The largest question for an acid weapon that needed to be deployed against a target without shields was exactly what the proper delivery method should be. If they got the acid stabilized and working, then they would still need to get it to the target, and putting it in a Mass Driver shell was unlikely to do anything but vaporize it.
It would also need to be stable in a void, so nothing that would flash freeze in space or against a vehicle hull, which was often heated from energy weapon fire.
It wasn't going to be easy, but the team got to it right away, and with Nico chiming in with chemical compositions that Max vaguely recognized from his last life, they were actually making progress on the first day.
That didn't mean completed, of course, and after three hours, they decided to call it a night after their extended grind to get the Line Mecha delivered.
The next morning, they started building the new version of Shattered Pride, as Nico had chosen to keep the name of her Mecha for the next frame and rename the old one should it ever see service again.
The design for the applicator was going more smoothly than the actual compound that they were planning to use. Nico's new design called for blades on each forearm, and they could put the applicator above the tip of the blade, letting it spray into the gouges in the armour and the cracks that the resonance caused, sinking in deep before the enemy could counter the attack.
It was insidious, but it should be incredibly effective.
This version of the Mecha was much like their new ships, mostly flowing curves with some sharp lines and hard edges. It was reminiscent of the designs favoured by the Darklings, but with a flair for the dramatic that was all Nico, and more closely resembled the demons from human video games than the Darkling ships.
This time the actual structure was human again, with only two arms, but with the extra weapons on the shoulders, it shouldn't be losing out on anything.
While the Innu and Nico worked on the weapons, Max worked on the Armour composition for the new Mecha, intended to optimize against attacks from every enemy that they knew about, as well as their own new weapons, in case they were reverse engineered and used against them in the future.
It was simply bad tactics to use a weapon that could easily be turned against you, so his part of the development, despite being only one single composition and energy field pattern, was just as important as the rest of the design.
Max had just finished creating a new layered composite armour plating and was about to test it in VR simulations when a great idea came to him. The attacks of the blade caused a resonant frequency within a solid object that broke it apart, but Max had seen the reverse of that technology before.
It was used on some of the Mecha under his command in his past life and used an energy field to strengthen the materials of the armour well beyond their normal potential.
Instead of simply putting the shield outside, he could imbue a second layer into the Mecha itself, so if the outer layer went down, there would still be a secondary protective barrier in the form of the armour, which could actually take multiple hits without damage.
It would be a huge shock to their enemies, who were used to being able to cut through armour with relative ease after taking down the shields.
At best, the ablative armour would only take one or two hits before it was destroyed, which was great for the Pilot, but not exactly awe-inspiring.
Max programmed the energy field as he remembered it into the VR simulation and launched the prototype Mecha that Nico had programmed in, based on her original design specifications before they started making improvements.
The first target that Max paired it up against was a Command Walker. A simple ranged weapons check using the predictive algorithms of the ship's computer. He left the main shields down and had the simulated Command Walker fire a full power blast at the Mecha.
Normally, that would be enough to nearly take out the main shields or completely destroy most Mecha if the shields were down. This time, it dispersed over the surface of the Mecha with only a shimmer of crackling energy.
Next, he had the Command Walker fire twice in the same second without giving the test Mecha time to recover from the first shot.
Still, the computer estimated that the damage would be minimal, with a number of blown-out power relays and some welding of the thruster nacelles due to the immense energy arcing across the surface.
That could become an issue. They needed to adjust to aim the Mecha, so if they were welded in place, Nico's mobility would be pretty much crippled.
But most importantly, after three hits that might have taken out Cleansing Light individually if its shields were down, the Mecha was still holding strong.
The next step was to actually make a piece of the armour, energize it and test various weapons against it to make sure the computer simulations were correct. Sometimes you could get wildly inaccurate results if the computer didn't have all the data that it needed. That meant Max was the first up to the construction bay, creating a chest plate for the Mecha and an energy field generator to attach to the back for the tests.
"Oh, Commander Max has something cool. What did you make? Is it a new armour alloy? No, it's more than that, isn't it?" The closest researcher asked.
"Indeed it is. We will do the low-power tests here. Then we will have to move the plate out into space when we break out the big guns. If this works the way that the computer predicted, we should be able to tank at least three more direct hits from a Command Walker after the main shields go down. It's a form of structural reinforcement field." Max explained.
Again Max felt that strange sensation of being watched, only this time, it seemed to be approving of his actions.
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