"So, what did you think of the new warp drive design? With these few small changes, we should be able to make Cutters that can take the punishment." Uncle Lu explained later that week at a meeting with Max and a select group of influential Reaver leaders.
"Impressive, but looking at the materials list, it won't come cheap or easy. Everything we need is in this star system though, which is a good start." A Reaver Admiral nodded, looking over the lists.
"Can you retrofit an older ship to that sort of speed? Or even Warp 7 to outrun the border patrols?" Another asked hopefully.
"We ran the calculations, and with an upgraded shield, plus a modified structural support field, it would take roughly three million man-hours of labor to retrofit a ship the size of Terminus to sustain that sort of speed.
We can safely get most designs to Warp 4 or 5 with a simple drive retrofit in under a month, but anything beyond that is extremely hard on the structure, especially in areas of turbulence, or during impact with larger debris. The fluctuations are simply too much for the Lowest Bidder construction model that everyone has used for millennia to keep their fleets fighting."
Uncle Lu was visibly pouting about that fact still, but the work to retrofit Terminus for Warp 5, which they could both withstand, and fit a drive to sustain within the existing structure, was well underway already since it was only a small modification to the existing Warp Drives that didn't pose serious risks to the vessel.
The entire crew was stoked to find out that they were no longer going to be the galactic slowpoke, and that they were getting all-new attack craft.
The first four Reaper Pattern Cutters would be designated for the Regiment, so that they could deploy wherever they were needed, using Terminus as a Mothership.
The great advantage of all this additional power was twofold. Not only could they respond in record time, but they were also going to be a more formidable force when they arrived. The Warp Drive was the primary source of energy for a ship's weapons, and with the output on their cutters exceeding most Fleets' Cruisers and some Destroyers, they would absolutely obliterate a light response fleet in a fight.
Part of that had been Max's idea, to give the ship orbital lances to soften targets before the Company landed, but the design team had taken it a step further and mounted the weapon with a variable angle turret so that it could be adjusted for use during combat without moving the ship.
It was deemed too much structural work to modify Terminus to have weapons, but with the new drives, their shielding capabilities would skyrocket, making them impervious to most attacks.
At least the first few strikes.
The second greatest selling point of the new cutters wasn't their Orbital Lance though, it was the fact that the design team had mounted over a hundred launch bays for modified Orbital Insertion Drone Fighters.
These had the upgraded weapons everyone had expected, thanks to the new power output, but more importantly, they now had a small cargo hold. They could either pack four regulation-sized soldiers in for use as an escape pod, or they could be launched with supplies for ground troops.
Combat Capable escape pods were possibly the most Nico thing that Max had ever heard of. You were fleeing from a destroyed main ship, supposedly running for your life, but the escape pods that the new ships carried would have more firepower than most light Mecha.
The ships were being constructed at the Moon Base, which was still under construction itself, but they provided the camouflage for Uncle Lu to begin his final projects.
The mass production of the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha, and finally the new God Class Mecha project, which only these select few were going to know about.
The new Warp Drive was deemed sufficiently powerful to power the Mecha, and the numbers that Max had been presented with on the theoretical damage output, using current technology, were completely insane.
It was supposed to use the same drive configuration as the Cutters, but at seventy meters tall and humanoid, instead of a two hundred meter long spaceship, the unused portion of the power when it was moving either on a planet or within the low orbit area was much higher.
The only issue they had left was the design. Uncle Lu really, really wanted it to be an enormous stomping cathedral with guns. It was ridiculous, impractical, and completely insane, but the old man simply loved the aesthetic.
Max was trying to convince him to make it a standard humanoid pattern, but the consensus among the team was that basic humans had been done, so unless Max wanted to go Hyper Realistic and make it look like an actual statue, his vision lacked creativity.
"Rage, back me up here. Humanoid is Mecha tradition. Walking buildings with guns is out of the question, right?" Max practically begged Nico to side with him.
"Yes, I have a humanoid design to present," Nico replied happily, putting her design up on the 3D projector.
It was definitely a humanoid Mecha, with organic body lines, making it look like a shirtless man. But with cloven-hoofed feet, clawed hands, and a horned, demonic face. The weapons were mounted as wings, fully adjustable for multiple target acquisition which would be incredible for Max, and a large cannon in the chest, with a retractable armor plating over it for transport.
It had chains hanging across its chest and wrapped around its waist, presumably for the storage of trophies, and a large sword hung on one side.
"What do you think? Since we can't camouflage it, why not go all out and remind everyone who sees it in action why you don't mess with us?" Nico declared proudly, while the whole room stared at the incredibly well-detailed design in wordless shock.
