A dark pink and white painted mobile suit with golden joints dashed through a field full of Sutherlands that were blasting beams at the mobile suit.
The new machine had a thick lance as a weapon.
Strangely, the beams don't reach this machine as they fly around. It's especially obvious when a mobile suit is rushing towards the enemy with a lance pointed forward; it looks like an arrow that easily pierces through rows of machines.
It ended up stabbing a single Sutherland before lifting it and impaling it like a spike. But then the Sutherland inflated like a balloon and exploded into a pink explosion.
The lance was not as simple as it could emit waves that bombarded upon impact.
~~~
"Amazing…this is what the Princess machine became after all those simulations?" Cornelia's Knight watched the lifestream of the 2nd Princess' tests.
"Not quite, this is Lugh that is using her specs. Lugh is the bedrock for all KK-units machines. It's a template.
That lance and those deflectors are what have been developed through her wild battles.
Your princess is a talented pilot, but her shortcoming is that she is used to being the tip of a spear; she has got used to having company with her the whole time.
To compensate, Legion developed a system, a beam deflector. Because no physical weapon could damage the Nano-metal."
Marcus explained as he watched his sister brutally crush and stab her way through countless machines.
This was…worthy of the Goddess of War!
"But the fighting style was like this one?" Guilford asked as he was awed by what he saw. This was like those warriors from myths killing thousands of enemies before succumbing to the wounds.
"Even better. Morrigan's frame will have a special field around its body that would allow the machine even more fluidity. What you are seeing here is her using basic thrusters for a bit of speed, but once the customised Ion field is up, she will be able to dance on the battlefield.
With her Geass, it should be possible to fight something like 100 to 1 odds at once."
"...You are making a monster, not a suit… but I like it!" Lloyd, who was assisting, commented from the side.
For this session, pretty much all of the scientists were with him as they assisted in fine-tuning the frame.
"This is a Goddess of War, Lloyd. This is the bare minimum I was imagining in Cornelia's suit." He replied to the scientist with crossed arms.
"My Lord, I do request a suit that could allow me to keep with her, as her knight, I have to fight next to her," Guilford said after snapping out of awe.
"We can arrange something." Marcus stroked his chin.
"We could create an elite version of Setanta, what do you think?" Anna suggested as she was next to him. She was working on the said Ion system that Marcus mentioned a few moments ago.
"Use the base mass production frame and pump it full of KK-variant technologies?" Lloyd suggested.
"Impossible, the machines are fundamentally different."
Nina chipped in as she was going through the weapon systems.
"KK units have a specific platform that they exist on. It's like a car and a heavy truck. They have different loads.
KK-units are based around a Fusion Reactor and AI. In contrast, KKS is based around a liquid sakuradite battery.
It's called Knightmare Killer Support for a reason."
The girl was giving a crash course to Lancelot's creator, speaking with such fervour as if it were verses from some holy scripture.
As she was doing that, Marcus was thinking about how to shrink the gap between Setanta and KK-unit.
But then he got an idea…
"Nina."
"...Yes?" For a second, she wondered if she was talking too much and he wanted her to shut up. But then he asked something completely different.
"What if we go in the opposite direction?"
"Different direction?" She wondered what he meant, but then her eyes widened!
"Of course! If we go with Fission, it would have greater output than a battery-based machine, but still lack the sheer power of the KK-unit!"
"...Fission?" Lloyd looked confused for a second.
But the girl scientists knew well enough what he meant.
"We need to design an engine; if we do that, we can incorporate energy absorption!" Anna already checked the data, the fission and the currently existing engines.
While they are based on fusion, she can play around and design something inspired by these!
As the conversation exploded to use a nuclear-powered suit, the knight had no freaking idea what the guys were talking about.
"Don't worry, Mister Knight. You will be able to fight next to your Princess; all we need to do is develop a new platform superior to the mass production ones." Marcus clarified to Guilford.
"...I-I see…"
'Doesn't it take months to make something like that?'
"Don't worry, it will be a couple of days maximum for a prototype. I have some seriously amazing people in the group." Marcus, as if reading his mind, told him that it would be fine.
"...I see."
"Now that we can play around with some of the technology developed with Princess' help, I have stumbled upon this."
All of a sudden, the quiet girl got everyone's attention.
"What did you stumble on?" Marcus walked over. What he saw nearly caused him to stumble and drop on his ass.
What he saw was phase shift armour!
The technology developed in Gundam Seed!
"Well, this is based on what Nina developed. The atoms solidify, something like shifting and hardening, causing the armour to absorb heat upon impact."
"But the calculations…" Marcus stroked his chin. He was surprised! This woman just pulled the rug under his feet.
"Hahaha! As expected from Cecile! You know, she is very good when it comes to energy!" Lloyd nodded to himself.
"Oh, please. I only cross-reference this nano-material technology with active energy flow." The lady blushed from all the praise.
"No, this is great. We can use this on the 3rd generation of machines." The Inventor Prince nodded before remembering something.
With a flick of his finger, he summoned his hologram console and then went through his data.
"This is what I've been working on. I need you to check over."
Cecile received the data. She checked over.
"...This is related to your machine?" She immediately noticed the model's distinctive frame number and the wings it had.
"Not just that. It's the next upgrade, something like 2.1.
As I call it Divine Arms."
She slowly nodded as she went through the files. She noticed that it was not just Tiranis but Andraste, Dagda and Flidais.
"The machines I have developed have a bit of primitive engines, compared to the power source they have.
That is why they need a bit of balancing.
The limiter and balancer attached to the Fusion Reactor have a limit on how much they can flex the energy output."
"...Ah, yes, I was thinking the same thing. Your machines lack something similar to the Yggdrasil Drive the Knightmares have." Lloyd grinned while he finally realised that Knightmares had something better than these monsters.
"Congratulations, you have something better, by the time it's 7th generation, while mine is only 2nd." Marcus sarcastically rolled his eyes.
"..."
The Inventor Prince swiftly returned to the things at hand after roasting Lloyd.
"While we use basic Ion technology to move, I am thinking something more flexible for the third generation."
"It shouldn't be hard considering the absurd power source we have." Anna smiled at the roast before replying to Marcus.
"But for the second generation, it's too late. That is why I call the upgrade Divine Arms."
"...I see… to overcome the lack of flexibility, you want to add weapons that could switch between outputs."
Marcus' Tiranis had replacement wings with shoulder cannons and second-generation beam rifles.
Leila's Andraste is finally getting more weapons, like twin high-output rifles. So far, it has been the weakest weapon when it comes to destruction. The funnels are good for disabling but erasing enemies en masse…was possible, but Andraste was a one-trick pony.
Not anymore.
Followed by Flidais, who is getting pistols and beam sabers. This makes the machine versatile, no longer purely long-range only.
Then, Kallen's Dagda. A purely close-range machine; it was the first one to get the same technology that Cornelia's combat simulation developed, the deflectors and absorption technology.
For that, the arms of the beast will be replaced. Thankfully, the machine was built with the ability to replace such things easily.
"I want you to run these through you before implementing. Once the conflict starts, we need all the weaponry possible." Marcus said to the lady who checked over the upgrades.
"I understand."
"Will we even have enough for all the preparations?" Guilford asked. He was nervous.
"We are a bit flexible because the only other competent individual is busy in North Africa." The Exiled Prince thought about his blonde older brother.
"Besides, I have countless backdoors in the Britannian network. So far, Cornelia's activities have not been reported as suspicious.
Though that can change when she has nothing to fight."
"In that case, she will be sent away, and Princess Euphemia will take over the stable Area and turn it into a satellite state." The knight knows the system well enough.
'That could be it. This could be a check from my dad. He wiggled my sibling before me.'
"This could be it." The Prince crossed his arms while looking at his big sister.
"He could have used her like a lure. He is fishing. I was wondering why he sent their best general to a decently stable area instead of a less capable sibling.
I guess he knows that I have Geass and most likely that Cornelia has as well. C.C. already told me that they can sense when someone gets Geass in the C Realm."
"I made sure that Clovis was tormented before he was terminated."
"...But why? Wouldn't it be better to have a Viceroy like Clovis? He was not that capable." Guilford asked.
"I needed someone at the Viceroy level to sign papers for me." Marcus smiled.
"He might not be as capable a ruler, but he is not incompetent." He shrugged at him.
"It was a calculated move to depose a tyrant, gain the witch's trust, and improve my faction's stance."
"..."
"While I didn't like such an outcome. Clovis got it coming for what he did to C.C." Marcus frowned while saying that.
"I don't approve of the torture he did; I understand why you did." The knight didn't like it either, but he understood that there were not that many choices for the Inventor Prince.
As they talked for a few more minutes, the simulation for the Princess had ended.
~~~
"How did I do it?" Cornelia asked her brother as she got out of the Simulation Sphere.
"Wonderful, the system that was developed for you is fully operational. There is only one more simulation left before we can start developing the frame for you."
She frowned, more simulations?
"More? I think I have over a day inside of this thing." The Princess replied with an annoyed look.
"And you got a machine that is purely for your fighting style." He replied.
"This simulation is purely for you to test out Morrigan's frame. It won't be Lugh with your weapons."
That got her attention.
"Fine. Let's do it."
Sure enough, she got back in, and the moment the simulation powered up, she felt that it was a bit different.
It was a simple feeling, but it was proven right when she tried to move into a new frame.
Her new model was much faster; it had twice as many Ion thrusters, and the magnetic field around her was much stronger.
It made her machine move like it was in water. With her lance, the mobile suit was like a tornado.
"...Unbelievable. it breaks physics!" Lloyd commented as he was scribbling down in his notebook. He is already thinking of applying this to his Lancelot.
"If it has enough Ion thrusters, it creates a field that lowers the gravitational pull.
The same can't be said of the other machines. In fact, those Sutherlands can't even operate their OS because everything fries when they are close to Morrigan." Marcus smirked as he enjoyed the reaction from the newcomers.
They still need much to learn.