The kids all took off for another day on the beach along with the Innu, who were excused from duties today by Nico. They would find out tomorrow that they would be working from Absolution until Max and Nico returned from their mission, as it was too dangerous to take a bunch of postgraduate students into an extreme combat zone under any circumstances.
There was no way to protect them, and they were already well on their way to making a number of their Thesis a reality. To lose them to something stupid now would be a loss to the entire Alliance, as well as the humans, who would love to get their hands on anything new that the Innu made.
So, Max and Nico went to work with the main research team, reconfiguring the Line Mecha into a workable unit for the new battlefield. The Hunters had sent back a fully detailed VR simulation program so that they could test various power systems for compatibility before they arrived, which was a huge help, but they still didn't manage to get the job done before the students realized that there was new development being done without them.
"I can't believe that you let us play on the beach all day while you were modifying the newest models of Line Mecha. We've already piloted them, and they are amazing, but you're tweaking them without us." Nergal complained as they barged into the labs that afternoon.
Max smiled and patted her head. "Don't blame the Lead Researcher. That was my call. I wanted you to enjoy your vacation day instead of worrying about the ongoing Mecha development. You all have a Thesis to finish, so you won't be able to come with us into battle. It means you will be here on Absolution with the main design team, which is a positive note, but you won't be personally assigned to me and Nico anymore."
"We can at least help today. We were on the design team for the original version of this Mecha anyhow, and we know every bit of it inside out. In fact, it helped prove some of our work in the first place.
Plus, have you ever heard an Innu say no to new technology, even when it's weighted against gravity slides and the beach?" Nergal asked.
All of the Innu looked deep in thought at that one. It was a very close call, but new technology won out in the end when they could still go to the others tomorrow.
They would be stationed on this level and working from the labs at the back of the ship in the secured areas, so they wouldn't be missing out on the finest features of the resorts as long as they were stationed on Absolution. Whereas the changes to the Mecha were a one-time-only deal, and they couldn't be postponed.
"Alright then, the more, the merrier. We've already sorted the Mass Driver Issues. We just need to tweak the power systems since Warp Fields aren't stable in the area, so the current power system isn't viable. We can keep the crystals, and the antimatter conversion, according to the VR simulation, but the Warp Field shielding needs to go, which means a whole new containment unit to keep the drive from exploding when it takes damage." Nico explained.
Six hours later, they had a new, lower output but completely stable power source for terrestrial-based Mecha. It would outperform the existing Line Mecha from the Samurai Pattern, but compared to the ones that they had made for the force in Koleska Space, the total capacity was laughably low.
It was enough to run the Mass Drivers constantly while operating the unit at Maximum mechanical speeds, but you would have to cut back the Mass Driver output or rate to operate the Disintegrators at full capacity.
The trade-off wasn't perfect, but with a single day to prepare in an emergency situation where the planet containing the Anomaly was threatened, it would have to do.
"Let's run this through another ten thousand simulated battles and see what the computer comes up with for failure points. If there is nothing extreme, we can call it functional and approved." Nico decided, with the full support of Uncle Lu, who was mostly sitting on the side and taking notes on the development.
There were enough researchers on this team to get the job done, so taking detailed notes would have to fall to someone, and doing them as the development continued made things a lot easier than going back over the notes and trying to recall every change you made, in the order that they were made with a proper reason why.
Max knew it was because they all hated note-taking and paperwork when they could be doing something hands-on, but Uncle Lu liked to think as he wrote, and he would call out ideas from time to time based on the information that he had just recorded.
To him, it was like having a personal design team to plot out his thoughts in real life. He recorded what was going on, and they told him how his ideas worked out without him having to do anything himself.
For a creative senior citizen, it was a bit of a relief not to have to do anything too physical, and once they left, he could take his time going over it all in virtual reality to fine-tune and tweak it for the next generation of technological developments.
"The results of the last round of simulations are done. There were no catastrophic failures at all this time, and the power output remained stable even with severe damage to the unit. We identified four more critical weak points in the design, so we will see what we can do to fix them and then run the tests again to ensure that the changes don't cause any new issues." Nergal narrated for Uncle Lu to record.
"Marvellous work. it's always a pleasure to see your team work together. Perhaps I can convince the Rae 5 Moon Base to let me vacation here for a while longer. They're working on civilian appliances and pleasure yachts right now, so they don't really need my expertise for a few weeks." The old man suggested.
Nergal and the main team leader smiled at each other.
"If you're willing to take notes, you're welcome here anytime."
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