The introduction to Gaia's weapons left Theus quite satisfied. The grenades and grenade launchers matched his ideas perfectly.
Unfortunately, neither was meant for breaking fortified positions. At the very least, they still fell a little short against Steam Tanks.
"Heavy stuff..." Gaia glanced at Tata beside her. "Let Tata explain."
Tata immediately rose to his feet and began proudly, "Let's start with the train cannon..."
"Wait!" Theus gasped sharply the moment he heard the name. "This train cannon of yours—is it the kind with an artillery mount added onto a train, or the kind so big it can only be hauled by a train?"
Theus felt he could still accept mounting a cannon on a steam locomotive. But if it was the latter, he had a lot of unpleasant associations...
"Neither. The 'train' refers to its shell being as large as a train."
Theus fell silent.
"Here's the thing: I saw that airships had been equipped with new aerial bombs, so I wondered whether artillery could use shells just as enormous."
"Wasn't that aerial bomb over seven tons? You can fit that into a barrel?!"
"That's why I didn't design a barrel this time."
Theus: "???"
"Actually, I took inspiration from internal combustion vehicles—since they both burn Nitroglycerin anyway, there isn't much difference."
"Cars can fly, and shells can fly too. Cars don't need brakes, and shells don't need brakes either."
"And these new energy vehicles have the advantage of being prone to explosions, so I simply increased the explosive charge to make them blow up even bigger."
"Great designs often think alike. Monica removed the brakes from her cars, while I installed a steering wheel on the shell. That way, the shell can change direction too!"
The room fell silent.
After a long while, Theus spoke in a trembling