6923 Artillery Bunkers
Ves and his family extensively toured the interior of the 3.6 kiloter long orven battleship.
The E-66 Experintal Yard had spent a lot of ti and manpower on converting the Tortuous Scream for human occupation and usage.
However, the vessel's internal volu was so great that the Rubarthan shipbuilders could not completely transform her tech and architecture to human style.
Doing so was no different from designing and constructing a native human warship from the start.
The purpose of using the alien battleship was to expediently make good use of the CFA Battlecruiser Token that Ves had earned. It did not matter if the Tortuous Scream still operated on an alien programming system so long as the warship obeyed her new masters.
These reasons and more caused the exterior as well as the interior of the warship to look like a confused hybrid between human and orven ship design.
The greater height of the ceilings and the vertical deck layout were all typical to orven-developed starships. It took way too much work to convert it all to human style, so the shipbuilders did not bother to change the layout for the most part.
"The greatest changes that we have made to the hull is the removal of many secondary and tertiary gun batteries." The recently appointed high captain reported to Ves. "According to your directive, we have done this as extensively as we could. All secondary gun batteries and a large number of tertiary gun batteries have made way for bunkers that can house one or even multiple heavy artillery chs. This also ans that if no ch is active, the Tortuous Scream only possesses half of the point defense capabilities that she should normally enjoy."
Gilbert de Raanvanchas projected an image of the converted battleship and highlighted all of the gun batteries and bunkers on the hull.
Ves noted that while the Tortuous Scream still retained a lot of tertiary gun batteries, they were all located in corners, edged and other areas where it was difficult to install bunkers.
"I haven't thought about it back then, but now that I see this, it is a good idea that we have preserved the remaining tertiary gun batteries. They can provide imdiate interception capabilities if the ship ever falls out of FTL travel and gets ambushed right away or whatever. We cannot rely entirely on chs placed in bunkers for all of our defensive needs as their ch pilots are not always in their cockpits and prepared to fight at any mont."
It usually took a bit of ti to bring the turrets online and tell them what to do, but they could still make themselves useful a lot faster than bunker chs!
After a considerable journey, they entered one of the locations that was previously occupied by a secondary gun battery.
The turret occupied a relatively large amount of space. What was visible on the exterior of the ship was only the tip of the iceberg. It took a lot of components to make the large structure move and to feed it with energy or ammunition.
After the shipbuilders ripped away this bulky weapon chanism, they converted all of the free space into bunker clusters as well as other functional components.
Ves grew particularly pleased with how well the new bunkers provided offensive support to the bunker chs.
Any chs equipped with a standard power slot would be able to connect to a power feed that directly supplied energy from a nearby first-class power generator.
The bunkers also possessed robust and reinforced ammunition feed channels. They could supply all sorts of projectiles, missiles and other physical ordnance to a ch so long as the crew made the necessary adjustnts.
Clamps and other structural elents not only stabilized the bunker chs, but also helped to shunt away their excess heat. The chs did not have to worry about heat managent at all as the massive alien battleship could easily absorb a titanic amount of thermal energy without issue!
In short, the converted battleship probably boasted the most luxurious bunkers that Ves had ever seen!
Only Red Association warships possessed comparable or superior bunkers, but even they did not have as many of them as the Tortuous Scream!
"As you can see, we are not only able to provide additional azure energy shields to protect the bunker chs, but also provide additional ergency physical protection by rolling them into place at a critical ti. This should significantly increase the survival rate of the chs in question. We value all 155 artillery bunkers."
Ves knew how much of a difference all of these asures could make.
Ordinary secondary gun batteries were quite powerful enough on their own. Replacing them with bunker chs sounded like an upgrade, but the story was much different once the Minerva Mark II empowered them with her true resonance!
The damage output of the battleship under the influence of Casella's Command Field would far surpass that of other alien battleships of the sa size and scale!
At that ti, the Tortuous Scream would definitely turn into a high-priority target to the enemy!
This was undoubtedly dangerous to the Larkinsons residing in the converted battleship. Ves would definitely put himself and possibly his family in greater danger if the vessel tore down enemy warships left and right.
Yet that was already in his consideration. If the Tortuous Scream beca a must-kill target to the aliens, then their behavior beca a lot more predictable.
The Premier Fleet could purposefully guide the actions of enemy units and funnel them into traps or kill zones where they could be eliminated with ease!
"We don't have any good bunker chs on hand, do we?" He asked.
"Indeed we do not." Gilbert responded. "The artillery bunkers are designed to provide excellent accommodation to first-class heavy artillery chs. They can still be adjusted to provide support to the Oga Thresher model that you have procured for the Premier Fleet, but this is not an optimal combination. The Oga Threshers are first-class multipurpose chs that are designed to be fairly compact and mobile. They are mounted with a number of miniaturized integrated weapon systems that are still potent for their size, but are also limited by the sa factor."
In other words, the Oga Threshers perford well when deployed in the field, but could not compete against genuine bunker chs when put into static defensive positions.
Ves recalled the weapon systems mounted on a standard Oga Thresher ch.
"The wrist-mounted plasma sweeper cannons are only useful at very close ranges. The Phase Disintegrator Guns are fairly powerful, but not that effective at longer ranges. The sa goes for the plasma cannons. They pack a an punch, but their calibers are on the smaller size due to capacity limitations. The Oga Laser Cannons and the Datura Gravity Well Caster are pretty aweso, but their power levels cannot match the much larger armants mounted on heavy artillery chs."
In this regard, the Totori MAXXX model would have been a slightly better choice for bunker chs.
"Unless you are willing to procure first-class heavy artillery chs to occupy the artillery bunkers, it is still possible to make good use of the Oga Threshers." Gilbert said. "The FFEE1100 version is the base configuration of this ch line. There are other variants that are designed for different purposes. There are several that are designed to fulfill the role of bunker chs. If you do not wish to convert 155 Oga Threshers to these bunker ch-specific configurations, then you can instead take advantage of their humanoid arms to replace their Datura guns with larger and much more formidable cannons."
The high captain gave Ves an example of what he ant. He produced a new projection that displayed this scenario.
An Oga Thresher ch was locked inside one of the bunkers. What was strange was that the ch had thrust both arms into mounted cannons that were so large and massive that it would have been difficult for the ch to carry in the field!
It was only due to additional structural support from the bunker structure that the Oga Thresher ch was able to aim and control the sizable cannons.
When the Oga Thresher opened fire, the first-class ch did not just fire with its smaller integrated weapon systems, but also unleashed a pair of much more powerful Oga Laser beams at a distant target!
Such powerful and concentrated energy attacks would have exerted a large burden on the first-class ch, but because the Oga Thresher was serving on a legitimate warship, the Larkinsons were allowed to directly link the ch with the hull!
This enabled the bunker ch to fire her demanding external weapons more frequently!
In fact, it was difficult to identify the additional Oga Laser Cannons as ch weapons.
They were mounted and linked into the structure and power channels of the Tortuous Scream, which ant that they could also be regarded as warship cannons.
Yet because they could only be fired by chs, they should still match the definition of ch armants.
This was an important distinction to the Larkinson Clan. Saint Commander Casella Ingvar's Command Field treated pure battleship gun batteries a lot differently than ch armants.
The latter received a much more powerful boost than the forr!
This was because genuine ch weapons were treated as extensions of chs, each of which could be individually Commandeered or Enfeoffed!
Ves understood what the high captain attempted to do. Gilbert wanted to make a bet that despite connecting the larger Oga Laser Cannons to the bunkers of his warship, they retained enough properties of ch weapons to be treated as the equipnt of the Oga Thresher chs.
"This is interesting." He said. "If there is enough ti, manpower, spare materials and funding, then I am in favor of putting this idea on trial. If it works, then you can apply this sche to the remaining artillery bunkers. There is just one change I would like to make."
"What would you like to change, sir?"
Ves raised his fingers and erased the large caliber Oga Laser Cannons. He then began to draw crude versions of large caliber luminar crystal cannons in their place.
"Our clan makes use of our own variety of energy weapons. It is based on alien tech, but it has proven its worth to us many tis. Oga laser weapon tech is strong, but our clan is not too familiar with it. I think it is better for us to stick with what is familiar and use luminar crystal cannons to augnt the firepower of our Oga Threshers."
Gilbert de Raanvanchas looked thoughtful. Even if he was new to the Larkinson Clan, he had done his due diligence and developed a decent understanding of his new employer.
"If you are confident that your first-class luminar crystal cannons can keep up with the formidable damage output of Oga laser cannons, then I have little objections to your proposal. Just to be on the safe side, I suggest we trial both weapon implentations. We can make a direct and objective comparison between two proposals."
"That is an even better idea. You can go ahead and make the arrangents. It would be best if this experintal setup is done before we start our campaign and get into our first true fight."
They continued to talk about what else they could do to improve the effectiveness of all 155 artillery bunkers.
Once they finished their discussion on them, they soon turned their attention to the much more special sniper bunkers.
The Tortuous Scream only boasted 4 of them, and that was because they were solely designed to accommodate the high-ranking chs of the Larkinson Clan.
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