armor plating of this system also synergizes extrely well with the resonating ability derived from Dragon Scales."
If they were working on another project, then Ves would have argued that such a strong focus on defenses was excessive.
They already tasked Viktor MacMillan to develop an extra powerful azure shield generator for the Minerva Mark II.
Adding an improved version of the Battle Skirt System almost sounded redundant.
However, Ves acknowledged that Gloriana made an excellent point. There was no need to put heavy emphasis on direct offensive power in the high-end ch design
project.
Classical ace command chs weren't supposed to defeat their enemies directly.
They were designed to empower other friendly units while trying to stay alive as much
as possible.
Many famous high-ranking command chs possessed multiple redundant defensive layers due to the fact that they lacked traditional Saint Kingdoms.
Without a strong domain fueled by willpower that was centered around themselves, the ace pilots were much more vulnerable to powerful attacks!
Ace chs that did not compensate for this critical shortcoming tended to attract assassination attempts and decapitation strikes at much greater frequencies than
normal.
Enemies simply couldn't resist the obvious opening!
By turtling up the Minerva Mark II, the Larkinsons would not only be able to reduce the success rate of any targeted strikes, but also deter enemies from making the
attempt in the first place.
One of the benefits of the new Battle Skirt System soon beca clear.
"There is strong synergy between the adaptive modular armor plating and archetech."
Gloriana judged after she worked with Beatrice to puzzle out a custom solution for the Minerva Mark II. "The regular modular armor plating consists of a solid plate at the front, but is embedded with relatively fragile electrical components in the rear. Even if they are shielded and covered up with protective layers, it is still a fact that these modular armor plates tend to lose control before their physical structures are entirely spent. We can eliminate this shortcoming by making the modular armor plates out of
archetal.
This was an intriguing suggestion that could significantly increase the performance of the Battle Skirt System.
"All of this sounds great, Gloriana, but it will also make the Battle Skirt System more expensive and troubleso to make." Ves ntioned. "Unless the new archetal plating is easy to mass produce by other specialists in our clan, you will have to devote extra ti to fabricate a lot of spare plating in case the Minerva Mark II or the Victrix incurred serious damage."
"I am prepared to do so. It shouldn't take too much ti to mass produce enough spare archetal modular armor plating to replenish the entire Battle Skirt System at
least two tis."
Ves actually grew more and more impressed by the properties of this archetal variation of the Battle Skirt System.
"We should look to implent this design application in other chs whenever
possible." Ves said.
BY
III, but Ketis has shut out of the project."
"Ketis has found another ch designer to take care of the defensive needs of the First
Sword Mark III,"
"I predict that the solution from this outsider is not as elegant and feminine as the
Battle Skirt System."
"Looks don't matter as much as being able to resist the impact of superdinsional weapons head-on." Ves pointed out. "The Archetal Battle Skirt System does not score well in this area unless we make the modular armor plating out of armor-grade
superdinsional matter."
"Then tell Ketis to hurry up and convince the Heavensword to open up another portal
to the Blue Dinsion!"
Ves' refusal to allocate the limited amount of armor-grade superdinsional matter to the Minerva Mark II still did not sit well with his wife.
As much as he felt tempted to change his mind, he ultimately stuck to his original decision whenever he imagined his ambitious vision for the Riot Mark III. Venerable Rosa Orfan needed the power of superdinsional matter much more urgently than Saint Commander Casella Ingvar!
He tried his best to set this matter aside and resu his work.
The contributions of Viktor MacMillan and Beatrice Hendrix should provide more than
enough of a defensive boost to the Minerva Mark II to keep her safe and active on the
battlefield.
However, it was the unique contribution made by Master Laila Rebecca Devos that truly gave an additional dinsion to the Minerva Mark II.
Master Laila most definitely possessed the expertise and wisdom to beco the leading authority on chs within the Devos Ancient Clan.
She had lived for over 300 years, which ant that she had entered the ch industry
during the start of its heyday and lived through the remainder of the Age of chs. Her design philosophy reflected this long journey of developnt.
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