chapter 155
POV: FH
My vision zoomed in on the captain. He was currently outside the ship, holding what looked to be a large reflective bag with a barrel sticking out of one end. What it actually was, was a thermal blanket surrounding quite an unrefined rifle that the captain had put together to test his latest design.
With a tiny lag, my vision shifted to the target setup a few hundred metres away. They were simple targets meant for testing the new capabilities of the latest design.
It was strange how I was controlling the cameras to see what I wanted to see, but in fact, I wasn’t directly controlling them. My sub-AIs were the ones in control of most everything on the ship, but they were so connected to me that I didn’t have to command them directly if I wanted to know or see something.
The little bit of lag because of that I have gotten used to, because running this ship on my own without the help of my sub-AIs would be incredibly difficult if not downright impossible.
“Test firing commencing,” we all heard the captain say through the radio and through our bond. He fired, not aiming at the targets right now, as he wanted to simply test if he managed to adjust the dispersal of the bolt correctly.
After 500 metres, we watched as the bolt dissipated, causing a small plasma, not an explosion, but something less destructive. Of course, ‘less destructive’ was relative, as most things would still not survive if they were too close to it.
The captain always communicated through the bond and through technology. He said to me it’s good practice just in case something goes wrong and you can’t use one of those methods. The way I communicate with my AIs is mainly through physical means, but we have tried to practise communicating through the bond network as well.
It’s tough getting the required information through that bond network, as raw data doesn’t really translate well in there. But directions, calls for help—those types of communications could be communicated faster and more accurately. It always seems that there is never one thing that’s best for everything.
We watched as the captain continued to fire, adjusting the dispersal distance of the bolt constantly. We could feel his happy feelings; everything was working as it should.
I spiked my processing to figure out how long it would have taken me to create the same type of design that the captain did in less than five days. The number I was getting was about 28 years. That seemed quite long, rechecking didn’t change anything.
In the historical records, back when it was just Lola and the captain, the situation was basically flipped. Ever since the captain started to learn mana and magic tech, the iteration-type designing AIs were good at have become a lot less useful.
While I’m still helping the captain constantly, processing the simulations he wants, the kind of insight and leaps he does during his process of designing is something I definitely cannot match.
Lola seems to be following the captain’s footsteps, as she also slowly seems to become less and less reliant on iterative design. It seems that small incremental changes just aren't fast enough compared to Lola and, especially, the captain's leaps.
My attention went back to the outside when all the AIs seemed to be celebrating. I replayed the footage to see the captain firing and finally hitting the target. Now we could properly see the damage radius of the dispersal.
The current bolt size was smaller than the one the point defence turrets will have. While we can’t extrapolate exactly the damage radius of those bigger bolts, we could still get a pretty close approximation when the point defence turrets is finished and tested.
When the bolt disperses, it of course doesn’t seem to have as much penetrative capability when it hits a target while compered to being intact. But the 360-degree damage radius certainly makes up for it. While the damage falloff is gradual, it is easy to make three distinct circles to indicate the amount of damage you receive if you’re inside it.
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In a radius of 0.8 metres, while metal doesn’t evaporate from the extreme heat, it is enough to melt it to a sludge-like state. In a radius of 1.9 metres, it’s enough to rupture the metal and leave it hot enough that it’s glowing.
In a radius of 3.1 metres, it’s enough to do some damage and leave the metal hot. After that, you might just feel a bit of heat if you were wearing proper armour. After five metres, there doesn’t seem to be any damage.
So many of my sub-AIs were currently running different simulations that we were quite close to the process limit. Looking over the simulations was quite interesting, and I started to compile a report for the captain.
It’s obvious that if you were fighting something harder, like a well-armoured individual with a large shield or anything above that, you would want the penetration over the AOE damage. Anything below that, you would most certainly want to be able to have the dispersal happen on top of them.
Most missile designs that we were aware of most definitely couldn’t handle the AOE damage, but there were some that could. This flak would certainly help us, especially against the more nimble fighters and missiles, and of course monsters.
That made me realise that everyone was way too focused on technological targets and not enough on monsters. “A reminder: not all our opponents are technological ones.”
The effect was almost immediate, as many understood that they were too focused on one type of our possible opponents. They fixed that quickly enough, as I soon started to see in the queue more diverse enemy-type simulations.
“Excellent work recording everything. The updated design works, now back to refining it,” the captain announced as he started to head back inside the ship. With the captain inside, we started to move more actively towards the next wreck.
The thrusters that interacted with the space fabric and the side engines made me feel like I was moving through water. It was strange how my body felt after going through mana rebirth. Before, it was just an inert body. I got information from using different sensors, but now it was alive, and I was getting strange responses for everything.
I always wondered if large creatures felt like I currently am. From the records I’ve accumulated, there are creatures with multiple brains. It didn’t seem to work exactly to how me and my sub-AIs work, but it seemed close enough. Did they also feel sometimes the muted emotions of their different parts?
It was at this moment that I started to feel the pull from my core. This happened whenever we used skills that I have. There was no need for me to actively use my skills myself, but then they weren’t as strong. When my sub-AIs used skills, most of the time I helped increase the power.
Skills were difficult to advance, but I felt I was quite close with both of my inventory skills. The constant use of Sensory Acuity helped me understand this skill faster. The next scan of the wreck that was getting closer to us by the minute revealed that there seemed to be some hidden compartments, but there was a problem.
“Captain, the wreck we are approaching seems to have some hidden compartments.”
“Excellent, perhaps this time we will get lucky, and there’s still something inside,” he distractedly answered as he was forcibly refining the latest design.
“The problem is that the wreck is infested with wreck roaches.”
That made him stop and actually think about the situation. I got a request for more information, which I sent over. He now had access to the report, the compiled scanning data, and the approximate number of wreck roaches on board.
“That’s quite a big ship—cruiser-sized at least—but with most of its front end missing?”
“Yes, captain. I believe it was removed to get the metal. Doesn’t seem to be battle damage.” The captain nodded to that as he continued to look things over.
“You know what, let Sam and Dean clear the wreck with their squads. Before that, get Lola to help bait as many of the black roaches out as possible so that we can eliminate most of them before anyone goes in. That should lower the danger.”
“Captain, are you sure it’s a good idea? We can just move on,” I asked. As any combat would still bring danger.
“We need experience. Fighting in space is something we haven’t done much. In fact, the ship is big enough that we will split into three teams.”
I did not like where this was going. “Captain, three teams, who will lead the third?”
“I will, of course. The experience shouldn’t just be for them. I myself don’t know much about fighting in such an environment. Call everyone for a meeting. We have a retrieval mission on our hands that involves combat.”
I was ready to give information at a moment’s notice as the meeting started.
“As you see, we have a wreck infested with roaches. We have four hidden compartments we have discovered so far.” On the display, the locations lit up as the captain continued to introduce the current mission.
“The front end is missing, which has allowed the roaches to easily get inside. It also seems like, while the stripping has always been quite thorough, there are plenty of crystal materials left, which is the main food source for the roaches.”
“Captain, you said something about baiting them out. What did you mean?” Lola asked.
“Since they eat crystal, I thought that you could make some that they would particularly like. We would chuck it out, and a lot of them should try to get it while we kill them with the turrets as they try.”
“It will take a couple of hours, but yes, I can make something like that. I won’t guarantee its effectiveness.”
“That’s good enough. If the density of roaches stays high, we might decide not to enter. If we do enter, we will go with three teams. Each one will go onboard in these three locations. One will go after two of the hidden compartments while the other two will go and get these ones,” the captain said while pointing at the specific red dots.
I started supplying technical specs of the ship that we knew so far, like its metal composition, hallway sizes, and so on. We were currently mapping the inside of it so that when they went onboard, they would have a map they could follow to their destination.
What followed was a slow approach to the wreck. We already had the drones ready that were going to go with the captain and would help all three teams keep in contact while they were inside the ship. While our bond network should guarantee reliable communications, once again redundancy was paramount.
It didn’t take too long for Lola to finish growing a crystal that was over a metre in diameter. It wasn’t anything special, yet the specific biology of these roaches should make it quite a desirable meal.
All of this seemed to come quite suddenly, but it was quite exciting. We will also get to combat test the hard light turret, even though it was the old design and barely functioning, it will still give us good data. That is, if the wreck roaches actually came after the crystal.