The Mech Touch

5928 Crazy Loophole

The excitement among the shipwrights quickly died down as their leader's words brought them back to reality.

Just because their shipyard received the privilege of developing the first battlecruiser for the Larkinson Clan did not mean it was the most ideal choice!

Kezi the chief shipwright badly wanted to accept this enormous assignment and create what may very well become his magnum opus!

Kezi the administrator had a duty to make sure that its owner made the best possible use of its facilities.

"Please explain your misgivings." Ves instructed the projected man.

"Let me address the most obvious point of concern, sir. The E-66 Experimental Shipyard in its current state is only able to construct warships up to a total length of 2.3 kilometers. This is considered acceptable for most fleet carriers, but it is not a satisfying length for a fully armed capital ship."

"I thought that battlecruisers tended to be smaller and shorter than battleships. The losses would be too great if a large but relatively fragile battlecruiser ends up getting blown to pieces. It is better to hedge against this possibility by limiting their size."

Kezi nodded in understanding. "These considerations are valid, but our situation is drastically different from the Red Two. Both the mechers and the fleeters are permitted to field all of the warships they want without restriction. You are confined to only two that correspond to the tokens in your possession. I am not sure how easy it is for you to obtain another Battlecruiser Token, but I think it is safe to assume that the Red Fleet will not award you with another one in the foreseeable years."

"That… is a prudent assumption to make."

"That means that your first-class fleet can only accommodate a single battlecruiser. Since this is the case, it is much more optimal for our clan to acquire the largest and most massive battlecruiser that we can realistically obtain. A hull with a length of up to 2.3 kilometers is far from an ideal choice. We will effectively waste the potential of this precious Battlecruiser Token of yours. It is almost as if you are using it to field a heavy cruiser instead. In my opinion, you should use it to construct a 6-kilometer long battlecruiser instead."

Ves had already taken this issue into consideration. It did not escape his mind that the E-66 Experimental Shipyard was totally unsuitable to construct larger and more formidable starships.

"The first Larkinson battlecruiser does not necessarily have to be the last one." Ves pointed out. "This is an unrestricted token, which means that it does not have to be tied to a single hull. None of the shipbuilding operations at my disposal have any form of experience with constructing actual warships, especially larger ones. I think it is extremely foolish to undertake the most technically challenging project with zero practical experience. It is much faster, easier and manageable to tackle a more modest warship project first. It is also much easier for our clan to finance the construction of a smaller vessel. We can think about replacing our first battlecruiser with a larger and more superior hull in a few decades."

These arguments all sounded reasonable. Ves demonstrated that he had put real thought in his decision.

"Be that as it may, you do not have to rely on your own shipyards and shipbuilders to complete this project." Kezi retorted. "There are much more competent and capable shipbuilding companies in the new frontier that would love to develop your battlecruiser on your behalf. Cooperating with major Rubarthan or foreign institutions will allow you to acquire the best possible battlecruiser that you can obtain."

It must be difficult for Kezi to actively discourage Ves from working with the E-66 Experimental Yard.

Ves recognized and appreciated the fact that Kezi looked out for the interests of his new employer by playing devil's advocate.

"Relying on external help is unacceptable." Ves firmly replied. "Warships can make an outsized impact in our fleet. It is crucial that a battlecruiser remains firmly in our control. I can accept the fact that she will be smaller and inferior than the battlecruisers fielded by the Red Fleet. What I cannot stomach is that our supposed 'allies' and 'business partners' tampered with our battlecruiser to such an extent that they can shut down her weapons or energy shields by remote! I will not allow our clan to depend on a warship that is never truly ours in the first place. No. The first Larkinson battlecruiser MUST remain under our control. I will not accept any alternatives."

His tone clearly suggested that he rejected every other alternative. Ves did not want to build up a reliance on outside tech or expertise.

He knew that this would not do his first battlecruisers any favors.

The shipwrights understood this as well now that the immediate excitement had died down. They became more and more intimidated by the humongous prospect of building their first actual warship!

Ves put away the Battlecruiser Token and crossed his arms. "I thought you guys regularly practice your skills by designing all kinds of speculative starships. I bet that a fair amount of them should be warships. Even if they are never designed with the expectation of realizing them, you should at least know how to mount warship-grade armaments onto starship hulls."

The line between an unarmed starship and a properly armed starship was not simple.

However, it shouldn't be too challenging either. There were many new variables that shipwrights had to take into account to prevent the weapons from destroying the hulls they were mounted upon, but any decent naval engineer should be able to handle the additional complications.

This was especially the case for first-class ship designers!

Now that Kezi learned that Ves was truly committed to this course of action, he did not object to it any longer.

"If you are truly willing to trust us despite our lacking record and practical experience, then we would be honored to accept this heavy responsibility, sir. Do you wish to replace the Grave Exemplar Project with a new battlecruiser project? We can change the schedule so that we can complete the design and construction of the warship first."

That was a difficult question to Ves.

"I have my thoughts, but I would like to hear your recommendations, Kezi. Let me remind you that our clan will soon be participating in the first deep strike operations that will commence in a few years. We need all of the hulls and firepower that we can get. It would be great if you can complete the construction of a complete battlecruiser by that time."

That was crucial information that helped the chief shipwright formulate his recommendation.

"If that is the case, then I suggest we begin the development of the battlecruiser after the Grave Exemplar Project. The concept that we have devised for our first-class fleet carrier is fairly innovative, but it is still familiar enough for us to comfortably complete her in time for you to employ the new hull in a deep strike operation. I can guarantee you that we will not be able to complete a battlecruiser within this timeframe."

"Why not?" Ves asked.

"There is too much that needs to be done. We need to expand and install extra shipbuilding modules to the E-66 Experimental Yard. We need to hire hundreds of additional engineers and specialists who are capable of assisting in the development and construction of large-scale weapon systems. The design of our first proper armed capital ship will also take at least double the time of a fleet carrier because we need to employ extensive measures to calculate, simulate and test all of the new solutions that we have never fully explored in the past. Even after the construction of the first battlecruiser is complete, I expect the new hull to be plagued with many teething problems. She will need to undergo at least a year of trials to work out many of the bugs and glitches that have the potential to endanger your entire fleet."

The process of developing a new warship was much more cumbersome than developing a new mech!

"How long?"

"...At least 5 years if you insist on rushing the battlecruiser project. 10 years if you want to have enough guarantees that your new warship will not rupture herself when subjected to challenging conditions."

Ves possessed enough of a technical background to know that Kezi was being fairly generous. The E-66 Experimental Shipyard possessed no real experience in developing warships, so he and his men will stumble a lot more than normal.

Aside from that, battlecruisers were among the most difficult warship classes to design. They were as large as battleships, but possessed a fraction of their hull strength.

Enormous battleship-grade gun batteries tended to exert a titanic load on the hulls they were mounted upon. They also had to be accompanied by hundreds of auxiliary systems that all took up a lot of space and added further complications to the ship.

Battleships may be insanely expensive to build, but they were also a lot more fault tolerant as a result.

Battlecruisers did not enjoy this expedient advantage. It was not accurate to characterize them as glass cannons, but it was not completely wrong either.

Of course, the shipwrights could always reduce the caliber and firepower of the primary gun batteries of the first Larkinson battlecruiser, but going too far with this would defeat the point of this ship class.

Ves sighed. "As a mech designer, I understand how dangerous it is to rush the development of a powerful new weapon platform. I am not stupid enough to force the issue and insist that your shipyard deliver a working battlecruiser in just two or three years. Our clan will just have to settle with undertaking our first deep strike operation without a proper warship. We should at least be able to count on the upcoming Grave Exemplar."

This was for the better. The lack of immediate time pressure would give his shipwrights and naval engineers plenty of time to properly work out a solid design with all of the robust high technologies necessary to turn the battlecruiser into a formidable vessel.

Ves could also use the time to flesh out his own unique technologies related to living warships. He wanted to develop or acquire an imitation of the Spark Reactor for obvious reasons.

Right now, his ability to recreate the Dominion of Man on a much smaller scale was too inadequate. He needed to spend a lot more time on research and development before he was qualified to develop the first living battlecruiser!

Just as Ves came to grips with the new schedule, the projection of the chief shipwright made a surprising suggestion.

"Your Battlecruiser Token does not necessarily have to remain unused by the time your clan commences its first deep strike operation." Kezi said. "If my interpretation of the rules of the Warship Quota Program is accurate, there is no explicit rule that prohibits you from tying your token to an alien warship. If you truly think it is worth the effort, you can order your forces to capture an alien capital ship as whole as possible. If your men can unlock and decipher the operation of the alien vessel with the help of outside experts, it may be possible to repurpose the captured warship in time for the deep strike operation. This is the best stopgap solution that you can employ in the short term."

Ves became amazed by this suggestion!

Even though the idea was extremely controversial, Ves had no principal objections about using a captured warship against their former owners!

The risks were not small, but the benefits were also great!

"This is a brilliant idea." Ves grinned. "The expeditionary fleet happens to be a lot better at capturing large enemy warships without inflicting any damage to them with the help of a certain battle formation. Perhaps the Larkinson Army already captured a few hulls, but didn't have time yet to sell them to the salvaging companies!"

There was a possibility that the Larkinsons could begin the conversion process as soon as Ves issued his new orders!

Kezi grinned as well. "What is particularly advantageous to you is that all alien warships are valid targets for this scheme. Most people refer to armed alien capital ships as 'alien battleships', but if we apply our human technical standards on them, their hulls are more properly categorized as battlecruisers. Their hull structures are entirely comprised of inferior phasewater alloys of inadequate thickness."

Ves immediately understood what the other man was getting at. "Wait a minute… this is an obvious loophole. Surely the fleeters won't be stupid enough to allow for this shenanigan to happen…"

"That is because no one has been awarded with a Battlecruiser Token in the past, sir! Even if I am wrong, the recipients are most definitely powerful groups that are fully capable of developing their own warships! We are different. We have much greater reasons to employ captured and converted alien warships instead!"

"And this will actually work?"

"It will so long as the Red Fleet does not move quickly enough to change the rules. Think about it, sir. The defenses of alien battleships may be tough due to their heavy reliance on transphasic energy shields, allowing them to come close to matching the performance of human battleships, but that is not how shipwrights such as myself see them as. According to the outdated definitions of human warship classes that the Red Fleet has yet to revise, every alien 'battleship' is the equivalent of a human 'battlecruiser'!"

Ves understood the true value of his Battlecruiser Token at the moment.

Before the Larkinson Clan could construct its own proper battlecruiser, his clansmen could make do with turning some of the greatest alien vessels against their former owners!

It was a deliciously ironic scheme!

It was also a much faster and cheaper way for the Larkinson Clan to gain an asset with the effective combat power of an actual battlecruiser!

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