6925 Additional Upgrades The tour throughout the massive converted alien battleship seemed to last half a day. The children and cats grew tired of it all. They had little interest in observing the more mundane but necessary sections such as hydroponics, life support and waste reclamation. After their nanny and guards led them to a place on the ship where they could have fun, Ves and his wife continued their tour. They both understood the importance of knowledge on the Tortuous Scream. The more information they received about the captured and converted warship, the less they would be taken by surprise if anything special happened. Both Ves and Gloriana were about to entrust their lives and the lives of their children to the newly designated flagship of the Premier Fleet. They could not tolerate unstable technologies, obvious security loopholes or critical vulnerabilities! Even if they could not adequately address all of these shortcomings, they could at least take note and be prepared if enemies managed to exploit them somehow. It was only at the end of the tour that Gloriana yawned and bid the two men goodbye. "I need to return to the kids and make sure they have settled into their new home on this ship." Ves and his immediate family had already claimed the most luxurious and well-protected suites in the center of the Tortuous Scream. Shortly after Gloriana made her departure, Ves and Gilbert entered a quiet office in order to discuss a variety of important subjects. Ves placed a lot of importance in upgrades. "The Tortuous Scream plays a vital role in our fleet lineup." He said as he sat down and folded his hands on a table. "As our only true battleship, she can do stuff that mechs necessarily cannot. Since we need to rely on her for the coming years, we may as well invest in her so that we can depend on her when we need her strength the most. What improvements do you have in store?" High Captain Gilbert de Raanvanchas clearly prepared for this discussion in advance. He projected a list of different items. "We are just beginning the first upgrade as we speak. Our personnel are in the process of transferring the SF-02 Smart AI Data Processing Cluster from Diandi Base to our pre-prepared data center compartment. Once we have installed the hardware, we will immediately begin to link the software including the smart AIs to an isolated section of the parallel human control system. There are certain risks involved with doing this, but we hope that the isolation measures combined with the fact that our control system only operates on top of the original alien control system will prevent our warship from going out of control." That sounded rather sloppy, but time was of the essence. None of the Larkinsons had enough time to do everything right. They had little choice but to cut corners when they thought they could get away with it and hope that they were right. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚 The Larkinsons had been planning this transition in advance, so Ves was not too surprised with this important transfer. "How long will it take for the SF-02 to settle into its new home?" "Five days if we are being optimistic in our estimates." Gilbert answered. "During this time, you and others will not be able to make use of the processing power or demand assistance from one of the smart AIs." That was disappointing news as it would set back the Design Department considerably. While Ves and other mech designers were capable enough to do their work by relying on much less processing power, their work speeds would definitely get affected. A lot of projects would fall behind schedule as a consequence. THis was bound to piss off his wife. Still, this was a necessary move. The SF-02 was the most valuable asset remaining in Diandi Base. There was no way that Ves would agree to leave it behind. Besides, the SF-02 was originally designed to be stuffed inside the limited compartments of a starship. Ves could have selected a much larger and more demanding processor cluster if he was fine with remaining planetbound. The partial integration of the SF-02 would improve everyone's lives. They would not only gain a better grip on the huge and multifaceted systems of the Tortuous Scream, but also gain access to its multiple smart AIs, each of which possessed their own personalities and preferences. After addressing the processor cluster, Gilbert mentioned another important upgrade. He conjured up a projection that displayed the external hull. "One of the upgrades that are still in progress is to integrate support link technology into the design. This will enable our ship to provide much better support to other mechs as well as starships that are also equipped with energy link, shield link and data link transceivers. Due to the generous size of the hull, we can install larger and more demanding support link arrays across the exterior." Ves frowned when he looked at the projection that showed how much coverage they had before, which was not much. Of course, much of that had to do with the fact that the Tortuous Scream was never designed to accommodate support link technology. This was why the shipbuilders and naval engineers had to go through a lot of trouble to install additional modules. However, Ves knew that it would be worth it. Support link technology became a lot more powerful when a strong source was within reach. 21:59 "How long?" A year did not sound so bad, but that also meant that the Premier Fleet would not dare to get into too many scuffles. Every battle presented the enemy with opportunities to swoop forward and eliminate a lot of friendlies. Shield link technology could save a lot of lives! "Does the Tortuous Scream have enough energy to spare on to provide enough to support all of this linking?" "We do for now." Gilbert said with a smile. "The greatest limitation is range as opposed to energy supply. The support link arrays that we can install onto the hull are relatively generic components. The Red Association is deliberately keeping out their best and most advanced implementation of this tech." That sounded disappointing, but Ves should have expected the mechers to pull off such a trick. It was a way for them to control how Ves and his Larkinsons made use of support link technology. By forcing them to utilize inferior and outdated pieces of tech, the Red Two maintained their technological superiority. "Do you think the effective ranges of the support link modules installed on the Tortuous Scream are sufficient?" "For the most part, the answer is no, sir. The Red Two make use of larger arrays that possess much greater effective ranges. The designs we have access to are smaller and more limited. Our mechs can only receive assistance from the Tortuous Scream at closer distances. Further away, only the E-MULE support mechs can provide support to the combat mechs at the front." Ves certainly could not accept this outcome. Perhaps he needed to approach the Red Association and make another deal to trade for larger and more advanced support link transceiver models. However, Ves knew that there were still many limitations to the use of support link technology. One of the reasons why the effective ranges for it was so damn short was because it was difficult to maintain active links between many smaller units on the move. Trying to keep track of so many moving machines and making sure that everything remained connected imposed a huge burden on any central hub. The SF-02 likely needed to loan a huge amount of processing power to help the support link transceivers keep up with the complexity of battle. "Aside from installing the most crucial shield link transceivers onto the hull of the Tortuous Scream, the other starships of the Premier Fleet will be receiving them as well." The high captain reported. "In fact, these works have already been underway, so we expect most of them to be able to enjoy the protection of shield link technology. The installation of energy link transceivers is less urgent. They are mostly useful in supplying mechs with additional energy during combat. I have heard that the mech forces have already begun to train E-MULES to serve as energy couriers." "Oh? Please elaborate." The tactic turned out to be simple. E-MULES possessed considerable energy reserves, but could quickly be emptied once they transferred a lot of energy and shield power to the nearby Dracoloids and Omega Threshers. As long as this happened, there was little point for the E-MULES to remain in the field. They were instructed to return to the rear and standby until one of the friendly starships activated an energy link. This should quickly restore the energy reserves of the E-MULES! Once the E-MULES managed to top off their energy cells, they could fly back to the front and resume their job of channeling energy and shield power to the first-class multipurpose mechs that truly needed the help. The former Terran officer seriously nodded. "That is correct. If you want to use the Tortuous Scream as a siege engine, then it is possible to build an enormous spinal-mounted laser cannon on her hull. The tech is relatively simple in order to avoid complications, but the materials must be high in quality. However, the improvisational nature of this add-on means that there is always a chance of glitches and malfunctions." The entire premise of this idea was not sound from the start. A spinal cannon added an enormous burden to the hull and systems of a vessel. There were good reasons why most of the warships of the Red Association, Red Fleet and even the native aliens lacked this feature. It not only added a huge burden to the hull, but also put too many eggs in a single basket. So long as the spinal cannon incurred moderate damage, it may be rendered inoperable, thereby causing a warship to lose a lot of value in an instant! However, if the Premier Fleet was able to do a good job of protecting the Tortuous Scream, it may be worth it to invest in a spinal cannon, even if it was just a discount version like the one in the proposal. Ves struggled to make a decision on this matter. The power and scale tempted him into accepting the proposal, but practicalities such as attracting greater hostility and trying to maintain such a huge and demanding weapon system cooled his brain. "No." He said. "We will not be installing a spinal cannon onto the Tortuous Scream anytime soon. First, the hull shape and configuration is not conducive to this addition. Second, I much prefer to utilize spinal cannons of the warships that are already designed from the ground up to accommodate such an enormous weapon system. Third, installing all of these extra structural components is nearly impossible to accomplish in the field. We will have to send this warship to a massive orbital shipyard that is completely out of our control. There are too many ways for third parties to compromise our converted battleship." In short, installing a spinal cannon onto a warship that was never designed to accommodate it in the first place was an unnecessary risk and hassle. Ves would rather spend his limited resources on more practical upgrades. Thank you for reading my work. If you wish to support The Mech Touch, please vote with your golden tickets! Purchase Privilege for The Mech Touch! 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