Chapter 10 Part 2 of 3 (Patreon)

“What are those?” Delilah pointed to the nozzles sticking out the rear of the craft.”

“Those are rocket engines. They take combustible compounds, mix them together and blast them out the back. They will be capable of utilizing ambient air through manifolds, or they can use just their own fuel.”

“Okay, walk me through this.” Delilah said.

“We have been attacked from the sky by dungeon core based warships twice now. Based on what we learned from that, and our technology we came up with a re-think on an aerial war-ship.”

Qin pulled off other coverings revealing other warships of different classes.

“They are incredible mobile fortresses. Though they burn through mana stones like my old mustang gulped gas. Thing of beauty, till you have to pay the bill. When you’re looking at a warship it also decreases your power budget for other toys.” Delfina ran her hand along the wing.

“Wings, just like a birds, they provide lift, meaning as long as you are going forward, then you’re not burning mana stones to just stay in the air. Well, less of them. The rocket engines only require materials to be built and to function, being operated with formations. They’re rather simple materials, we can get Apprentice level Alchemists to refine out the fuel. Then the rest is armor plating formations and other technology we already have access to.” Delfina grimaced.

“Though this might not be a possibility now, these are more up to our speed.” She moved to the other models.

“These are based off of Corvettes up to Battleships and Dreadnoughts. A Grand Mortal Dungeon core can support a Corvette, A common Earth dungeon core for a frigate. Grand Earth core for a Destroyer, Lesser Sky core for a Cruiser. A greater Sky core for a battleship and a Grand Sky or lesser Celestial for a Dreadnought. That has been the break down in the past. The bigger ship you have, the stronger it will be, it is a firepower to barrier and armor ratio. We can take a Common Mortal core and use it to make a corvette. And that kind of decrease holds with the other ship types. We will require more supplies to operate, but they will be cheaper than literally burning money. If we used the cores with our systems as well then they will only increase their abilities, that gives us a larger power budget so we can host the mana hogs like the rail cannons.” She waved to the chalkboard.

The corvette looked like an oversized bomber, covered in armor plates with each warship getting bigger in scale and hosting greater armaments, armor and barrier specs, with the Destroyers and higher hosting Sparrow and Kestrel wings.

Their clean and deadly lines shone in the mana light, a chill and thrill chasing one another down her spine.

“Corvette, really in an air battle they’re of little use and they’re useless in the lower realms because of their power usage and how thin the mana is. These corvettes have been shrunk in size, fifty meters long and thirty meters wide, hosting two twin rail cannon batteries at the mid-line. Ten long-range missile racks on its back, and four bomb bays on its underside. Machine guns for aerial defense up top and ground supporting guns along its sides. This is a troop transport, hosting thick armor this is supposed to swoop in from out of nowhere, hit the enemy and weaken them, then land, acting as a command center and defended teleportation point.”

“Frigate, we have turned theses into missile haulers, they’re around seventy five meters long and forty wide, should have about the same speed as the corvettes. We’re talking about five times faster than the current airships. Destroyer is a multi-purpose carrier, used to engage enemy warships. With two Wing’s of Kestrels and four wings of Sparrows. It hosts a heavy missile payload, barriers nearly four times stronger than the Frigate’s armor as thick, Rail cannons above deck, below and a half-belt.”

“The Cruiser is a ship killer. Double the air component, the rail cannon belt has been removed and four Accelerators have been added.”

Qin cleared her throat as she removed another piece of fabric, revealing what looked like the barrel assembly from a standard railgun.

“The accelerator is a scaled up version of the railgun, Five meters long it accelerates a formation carved round into the heart of the enemy ships. Each shot requires a ten second delay between firing to cool the chamber and barrel. Each are in-line with the ship, so it requires aiming the ship to hit the target. It does not have the continuous power of the Phoenix Breath Cannon, but they can be fired one after another meaning a round every two and a half seconds or a sustained battery of one round every second. For forty seconds and even if they are shot, then the power would be returned to mana rebound formations that are connected to all mana power systems to make sure we don’t have a mana-surge.”

“Okay, also, missiles are being used a lot here why?” Delilah asked.

“They have greater range, and they’re ‘smart’ ammunition the formations in them will seek out the enemy. Either by us targeting them, or they’re fire and forget versions. The cannons are great, but we have to correct over vast distances our position and where the enemy will be when our rounds meet them. So we aim for an area rather than the same point like the artillery does when they’re trying to crack a mana barrier.” Julilah said.

“Adding in the rocket engines, our power budget for the formation’s output has increased,” Taran said.

“On Earth long range cannons are replaced with short range missile defense measures, aircraft to attack the enemy and increasing our own missile payload,” Kanoa said.

“You said Battleship and Dreadnought?” Delilah asked.

“While they are ships currently used, we think that they are beyond what we should be working on. They would be basically floating defensive platforms, which we could just build into the ground. We think that they’re too big to be of use. So the next step up is the carrier focused on defense against any attacks and carrying a large Kestrel and Sparrow compliment.” Qin said.

Delilah looked at the new gear.

“How much and how long?”

“Next page,” Julilah indicated to the clipboard in Delilah’s hand.

She turned the page, feeling her kidneys clench.

“Well then.”

“Before you say anything, while the specialized items can be created by the crafters to increase the speed of production, the dungeon cores could do it as well, it would take longer, but we would just need to make sure that it received the indicated materials.” Taran said.

“The proposed plan is to use dungeon cores that are located in remote locations in higher realms to build the ships, that way it should have access to some of these materials already, it is out of view of others and passively over time we can raise a powerful air force,” Kanoa said.

“I will talk to the accountants, you will receive a material and personnel budget, also trees?”

“They will make up most of the secondary structure, adding in flex and compression while weighing less.” Julilah said. “Egbert’s suggestion.”

“I see your recommendation here is five corvettes, three Frigates, two Destroyers and a Cruiser. To start work on the Cruiser, then the Corvettes, frigates and destroyers?”

“If we have the Cruiser then we can knock enemy ships in the air, then the army can deal with them and the Cruiser can provide support against the larger aerial issues creating a launchbed for our kestrels and sparrows. They don’t need a runway allowing us greater freedom,” Kanoa said.

“Very well, talk to the Special teams and get their dungeon cores, giving one to the team leaders and the others used for these projects. When you’re scouting for shipyard locations, please look for ones with the most amount of metal. Using Sky metal for something of this size, even if only for the superstructure is, pricy.”

“In several years they’ll pay for themselves making mana stones,” Taran said.

“You mean decades,” Delilah said wryly. “Okay, now you’ve squeezed the coffers dry I have to go to a meeting of the Alvan heads, as I so love talking about harvest rotas and trade route contracts. Good work everyone.” She smiled to them. “Your work here gives our military the weapons they need to defend our Empire and provide security for our people.”

“Just one small formation in an array,” Julilah said.

***