Ves grew speechless.
Of all of the hairbrained demands he heard in his life, an expert pilot requesting to rge his expert ch with a juggernaut certainly ranked in the top 10!
"Did you tell Venerable Glendale how idiotic it is for him to pilot a juggernaut?"
"I did, sir." Alexa calmly responded. "One of the reasons why chs had reached their current size is because it has reached an optimum balance between scale and control. If expert pilots force themselves to pilot chs that are larger than the standard dinsions, then they will find it exponentially more difficult to cover the enlarged ch fra with their true resonance. At a certain point, their resonance shields will not be able to cover the entire fra. This is a fatal defect as the parts of the ch outside of this barrier will no longer enjoy any strong protection."
One of the most important reasons why expert chs were able to dominate many standard chs was because the forr was able to block many attacks with the help of resonance shields.
The strength of a resonance shield depended on many factors, but it was generally determined by the size of a ch, the quality of its resonating materials and the resonance strength of a ch pilot.
However, there was no effective way to extend the range of a resonance shield or an expert ch as far as Ves knew.
The only 'proper' solution was for the expert pilot to advance to the rank of ace pilot.
At that stage, the resonance shield transford into a proper Saint Kingdom, which could not only negate attacks, but do all kinds of other stuff!
It was not impossible for an ace pilot to amplify the performance of an entire juggernaut at this stage!
Since that was the case, why didn't ace pilots switch to piloting ace juggernauts on a wider scale?
After all, bigger was better! It should definitely be worth it for ace pilots to control a war machine that was as large as a destroyer!
The story was not so simple.
Since Ves was able to co up with the idea, so could others.
He recalled that the ch industry had dabbled into ace juggernauts multiple tis during the Age of chs.
While it was certain that a lot of these attempts remained secret from the public, a few stories did manage to find their way into the public sphere.
What was clear was that pretty much every attempt ended up in failure.
Ace juggernauts that were hundreds of ters long possessed much greater scale than any standard ace ch.
Just killing them was much more troubleso as they could clad themselves with thick armor and protect their core components under lots of additional layers of alloy plating.
They could even mount titan shields that were ordinarily designed to protect starships or fortified bases to frustrate their enemies.
Ace juggernauts were also able to leverage far greater physical strength, making them ideal for swinging down blades that could chop an entire starship in half!
Their large structures also allowed ch designers to mount them with all sorts of warship-grade armants. They could fit a broad array of plasma cannons, torpedo launchers and other ridiculous modules.
While controlling them all without any dedicated personnel imposed a large burden on the individual, an ace pilot possessed superhuman capabilities and should just be able to command all of these weapon systems!
All of this already sounded strong enough, but with the inclusion of true resonance, such a powerhouse could definitely beat up hostile battleships and co out unscathed!
So why hadn't these monstrosities showed up on the battlefield?
There were many reasons why. The fact that they were slow and clumsy caused them to be unable to keep up with most if not all ace chs in battle.
It couldn't be helped. Juggernauts were so massive and enormous that their mobility could only be raised to 'average' at best.
Most ace chs were designed and built to be a lot swifter than standard chs. Each of them relied on speed to keep up with each other and overpower any enemies that were slower.
In an age where important battles may be decided by the outco of a duel between ace pilots, being too slow to block the attacks of an ace ch could be fatal!
This was why ace juggernauts turned into an epic failure.
Their massive lee weapons beca useless if they couldn't be swung fast enough to hit a small but agile ace ch.
Their abundance of ranged armants granted them a lot of firepower, but again, an ace ch was able to evade or circumvent them easily enough.
Once an ace ch snuck close enough to stab a juggernaut in the back, there was very little the big and clunky machine could do to protect its most vulnerable point!
Ace juggernauts also weren't worth it from a cost perspective. It took an exponentially greater amount of resonating material for an ace pilot to adequately resonate with the full ch fra.
If the juggernaut ever got damaged, repairing it was much slower and more troubleso than repairing a small and compact ace ch.
No ch workshop possessed the capabilities to repair heavy damage on a juggernaut!
Only shipyards or large-scale workshops possessed the capacity to fix up these giant machines.
All of these disadvantages killed the ace juggernaut movent before it could even kick off. Nobody was stupid enough to waste so many resources on a big pile of tal that could easily be exploited by enemy ace chs.
"Have you told this guy how awful of an idea it is to pilot a juggernaut?"
"I did, sir, but he insisted on it." Alexa said.
"Why?"
"That requires a longer explanation. How many tis have you t Venerable Kolak Glendale?"
"..."
Alexa threw Ves a knowing look. "Exactly. You have developed a good relationship with the first expert pilots to erge in the Larkinson Clan. You showered them with attention and attentively designed their chs for them. You first granted them their own personalized pri chs before moving on to giving them expert chs and ace chs whenever appropriate. Everyone can see how much you adore them. This is a rather common phenona in the ch industry. You essentially treat Tusa, Stark, Orfan, Dise, Jannzi, Joshua and Casella as your surrogates."
"Are you accusing of living vicariously through those ch pilots?!"
"Yes." Alexa plainly said. "This is not an accusation. This is an observation. This is not deplorable behavior. The more ch designers care about their favorite ch pilots, the more invested they beco in supplying them with better chs. The problem that people may have with your favoritism is that ch pilots who fall outside of your exclusive club may feel… neglected by you. They may develop the impression that you are treating them as naless assets."
"That is…"
Alexa did not give him enough ti to co up with an excuse. "It is true, is it not? Do not insult my intelligence and observation capabilities. Your behavior is clear to many Larkinsons, not just myself. The others never called you out on it, but I feel it is necessary to clear the air and bring clarity to this issue. Tell honestly, sir. Are you treating the later generation of high-ranking ch pilots differently than the ones that beca prominent before?"
Seeing that his direct disciple had made such a thorough analysis on him, Ves saw no reason to put up a charade.
"You got . You're right. I do play favorites. The high-ranking pilots that you have ntioned earlier are the ones who I can trust with a high degree of confidence. They have been with since the old days. They fought many powerful enemies on my behalf. We are all comrades who have forged our bonds in battle. That sort of brotherhood sticks with you for a long ti. I don't share that kind of bond with the likes of Venerable Pedro Rodrigo, Venerable Kolak Glendale and the many expert pilots that ca after. I don't think I can call up their na without accessing a database from my cranial implant. I have left the tedious job of getting to know them to Gloriana. She is responsible for giving newly advanced expert pilots their first expert chs."
There was a limit to how many ch pilots he found worthwhile to befriend in person. After accumulating a core circle of powerful and promising champions, he felt it was not necessary to forge any further bonds.
Perhaps he might pay more attention to the likes of Venerable Zimro Benson. The man piloted the only high-ranking stealth ch of the Larkinson Clan. Yet even that did not rank high in Ves' priorities.
As Ves stared at his subordinate, he felt grateful that he did not look at him with judging eyes.
He knew that his behavior was not entirely fair to all of the champions of the Larkinson Clan.
"Venerable Glendale has expressed understanding of why you are closer to the first seven champions than the rest." She said. "He is jealous, but he does not bla you. He just wants to earn your trust and appreciation, just as the others have done before. However, this is an uphill battle for him as he is neither able to fight under your direct watch nor able to outperform his peers."
Ves nodded. "Glendale fights with the 77th Warborn ch Division, right? I don't really make it a habit of watching much of the battle footage from General Ark's pet ch force."
"He originally chose to join the Warborn because he assud that he would be able to fight more aningful battles under General Ark. His Greenaxe is also more suited when fighting against chs than warships. Before the Age of Dawn, his decision made sense."
"Is that why he wants to switch to piloting a juggernaut? Does he think he can perform better and earn my approval by piloting a massive machine that can chop apart alien warships and weaker phase lords alike?"
"You have to admit that juggernauts may be more suitable when deployed against enemy warships." Alexa said. "Juggernauts are larger and less able to evade the attacks of warships, but their defenses are exponentially stronger. Expert juggernauts do not make sense, but ace juggernauts have the potential to beco a devastating alien killer. Not only can they withstand an astronomical amount of damage, but when they are ard with lee weapons, they may beco powerful enough to breach the spatial barriers of many greater phase lords with a single blow. If we make the ace juggernaut out of superdinsional matter, then its threat against enemy phase lords will beco at least an order of magnitude greater!"
Ves was forced to seriously consider this idea. The concept of an ace juggernaut initially sounded absurd to him, but now that he put all of the argunts in order, he realized that it had actually turned into a viable proposal!
The enemies of red humanity had changed. No longer were humans fighting against each other. It was not necessary to design ace chs with the assumption that they would fight against each other.
Instead, ch designers needed to design more ace chs that were geared towards fighting the latest threat, which was enemy warships and phase leaders.
As far as Ves knew, none of the alien champions had displayed a penchant for speed and agility. They simply did not fight like light chs because their mass and bulk did not allow for such absurdity.
Even if they possessed warping capabilities that could speed up their traversal, any warp interdictor or space suppressor could shut them down.
All of this ant that as long as a juggernaut was not too large and unwieldy, it should be able to trade blows against enemy phase lords on a much more even basis!
However, that still did not make it sensible for Venerable Glendale to pilot a giant machine.
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