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Chapter 79 - Self Configuring Modular Robot[]
"Two convoys from the Homeworlds...
...and no alert, no alarm. We found the wreckage of the JFS White Aerie in a nearly uninhabited system along the route."
"and?" Ulric asked.
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Texas Class Battleship, JFS White Aerie
"It was radioactive, gutted, with nuclear weapons, boarding teams found that the data center had been partially salvaged from the broken forward portion of the ship. Estimated yield for the strike was just under one megaton. ilKhan, someone is hunting our ships with dezgra Nuclear wea-"
"You were going to say 'weapons of mass destruction'? what is the most effective anti-shipping weapon available to the traitor lords?" Ulric interrupted, "Let us see...is it nukes?" he glanced at Star Admiral McKenna, "Is it?"
"Aff."
"Correct me if I am wrong, Warship duty is not one of my specialties, Lynn...but...do they not require a certain range to lock on, and are not the missiles capable of being intercepted, and do not the Aerofighter pilots of most clans drill on missile interception, quiaff?"
"Ah...WE do. I can not speak for the other Clans." Lynn said, glancing pointedly at Khan Malthus of Jade Falcon.
"So...nearly one megaton, which suggests..?"
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McKenna Class Battleship
"Non-standard warheads." Lynn pointed out, "Standard SLDF anti-shipping ordnance runs from half a kiloton to five hundred Kiloton yields, going over that is grossly overkill for anything short of a McKenna or the planned Leviathan classes."
"What must you do to get close to use them?"
"Not exactly." Lynn commented, "It helps, the laser fusing mechanism and deuterium fusion core tend to be inert, but for this kind of yield, the risk of sensor distortion in the warhead guidance module would require insulations, that in turn, reduce accuracy. Five hundred KT is about as large as you can build a laser-triggered fusion device before it starts losing efficiency. Primitive warheads using fission instead, or using fission triggers, would account for the damage Khan Malthus's presentation shows, and those OUGHT to be fired closer in, they will also need a heavy booster, to move and guide the mass."
"So...how are they getting close to our convoys then?" Ulric asked, "Where are they based, who is deploying them? how did they get the routes?"
"I have no idea."
"Get one. Find their base, chase them down, and destroy it." Ulric said, "Cheer up, Khan Lynn McKenna, I anticipated this, which is why you were added to the reserve clan list for the invasion. Secure our line of communication so that the ground forces of the invasion are not crippled by an enemy whom has rediscovered commerce raiding."