"Equipped with the latest Britannian technologies, combined with what we recovered from Anaheim, these Zakus are the strongest things we have ever created."
Rakshata's assistants were explaining to the pair of Britannian girls. Oldrin changed into a pilot's suit as she was ready to pilot the Zaku.
"...How well they stack against Setantas?" Marrybell asked, she looked around, making sure the blonde indian lady was not listening.
"Umm… you do know that we haven't unlocked the core technologies of Setanta? We tried to copy to the best of our abilities, but… You know the saying that copy is not as good as the original."
One of the developers said with a strained smile.
"Since we couldn't recreate the battery we stacked four of them and made into a single block. The metal the machine is made of is a custom Tungsten alloy. The weapons were custom-made for this machine as well."
"Yes…We couldn't even completely replicate the technology used in the cockpit."
The pair of girls looked at the engineers with a bit of disbelief.
"They utilise a complete custom software and advanced neural interface, the machine literally reads the pilot's intentions."
"..."
The longer they listened, the less excited they were for these new machines.
"Indeed. And these are the basic among basic abilities for their Machines."
"...How on earth did they produce so many of them at once?" Marrybell asked, This sounded more like hyper custom mobile suits!
"We believe, like the rest of the technologies made by Anaheim, they have special factories for mass production."
"..."
"So we need to get data on these factories before we can even consider catching up to them." Oldrin frowned.
"...Yes. But there is a high chance they are made in space," one of the developers dropped what they didn't want to hear.
"!"
The pair of girls sighed at their realisation that this is not easy, not even close.
"One thing at a time, ladies." Rakshata walked over. She motioned towards the new machine.
"Now get into it, Ms Zevon."
The fellow blonde slowly nodded as she got in. She immediately noticed the difference. The cockpit of this machine was its head.
"One thing Anaheim doesn't understand is the pilot's safety. The cockpits are in the gut section. With no means of survival when the machine is destroyed.
Unlike the Setanta. The head can eject. When the body is damaged. The pilot will survive." The woman explained while Oldrin got into the cockpit and the head locked in, and its singular eye powered up.
The three monitors powered up as she saw an array of controls.
'...This will take a while…'
The amount of controls this thing had.
"Sadly, we couldn't copy the technology available inside Setanta. According to the spies. Anaheim technology inside of cockpit is fully automated and can read one's intentions. They even have holograms you see in sci-fi movies."
Rakshata explained as Oldrin was skimming through a guidebook while listening to what the fellow blonde was saying outside of the machine.
"You can read the book later. For now, move my daughter. We need to run some basic tests before we can improve the model."
The blonde inside the machine slowly nodded as her hands went to the control sticks.
She began the first test runs for the new Britannian machine.
~~~
Meanwhile, at Langrage 3, on the other side of the sun. In the field of asteroids, where three of five SWORD stations are being built began to add ice blocks that they have received from Antarctica.
The first segment of the colony is attached to the core section of the station.
The other three segments are already under construction.
The refinement process accelerated as standalone refineries were being built in the area.
Leading the front in this part of Anaheim was Anna, who wants to see the first space colonies.
'The weather itself will be a test. Now that I have the ice, I can start tempering it to see how the cycle will begin.'
This was the first time in history that someone would test the weather cycle at such a scale in space, no less.
The pinkette nerd watched how the new type of black bird planes were bringing containers from Earth. There were ones that brought dirt as well.
She even began to organise a collection of plants from temperate locations. Including trees of different shapes and sizes.
The girl needs to see how good of oxygen circulation she can come up with in the colony. This was far more interesting to her than mobile suit development.
Something she is slowly abandoning… unless Marcus wants to develop one with her like they did with Setanta.
Until then, she will be in space and helping Anaheim and humanity in turn to achieve the next big thing.
"How is it going?" Anna asked Nina, as the fellow glasses girl was working on the next generation of fusion reactor.
The third generation was here, the only hurdle she still has to pass is the gravity resonators. The rings that circle the rotating sun are what pass the gravity.
"Everything was ready for the first test regarding the resonators.
I can believe we built a space station around this test site." The green-haired girl was a bit annoyed that they spent so many resources just to test this.
"We had to. This is the most important part in all of this." The pinkette replied. She can understand where the annoyance is coming from.
The girl wants to be hyper-efficient and make Marcus proud.
The nerdy green-haired girl wants to be praised more than achieve artificial gravity.
Something she does as well. Both of them want to be praised!
"I know. But we wasted weeks." Nina sighed. As she looked at the space station in the distance.
Her gaze went to the command centre. They were located at SWORD ONE's station tip. It was the Command Centre of all space operations. Including resource management, construction management.
And the upcoming tests for generation three of the power source.
"Begin the test." Nina instructed the personnel.
"Beginning the test."
The people began to scramble as they started pressing on holograms.
"Opening vents. Initiating fusion of Helium 3."
As the sequences were happening, Anna fixed her glasses as they were trying to float away.
"Thankfully, we have borderline unlimited resource of Helium 3." She commented.
"We still haven't invented means to extract gases from Gas Giants." Nina replied, as she looked a the fellow researcher.
"According to the schematics we have, generation three of fusion reactors will be able to do that."
The reply made Nina's eyebrows twitch.
'No pressure at all.'
She commented to herself.
"W-We have a reaction! It would seem resonators in the reactor chamber work, but the spreading to the ones outside doesn't work as good as we expected!
A hologram of a space station appeared in front of Nina and Anna.
They could see that resonators are reacting. But test dummies inside the station were still floating and had not fallen to the floor.
If everything had worked perfectly, then the dummies would have dropped on the ground thanks to the artificial gravity.
"Can we use resonators as means to track how gravity is being channeled?" Anna asked as she was looking at the semi-failed test.
They can already make suns. The Gundams are powered by a much smaller version of these reactors. But what they want is gravity.
Gravity is essential for the next step in humanity's expansion.
Once they have proper gravity they can build colonies anywhere.
[Adjusting waves readers.]
Legion used a form of a scanner, and sure enough, they had something.
"As expected, the containment field is blocking gravity. It can't leave the sphere." Anna commented on at she saw.
"But if we remove any part of it… the sun's heat… it would melt any lesser material." Nina replied with frown.
"Then a form of Nano-Metal? Why don't we mix the resonator's material into the containment field?"
"...That material is not as good as the containment one. It could emit some of the heat through. I already tried that." The green-haired girl replied a she needed to fix her glasses as well.
"Why don't we do this?" Anna summoned another hologram and drew a rough sketch of another version of the reactor.
It was two containment spheres. They rotated… instead of resonator spheres, the containment itself moved.
When Nina saw this… she needed to double-take at what she saw.
"...You are a genius…Anna…" The girl praised the fellow nerd.
The pinkette blushed at the praise.
"...No…It was a simple fix…" Trying to be as humble as possible.
[Well, it was a good suggestion because the simulations that I did just now prove that it was working.]
Legion showed another hologram. The proposed prototype was working.
"Wonderful!" The green-haired girl nodded before looking at the officers." Team! Terminate the current test and begin adjusting to what Anna has proposed."
Nina was ecstatic; this was what she needed to create the proper 3rd generation!
"Terminating the test."
The fusion reactor was simply turned off. This was one of the extras that Nina had added. The fusion reactors are very dangerous and if damaged, they could cause a catastrophic explosion, even if it were a small sun.
That is why there is a mechanism that rapidly cools down the sun and forces the bonding of Helium 3 to stop.
These were essential steps; the vents open below the reactor to rapidly release the heat.
Before long, the reactor chamber was empty, and the power in the whole test station went down. Before emergency reactor came online and power returned to the station. It was a simple solar-powered solution as having two fusion reactors is a bit too much and it could be deadly for the SWORD stations in the area.
"We shall begin the disassembly of this 2.5-generation reactor and will go with Anna's solution." Nina swiftly floated away to begin the whole process.
Now that she knows what to do to make it happen, she is feeling extra motivated.
"If we get gravity, doesn't it mean we don't need to build the colonies like that?" Anna realised that they could just switch to the new model where the gravity is generated by the Fusion Reactor.
"We could, but that would derail all the manufacturing we are doing. I think the initial 5 colonies should follow the current blueprinting before we build the next ones with the new model.
Besides the day and night time model, we would need to be redesigned." The green-haired girl explained to the pinkette.
"I suppose it is what Marcus said he wanted." Anna recalled that he already decided that these five colonies will be built with 2nd generation reactors and the rotation will suffice for the gravity.
The next ones, around the moon, will be with artificial gravity… and of course, he is planning to test gravity creation on the moon itself.
Like a test run for Mars' gravity alternation.
Wild plans for sure, but they have robotic labour and borderline infinite energy with the fusion reactors…
The only limits for them are the drive…not the resources.
"Oh… Legion just found out that Britannians are testing the first Mobile Suits." Nina all of a sudden stopped and looked at the notification before her.
It was a picture in the mobile suit development group chat.
A satellite picture of California's R&D.
"...It is a mobile suit. The shadow it casts. It rivals KK and Gundams." Anna looked surprised.
"...It is fast. Do you think they figured out some of our technology?" She asked, a bit concerned. If they can create similar-ish technology and can compete against them again then it would lead to even more violance.
"Doubtful, the satellites are watching Britannian Homeland very closely. There were some movements in the factory locations, but it's not enough to cause concern.
They lack essential infrastructure to develop something that could compete with Setanta. But, they could have weapons that could destroy them."
Nina recalled the railguns. Those can blow up a Setanta. But, in the end, a single Setanta could take out a squad of these machines if they use old, primitive technology.