Nico tapped the data screens to bring up the information on the experimental Mecha, then started to input a whole new set of data points for a much larger unit.
"If the Arisen is right and we're going to have to fight something like the Golden Ones eventually, I have a really great idea of how we should be developing our Mecha in the future.
Being too large is actually a disadvantage in space combat. Unlike on the ground, where if you want to be able to hit every point on your opponent, you have to be nearly the same size as they are, in space, you just need mobility.
So, we should be making new Mecha that are just large enough to package everything that we need in a unit.
Spare ammunition, a Replicator system, a backup system, Warp Drives, spare antimatter and crystals, then a Deity slaying, galaxy-ending level of firepower, plus two spare swords."
Max couldn't help bursting into laughter at Nico's assessment of what a proper Mecha needed. She wasn't exactly wrong, but the phrasing was just so starkly contrasted against the sweet voice that she used that it was hard to keep a straight face when she said it.
"Alright. You know what we need then. So, what are we going to change on the prototype in order to make it closer to your vision of a new Personal Mecha?" He asked.
"First off, The weapons we have on it are fine. If we put fusion warheads in each of the small projectiles, it should be more than adequate for a Line Mecha class unit, and they will scale well with increased size.
The Disruptors are good as well, and we know that they scale effectively.
So that leaves us with the actual Mecha and its defensive capabilities. If we're going to let any Rufus, Doofus and Goofus pilot these things, we're going to need better shields on them. Seriously, the average Pilot is so slow that they can't even begin to dodge melee attacks, much less do predictive evasion of projectile weapons.
That means that we will also need to reinforce the hull for when the shields break." She explained.
"What about if we do something as I did on Gloriana and have the shield zones tied to the individual armour plating zones on the Mecha, so that hits won't take out the whole shell, and the surrounding zones can overlap to protect the Mecha when one zone is broken.
They're all running on the same generator pair, so there is no loss of power, and you can adjust them for predicted impact zones. All that the Line Mecha Pilots will have to do is try not to get hit in the same spot twice in a row." Max suggested.
Nico gave him a look that suggested he was an idiot to have that much faith in the average entry-level Pilot, but Max was already working on a schematic for improving the functionality of the Line Mecha's shield emitters.
It would add a fair bit of complexity to the Mecha, but the space needed was minimal, and they could be mounted behind the armour plates, so they weren't an additional soft spot in the Mecha's defence.
He wasn't a master Mecha engineer in his past life, just a really good pilot, so the design wasn't as fully detailed as he had hoped, but with a bit of work, he should be able to make it functional using the technology that they had on hand.
Nico looked it over for a second and got right back to work, altering the experimental Mecha's design in order to accommodate the changes.
That didn't leave Max with much to do, so he checked in on Sergeant Khalil's mind to see how the training was going. It had been a few hours, and the program had just reset again, leaving him with the impression that he was only beginning to do the training that Nico had assigned, but his skills had definitely improved from what they were during the first tests.
If he didn't hit the limits of his mental capacity, he should be able to move the Mecha at over one-quarter of the Mecha's mechanical limits by the end of the day's training. That was still short of the goal that Nico had set, but Max was reasonably sure that it wasn't mentally or physically possible for the unaugmented human to do that.
The best bet that he had was to have the responses so ground into him that they became autonomic responses, bypassing his conscious mind, which operated more slowly than his subconscious, allowing him to fire blindly when a target was detected and react to threats without thinking and the lag time associated with it.
With enough combat experience, every Pilot developed that to some degree. Asking the subconscious to take care of an entire battle was too much, though. It couldn't plan or strategize, and for most people, it could barely aim the weapons. It would rely entirely on computer assistance to snap shots at determined targets, letting the computer do the majority of the work on their behalf.
With Max's targeting skills, that was actually the better route, but without a System helping, it would be sketchy at best.
"Add more automatic targeting assistance to the Line Mecha. Right now, they usually rely almost entirely on the Pilot, with the goal of building their skills and saving resources. But for the standards of performance that you are aiming to get out of them, that won't be feasible anymore, and the Pilots will have to rely more on the computer to do targeting calculations for them." Max suggested while Nico altered the plans.
"Good thinking. If there is a good reason that we can't use AI, then I will have to limit the computers as well, but targeting calculations shouldn't be an issue. With enough work, I think that we can make a two or three-target version of your System Function, like an advanced version of the Crusader Class targeting systems that includes not only trajectory data and target weakness analysis but also enemy behaviour analysis to create predictive targeting solutions.
Wow, that is going to need a lot of computing power. I should just upgrade the computer first before I start crashing it, trying to get it to work properly with that level of ongoing data rendering." Nico replied happily as she worked.
"Now, all I need is better Nukes." She declared a few minutes later.
As with warships, there really was no replacement for displacement, and the Line Mecha lacked greatly in that department, but a good nuke could never be the wrong answer in Nico's mind.
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