Assault Colossus of the Nemesis Warfront - Chapter 83

Yunlan couldn’t help but whistle.

The list of technological knowledge and techniques Okeanos offered for purchase this time around was akin to a crystallization of the most coveted technologies of the era.

If you consider yourself a Development Engineer, you’d want as much of them as possible, no matter how large of a price you had to pay. There would be no problems acquiring them for A-Class Development Engineers like Yunlan who owned their own companies.

However, it was a different story altogether when it comes to properly making use of the technology.

There was no doubt that their access rights as Development Engineers would be expanded. Their factories can be upgraded by going through Okeanos. This was also a huge development. However, the entire process will undoubtedly cost an enormous amount of cash.

First, Yunlan had to purchase the technologies, then carefully think about what to make with them. Concentration and good judgment were required for this task. After all, there was no point in producing something extravagant if there was no market for it.

The factories under him will be customized according to a unified purpose. It can be considered a factory bricolage.

This much was common sense for people like him.

「How amazing. And also quite troublesome. Depending on how each of us moves, major gaps between different companies might instantly manifest all at once.」

The technology provided included aircraft technology that would allow aircraft to withstand railgun attacks.

This was really troublesome, Yunlan inwardly thought. There were pitifully few companies with adequate know-how regarding aircraft and aviation. He personally decided to go the route of land-based weapons himself.

「Hm? An e-mail from Kou? At this timing?」

Yunlan took a deep breath when he saw the contents of Kou’s e-mail that was sent through Okeanos.

It contained blueprints and the necessary access rights to the technology required to manufacture the items shown on them.

The items were literally identical to the ones indicated in the technology list sent by Okeanos.

「Machine and rider tank? –Dragoon tank, essentially a type of heavy cavalry tank. From “cavalry” (kihei) tank to “machine and rider” (ki-hei) tank huh. So, a Silhouette essentially acts as the rider. Kou-kun, people who aren’t familiar with kanji won’t get the pun you know. Haha, how interesting.」

After laughing for a while, Yunlan’s gaze greedily took in the information as if wanting to devour it.

「A turretless tank, gun mount, and a fully functional shield. The armor is general-purpose plasma armor that makes use of the newly announced CNB reinforced alloy composite. By using it, the tank would be made lighter.」

From here on out, the number of alloys that can be produced at steelmaking factories around the world will increase. Kou had expanded everyone’s manufacturing rights.

One of the blueprints sent displayed a composite material composed of carbon nanobuds, which was a combination of carbon nanotubes and metal fullerenes. It can be used in combination with a good number of light metals, from titanium to aluminum. This meant that in addition to the defense offered by high-dimensional projection armor, the structural strength and toughness of the materials used in armor would be increased.

Carbon nanotubes were just too small, so using them to produce a composite material would make such material too structurally weak. Therefore, they were combined with fullerenes that served as anchors, leading to an overall improvement in the mechanical properties of the resulting composite material.

Plasma armor was also a new type of material. It was a type of energized electromagnetic armor. Basically, regular composite armor works by heating up the medium sandwiched between its layers to very high temperatures, allowing the armor to effectively defend against attacks. Plasma armor turns said medium into plasma that generates joule heat.

Plasma armor was also effective against railguns, APFSDS, explosively formed penetrators, laser weapons, and autocannons. The moment a projectile touches the metal of the armor, it instantly gets turned into a fluid state. Then the fluid gets vaporized by joule heat and deflected by electromagnetic waves to reduce its power.

「Compared to Silhouettes that have comparatively lesser surface areas available for the armor to be applied, it’s far easier to adopt plasma armor on tanks. This can certainly improve one of the tank’s drawbacks. And this……」

Yunlan couldn’t help but laugh aloud again.

Included in the mail was a proposal for an additional armor system plan that made use of his own armored unit combination system as its premise.

「”What’s an armored unit combination system in the first place? Additional armor for cavalry tanks — the Silhouette’s legs are deeply inserted into the tank in a sitting position. Then the additional armor equipped on the Silhouette that serves as a gun mount will have two additional rocket launchers that will fully integrate with the tank below. There are no fancy gimmicks. It’s a design that integrates the additional armor and the tank’s own armor as a functional whole right from the start. And once machines like this are deployed on the battlefield, they would serve as heavy cavalry. It makes sense, don’t you think?”」

It didn’t really make sense to combine Silhouettes with tanks in the first place. However, with that as a premise, wouldn’t it be only natural to increase the defensive power of the Silhouette that’s riding on top of the tank?

The mortality rate of soldiers engaging in tank desant maneuvers was very high. That would only be exacerbated when applied to significantly larger Silhouettes. The enemy was more likely to ignore the tank that was being driven by a Familiar and aim directly for the Silhouette instead.

「The other file is about a tilt-rotor transport aircraft. And it’s large enough to carry two cavalry tanks. “If you see any problems with my proposals, please do contact me”, huh. Well, well, the concept is very interesting indeed, Kou. And once the concept is completed, you’d immediately put it up for sale huh. There’s a bit more room for improvement though. Missiles as optional equipment would be good. –It looks like things are gonna get real busy!」

The concept was clear enough that Yunlan felt that Kou was just standing right in front of him.

Unknowingly, Yunlan got fully absorbed in the blueprints Kou sent to him.

「Oi! Gather around, everyone–!」

At the Skunk Technologies lab, various Development Engineers and Familiars busy with work gathered around Kelly after he called out to them.

「We just got a super amazing list from that darn Kou! It’s packed with new technology guys!」

Kelly projected the contents of the list on a mid-air holographic screen.

「Boss, ain’t this–」

「Whoah, whoah, hold up a sec! If a list of technologies like this gets released all at once, all the current Silhouettes will instantly become outdated!」

Shouts of delight and excited shrieks echoed out here and there.

「And to add to this, I got sent a personal mail. It’s an official commission for us. We’ve been asked to develop an official successor to the Pheasant for Jenny!」

Kelly displayed the request on another screen.

「They require it to be more beautiful, be able to fly higher, be able to move faster– Basically, it’s more or less a letter of challenge written directly to us. That cheeky bastard.」

「Oh c’mon, Boss. You look so happy you could head straight to Heaven.」

Matt couldn’t help but laugh. Kelly’s eyes were sparkling like those of a child’s.

「He’s already set things up to this point for us. There’s a new detonation engine design and a new armor material. And the best of the bunch is this metallic hydrogen fuel. This thing’s especially crazy!」

「If Boss says it’s crazy, then it’s bound to be really, really crazy, so please stop.」

Jialing quipped nervously.

「Well, just hear me out, will ya? Now that we have this thing… it’s possible for machines to never have to refuel again. In other words, machines will have a near-infinite amount of fuel. It’ll still need some time to replenish itself after you use it up, of course!」

「What do you mean by that, Boss!?」

「Wasn’t there a retro movie about this back on Earth? It’s about that car that got turned into a time machine! If you poured leftover juice inside that car’s fuel tank, it’ll fly in the sky and become a time machine! Basically, it’s kinda like that.」

「I’m not familiar with such a movie……」

「Dammit. So you youngsters don’t know about it huh. Hydrogen gets subjected to ultra-high pressure and gets turned into metallic hydrogen. And the energy efficiency of metallic hydrogen is just off the charts. It’s more than 50 times compared that of TNT. Even though it only contains a minimal amount, hydrogen is still present in the air. This basically means we can build a Silhouette-use power pack that can constantly generate such ultra-energy-efficient fuel.」

「The MCS is equipped with a water generation function, right?」

One of the lab’s staff was convinced. The MCS, which also doubled as an escape capsule, was equipped with water and air generation functions as standard functions.

「Judging from the technology used in the Interplanetary War era as well as Skunk’s input, we can be sure of one thing. The current Silhouette power packs were designed with the assumption of using a metallic hydrogen reactor right from the get-go.」

「Y-You mean it’s possible for us to make a Silhouette just like Skunk, Boss?」

「That’s right! The items on this list released by Okeanos can only be obtained by A-Class Development Engineers. If I bought all of these, we would probably have no choice but to live off of cheap pizzas for a long time. But who cares!? I’m buying ‘em all dammit!」

Everyone else was rendered speechless. The amount of money needed to buy every item on the list was truly too enormous.

「I’m already very, very lucky y’know? I was provided all the technology and techniques needed for us to develop a successor unit to the Pheasant free of charge, including blueprints for the metallic hydrogen reactor. As expected of Kou. He really is family.」

For some reason, Kelly already treated Kou as part of his family.

「Those are the most expensive items on the list, right?」

「It’s one heck of a present, that’s for sure. We’re gonna get real busy guys!」

After saying so, Kelly hurriedly rushed inside his personal lab, leaving the lab members hanging.

Everyone just smiled bitterly at the antics of their boss and proceeded to excitedly discuss the items on the technology list.