Chapter 5563 The Resurgence of Phyiscal Projectile Weapons

Chapter 5563 The Resurgence of Phyiscal Projectile Weapons

The Oclis Zemo was an unusual second-class mech.

Back when Ves was still a humble third-class mech designer, he regularly came in touch with ballistic weapons.

In a society where laser beam weapons and many more advanced weapon technologies became available, the demand for the most basic ballistic weapons had never faded.

This was because more advanced weapon systems usually imposed greater requirements. These could range from needing to master more advanced knowledge, the use of higher grades of materials and the necessity of having access to a much stronger power source.

It was human nature to chase after the most expensive and powerful toys, but not everyone had the opportunity or the capital to handle them. In a cosmos where scarcity was a universal phenomenon, the ordinary masses could only dream of piloting the most advanced mechs or wielding the most destructive weapons.

Ballistic weapons as well as certain types of artillery weapons were extremely common in battles between small and unsophisticated forces.

Even the weakest and most destitute alien races had little choice but to resort to more primitive weapon systems to defend their homes!

Based on firing lots of simple chemically propelled bullets or shells, ballistic weapons had many compelling advances. They were cheap, low-tech, did not expend a lot of energy on use, easy to mass produce and actually quite versatile.

However, their disadvantages were also clear. They were heavy, cumbersome, took up a lot of capacity and needed to reserve even more space for ammunition!

When it came to mechs and starships, space always came at a premium. All of the space occupied by the propellant needed to launch bullets at distant targets was so wasteful thaty this was the primary reason why most ballistic weapons fell out of favor in second-class and third-class combat.nOVelbIn

Ballistic weapons also had another major shortcoming.

Compared to gauss weapons that relied on generating a lot of electromagnetic force to propel solid alloy rounds with much greater power, most conventional ballistic weapons were unable to generate high enough muzzle velocities to guarantee accurate fire in space combat.

Energy beam weapons were much superior in this regard!

This was why the Oclis Zemo seemed like an oddball to many of the people viewing the third challenge match.

Ballistic weapons were not the only kind of armaments that could produce rapid-fire damage output. Specialized laser cannons and hybrid energy pulse cannons could be used for intercepting missiles just as well.

The latter two weapon systems were also a lot more accurate at longer ranges!

The reason why the Oclis Zemo was classified as a striker mech rather than a special sub-type of rifleman mech was because its rotary cannons were too inaccurate at longer ranges!

In space combat where the distances between enemies could easily range from tens to hundreds of kilometers, the muzzle velocities of most ballistic weapons were so slow that it was impossible for them to hit anything aside from large stationary objects such as space stations.

The Oclis Zemo's effective range was too limited.

Yet so long as people could look beyond this shortcoming, the Oclis Zemo possessed certain advantages that made it a lot more compelling than normal.

Its twin rotary cannons not only fired quickly, but also struck with great force. Every bullet was impregnated with a small quantity of cheap, low-grade earth hyper material.

This was the kind of material that could easily be dug out of a random planet or asteroid after a casual search.

Though the properties of this hyper material was nothing special, a solid hyper round was always able to carry a lot of E energy than an insubstantial energy beam!

Solid projectiles were also able to contain E energy in a more concentrated and directed fashion, enabling them to produce more powerful and sophisticated effects!

During the Phasewater Generation, the general consensus of the mech industry was that energy weapons possessed a decisive advantage.

"It is good for you to feel confident, but the development of hyper ballistic weapons is not stagnating at all." The older mech designer gently admonished Ves. "I am in contact with numerous like-minded mech designers such as myself. Each of us recognizes that we have a golden opportunity. Only by setting aside our rivalries, sharing our research and collaborating together can we change outdated biases and preferences of the customer base!"

That was a considerable undertaking! Ves became impressed by Master Redmond for the first time. The man was truly passionate about the superiority of hyper ballistic weapons.

It was a pity that Ves did not quite agree with the other mech designer.

Ves did not like ballistic weapons because they imposed too many burdens on a fleet-based mech force.

The ammunition needed to supply thousands of ballistic rifleman mechs was astronomical!

All of that would inevitably occupy a large amount of cargo space aboard starships.

Producing them in larger numbers was also troublesome. Even with a fully-fledged factory ship such as the Spirit of Bentheim, the Larkinson would still be unable to produce the right bullets if it was lacking in many types of raw materials.

Ves much preferred to work with energy weapons because many of them only needed to be equipped with energy cells to keep them fed.

This imposed a significantly lower logistical burden to forces such as the Larkinson Army. Expended energy cells could easily be recharged through any means in many different circumstances, so they were much more suitable for longer missions and deep expeditions.

It was a pity that all of the logistical advantages that Ves valued so much did not translate into greater combat power.

This was why the Fey Fianna looked like it was becoming increasingly more suppressed by the Oclis Zemo!

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!

Once the last water energy shield succumbed from the twin barrages of the rotary cannons, the earth bullets started to hammer the exteriors of the two depleted energy shield fey at a blazingly fast rate!

Already, dozens of modular armor plating rapidly deformed at the same time. Each modular armor plate was not that thick and tough to begin with. Though they were able to bounce individual earth bullets with relative easy, once they started to get pummeled by a hundred projectiles or ore, it became impossible for them to retain their integrity!

Clink-clink-clink-clink.

Broken plate after broken plate continually separated from the Fey Fianna and fell onto the arena ground in a distressing fashion.

More and more modular armor plates emerged from less critical or exposed sections of the main body and its fey, but the replacements wore down so quickly from all of the physical attacks that a new batch of replacement plates had to come in and take their place!

In contrast to powerful rotary cannons, the three luminar crystal weapons of the Fey Fianna only managed to break the striker mech's earth energy shield after expending a lot of effort.

Even then, the armor of the Oclis Zemo was so good that they easily resisted dozens of fire energy beam strikes while only incurring shallow damage to its thick frontal armor!

It was unreasonable to expect that the Fey Fianna could breach the defenses of such a mech by relying on its luminar crystal weapons.

However, the Larkinson mech pilot decided to shift his target from the torso of the enemy mech to its rotary cannons!

Several salvos of precise fire laser beams struck the twin weapon systems of the Oclis Zemo!

The resilience of the rotary cannon was quite high. Master Redmond was not stupid and made sure to construct the big and powerful weapons out of sturdier and more damage-resistant materials.

As such, the laser beams only inflicted minor exterior damage up to this point!

"This is not enough."