Chapter 453 - 441: Addressing Weaknesses and the Ultimate Weapon
Chapter 453: Chapter 441: Addressing Weaknesses and the Ultimate Weapon
Once the production order was issued, Allen no longer needed to keep a close watch on Cybertron.
Jarvis would arrange everything meticulously.
Allen sat back down in his chair and glanced at the project progress bar.
"It’s a little slow." He shook his head.
"Considering the need to maintain our necessary defensive forces, current production capacity has already reached Cybertron’s hardware limit," Jarvis responded.
"The production line isn’t slow, but the logistics and assembly are," Allen said, pulling up the live feed from Workshop No. 3.
On the screen, a single PX-3 chest plate fresh off the assembly line weighed fifteen tons.
Five or six Factory Servants were using tow ropes and floating platforms to move it, a cumbersome and incredibly time-consuming process.
"We need a heavy-duty Engineering Golem."
As the Golems grew larger, the standard Factory Servants had become completely inadequate, severely dragging down overall efficiency.
This time, he’d base the design on the Peacekeeper’s chassis. As Allen’s fingertip traced through the air, a blurry outline began to form.
Humanoid, twelve meters tall.
He stripped away all armor and weapon systems. There was only one core requirement—nothing else mattered, as long as it was strong enough!
The maximum load capacity for a single arm had to be 500 tons.
The arms were designed with replaceable modular interfaces, allowing it to be fitted with hydraulic clamps one day and a super-drill the next.
For the power system, he went straight for a Magic Furnace!
"We’ll call this Golem... Hercules. It’ll be our dedicated heavy lifter."
Allen quickly completed the preliminary design.
"Designation: Battlefield construction, heavy material transport, and on-site emergency repairs for medium and large Golems."
"New project established: Hercules," Jarvis faithfully recorded.
"Estimated unit cost: 21,000 Low-Level Magic Stones. The primary costs are the high-strength frame and the Magic Furnace. Shall I add it to the production queue?"
"Build one hundred units to start. Put them to work on the production lines for transport and hoisting."
With the logistics problem solved, Allen’s thoughts drifted in another direction.
Reconnaissance.
The Magic Eye V-type Insighter was effective, but it had a fundamental, unchangeable flaw—its deployment was static.
A single Insighter, hovering at an altitude of 20,000 meters, had a reconnaissance radius of 200 kilometers. The coverage area was certainly large enough.
But if an enemy moved at high speed, he would have to rely on a relay of several Demon Eyes to maintain tracking, making it very easy for blind spots to appear in the gaps.
To make matters worse, the Demon Eyes themselves weren’t fast.
If he tried to maneuver a Demon Eye to fill a sudden gap in reconnaissance, it would be too late by the time it flew into position.
’I need a high-speed, highly stealthy strategic reconnaissance Golem.’
Allen’s gaze fell upon the model of the Storm Falcon.
’No, that won’t work. This thing was designed for air superiority. It balances firepower and maneuverability, but that means it compromises on both top speed and stealth.’
What he needed now was a pure "scout."
’The speed... it has to exceed Mach 4!’
"The current Storm Falcon flight control system has a theoretical maximum speed of approximately Mach 2.8. Higher speeds would require a complete reconstruction of the airframe and Rune design."
"I know." Allen pulled up the Storm Falcon’s flight control architecture and began deconstructing it. "That’s why this is a new project, not an upgrade. We’re starting from scratch."
He removed the Storm Falcon’s bomb bay and weapon systems entirely, retaining only the fire-control and reconnaissance modules.
"The airframe will have a streamlined design, its shell coated with our newly developed stealth Rune coating to minimize Magic Power reflection. We’ll also install an ultra-long-range communications module."
"For the power system... we’ll use the same model Singularity Engine as the Freedom Gundam, and funnel all its energy into speed!"
"Its mission will be to conduct reconnaissance at altitudes above 20,000 meters at Mach 5. It will come and go like the wind, leaving no trace."
A flat, pitch-black Golem model, closely resembling a hypersonic aircraft from his past life, rapidly took shape under his hands.
Allen settled on its name: Ghost Bat.
"Preliminary assessment: Unit cost approximately 120,000 Low-Level Magic Stones. Estimated R&D period of one to two months."
At an altitude of 20,000 meters, it was extremely cold and hypoxic, and the Magic Power environment was chaotic.
But there was no anti-aircraft fire up there, nor were there any Flying Magical Beasts that could reach that altitude, so he didn’t have to worry about its safety.
It was expensive. A single unit cost as much as a brand new PX-3.
But intelligence was priceless.
With Hercules to handle the heavy lifting and Ghost Bat to take care of reconnaissance, Allen’s Steel Legion system seemed to be approaching perfection.
Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough.
Now that he had the eyes, the fists had to follow.
"Jarvis, do you remember my ’satellite’ concept from years ago?"
"Searching memory banks... The ’Space-Based Hovering Demon Eye’ proposal. It was shelved for being incompatible with the physical Laws of this Plane."
"That’s right. This world is flat; there are no orbits..."
Allen chuckled. "But the concept can be adapted. I don’t need it to orbit a planet. I just need it... to fly far enough and strike with enough precision."
A concept from his past life, one that existed only in the arsenals of major world powers, surfaced in his mind.
Intercontinental missiles!
Truth is found within range. And one should always be committed to persuading others with the truth, to moving them with the truth.
Allen’s thought process accelerated to its absolute peak as countless Runes and mechanical models intertwined and clashed before his eyes.
"Jarvis, what’s the bottleneck on the Red Lotus Type II’s range?"
"There’s a limit to the velocity achievable with Rune-based flight technology. Mach 5 is the practical limit for Anti-Gravity Rune propulsion. Exceeding that causes Magic Power consumption to increase exponentially."
’Time for a different approach. If Rune-based propulsion isn’t enough, I’ll have to change the method of propulsion.’
He had tried to replicate rocket engines before but concluded that fuel ratios and attitude control were beyond his capabilities at the time, so he’d abandoned the idea.
But things were different now.
Over the past three years, Cybertron had absorbed the accumulated technical knowledge of hundreds of thousands of artisans from the Aiselan Kingdom. Jarvis’s database was now filled with vast amounts of experimental data it previously lacked.
Most importantly, he no longer needed to derive everything from scratch—he just needed a magical version of Multi-level Acceleration.
’First stage: Use Rune-based propulsion for launch, giving the projectile an extremely high initial velocity.’
’Second stage: A small, internal Magic Engine ignites, taking over with brutal force and continuing the rabid acceleration.’
’Once it reaches the high-altitude cruising phase, it will switch to inertial gliding, with a Ghost Bat guiding it to the target from above.’
It wouldn’t need to be powered for its entire flight path. All it needed was a two-stage relay combined with the principle of energy conservation along a high-altitude ballistic trajectory.
"Jarvis, what’s the theoretical range of this design?"
"Building ballistic model..."
"Extrapolating based on the parameters of the current Hephaestus Type I small Magic Engine and the drag coefficient at an altitude of 20,000 meters—"
"Theoretical maximum range: 4,300 to 5,100 kilometers. Terminal velocity: Mach 16."
"The margin of error will depend on terminal guidance accuracy and the effects of atmospheric Magic Turbulence."
Allen said nothing.
A range of 4,300 to 5,100 kilometers was more than enough for his current needs.
That distance was enough to strike another continent from the Aiselan Kingdom.
As for a version with a range in the tens of thousands of kilometers, he could iterate on that later.
"Alright, we’ll call it the Dongfeng Type I. Use a 100-kilogram Crystal Bomb for the warhead. Give me a rough cost estimate."
"Estimated cost per unit: 700,000 Low-Level Magic Stones."
A single launch cost as much as one Freedom Gundam.
Allen clicked his tongue.
"Truth is always expensive."
"Jarvis, begin a feasibility analysis of the ’Dongfeng’ project. Focus on the multi-stage separation technology and the Rune Array for high-altitude cruising..."
Allen became completely immersed in the thrill of creation, multiple sub-processes in his brain running simultaneously to perfect every detail of the Hercules, the Ghost Bat, and the Dongfeng.
The main control room fell so silent that only the sound of his breathing remained.
The Legion’s upgrade would take thirteen months.
That was the perfect amount of time to whip up this particular "express delivery."