Cecile had already dissected every publicly released frame, one by one.
"Let's set aside the BETA Laser-Class in the intelligence reports for now. Great Han's new machines are closer in size to individual exoskeletons, with sustained flight, energy shields, and extremely advanced attitude control. Great Han has registered them as the Penglai Independent Special Equipment Group."
"Penglai?" Lloyd sounded distinctly skeptical. "So they really do have an entire secret line of technology they've never disclosed?"
"It could also have come from a foreign team that recently joined Great Han's system."
Lloyd did not take that in at all. He pointed to the footage of an IS shield withstanding a Laser-Class beam, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.
"The shield itself isn't unusual. A Luminous Generator can do that too. What's truly strange is that they've miniaturized the generator to this extent and made it redistribute its defensive coverage in real time with the wearer's movements. And that Inertial Control is definitely no ordinary Hover Unit."
Charles's general mobilization order had already put all the empire's experimental authorizations on a wartime footing.
In barely more than ten minutes, Lloyd submitted a proposal to Pendragon that would never have passed a mass-production review in the past.
The Luminous Generators, originally intended only for Lancelot, machines reserved for the imperial family, and a handful of Knights of the Round machines, would be broken down into simplified modules and fitted first to frontline command machines, transport aircraft, medical platforms, and Knight Squadron Leader Machines. Inadequate performance did not matter. A short service life did not matter either. As long as they could keep a machine alive a little longer under a Laser-Class beam, they were worth producing.
The imperial Military-Industrial Commission did not even debate the cost. Britannia's social Darwinism created brutal hierarchies in