While Max wasn't really needed for the actual design of most of the new Mecha components, that didn't mean that he had nothing to do. Instead, he was focusing on trying to understand the nature of the instability that was plaguing that region of space.
It wasn't normal for so many different forms of technology to not work properly, and Max was certain that there was a reason for it. The reason might be damage from the ancient war, but if he could identify it, he could more accurately guess what forms of technology would become an issue in the future.
Once they knew that, then they would be a step ahead in the generation of the next set of designs, but right now, the damages seemed to be random. Perhaps it was a result of different factions fighting and targeting each others' strengths, but the thoughts of the Darklings and Arisen had suggested that was not the case.
Most of the species were too young to have been involved in the battle, so this might be a result of either various types of weapons or something in the nature of the region when everything was destroyed around it.
Max layered the data that the Hunters had sent to them over the known data for the Koleska Region and from various locations within the human and Alliance territories and then set the computer to flag all the differences so that he could analyze them for possible negative interactions.
They knew that portals and antimatter explosions were not stable in the Koleska Regions, but they were in the Alliance Territories. The Portals seemed to be stable in the Hunters region, but you couldn't use a Warp Drive to generate them, as the Warp Drive was unstable.
Max checked the differences one by one as the computer displayed them and slowly managed to piece together the very basics of what had happened.
There were lingering energies that didn't belong to the outside regions of the universe, and they seemed to be what was causing the instability. Since neither of the forces involved in the battle had used the technologies in question, they might have never noticed the damage that they were doing to spatial integrity at the start, but the boundaries that had separated the layers of space were incredibly thin and damaged there, with signs that at some point they had been completely breached, letting multiple layers of space interact.
That was a horrific thought, but Max ran it through the computer with the data that he had.
[Error: Damage output beyond calculable distance and output.] The computer informed him.
There he had it. The mechanism that had triggered the end of everything. Their battle had caused two layers to come into direct contact, and with the differing universal laws between them, they were never meant to coexist in one spot.
The result had torn everything apart at a distance too large for the computer to calculate. If he had reduced the detail of his calculations to the solar system scale, he might get a more accurate idea, but it really didn't matter at this point. They had the real thing right in front of them.
But more importantly, Max found the reason that different portions of the region had different instabilities. The weapon that seemed to have ended the war caused the layers to become unstable, and Subspace, as he had labelled the boundaries for the computer's sake, had rippled with aftershocks, causing different layers to corrupt the region.
It was the interaction between multiple layers that was causing the issue, and the inability to maintain a Warp Field was a result of the layer they had been to before interacting with real space, or at least most species' home layer.
The more that he thought about the theory, the more questionable it became. Could he really call home 'real space' when the number of layers hadn't been determined? What if they were also a sub-layer to another group of intelligent species?
The philosophy could wait for later. At the moment, the more important part is that the computer had calculated a few more technologies which were likely to be unstable here, so Max had to forward that information to the design team before they made more changes to the Mecha.
They weren't ones that he personally recognized as part of Mecha development, but with the Innu, plus Max and Uncle Lu, all on the same team, there was no telling what they would come up with.
The data was delivered while Max worked on more of the analysis of likely fluctuations near the region they would be arriving at and then moved on to an analysis of the species that they were facing.
They appeared to be a form of Myceloid but nearly mammalian in structure and highly aggressive. They spoke a language that the Hunters had already translated to some extent, showing that they were fairly intelligent and not just hostile beasts, but their weaponry was crude.
That was countered by their rapid procreation and uncanny durability. They could sustain serious wounds and didn't seem to feel pain.
They would bleed out like any other blooded species, but they weren't slowed at all by the loss of a limb in the meantime, only reduced in combat effectiveness.
So, targeting the head and chest was the best choice. Large-scale maiming and wounding weapons would be of very little use in this scenario.
"Good news Nico. The Fusion Flamer is back on the menu. Data analysis of the region and the enemy suggests that a concentrated burst of intense flame is the best way to prevent the enemy from emitting reproductive spores on death, as well as clearing out the ones that are already emitted into the region." Max informed the team.
"Oh, now we're talking. We will be in close combat in the jungle, so perhaps two light Disintegrators, plus the two Fusion Flamers, all mounted on the forearm, will be the best call. Let me check the power output numbers and get back to you."
The Flamethrower was always a well-received classic weapon.
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