Chapter 224: Monster Briefings
"Its tensile strength can beparable to graphene which is around 200 times that of steel," Dr. Sharon said as she stood at the head of the conference table.
She disyed an image of a cut out portion of a b of purplish white meat. Pointing to the skin portion which information oveys appeared, "The skin or hide of the beast is roughly two centimeters thick on average with the thickness raising to five centimeters thick covering vital organs of the creature."
"Tests showed that it can withstand anything below our 3" guns or 70mm rockets as long as the impact point is not at an oblique angle," Dr. Sharon reported. "The hide of the creature, however, isn''t so resistant to sharp implements."
"But that doesn''t mean that the creature is vulnerable to sharp implements like des or armor piercing weaponry," Dr. Sharon continued. "It has a secondyer underneath that skin which acts as a force absorbent."
She pointed to the next portion highlighted on the image. An animation showed the skin separating from the thick yellow whiteyer underneath. "This is what we would call the blubber or fat of the monster."
"It''s on average 40 centimeters thicks in most ces and up to sixty centimeters on selected parts of its body," A rendered image of the Krarga showed up on the disy and several locations were highlighted out.
"This fat acts as a shock absorbent and also as a self sealing band-aid," Dr. Sharon showed another image. "We dug two of this out from its body, buried inside its blubber." An image of two battered looking 3" shell heads wasid out alongside dozens of other items.
"We also found a total of 86 expended .50 cal bullets and 43 20mm shells intact inside its body," Dr. Sharon read out a list. "Hundreds of shrapnel, most likely from the bombs casing or shattered ammunition and also dozens of what we believed to be teeth or ws of other sea monsters embedded inside its fat."
"Cause of death is by overpressure," Dr. Sharon said next. "The High Explosives impacts from the 3" shells and the 50kg bombs ruptured its internal organs. You should have seen the mess it made in the sciencebs, the guys will be cleaning out that ce for months!"
"So, Doc," Chief Engineer Matt spoke up, "Does this means our current conventional weapons are useless against it?"
"Yes and no," Dr. Sharon replied. "Hmmm, low caliber weapons will be useless, but thermobaric weapons should mess them up pretty well."
"Hmm," ke frowned. "This creature sounds a lot like the Swarm..."
The people both gathered around the conference table or attending online all mumbled in agreement.
"Well gically they do not match each other," Dr. Sharon exined over the concerned mumblings. "Don''t forget that the Swarm takes on the traits of the species it consumed. So I will not be surprised if the Swarm had encountered a simr creature like this over the gxy and took on some of its traits."
"Alright," ke pped his hands to gather everyone''s attention. "The way to kill it is to bomb it till it dies from internal injuries or hit it with a bigger gun right?"
Dr. Sharon rolled her eyes before replying, "In a simplified way, yes..."
"Ok..." ke turned to Master Sergeant Pike''s image and said, "Top, I want you to get Ordnance to work out some kind of depth charge for both the Navy and Airforce and also to expedite the new guns."
Pike nodded as he took down some notes. "Yes, Sir!"
"Doc, continue your research on the creature and see if we can make use of it hides or blubber for any military or civil applications," ke ordered. "What else?"
"Continuing on," Dr. Sharon switched the images again and this time, an image of an Ind Whale appeared. "We found some interesting things on these creatures."
"By luck, we actually found the backs or inds of these creatures to contain several lodes of energy stones," Dr. Sharon said excitedly. "If you all could remember, we fought and defeated a T Rex Godzi like monster inside the dungeons."
"On its body, we harvested crystals we dubbed as ''Energy stones'', which are in essence a solidified condensation of pure energy," Dr. Sharon exined. "These stones had all been converted into a stable liquid electrolyte that is currently been used for the Point Defense Laser turrets and the ship''s main rail gun batteries."
"The amount we harvested from the T Rex only limited to over a dozen charges," Dr. Sharon said. "But we struck gold here!"
"We estimated from the amount we managed to uncover that the Ind Whales has close to over a hundred charges or more of the Energy stones!" Dr. Sharon disyed the next few imageries of their findings on the Ind Whales.
"Captain, I propose that we increase all resource to mine this material," Dr. Sharon said to ke. "As we do not know when will the Ind Whales depart as clearly, they are migrating creatures as evidenced from the tropical floral on their backs."
"What are the risks?" ke asked as he pondered on the Doctor''s request. "We do not really need to rely solely on the energy stones as our power grid is now able to handle most of the ship''s onboard weapons."
"Risks..." Dr. Sharon frowned before answering, "I have no guarantees on the risks as we totally have no idea nor any habitual information of these Ind Whales. But so far, they are pretty docile."
"We managed to extract some blood from one of the Whales and even mined some samples of the energy stones out," Dr. Sharon rified. "So far the Whales reminded as they were as before, feasting on nkton and jellyfish."
"I believe this is an opportunity that we shouldn''t waste," Chief Engineer Matt spoke up for Dr. Sharon. "Having another energy resource at our disposal allows us to have backups in case of SHTF* (*Shit Hits The Fan) situations."
"What do you think?" ke turned to Ford and asked.
"I would agree too," Ford replied. "If we can harvest more resources, it will only help us in the long run."
ke nodded and said, "Go for it but take all precautions. I don''t wanna lose lives just for a few energy stones."
"Yes, Sir!"
-----
"Captain!" Pike remained behind in the video conference as everyone left or logged out. "A minute of your time, Sir!"
"What is it, Top?" ke stopped in his tracks.
"Sir, I think you might want toe down to Ordnance for a look," Pike smiled mysteriously.
"Ok, sure." ke agreed and Ford gave a shrug as ke gave him a questioning look.
-----
Ford stepped on the elerator of the Jeep and grinned, "Damn, I missed driving!"
keughed as he sat back on the seat while Ford continued, "I have spent like almost a month out at sea and at the port, it''s not like I have any chance to drive!"
"Well, go slow, I don''t wanna spend my time in the hospital under Dr. Sharon''s care!"
"Heh, well, I think I know who you would rather care for you, yes?" Ford shot a sly grin at ke whoughed back.
"So how''s the princess?" Ford asked as he took an exit out of the side streets and towards the East Gate. "When you guys n to wed?"
"Hmm, we still haven''t thought of when is the wedding," ke sadly replied. "That''s just too much on our tes now."
"Ohe on!" Ford moaned. "Just set a date and leave the rest to the staff to handle! Is it that hard to do?"
"True," ke nodded. "I will talk to herter about this."
"Goddamn," Ford shook his head. "I seriously worry for your rtionship!"
"How about you?" ke quickly changed the subject. "Anyone, you are interested in?"
"Ha! Who can I find when I am mostly out at sea?" Ford replied as the guards waved them through the checkpoint at the East Gate. "I just leave it to fate."
"Hmmm," ke smiled. "Well, maybe I should let you meet up with the Inders more, that girl Megan is quite pretty!"
"Don''t you start!" Ford raised an eyebrow as he raced down the Eastern Highway. "I''m not that desperate... yet!"
"Hahaha," keughed. "I wonder what Top wants us to see?"
-----
1 km East of Base Colony, Ordnance Research Divison Facility
Ford pulled the Jeep to a stop and reversed into a parking lot before the two officers exited the vehicle. They entered the secured facility and found Pike at outside a hangar like structure.
"Sirs!" Pike with the rest of the waiting techs and staff saluted as the two officers walked up and returned the salutes. "Wee to ORD."
"Well, what''s the urgency here?" ke asked as he followed Pike towards the hangar doors.
"Hehe, Sir," Pike grinned. "I think you would like this!"
Pike turned to one of the techs and nodded, and the hangar doors crunched open while everyone stood back from the doors.
ke waited with curiosity at the side and he suddenlyughed madly as he saw what stomped its way out of the hangar. "Hahahaha, goddamn it! You guys really did it?"
A five meter tall, six-legged multi-joint walker, simr in design to the ASASGs walked out of the hangar with a crab like grit. An open hatch with clearly a pilot sat on the forward facing of the spider tank and with a turret on its back.
It looked like a 21st century armored vehicle but without tracks, having six multi joint legs instead. while a machine gun blister sat on each side of the walker.
"The Manned Armored Walker ''Bushmaster'' or MAW," Pike proudly presented the walker as it stormed its way over to a testing field. "Armed with a 3" stub gun and a dual 10 cell 70mm rocket pods with a coaxial MG, a cup mounted MG, a co pilot MG and an MG casemate on the nks."
"It runs with a crew of 7 and can carry up to 30 tons of gear and equipment." Pike led the awestruck officers to the testing field. "Its multi jointed legs allow it to easily maneuver over the roots of the trees in the forest giving it an average speed of 19 kilometers per hour,"
"While moving over rtively t terrain, it can go up to 28 kilometers per hour," Pike said. "It also can go wheels down, which will increase its speed to 46 kilometers per hour."
"Damn, I didn''t expect you guys to reallye out with this!" ke grinned as he admired the walker painted in the local forest green blue camo scheme.
"Well its design and programming came from Senior Spaceman Tae-joon Pak, Spaceman Hideo Koichi, and of course, Irisval who crafted the frames of the golems." Pike gave credit to the trio. "As weck AI cores, we decided to have a person pilot these instead."
"With the so called ''Magic programming code'' which SS Pak and SM Koichi invented, " Pike struggled with a straight as he exined. "They managed to devise a system which the golem will move following a certain set of controls."
"Since the golem does not need any processing power for autonomous control, the amount of energy it uses also is greatly reduced," Pike patted the spider tank. "It can function on average, ten hours onbat situations and sixteen hours on nonbat situations."
"Armor is 50 mm thick rolled homogeneous steel with explosive reactive armor ting," Pike pointed to the blocking stabs lining the sides of the spider tank. "Internally the framework of the golem is made out of porous stone mixed with ceramic y that allows it to absorb any shock and giving it some flexible to prevent any breakage."
ke and Ford stared up at the sloping side armor of the spider tank and followed Pike''s lead as he climbed up from one of the multi-jointed legs.
The test crew stood on the top of the tank and showed off their new vehicle with pride as the two officers gawked at the machine.
"Damn, just in time to show it off for Founding Day!"