Ves did not come up with the crazy idea of freezing lots of voribugs before using them as substitutes for shotgun shells without a good reason. His wife did not entirely get it yet, but he was patient enough to explain his rationale. He activated a projection that displayed numerous clips of the previous battles. They specifically showed how much the expert mechs and the Divine Arsonist struggled against the opposing Goliaths. "What do you see, Gloriana?" His wife did not answer immediately, but took the time to study the footage. She contextualized what she saw with the most recent proposal. "I see... our champions struggling to kill the enemy Goliaths because they are being hindered by swarms of weak voribugs." She eventually replied. "The willingness for the mutated voribugs to sacrifice so many of their own members is difficult to withstand because we are not prepared to fight against such tactics. It is due to the constant interference of all of these weak insects that our champions are struggling more than what is strictly necessary to defeat their assigned opponents. The greater the quantity, the more setbacks they suffer.” Ves nodded and smiled. "Now think about what I said earlier about turning frozen voribugs into improvised shotgun pellets. What do you think will happen when these voribugs try to swarm the Promethea Mark II, only to get caught by resonance- empowered flames that constantly expands by freezing stuff on contact? What happens when those frozen bugs gets launched straight into a large Goliath?" His wife widened her eyes! "The frozen voribugs will get launched into the body of a Goliath! Depending on how hard the voribugs are and how much momentum they have gained, most of them will end up stopping at the surface, but there is a possibility that a small number of organic projectiles can dig deeper, especially if there are existing wounds. Once embedded inside, the frozen voribugs may potentially spread their unnatural flames in the flesh around them. This will produce a much more severe reaction to the Goliath than if he was infected by normal flames. This is because the freezing effect will weaken and disable all of the affected biomass. The megavoribug will have to work much harder to suppress the frozen flames by diverting energy to generate a substantial amount of heat in the affected body parts." "Yes! That is exactly right, Gloriana! Do you understand why my weapon proposal has value? While I cannot guarantee that it will work according to my imagination, if it works, then the Promethea Mark II will be one of the few mechs that can turn the enemy's penchant for relying on overwhelming numbers against it. The more cannon fodder attending a Goliath, the easier it will be for Saint Isobel Biotin to freeze and burn the megavoribug to death! This should work even against Level 7 Goliaths due to their lack of energy defenses and overreliance on rapid regeneration.” The weapon concept sounded like a targeted measure against the Goliath Hive in particular. It probably wouldn't be as good when employed against the other Hives that have not made use of megavoribugs so far, but it was still a good solution nonetheless. There was no rule that prevented the other 5 Hives from adopting their own versions of megavoribugs. Perhaps they wouldn't commit to them as heavily as the Goliath Hive, but there was a rationale for employing a handful of powerful strains to serve as figurative battering rams. His wife remained silent as she continued to think over her husband's weapon proposal. The energy projector devised by Ves was practically tailor-made to counter the difficulties faced by the Rubarthans on the battlefield today. Would that remain the same in future once the Promethea Mark Il made use of this weapon? "What if the Goliath Hive adapts its bugs to resist this new weapon?" She asked. "For example, the Goliath Princess develops special voribug variants that are highly resistant against the freezing effect.” Ves smirked. "Then Saint Isobel can switch off the setting that activates the Ice Fire Stone. The energy projector will proceed to inflict wide area damage by exposing nearby enemies to heat. They will burn like old times, and spread heat when coming into contact with more flesh. A bug that is made to be resistant against freezing should be more prone to getting caught on fire. Mostly. Not always." "And what if the Goliath Hive adapts to the versatile nature of your proposed weapon and produces voribugs that are resistant against both fire and ice?" He laughed! "Then the Goliath Hive is spending many more resources to produce the same amount of voribugs! This is a numbers game. The Promethea Mark Il armed with the new weapon does not have to in fact have to fight on the battlefield in order to generate value. Just the existence of this powerful configuration is enough to constrain the Goliath Hive and force it to lower its production rate due to the need to be on guard against more exotic means of attack." This was the true value of a weapon integrated with the mysterious Ice Fire Stone. Although Ves was not yet sure whether Saint Isobel Biotin would even want to touch the peculiar exotic, it was worth a try. Perhaps the ace pilot may even be able to increase her comprehension of fire by becoming familiar with its opposite. "How well will the energy projector fare when used against the native aliens?" Gloriana asked. "Decent but not good." Ves admitted. "On large battlefields, the Promethea Mark Il may be able to break up large formations of alien phasefighters, but that is not really an effective use of its time. An ace mech should focus on more important enemies, which are always present on large battlefields. Once the phasefighters lose their backbone, they should be simple to deal with. The energy projector should not be that effective against alien warships and phase lords because their energy defenses can block its effects much more effectively." The native aliens abided by completely different paradigms than the mutated voribugs. While the native aliens had so numerous soldiers at its disposal that they could afford to sacrifice a huge number of troops, they were not as outrageous as the voribugs in this regard. Every alien soldier fought with vehicles or vessels that were always well-shielded. The abundance of phasewater allowed the alien races to be quite luxurious in this regard. Therefore, when it came to fighting against the native aliens, it was much better for the Promethea Mark Il to stick with her Ignitron Assault Rifle. "By the way, what weapon did you come up with, Gloriana?" She looked a bit embarrassed. "Now that I understand the greater potential and utility of your proposal, I am not as confident in my own idea anymore. I took inspiration from an advanced tech developed by the Rubarthan Pact. It is called the Sun Caster, a special energy weapon that gathers plasma and contains them in a large orb that can be sustained for a long period of time. It is one of the older works of Her Excellency Setara Sourana." "The Plasma Shaper?" Ves recalled a prior battle where he witnessed the Obsidian Orb, an impressive Masterwork Installation, in action. The sheer level of ingenuity and technological harmony put into the machine was inspiring. The Obsidian Orb very much deserved to become a masterwork and gain a life of its own. "That is correct, Ves. Let me show you the footage." She projected a short piece of footage that displayed the so-called Sun Caster in action. It was not a weapon per se. The components of the Sun Caster were instead mounted on the back of an ace mech and curved outwards and upwards as if they were arms embracing a sun. The horn-like protrusions adopted this peculiar shape because they were able to generate a large plasma orb. The orb started off small, but under the careful direction of an ace pilot who was proficient in wielding the power of fire and plasma, the radiant golden orb grew increasingly bigger! The amount of heat radiating from the orb became deadly enough to fry all nearby mechs, so the ace mech responsible for employing the Sun Caster made sure to stay away from friendly units. Once the orb became large enough that its corona bumped into the outer edge of the ace mech's Saint Kingdom, the Sun Caster no longer expanded the miniature sun any further. The ace pilot would likely lose control of the orb if it was no longer being restrained by her extraordinary willpower. The Sun Caster was very much a weapon that was never designed to be wielded by mortals. Even when it was being used by an ace pilot, the size and power of the plasma orb had become so incredibly powerful that it dominated the battlefield. Ves studied the background. The ace mech did not randomly employ the Sun Caster, but instead generated the giant plasma orb in orbit of an alien-occupied planet. Of course, the planet wasn't settled by the native aliens of the Red Ocean. These were the old aliens of the Milky Way. Ves was already able to glean from the starships and first-class multipurpose mechs in the distance that this battle likely took place over 50 years ago. That should have made the Sun Caster one of the Plasma Shaper's fairly recent works after she had ascended to her current rank. Once the ace mech generated the Sun Orb, the machine did nothing aside from flying forward. The aliens that sought to defend their planet from the attacking humans tried to stop the machine, but their weapons inflicted zero effective damage. The tech and wealth disparity was too great. The ace mech was designed and built by a former human empire. A regional alien power that had survived through the cracks of major alien empires up to this point could not muster any superweapon that could give the ace mech a run for its money. The ace mech passed through the atmosphere of the globe and continued to descend to the surface. Even exposure to an alien air mixture did not affect the integrity of the giant plasma orb. When the ace mech finally approached the largest and presumably most important alien city, its residents and soldiers all met their doomsday. The damage started off small, but continued to escalate until the surrounding air cooked the alien troops no matter whether they were indoors or clad in armor. More and more aliens died in agony as flames engulfed them or the increasingly hot air cooked them without giving them any form of relief! By the time the ace mech neared the surface of the city, over 99.99 percent of its alien residents had already perished. Many structures had caught fire while others were melting. The ace mech did not linger, but began to ascend, as if it was a metallic angel that had cast ts blessings upon the unworthy aliens and became pleased with the results. Once the ace mech was on the verge of breaching the atmosphere, it momentarily paused. The machine tossed the plasma orb at another large alien city, one that was just visible over the horizon. The orb destabilized as soon as it left the ace mech's Saint Kingdom, but the ace pilot had infused enough true resonance in it to shape it into a barely contained bolt! The gigantic plasma bolt continued to descend at an angle before Finally striking the city. The entire metropolis and the surrounding region immediately became engulfed by a cataclysmic explosion! The power of the orb was so great that by the time the dust had settled, a gigantic glassed crater had taken the place of a once-vibrant alien population center! Though the results were impressive, the ace mech did not appear to be in good shape anymore. The strain of keeping the Sun Caster active for so long had strained its horn- like components and drained much of the machine's energy reserves.