Hunter took the datapad, eyeing it over before making a light chuckle.
"Yeah, yeah.. they'll be ready before ya even know it. God save the poor bastards who end up on the wrong end of these babies..." She smirked, patting Jade's shoulder.
".. and, hey.. don't work that brain of yours out too much. Need a hand organizing this bunch, you know who to call."
With those words, she stepped off, walking out to get the weapons project underway.
Once arrived on the Marshall, Blackwings went to research laboratories. He planned to find Professor Rosenberg, a specialist of the chromodynamics phisics and quantum fields there. The Commander found the professor dressed in a white blouse the ruffled hair and provided with thick glasses.
" Happy to meet you again Professor Rosenberg. "
" Ah hello Commander Blackwings. The last time when we saw each other was before your promotion. Congratulations. "
" I took you professor, it is only my work. If I come to see you today it is to help me in a new project. "
The professor removed his glasses, dried himself the forehead before exclaiming:
" A new project? It must be important. Of what does it consist? "
" I can give you only few details, but I shall like that you help me to conceive a new type of shield generator, cruiser class. "
" I see. You are at the right place Commander. My team and I discovered something interesting that could suit in what to look for. "
“Really? I follow you professor. "
Both men advanced on a very secure room. Numerous machines and technological elements were there. Having taken the safety precautions, they entered.
" But...It is not….?" Asked Blackwings.
" It is correct Commander. It is well about Narcrahtite. We have some here."
" And in what can this crystal help us? "
"Recently we were able to notice that a crystal of Narcrahtite in sufficient amount and stimulated by an energy high-density laser produced a very big quantity of electromagnetic energy. We still don’t know enough about the elements establishing the crystal but it would seem that electrons within his atoms present a particular electronic arrangement. This emission is spontaneous and the quantum field stops all the beams to every type of particles which we tested."
" It seems me to be extraordinary, professor. However I suppose naturally that there is a problem. "
" Indeed. Once stimulated the crystal produces another source of energy. And the latter can become uncontrollable and the system can implode. "
" Would it be possible that the crystal becomes stable? "
" We suffered numerous failures already and we are afraid that the energy produces a bubble of void destruction which would annihilate the station. "
" And why not to create a system of several elements which would allow to stabilize continuously the flow of energy? "
" It is possible in theory and we are already working on it. The tests realized with crystals of Iridium and Niobium are promising. "
" Very well professor. Contact me when you will have made significant progress. Good work! "
Sometime after organizing the gathering of supplies and equipment, Jade was rather preoccupied with the blockade of Pacifica. Despite this, she did find time to manage the project. Overseeing both Blackwings' and Hunters' efforts, she returned to the construction pay, the cannibalized San Diego being slowly deconstructed and repurposed into the new warship. "Powerful hull plating.. even if I can't shove a battlecruisers worth of armor onto it, it'll still be a definite challenge for the cruisers and battlecruisers of the Navy. They won't know what hit them." She said, mumbling to herself as she oversaw the construction of the warships frame.
Meanwhile, one of her aides, a young Lieutenant, visiting Captain Hunter for checkup on the on her portion of the project. "Captain Hunter.. my name is Lieutenant Amber Eclipse, Captain Linford sent me to checkup on you.."
"Lieutenant. Welcome. You're just about to see the fruits of our labor.."
Hunter stood within a testing observatory, a room on the other side of the glass occupied by a small turret. It fired, the blast slamming into a hardened bit of wall, blasting it off it's hinges and falling to the floor.
"There we go. And we can expand this to fit heavy... heavy weaponry?"
"Yes, ma'am. As long as we keep the exponential nature of the frame into account, we should be able to leave the wiring be while we expand the base.. All we need to ensure is that we have enough armor protecting the mount, and they won't know what hit 'em.."
Jonas tapped on a datapad, looking at the result of the test.
"Maybe we can even see part two done."
"Won't know until we try.." Hunter looked to the Lieutenant. "Go tell Linford that I'd like to see her. It pertains to the project, so I'm sure she'll find time."
A few days after his visit in the experimental laboratories of Marshall, the Commander Blackwings had forced to continue the project but also to solve several problems. Professor Rosenberg entered the office of Blackwings with a datapad in hands.
" Ah, professor! I dare to hope that you bring to me good news! "
" Yes, Commander. We have finalized a first prototype of the experimental shield generator. The tests have proved concluding. The energy field has superior properties than the classic shields with a gain of energy for the main generator. "
He gave the datapad to Blackwings. This last one looked at it with attention.
"I have to conclude from it that the base of the generator is a crystal of Narcrahtite of a bordering mass from an unity, in contact with four crystals of Niobium and Iridium?"
"It is exact. The main crystal stimulated by a laser succeeds in spreading energy a nucleothermal stable energy. The crystals of support enter then in "connection" by quantum processes to become a single system. He becomes then autonomous and stable and every crystal completes the other one."
Blackwings was interested, then he noticed a novelty.
" You have created an external surrounding wall, wrapping the main system. What instigates my curiosity is that it is filled with a gas …”
" Yes. It is about dense Helium-3 with a small quantity of Thorium. This addition has proved to be necessary because the main system did not allow to produce a rather powerful shield. With this gas mixture, the heat produced by the central system is used to shake this dense gas. It becomes then a plasma with an important protective potential. "
" You said that the tests showed themselves promising. This means that it is operational and under control?"
“Affirmative. It will be adapted for the project. "
" And, what about its construction? I mean, do we can produce this generator within the limits of our resources? "
" Well, we calculated that yes. We have enough Narcrahtite and the other elements are rather accessible."
" May I keep the datapad? I would give it to the Captain Linford. "
"There is no issue, Commander"
The professor left the room. Blackwings still looked at the datapad.
Jade herself moved to her office, working on various projects and directing the war. Despite her dual focuses of directing the Pacifica Blockade alongside this project, she continued to keep watch on the progress of her subordinates. Following her research, she sent an encrypted relay to the outpost in the Omicrons, relaying a list of more Omicron-specific supplies to be secured for return to Marshall for use in the project. A small list, but necessary to complete the project.
"She's busy at the moment.. likely on her way to check in on the Commander, that's why she had sent me here. I'm just to record whatever you had for her to relay it to her when she has more time. She is very busy lately.." She said, giving Hunter a small smile.
Meanwhile, Jade had come to Blackwings for an update, approaching him. "Commander, I hope you have an update for me in your progress for the project? With this war we have a tight schedule. I don't want the Unioners making any moves while this project is still being developed."
The Commander Blackwings, who tried to find the Captain since few hours was surprised to see Linford in front of him.
"Oh hello Captain. I was just looking for you to share our progress. "
He activated the datapad, looking for the project data, and then exclaimed:
"Significant progresses have been made regarding the layout and operation of the shield generator. It turned out that a generator of the battlecruiser class could not be suitable for this type of heavy cruiser and as we only have light shields of our cruisers, I opted for a new type of generator more powerful than those of the ‘Archer’ but compatible with the project. "
He was still searching on the datapad, finally found the data he wanted and handed it to the captain.
"Marshall's engineers and I, have created a new shield generator. As you can see, it is based on Narnachrite, Niobium and Iridium in their branched form. We only need a small amount of these resources - which do not need to be replaced after use - and the prototype 1: 2 scale created by the engineers is stable and functional. I will not go into the details, but you have the outline. All the searches are in this datapad. "
"Noted. I guess I'll look into this next part myself. I don't want to pester her with something that may or may not work at the moment, so.. Jonas, just forward what you have to the Lieutenant and let's see about part B of this little endeavor." She walked out of the small observation room, entering the main chamber with the turret. With a few button presses and a yank of the power cable, the turret slowly winded down. "Set the calibration to be 8 squared plus 2, Jonas.. maybe we can squeeze a little more juice from this base.."
He nodded, tapping onto his datapad. Once would bring a ding to the Lieutenant's, while the second would input new instructions to the turret, Hunter walking about with a fairly dense panel of solid capital armor.
"Let's see just how tough this thing actually is, huh?"
Jonas looked to the Lieutenant.
"I think you've got what you need from us right now, Lieutenant. Go on ahead and let Linford know how things are going down here. We should be on schedule so long as she stays aware of just how heavy that armor plating is.."