Ves and Alexa explored the various ways the Woodsap ch pilots showed their lack of competence.
Though expected, they still looked ugly when they showed off their ager skills and their lack of experience on a serious battlefield.
The aliens deployed to fight against the best of the Terran Alliance were no pushovers by any ans.
Their answer to first-class multipurpose chs ca in the form of high-end phasefighters that put extra emphasis on a combination of strong transphasic energy shielding, high straight-line mobility and strong initial strike capabilities by carrying deadly transphasic missiles.
The first challenge the 120 experintal Woodsap chs faced in battle was confronting a dangerous salvo of enemy missiles!
Though expensive in terms of phasewater alone, the native aliens clearly did not care anymore as they had gigantic reserves to spend on the mass production of powerful munitions.
Given the sizes of their fuselages and warheads, the native aliens laced enough phasewater into them to blow apart a modern first-class multipurpose ch's azure energy shield with a single direct hit or a handful of close proximity explosions depending on the configuration!
Once those energy shields got blown apart, the exposed chs truly ca under threat by subsequent missile attacks.
A single direct hit to the torso had a significant chance of crippling an expensive machine!
A mission kill was practically guaranteed if the warhead struck from the rear!
The native aliens would still be able to earn a profit if they managed to take out an extrely expensive first-class multipurpose ch with a sowhat expensive transphasic missile.
As Ves and Alexa rewatched the opening of the very first engagent, the Woodsap chs indeed got struck by a large swarm of transphasic missiles.
Of course, the biochs did not make themselves easy to get hit. Their pilots fell back onto their training and dispersed their formation while at the sa ti shot down as many incoming munitions as possible.
There was no way in hell that their marksmanship could allow them to shoot down all of the missiles by aiming manually, especially when utilizing the integrated armants installed throughout their entire wooden fras.
They could only entrust the integrated targeting systems to shoot down missile after missile with a variety of relatively low-powered laser beams.
Granted, the Terrans had applied a very advanced and customized version of their exclusive targeting and interception systems to the biochs of the Arboreal Project.
All of this software was leagues ahead of the versions utilized by the Larkinson Clan. This was just one of many details that put the ard forces of a true star empire far ahead of the rabble.
Ves genuinely looked impressed when the Woodsap chs managed to intercept 90 percent of the deadly missiles.
That was enough firepower to wipe out at least half of the experintal detachnt!
However, both sides already expected that most missiles fired at the other side would never fully make it across.
"The enemy missiles struggled to ho in on the Woodsap chs at first." Alexa remarked. "The integration of Solus Gas into their ch fras might not be able to dampen all of their emissions when their activity levels have raised above a certain threshold, but it is still making their Terran-based ECM systems more effective."
That said, transphasic missiles of this quality would not get fooled so easily. There were no instances where they ended up following nonexistent ghosts in harmless directions. They could all accept active guidance from nearby phasefighters that specialized in this particular mission.
The Woodsap chs did their best to shoot them all down no matter their guidance.
"It was not a bad idea for these Woodsap chs to automate their point defenses." Alexa comnted as the young won looked appraisingly at the archival footage. "Professional ch pilots that operate their machines under semi-manual control tend to intercept a greater proportion of missiles, but also make mistakes on occasion, so the balance does not usually change all that much. It is only the outliers that are able to change entire outcos."
In any case, a number of missiles converged and struck over a dozen different Woodsap chs.
The aliens had programd their munitions to strike an enemy machine at least several tis, thereby raising the chances of taking out an adversary without wasting too many warheads on overkill.
However, such programming often faltered when faced with abnormal situations.
This was one of those exceptions.
The azure energy shield generators installed into the Woodsap chs did not possess too many notable features. The Terrans did not find it worthwhile to invest too much in strengthening the machine's energy defenses.
The real strength in Woodsap chs lay in their physical defenses.
That said, the TE Wood used as the main material for the prototype machines was not that much tougher and harder than modern first-class transphasic hyper alloys.
The Woodsap chs struck by multiple missiles all suffered severe damage to their ch fras.
Fortunately, the test pilots at least ensured that they took as many impacts as possible from the front where their biochs boasted the thickest armor.
Many hardy layers of transphasic wood got peeled or splintered away in a very short amount of ti!
The violent transphasic explosions even managed to dig deeper into the ch fras. More functional biochanical components beca exposed and subsequently suffered severely from the blasts.
At the end, the affected Woodsap chs either suffered a near-complete loss of frontal armor or beca partially crippled!
Under normal circumstances, these heavily damaged machines could no longer make any useful contributions on the battlefield.
Those that could still limp back to their motherships got recalled.
Those that lost the ability to move had to be abandoned entirely!
If the alien phasefighter pilots felt particularly vengeful, then it was not out of the question for their strike craft to swoop in and finish the kills!
In those circumstances, the unfortunate ch pilots would count themselves lucky if they could still eject their cockpits and hope that they could fly away fast enough to evade pursuit!
Fortunately for the test pilots, none of them had to test the integrity of their cockpits.
They also did not have to wait in suspense after the battle to learn whether their broken battle partners could be 'reborn' with the help of the recently introduced hyper keystones.
This was because every damaged bioch, including the most crippled ones, soon began to demonstrate an outright magical capability.
They regenerated on the spot!
Initially, their recovery speed was not particularly fast. The first steps mostly drew on their internal biomass.
By cannibalizing less important armor layers to restore the most essential functional components, the damaged Woodsap chs quickly managed to control their damage and prevent their conditions from deteriorating any further.
This ergency stabilization asure was just the first step.
Nearby Woodsap chs approached their wounded brethren and subsequently began to spit out pieces of TE Wood from their own ch fras!
As the biochs flew closer to each other, the collective wood E energies beca more concentrated and active.
This was very important because the wood energies facilitated what happened next!
The pieces of TE Wood directly struck the damaged biochs, which quickly and seamlessly incorporated the donated biomass into their own structures.
All of this took place in just 30 seconds.
By the ti a minute passed, each and every Woodsap ch that previously looked as if they had beco lost causes now looked almost as good as new!
It was like witnessing a bioch version of a blood transfusion at a very accelerated rate.
Since a large number of 'healthy' advanced Carmine chs contributed their biomass to their less fortunate brethren, the overall condition of the forr had not deteriorated by much.
At worst, they had lost 5 or so percent of their physical defensive buffer.
So long as they did not get struck by multiple missiles or a large quantity of other attacks in a short amount of ti, their slightly depleted armor systems should readily be able to withstand the rigors of battle!
Alexa made another remark. "This regeneration process would not have demanded such a sacrifice if the experintal detachnt deployed a couple of Gaia Trees along with the Woodsap chs. The trees can serve as a much more convenient source of spare TE Wood and other useful forms of biomass. However, the trees are not inherently mobile and possess no active defenses. They are too conspicuous of a target when placed on a busy battlefield. They are primarily ant to be used by planting them en masse on a terrestrial planet or bringing them forward on the exterior of combat carriers under heavy escort."
Ves nodded in understanding. "Even if the native aliens don't know the purpose of Gaia Trees, they are likely to shoot them down anyway, which will cause us to lose many tons of valuable organic material. The Terrans made the right decision to hold them back for this engagent. Besides, I am glad that my Woodsap chs gained an opportunity to test their biomass exchange protocols in the field. It perford flawlessly."
"The living chs themselves deserve credit for facilitating and optimizing the exchange and integration processes, sir. This is one of the few instances where granting control and autonomy to the living biomachines makes sense. Compared to the inexperienced Woodsap ch pilot or unthinking programming code, a second-order or third-order living ch knows exactly what is wrong and can efficiently direct precise quantities of TE Wood and other spare biomass to repair the damage."
This absurd mass recovery stunned the alien pilots, but only for a mont.
It was not unusual for second-class and especially first-class biochs to regenerate their organic fras in the field.
However, not many had witnessed instances where they witnessed biochs repairing themselves so quickly and efficiently!
The damaged Woodsap chs did not even have to retreat to the rear where they could receive assistance from supporting units. They all took care of the damage by relying on their brethren and themselves alone!
The subsequent sequences that took place no longer attracted as much interest from Ves.
The Woodsap chs fought against the opposing phasefighters and steadily managed to eliminate a third of the enemy craft before the remainder scattered and fled in disarray.
The biochs did not choose to pursue, both because their mobility could not keep up with the swift enemy craft and because their pilots knew better than to overextend.
Ves began to sum up his overall findings.
"What I have seen so far largely falls in line with my expectations." He said. "It is still very impressive to witness the performance of my work in reality. There are so many details and nuances that deserve a closer examination. The observation that stood out the most is how poorly the test pilots are handling their machines. If they are piloting more ordinary first-class multipurpose chs, then their utilization rate is so low that they should have never been allowed to enter the cockpit, because the probability of destroying their own machines due to user error is far too great."
"The normal rules do not apply to your Woodsap chs." Alexa responded with a smile. "The Terrans incorporated the Hibiscus System into the Arboreal Project knowing that practically every new Woodsap ch pilot will start such poor performances. What matters is that this is completely acceptable in this instance because of the inherent resilience and top-class restoration capabilities of their battle partners."
Ves' eyes lit up as she voiced the factor that could truly transform his Woodsap chs into invaluable assets for the Terran Alliance!
"That is exactly right! These pilots can afford to make mistakes over and over again as long as they don't do sothing completely idiotic and get blasted apart in an instant! The luxury of piloting an ever-regenerating bioch grants their bonded Carmine pilots a huge amount of leeway for mistakes and experintation. Who cares whether they begin as bumbling fools. They can take their ti to learn how to pilot their biochs properly, knowing that they can outheal almost any damage they might sustain!"
The fault tolerance of his Woodsap chs was perhaps their greatest advantage!
User Comments
0 comments from readers