The next thing that popped up was the designs of the cannons.
"These are the Type-G Bulwark cannons, simple enough to create and not so large in size that they become too complicated to manufacture. To be exact, it sits slightly behind the perimeter of the wall and is 4 meters long when fully assembled.
Each gun will need a small crew of two to three soldiers, one for aiming and shooting the cannon, one for loading it, and another for spotting, though that position can remain empty if there is ever a shortage of manpower," she paused to make sure he was still paying attention.
"Don't worry, I'm paying attention," he said while laughing.
"Okay, the cannons are purely kinetic, and they fire solid metal projectiles using a straightforward chemical-propellant system based on refined energetic compounds. We can only produce them on a relatively small scale, though within the laboratory, so we'll perhaps need to create an automated factory specifically for those chemicals later.
Although these weapons aren't exactly uncommon within the federation, they also aren't the very best of the best, so based on our combined estimates, the damage one of these cannons can deal will be most effective against vehicles, light fortifications, or approaching cannon fodder like those parasite fungi."
"So basically exactly what we need," Ridge interrupted just before she continued.
"Well... Yeah, pretty much. Besides the damage it can deal, it's also designed to be able to fire around five rounds per minute depending on the soldiers using it. Obviously, if some complete rookie took control of it, they would be on the lower end of maybe two to three rounds a minute. Either way, the gun isn't very difficult to operate, so it should be fine.
Another thing to add is that we will very likely have to reinforce the mount for the guns, but to be quite realistic, that's the easiest task to take care of, so you don't need to worry about it." She let out a breath.
Caroline paused for a good minute or two as she took out what looked like a metal water canteen and drank some. Raising his brow, he smirked in amusement.
Clearing her throat, she pulled up more data on her wrist panel. "We plan to create a total of six of them surrounding the base on the wall. In this way, they can cover all angles, and the resource usage wouldn't be too bad. A piece of good news, though, is that we didn't need to add any of those targeting chips we still have, since this cannon features simple mechanical gears and hand-cranks that allow the crew to aim the gun across a wide arc."
Hearing this, Ridge was somewhat surprised, but nonetheless felt happy about it; the fewer resources of any kind that they needed to use, the better.
"Got it, what else is in the plans besides the guns and housing units?" he asked.
"Well, other than those, we also collaborated with the scientists on base to design a greenhouse of sorts for their starch project. It's also the final and most complicated plan yet," she answered.
"Alright, well, I'll make sure to brace myself for your info dump," Ridge joked.
Chuckling, she took another sip of her water and then a deep breath before starting, "It will be approximately 12 meters long, 6 meters wide, and 3.5 meters high at the peak, similar to the housing units; it will be rectangular-shaped, though this one will have an arched roof as compared to them. This design generally helps with weather and maximising internal volume.
Obviously, as mentioned before, this is for the starch project, so it's specifically designed to support continuous cultivation of high-starch crops. At least I'm assuming it's crops since they still haven't told me anything different.
The outside or frame will be the metals we refined recently, mixed with panel-like windows to ensure that light can get in. Those panels will also be reinforced so that heavy weather or other things can't easily disturb what's inside. The flooring will be a simple leveled pad with drainage channels and raised planting beds," she paused once more, letting out a breath of air.
"To keep it simple and not to bore you any further, in addition, the floor inside will have hydroponic-style troughs arranged for efficient space use and easy access. A climate control system powered by some extra solar panels we can set up, as well as the base's power grid if needed at any time. It will also have a direct connection to the water-purifying plant, and the lighting inside will mostly be from the two suns in the sky, though we did put in some small lighting components for cloudy days if need be." She finished.
Lightly clapping his hands, Ridge applauded her. "Nice work, you have more than exceeded my expectations. The expansion plan was mostly for the housing units and nothing else, so everything else is a nice touch, though I do have to ask: what's the resource consumption looking like?"
"Well, surprisingly, not much in the grand scheme of things. 332 Metal Units and 168 Wiring Units," she answered.
"Really, how's that even possible? Didn't the water purifying plant take like 500 Metal Units and fifty Wiring Units?" he exclaimed.
"Well, for those and the mining projects, they are generally speaking much bigger and more complicated buildings. After all, we also needed to go deeper into the earth for those plans; for the current ones, we're just building small houses and cannons. Nothing really major in size. The most complicated thing was the greenhouse, but once again it's not as hard as the previous projects I mentioned," she said.
"Well, I'm not gonna complain about that. You have my full permission to get started right away. Just keep me in the loop with some progress reports or something using your wrist panel; you're dismissed for now," he told her.
Saluting, she nodded and said, "Will keep you informed, sir!" before leaving.
Giving her one back, Ridge returned to his patrol on the wall. With these plans set in motion, he would probably have something to do finally.
When he finished his patrol, not even an hour later, he decided to go visit Becke, or more specifically Lind, who was very likely to be experimenting on him at this very moment. Perhaps it was just the mystery of it all, but she was spending quite a lot of her time in the jail room, and he hadn't gotten any information from her yet.
Walking into the jail, the first thing he noticed was that the once empty room had been pretty much stuffed with all sorts of machines and things Ridge didn't know the names of.
Furrowing his brows, he stepped over some wires and walked over to Lind, who was actually inside the jail cell operating on Becke with a scalpel while he was seemingly unconscious.
"Lind, when exactly did you get all this stuff in here, and how did you add an operating table in the cell as well?" he said, making sure his voice was loud enough to break her concentration.
"Ah, commander, sorry about the mess. As for your questions, well, I just asked the guards outside to bring some stuff over, and lo and behold, they did it, so I don't know what else to tell you," She smiled.
Speechless, Ridge could only silently curse the guards outside, who both felt slight chills in their spines. Looking around, they noticed nothing and shrugged when their eyes met. Weird, but since there was nothing in sight, they ignored it and continued what they were doing.
"What exactly are you operating on him for, though?" Ridge asked as he moved closer to her side.
"Testing his regenerative abilities, really. The continued blood tests didn't really have great results, and I can't really do much experimenting on his brain, so I figured I should just test his healing. After all, it was what tipped me off the most in the first place," She answered while making small cuts here and there.
Watching the skin slowly close up in quite a fast manner was something indeed, but Ridge did notice the injury healed and closed slower and slower the more damage was inflicted.
Naturally, if he could notice such a phenomenon, then so could Lind.
"Hmm, interesting," She said before making an even bigger cut. Just like before, it healed, but this time much more slowly. Another thing they both noticed was that there was no bleeding of any kind.
"Perhaps he is slowly being transformed, starting with the blood in his body, followed by his skin and eventually his hair," She said while noting the data down on her wrist panel.
"I guess I'll leave you to it. Make sure to send more frequent reports. I only visited you this time because you haven't been reporting anything these past few days, and also please be more cautious; we still don't know everything that he can do," He said after taking one last look and hearing Lind hum in agreement before he left.
As he walked out, he turned to the guards. "Please don't carry anything else in there; it's cramped as it is and could inadvertently help the prisoner escape," he said sternly.
Both men saluted and nodded to him before they let out a collective breath of relief as he left.