Chapter 6611 The Null Project When Ves presented his latest mech design proposal to Ketis, the swordmaster looked skeptical. "We are already taking time away from completing Missions by building up your ambitious Elemental Universe. Now you want to take even more time away from your schedule by designing this Null Project of yours. Are you sure you want to divert so much time on designing a rifleman mech that is designed to counter hyper technology and qi cultivation? Such a mech is much more useful to use against our own side than the aliens." Ves nodded in acknowledgement. "You are right about that last part. The timing is off, but... if I don't design it now, I will have to design it later at one point. The Red Cabal and the major alien races that are aligned to it have shown a remarkable degree of adaptation. They have worked quite quickly to assimilate all of the human tech supplied by the treacherous Cosmopolitan Movement. I have no doubt they are rolling out more and more human-developed applications of hyper technology as we speak. Preparing a specialized solution that can negate the amplification granted by exotic radiation is a preemptive move." "Does that mean that the Null Project is a commercial project?" "Sort of. I will adopt the same plan that you have used for the Stormblade Samurai Mark II Project. I intend to design a fairly affordable and easily mass producible second-class rifleman mech for commercial use. At the same time, I will design a quasi-first-class version that is exclusive to the Larkinson Clan and more specifically the Battle Crier Mech Legion. They can finally retire their modular Bright Warriors equipped with outdated Godkillers and switch to piloting dedicated mechs that can do the same job a lot more effectively." Though Ketis still looked as if Ves was pursuing a weird direction again, she took the time to study his proposal. She fixated on the draft and noticed several important details. "The design looks pretty standard as far as rifleman mechs go. The only complications that look out of the ordinary are the oversized ammunition canisters and the ECM modules, but they do not appear to be custom jobs. I imagine that will cut down on the complexity." "That is true. This is a solo project of mine. I do not intend to do anything too remarkable on a technical level. Much of its strengths lie in its hyper technology and E-technology, and is primarily oriented around the rifle. The mech frame merely exists to make good use of the weapon, though I can still change my mind on that later in the project. Even so, I intend to publish this mech design immediately after we exit the System Space. The sooner it comes out, the better" Ves wanted to maintain a fairly tight focus on this project. Every hour inside the System Space was precious, so he could not afford to explore too many wild ideas at once. Ketis could clearly spot a lot of aspects about the draft design that showed that Ves took this priority seriously. He had made a clear division between the parts and systems that required greater attention and those that he could complete by relying on his existing base of solutions. There was a fair amount of overlap between the planned design of the Null Project and other rifleman mechs that Ves designed in the past. The most special part was the weapon. Ketis soon noticed an odd design choice made by Ves. "Do you intend to pair your rifleman mech with a ballistic rifle instead of a gauss rifle?" Ves nodded. "That is correct. A gauss rifle is nice and all, but it imposes heavy restrictions and demands on the projectile design. What is important about the Null Project is that it must be capable of firing Null Rounds. This is the special hyper ammunition type that produces a myriad of debilitating effects on the enemy when struck. The complexity and requirements that I have imposed on this projectile type are so much that I can only resort to a low-tech kinetic rifle type." Gauss rifles relied on electromagnetic propulsion to launch a solid piece of metal forward. Ballistic rifles relied on igniting a firearm propellant to produce hot gasses that shoved a projectile out of a barrel. The former was more advanced, powerful and effective at longer ranges due to their vastly higher muzzle velocities. The latter was much simpler and cheaper. They were easier to maintain and repair due to their low tech design and proven principles. They were pretty awful in spaceborn combat because their muzzle velocities were too slow to hit anything fast and agile at a decent distance. Gauss rifles had pretty much become the default ranged solutions for second-class mechs because of these advantages. They were not as accurate as directed energy weapons in spaceborn combat, but they tended to strike significantly harder on average. Ves had always abided by this custom. However, the interesting use of ballistic weapons for an ace mech as powerful as the Amphis Extremis had caused him to take a second look. While their cons were just as severe as before, Ves discovered that their advantages had grown after the start of the Hyper Generation. Weapons that launched missiles and solid projectiles were already experiencing a resurgence due to the obvious benefits of using hyper rounds. High-grade and certain medium-grade hyper materials were still scarce and difficult to procure in large quantities, but the same could not be said for low-grade hypers! As long as a company bothered to mine the many tons of low-grade hypers available in most star systems, they could easily supply all of the raw materials used to produce hyper ammunition in bulk at dirt-cheap prices! Sure, the effect of low-grade hypers was not that strong when applied to solid projectiles, but that was why Ves made sure to add 4 detachable ammunition canisters onto the mech frame! The ammunition canisters were so big and contained so many spare rounds that they impacted the mobility of the Null Project. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺 Ves believed that the advantages of carrying plenty of rounds outweighed the loss in agility and acceleration. As long as the Null Project was able to expend much of its ammunition, it would steadily reduce its mass and gain more and more maneuverability. Mech pilots could even choose to prematurely eject the ammunition canisters in an emergency if they were beset by enemies at closer ranges and desperately needed to dodge incoming attacks! Ketis could surmise all of this easily enough by skimming over the mech proposal. Just because she generally refrained from designing ranged mechs did not mean she had no idea how they worked. A Journeyman Mech Designer was still expected to understand enough principles about every common mech type to be able to design a basic version. Ketis pointed out another obvious problem. "The low muzzle velocities of ballistic rifles will severely limit the effectiveness of your Null Project. I do not understand why you want to use it to replace the use of your Godkiller Heavy Luminar Crystal Rifles. The damage profiles are too far apart." "It's okay because the Null Project is an electronic warfare rifleman mech focused on debilitation instead of elimination." Ves responded. "It is not meant to kill enemy units by itself. It should be used as a support mech instead. It can provide close to medium-ranged supporting fire that can directly hinder enemy units from employing their full capabilities in combat, especially if they are reliant on hyper technology, E-technology or cultivation science." In order to give Ketis a better idea of why he insisted on falling back on ballistic weapons, Ves called up a draft for the special Null Round that was meant to make this mech design special. "This is... a strange design. What does it actually do that makes it worthwhile for you to design this special mech?" "I haven't fully thought out the Null Round yet." Ves admitted. "I still need to conduct more research and figure out what I can apply based on my knowledge base. However, its main feature is to use a hyper material that can hold a small portion of the power of two design spirits, namely the Superior Mother and Kalo." The swordmaster looked surprised. "That is... an unusual combination of design spirits." "I know, but I think I can combine their powers to produce a very special debilitating effect. You see, the Null Round is principally designed to apply a curse upon contact. This curse is aimed at cutting the bonds of karma that are tied to the target. One Null Round might not be able to do the job, but if the target is struck by a few dozen or several hundred rounds, the continuous applications of weak curses will probably build up to produce a powerful metaphysical isolation effect!" Ketis looked completely lost at this point. "Karma?" "Ah, that is a more obscure and advanced concept in cultivation science. I won't bother to explain it in full. Just know that karma is what allows people and objects to recognize each other. By sabotaging these bonds with curses applied by Null Rounds, I think I can not only cut off a target from its own friends and allies, but maybe even cut off its connection to the power of heaven! My new weapons can do this by leveraging the damnation phase of the Superior Mother. I also intend to make creative use of Kalo to increase the confusion and prevent our target from putting the bonds of karma back together. All of this will hopefully render many forms of hyper technology and so on ineffective." It sounded dubious and convoluted, but Ves clearly believed he could make it work! "Is that possible?!" "It should be possible in theory, but I am not too sure at the moment." Ves admitted. "This is why I must develop a prototype weapon in order to test whether the concept is viable. As long as the results are positive, I can safely proceed with this project." Ketis thought about how such an outrageous effect could hinder a lot of different enemies. "If your new mech design and its weapon can sabotage hyper technology merely by firing lots of Null Rounds at the target, then are you not afraid that the native aliens will copy your work and turn it against red humanity? Your work may end up hurting our side much more than the enemy because we are much more reliant on hyper technology at the moment." Ves chuckled and shook his head. "I have already accounted for that possibility. This is why the addition of the two design spirits are integral. is practically impossible for anyone else to replicate their effects on a large scale." That assuaged the security concerns somewhat, but that did not make the Null Project perfect. The biggest concern was the questionable effectiveness of the so-called Null Rounds. As long as Ves had not yet produced any empirical proof that they could isolate a target on a metaphysical basis, then it would be stupid to commit to this project. However, as long as Ves was able to pull it off, then the rest of the mech design should be fairly quick and easy to design. Even if it lacked the advantages of other design philosophies, Ves still believed it held value due to its heavy reliance on hyper technology and E-technology. Aside from that, Ves did not intend to stop at this point. He wanted to apply a couple of new insights that he obtained after learning about Ketis' new theories. The Null Project served as an experimental platform where he could puzzle out how his upcoming mech could promote the development of its mech pilots in new and interesting ways. "This mech design project can either result in a throwaway mech design, or introduce another game changer that can become an enduring seller in the coming decade!" Ketis predicted. "If nothing else, it will serve as an interesting exercise."