Chapter 458: 456
The world of NieR.
Kain had arrived in A2's world an hour early.
He was currently inside the lunar base's massive manufacturing complex.
Construction had already begun on the second Lunar-class cruiser.
In addition to the Lunar-class cruisers, they were also building smaller warships designed specifically for travel between Earth and the Moon.
These vessels combined technology from A2's world with the spacecraft technology of the SEED universe and the systems used in the Lunar-class cruiser's Type Three starfighters.
Most notably, they incorporated the Fury Interceptor's propulsion technology. It was the classic philosophy of strapping enough thrust onto a brick to make it fly.
The current design certainly had the sleek, futuristic appearance humans expected from a proper spacecraft.
In fact, it looked remarkably familiar. It strongly resembled the Millennium, the warship that had appeared in the Gundam SEED Freedom movie Kain had watched in Asuna's world.
The vessel was nearly three hundred meters long. Its most powerful weapon had originally been intended to be an Imperial lance battery mounted as its main cannon.
That plan had since been scrapped. The lance had been replaced by a new main cannon: a Dimensional Wave-Motion Implosion Emitter, better known as a Wave-Motion Gun.
The ship's dimensions had also been designed with Kain's 100-by-100-by-100-meter storage space in mind.
In other words, as long as the vessel's total volume did not exceed 100³ cubic meters, it could pass through a spatial gateway of that size. He would not need to upgrade it to 1,000³ cubic meters.
"Assembly complete. Beginning inspection of the power systems."
The report signaled the successful installation of their first Wave-Motion Gun.
Once the system connections had been fully inspected, it would be ready for testing.
Given the Wave-Motion Gun's overwhelming destructive power, they obviously could not test it on the Moon, much less on Earth.
They would soon load it aboard the Lunar-class cruiser YoRHa and take it into the asteroid belt for a live-fire test.
"Commander, we've finished analyzing the STC you brought us last time," A2 reported from beside him.
She used a phone-like device to project the relevant information.
The display showed a three-dimensional model of a device, accompanied by a detailed description.
The model resembled a cross. It was the STC Kain had excavated shortly before leaving for the SEED universe, around the same time the world of the Fleet of Fog had joined the Hyperdimensional Channel.
According to the description, the STC contained technology for a stasis field.
Kain paused.
They had already downloaded stasis-field technology from the mechanical planet. A2's side had nearly finished mastering it and expected to begin manufacturing practical devices in about a week.
Had he simply dug up an STC containing technology they already possessed?
What a disappointment.
Wait.
Kain knew how to operate A2's terminal, so he gestured across the projection and expanded the technical files.
"A weaponized application?"
Stasis fields could already be used as defensive weapons, such as protective barriers.
The technology before him, however, was clearly intended for offensive use.
Its method of attack was remarkably simple. It generated an extremely thin stasis field.
It was similar to Operation Guzheng from The Three-Body Problem, in which invisible nanofilament blades sliced through a ship.
This stasis field, however, was compressed to the nanoscale. Instead of being shaped into a wire, it formed a long, narrow sheet.
If something completely stationary came into contact with the sheet, it would remain unharmed for a short time. Once the stasis field moved away, the object would be perfectly intact.
A moving target was another matter entirely. The instant it touched the sheet, an extremely thin section of the target would be frozen in place.
The rest of the target would continue moving forward, causing it to slice itself apart.
This offensive stasis-field technology was therefore designed primarily for use against moving targets.
The device manufactured from the STC resembled a cross-shaped throwing dart about the size of a shuriken. Once thrown and activated, it released spinning stasis-field blades that were invisible to the naked eye.
An uninformed enemy would assume they had to be struck by the dart's metal edges to suffer any damage. In reality, the invisible stasis-field sheets could extend more than ten meters from the device. Even in its compressed state, the field had a diameter of nearly three centimeters.
Unfortunately, the STC only allowed them to manufacture this specific device.
They could not easily expand the technology into other applications, such as constructing a larger version for mounting aboard a warship.
For that, they would need to find another STC containing the warship-scale version of this offensive stasis-field weapon.
Kain continued through the files and opened a research report concerning nanomaterials.
When he had been invited into the world of the Fleet of Fog, he had secretly collected several material samples while attacking Takao and stored them in his personal space.
He had sent those samples to A2's world for study, but the research had made little progress.
They needed more material, preferably raw nanomaterial that had not yet been shaped into a completed form.
To obtain that, Kain would have to trade with Kongou.
Unfortunately, she had not logged into the channel since Takao was sent back.
One possibility was that Takao's disappearance had attracted the Supreme Flagship's attention. Kongou might have been afraid that the Supreme Flagship would discover the Hyperdimensional Channel. After all, activating the system and communicating through it likely produced some kind of unusual signal that could potentially be detected.
That might explain why she had not logged in recently.
The worst-case scenario was that the Admiralty Code had discovered everything and destroyed Kongou.
Before she went offline, Kain had asked A2 to send her several devices containing software and hardware designed to prevent electronic infiltration.
Whether any of it was compatible with Kongou's systems was something she would have to determine herself.
Kain closed the projection and looked at A2, who stood rigidly beside him like a soldier awaiting orders.
"A2, is there something you want to tell me?"
He had the distinct impression that something was on her mind, but she kept stopping herself from speaking.
It clearly was not official business. This was something personal.
"No," A2 replied, sounding the same as always.
In truth, there was something she wanted to ask him. She simply had no idea how to bring it up.
Some time ago, 2B and 6O had traveled to Asuna's world and done something rather special with the Commander. After they returned, 6O had proudly shown A2 the wonderful thing she had received.
6O had told her that if she wanted one too, she could simply ask the Commander for it.
"If you ever have a request, just tell me."
"If it's something I can give you, I will."
Kain left it at that and did not press her any further.
An hour later, two figures appeared out of thin air before him.
Kain had also reentered A2's world alongside them. This was one of the current limitations of cross-world invitations.
He and the other two visitors could not enter A2's world separately at different times. They all had to arrive together.
If Kain had not left and reentered, the other two could not have been invited into A2's world.
He turned his attention to the two young women.
One was a silver-haired girl dressed in formal attire: Tessa.
While her clothing was still formal, she was no longer wearing the tight-skirted military uniform she had worn before. Her outfit still resembled a uniform, but this time it featured a pleated skirt.
The entire ensemble was dark blue.
Beneath the hem of her skirt, her smooth legs looked almost glossy as they descended into a pair of dark-blue heels.
On closer inspection, however, her legs were not bare. She was wearing sheer nude stockings.
She also appeared to have applied a small amount of subtle makeup.
Perhaps she felt that she had put too much effort into her appearance, because she seemed a little self-conscious and shy.
The other visitor was a blonde girl from the world of ALDNOAH.ZERO, the Princess of Mars, Asseylum Vers Allusia.
She was also formally dressed in an elegant white gown.
Since this was her first time traveling to another world and meeting her online friends in person, she looked extremely nervous.
Now that everyone had arrived, and the YoRHa was already positioned within the asteroid belt, they could begin testing the Wave-Motion Gun.
(End of Chapter)
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