CH.513 Testing an Airship
CH.513 Testing an Airship
Today was another one of those days. What days you ask? Well, a test day.
Because I had a new prototype to test in the real world.
And that prototype is a prototype gravitron-antimatter engine airship.
… Yeah. That is a thing. And the fricking Gradius ships run on that bullshit.
I’ll quickly go over the pseudo-science, as I understand it. Basically, the ships have a small gravitron device. It can manipulate gravity. Pretty simple right? … Yeah, it isn’t, but I’m not going to get into that, because a device like that breaks like … all the laws of physics.
But back to the ships. They use that gravitron device not only for some of the movement they do, but also to hold a small amount of antimatter suspended in an antimatter tank. Then that antimatter is combined with regular matter, where both antimatter and regular matter completely annihilate each other and produce an absolute ton of energy.
You know, Einstein, E=MC². It doesn’t take much to make all the energy a small spaceship would need for a long trip.
Now I was not at all confident in playing with antimatter, but that was when my monsters revealed something kind of huge. Xyz monsters are made of antimatter.
The Xyz monsters have their antimatter protected by the overlay units, which is why they don’t collide with regular matter and get annihilated.
So with the knowledge from my Xyz monsters, I looked into developing my own antimatter containment unit. Which was surprisingly easy, since I could mix the Xyz monsters overlay unit tech with the gravitron tech from the Gradius monsters.
By the way, the B.E.S. monsters don’t use antimatter. They use the gravitron tech to sustain a fusion reaction and that is what powers those ships. That is why they have to be a lot larger than the Gradius ships.
But back to today's test. With a containment unit for the antimatter done, it was simple enough to copy the tech from the Gradius ships to make an antimatter engine, as well as the gravitron device. So I just put both of those into a ship and tested it. In the Factory.
And it worked decently well. There were issues, which is why the ship is most definitely not space worthy, but it can operate within an atmosphere.
So I made one. It wasn’t entirely made with HomeBase, instead, most of the body was actually forged to shape, before I assembled it myself. The entire body was made of star titanium, because it is the best material we have that we can get at quantities where it can be used to make an entire fighter jet.
Now, as to why it isn’t space worthy. Well for one, it lacks the ability to generate or carry large amounts of air or oxygen. Yes I could fix that, but my goal isn’t getting to space. At least not yet.
I’m also worried about radiation. In space, Earth’s magnetic field cannot protect you from the harmful radiation let out by the Sun, and while the Gradius and B.E.S. ships have a way to defend against it, I haven’t worked it out yet.
In theory, the star titanium hull should protect you from it, but that is just a theory and I haven’t confirmed it yet. So until I work out those problems, no space travel.
Besides, the ships I’m currently working on are designed to eventually be sold. Yes, I know it is very risky to sell a ship that has an antimatter engine, because if you blow up all the fuel, you can level a large city. I may or may not have ‘accidentally’ blown up a Factory room as a test.
Besides, all major repairs of these airships will be done on HomeBase. As well as refueling the antimatter. Because no way in hell am I teaching the locals how to produce antimatter, when even I can’t technically produce it.
I can get it thanks to my Xyz monsters, but it kind of falls into that ‘cannot be produced’ category. Even the Chaos God Core can’t make the stuff. Probably for safety reasons or something.
And besides, I won’t even feel bad for monopolizing the repair of these ships. Because literally every other place that makes airships also has a monopoly on major repairs on their ships.
Sure fueling isn’t usually a major repair, but most ships run on mana or a mana based fuel. Which is simple enough to make, and just as simple to refuel, but doesn’t last all that long.
Meanwhile, even a tiny amount of antimatter can last for over a year of daily use.
But back to the test. I wasn’t going to be riding in the ship, because while I was decently sure nothing will explode, the ship does still carry enough antimatter to kill me if it explodes. And yes, it does have all of the safety features I can add, so even if the antimatter does blow up, in theory, the pilot should be safe. But that is just a theory. Because sure Factory tests are nice, but the Factory does always have limits.
At the end of the day, the Factory is my imaginary plane. So if I really believe the pilot will survive the explosion, they will, despite the fact that they won’t in the real world.
I can mostly mitigate it by forcing the Factory to operate as close to the real world as possible, but sometimes it still fails, so I need to do real world tests.
For this test, I placed the ship at the OG location of HomeBase, aka. in the middle of nowhere. I then summoned a monster that would drive the ship in my place, while I go some ways away.
The pilot was going to be Nanobreaker. I just picked her because she is a relatively human looking Machine-type monster.
I picked a Machine monster, because they could easily record all the data we get, and even if they ‘die’, I can just Monster Reborn the monster to make sure they keep all their memories.
… oh. I just remembered something. I never told you what kind of ship we are testing. Well, to no one's surprise, it is a Gradius style ship. It isn’t a one-to-one recreation of any of the ships, but it is in the general style of a fighter jet. If it works out, I’ll start looking into larger ships that people would actually want to purchase.
But back to the test. I took the ship out of Storage and made sure Nanobreaker was strapped in. I then flew some distance away, over double that of the estimated blast radius if the antimatter in the ship does blow up, before I sent a message to the ships computer saying that Nanobreaker could start the test.
… then I waited.
… and waited a bit more.
Until I got a message response from Nanobreaker.
The test was complete and everything worked out fine.
Which is great. I’m honestly happy to hear that nothing went wrong. But at the same time, I almost wanted the ship to blow up, just so I could see if the pilot survives the explosion.
Well, I can always blow up the ship some other time.
But now that I know the containment unit and the engine won’t explode, I can take it a bit more easy until I start offering the ships to people. And no, when I make ships, they won’t be mostly star titanium, but instead more standard materials. I don’t want to sell that much star titanium incase someone decides to break the ship apart so they can use the metal for weapons and armor.
… actually, maybe I could lease the ships instead of selling them. Like pay this much for one year of use, and since I fix the ships, the leasing payment can include all the repair costs, including how much it will cost to have someone fly over to where the ship is, so the ship can be picked up and brought to HomeBase.
And while at it, I can offer an insurance policy, where if a ship breaks, HomeBase will immediately send out someone with Card Summoner to take the people the rest of the way to their destination.
Now, onto something else, mainly a few packs to end the day.
10 of to be specific.
Beast Rage is a decent boost, and while the card isn’t a continuous Spell, the boost is ‘permanent’. It isn’t technically permanent, as it disappears when you rest for the next time. Resting is more than just sleeping, by the way. Something like sitting down for a while counts as resting.
Lock Cat is okay-ish. It is quite nice in the TCG, but not as great for me. But it is a cat and cats are amazing, so I like it.
Barrier Wave is absolute trash. It only changes all opposing monsters into defense mode, and while there is that added burn damage, that just doesn’t save the card from the fact that you have to tribute a Synchro monster to activate it.
Next pack.
Naturia Forest is an interesting searcher. It does fit the Naturia playstyle quite well. It is also a Field Spell, so Naturia room in the Factory.
And Playful Possum is absolute trash.
Next pack.
Naturia Beans is beans! Which means I can Mystik Wok beans. And I guess his effects are okay.
And Howl of the Wild is a super meh burn card.
Next pack.
Unibird is new and it has its uses, but sadly, Monster Reborn makes him unnecessary.
Next pack.
Amazoness Sage is new, and like all Amazoness monsters, I’ll give Christina a copy. Outside of just being an Amazoness, it is decent, even if after at the end of the Damage Step is generally a bit late to be destroying Spells or Traps, unless you negate or prevent the activation of those Spell/Traps.
Already had the Thunder Unicorn as an ultra rare, but the ultimate rare is a new variant.
And D.D. Destroyer is new, but he isn’t that good.
Next pack.
Scrap Hunter is … kind of meh. You have to destroy a Scrap monster and all you get is a Foolish Burial for Tuners. I know the Scrap archetype likes to be destroyed by effects, but still a bit costly in my opinion.
Next pack.
Nothing new here, next.
Flamvell Fiend is clearly misnamed. He is actually the Flamvell Friend. And while he isn’t good in the TCG, he is fine for me.
Next pack.
Ambitious Gofer is … I don’t know what to say about him. He isn’t bad, but he looks … questionable.
Next pack.
Effect Veiler! Nice! He should be a quick-play skill seal, so that is really good. A very nice card to get here at the end.
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