6923 Artillery Bunkers Ves and his family extensively toured the interior of the 3.6 kilometer long orven battleship. The E-66 Experimental Yard had spent a lot of time and manpower on converting the Tortuous Scream for human occupation and usage. However, the vessel's internal volume was so great that the Rubarthan shipbuilders could not completely transform her tech and architecture to human style. Doing so was no different from designing and constructing a native human warship from the start. The purpose of using the alien battleship was to expediently make good use of the CFA Battlecruiser Token that Ves had earned. It did not matter if the Tortuous Scream still operated on an alien programming system so long as the warship obeyed her new masters. These reasons and more caused the exterior as well as the interior of the warship to look like a confused hybrid between human and orven ship design. The greater height of the ceilings and the vertical deck layout were all typical to orven-developed starships. It took way too much work to convert it all to human style, so the shipbuilders did not bother to change the layout for the most part. "The greatest changes that we have made to the hull is the removal of many secondary and tertiary gun batteries." The recently appointed high captain reported to Ves. "According to your directive, we have done this as extensively as we could. All secondary gun batteries and a large number of tertiary gun batteries have made way for bunkers that can house one or even multiple heavy artillery mechs. This also means that if no mech is active, the Tortuous Scream only possesses half of the point defense capabilities that she should normally enjoy." Gilbert de Raanvanchas projected an image of the converted battleship and highlighted all of the gun batteries and bunkers on the hull. Ves noted that while the Tortuous Scream still retained a lot of tertiary gun batteries, they were all located in corners, edged and other areas where it was difficult to install bunkers. "I haven't thought about it back then, but now that I see this, it is a good idea that we have preserved the remaining tertiary gun batteries. They can provide immediate interception capabilities if the ship ever falls out of FTL travel and gets ambushed right away or whatever. We cannot rely entirely on mechs placed in bunkers for all of our defensive needs as their mech pilots are not always in their cockpits and prepared to fight at any moment." It usually took a bit of time to bring the turrets online and tell them what to do, but they could still make themselves useful a lot faster than bunker mechs! After a considerable journey, they entered one of the locations that was previously occupied by a secondary gun battery. The turret occupied a relatively large amount of space. What was visible on the exterior of the ship was only the tip of the iceberg. It took a lot of components to make the large structure move and to feed it with energy or ammunition. After the shipbuilders ripped away this bulky weapon mechanism, they converted all of the free space into bunker clusters as well as other functional components. Ves grew particularly pleased with how well the new bunkers provided offensive support to the bunker mechs. Any mechs equipped with a standard power slot would be able to connect to a power feed that directly supplied energy from a nearby first-class power generator. The bunkers also possessed robust and reinforced ammunition feed channels. They could supply all sorts of projectiles, missiles and other physical ordnance to a mech so long as the crew made the necessary adjustments. Clamps and other structural elements not only stabilized the bunker mechs, but also helped to shunt away their excess heat. The mechs did not have to worry about heat management at all as the massive alien battleship could easily absorb a titanic amount of thermal energy without issue! In short, the converted battleship probably boasted the most luxurious bunkers that Ves had ever seen! Only Red Association warships possessed comparable or superior bunkers, but even they did not have as many of them as the Tortuous Scream! "As you can see, we are not only able to provide additional azure energy shields to protect the bunker mechs, but also provide additional emergency physical protection by rolling them into place at a critical time. This should significantly increase the survival rate of the mechs in question. We value all 155 artillery bunkers." Ves knew how much of a difference all of these measures could make. Ordinary secondary gun batteries were quite powerful enough on their own. Replacing them with bunker mechs sounded like an upgrade, but the story was much different once the Minerva Mark II empowered them with her true resonance! The damage output of the battleship under the influence of Casella's Command Field would far surpass that of other alien battleships of the same size and scale! At that time, the Tortuous Scream would definitely turn into a high-priority target to the enemy! This was undoubtedly dangerous to the Larkinsons residing in the converted battleship. Ves would definitely put himself and possibly his family in greater danger if the vessel tore down enemy warships left and right. Yet that was already in his consideration. If the Tortuous Scream became a must-kill target to the aliens, then their behavior became a lot more predictable. The Premier Fleet could purposefully guide the actions of enemy units and funnel them into traps or kill zones where they could be eliminated with ease! "We don't have any good bunker mechs on hand, do we?" He asked. "Indeed we do not." Gilbert responded. "The artillery bunkers are designed to provide excellent accommodation to first-class heavy artillery mechs. They can still be adjusted to provide support to the Omega Thresher model that you have procured for the Premier Fleet, but this is not an optimal combination. The Omega Threshers are first-class multipurpose mechs that are designed to be fairly compact and mobile. They are mounted with a number of miniaturized integrated weapon systems that are still potent for their size, but are also limited by the same factor." In other words, the Omega Threshers performed well when deployed in the field, but could not compete against genuine bunker mechs when put into static defensive positions. Ves recalled the weapon systems mounted on a standard Omega Thresher mech. "The wrist-mounted plasma sweeper cannons are only useful at very close ranges. The Phase Disintegrator Guns are fairly powerful, but not that effective at longer ranges. The same goes for the plasma cannons. They pack a mean punch, but their calibers are on the smaller size due to capacity limitations. The Omega Laser Cannons and the Datura Gravity Well Caster are pretty awesome, but their power levels cannot match the much larger armaments mounted on heavy artillery mechs." In this regard, the Totori MAXXX model would have been a slightly better choice for bunker mechs. "Unless you are willing to procure first-class heavy artillery mechs to occupy the artillery bunkers, it is still possible to make good use of the Omega Threshers." Gilbert said. "The FFEE1100 version is the base configuration of this mech line. There are other variants that are designed for different purposes. There are several that are designed to fulfill the role of bunker mechs. If you do not wish to convert 155 Omega Threshers to these bunker mech-specific configurations, then you can instead take advantage of their humanoid arms to replace their Datura guns with larger and much more formidable cannons." The high captain gave Ves an example of what he meant. He produced a new projection that displayed this scenario. An Omega Thresher mech was locked inside one of the bunkers. What was strange was that the mech had thrust both arms into mounted cannons that were so large and massive that it would have been difficult for the mech to carry in the field! It was only due to additional structural support from the bunker structure that the Omega Thresher mech was able to aim and control the sizable cannons. When the Omega Thresher opened fire, the first-class mech did not just fire with its smaller integrated weapon systems, but also unleashed a pair of much more powerful Omega Laser beams at a distant target! Such powerful and concentrated energy attacks would have exerted a large burden on the first-class mech, but because the Omega Thresher was serving on a legitimate warship, the Larkinsons were allowed to directly link the mech with the hull! This enabled the bunker mech to fire her demanding external weapons more frequently! In fact, it was difficult to identify the additional Omega Laser Cannons as mech weapons. They were mounted and linked into the structure and power channels of the Tortuous Scream, which meant that they could also be regarded as warship cannons. Yet because they could only be fired by mechs, they should still match the definition of mech armaments. This was an important distinction to the Larkinson Clan. Saint Commander Casella Ingvar's Command Field treated pure battleship gun batteries a lot differently than mech armaments. The latter received a much more powerful boost than the former! This was because genuine mech weapons were treated as extensions of mechs, each of which could be individually Commandeered or Enfeoffed! Ves understood what the high captain attempted to do. Gilbert wanted to make a bet that despite connecting the larger Omega Laser Cannons to the bunkers of his warship, they retained enough properties of mech weapons to be treated as the equipment of the Omega Thresher mechs. "This is interesting." He said. "If there is enough time, manpower, spare materials and funding, then I am in favor of putting this idea on trial. If it works, then you can apply this scheme to the remaining artillery bunkers. There is just one change I would like to make." "What would you like to change, sir?" Ves raised his fingers and erased the large caliber Omega Laser Cannons. He then began to draw crude versions of large caliber luminar crystal cannons in their place. "Our clan makes use of our own variety of energy weapons. It is based on alien tech, but it has proven its worth to us many times. Omega laser weapon tech is strong, but our clan is not too familiar with it. I think it is better for us to stick with what is familiar and use luminar crystal cannons to augment the firepower of our Omega Threshers." Gilbert de Raanvanchas looked thoughtful. Even if he was new to the Larkinson Clan, he had done his due diligence and developed a decent understanding of his new employer. "If you are confident that your first-class luminar crystal cannons can keep up with the formidable damage output of Omega laser cannons, then I have little objections to your proposal. Just to be on the safe side, I suggest we trial both weapon implementations. We can make a direct and objective comparison between two proposals." "That is an even better idea. You can go ahead and make the arrangements. It would be best if this experimental setup is done before we start our campaign and get into our first true fight." They continued to talk about what else they could do to improve the effectiveness of all 155 artillery bunkers. Once they finished their discussion on them, they soon turned their attention to the much more special sniper bunkers. The Tortuous Scream only boasted 4 of them, and that was because they were solely designed to accommodate the high-ranking mechs of the Larkinson Clan.