When two Mechanicus transport ships, escorted by the rest of the Mechanicus fleet, delivered a great mass of remarkably lively Automated Battle Servitors to Cawl, the Archmagos was so stunned he could barely speak.
Especially when he saw those Automated Battle Servitors chatting among themselves and even greeting him.
For an instant, Cawl felt as though his brain could not keep up.
He had spent this time studying the shield technology Iax had casually handed him earlier.
Reality, however, had delivered a harsh wake-up call.
Federation technology followed a completely different approach from Imperium technology.
Compared with the Void Shields currently used by the Imperium, the Energy Shields of Federation technology offered extremely comprehensive protection, but consumed enormous amounts of power. After building two prototype units from the schematics and testing them, Cawl had ultimately given up.
This shield generator, sized merely for a destroyer, was twice as large as a Void Shield Generator, yet consumed more than four times the power.
Testing soon revealed that fitting such a shield left a standard Imperial destroyer with almost two-thirds of its propulsion power gone. Even the few Lances mounted on its hull suffered from insufficient power.
That meant a ship equipped with these ancient shields could not retain combat capability using only standard Imperial Plasma Reactors and promethium fuel.
Beyond power consumption, the module dimensions, power supply circuits, and other components all needed redesigning.
Following the principle of fixing problems wherever they arose, Cawl spent a considerable amount of time revising the schematics.
But when he examined his finished design, he discovered that its hull dimensions had long since exceeded destroyer specifications—and also exceeded the area the original shield could protect.
Recalling that he seemed never to have seen the Men of Iron build any small ships, Cawl could not help