With a flash of light, the Warp Drive transitioned them from a dead stop toward light speed and beyond.
[Sensors indicate the warp field is steady. Reports from the outlying Companies are coming in, and no issues reported with the warp field.
We will be moving to maximum speed once we are clear of the boundaries of the Solar System] Nico informed them.
There was an odd delay in the transmission that Max wasn't used to. The Kepler messaging system was much more high-tech than their vessels were and should be capable of communication at a Warp factor of 6, or the speed of light to the power of six.
Inside a solar system, that was essentially instant transmission, so if there was a delay, either they were really far out, or they were already moving faster than the transmission, causing distortion. That seemed a bit farfetched since the fastest of Kepler Ships currently struggled to make it above Warp 5, but they did say that the new engines were a number of times more powerful than anything that had come before them.
The design of the warp field was all new as well. Theoretically, it was an improvement based on alien technology from Terminus that Uncle Lu had improvised and adapted. The design was proving its worth now, and the sensor data that Max was getting from other vessels in the system showed that the ship had currently exceeded a Warp Factor of ten.
That was a theoretical breakpoint, where either a change in design or an immense amount of energy would be needed to surpass the limit, much like breaking the sound barrier inside an atmosphere, which was once considered impossible during the early days of humanity's development.
They watched the sensor data for over an hour, before seeing that the vessel was returning. The data was all garbled, as they were moving faster than the transmission, but the ship was doing a good job of making sense of it, even now that it was coming in on top of itself, with the ship closing the distance faster than the transmission was coming.
Near the edge of the system, they dropped back to less-than-light speeds, and glided back toward the planet, sending victorious messages even as the data that they had sent earlier continued to arrive.
That communication issue was going to be trouble later since they couldn't warn anyone of their arrival if they were traveling faster than the message, but it would also make for a very stealthy attack craft.
[Uncle, your changes to the formation of the warp field were incredible. Power usage surged 300 percent at warp 10, but the field was stable and made the transition without any issues. If we can increase output even further, I think that we can actually sustain much higher speeds. The increase dropped back to the expected nominal rate once we passed the second transition.] Nico laughed, and Max could hear the other technicians celebrating in the background.
[And how is the ship? Have you done a structural analysis yet?] Uncle Lu asked.
[Mostly fine? We will have to make a few adjustments to the design if we're going to take more ships past the second transition.] Nico dismissed his concern but sent the data anyhow.
The ship had taken moderate damage from the journey and had stress fractures everywhere. Some of them might be from a life of military service, but it was clear that a lot of them were new and that it wouldn't be a wise idea to try that test again without fully rebuilding the cutter.
[That design isn't going to cut it at all. But I think that there might be a reason for the curved shape of Terminus, even in its interior structures. See where the stress fractures are? They're all on straight surfaces, not at the joints where we would have expected them. The damage must be from the change in the warp field.]
Uncle Lu began to rant about ship design as the Cutter returned to the planet's surface, so Max went out of the room to grab lunch for the researchers.
They were bound to be hungry and ready for a drink after that wild ride, and there were hundreds of Reavers on their way over, sent by their bosses to try to find out when the new technology used to send a Cutter to such speeds would be available.
Each Warp Factor was an exponential increase on the one below it, so even at Warp 6 or 7, it would be impossible to intercept their vessels with any of the currently in use standard attack vessels. There were some experimental and classified designs that might do the job, but running into one of those on a mission would be an incredibly bad bit of luck.
But beyond the safety considerations, moving from warp 4 to warp 6 would cut their travel time from one side of Kepler to the other by over a month. For urgent shipments, that was a selling point that couldn't be ignored.
It would also make the Death Wind Territory more accessible, as they would be able to bypass the defense fleets of the nations that had an interest in keeping them isolated and starved for resources. In short, it was a win all around, once they could redesign the Cutters to actually survive that sort of abuse.
The Reavers were approaching at a flat-out run now, so Max headed out to greet them with a bottle of Rum in his hand.
"Welcome everyone to the first round of testing for the new Reaper Class Warp Drives. I'm sure you all saw that our proof of concept performed nearly as well as we had hoped, but I do have some bad news for you. The old Kepler Cutter we bolted it to did not. Before we can do the final testing on the drive, we will have to design a ship capable of taking that level of stress, and we all know that isn't going to happen this afternoon."
That made the Reavers laugh, but they were here as much to celebrate as they were to try to influence him to get early access to the drives.
"I don't suppose you have a lighter version of that, do you? Something in the Warp 7 range that doesn't tear apart anything you mount it to with raw power output." One of the new arrivals asked.
"We had considered making such a practical design at the start, but you see, the engine design was under the supervision of Uncle Lu and Tarith Rage, so all forms of moderation were tossed into the trash along with such silly thoughts like [This is insane] or [We're all going to die]." Max laughed.
Among the Reavers, it was no secret that Uncle Lu had designed the Super Heavy Mecha that the Regiment was using, so clearly, his thoughts on what was necessary and moderate were questionable, and any Reaver who would name herself Rage had a dodgy grasp of moderation to begin with.
"Fine then, we will let you complete the tests. Just the fact that it tore the ship apart too much to do another round of tests is enough information for the bosses." One of the Reavers agreed, pulling out another bottle of liquor.
[Can someone from supply please bring us a light lunch for a little over one hundred to the main reception area outside Terminus?] Max sighed into his communicator, knowing that they wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.
Reaver Politics might be more fun than usual, but they weren't any faster.
