Chapter 70 - Weapon Testing

Weeks went by and Adam grew a beard and unkempt as he focused on his research deep under the base in the weapon manufacturing facility.

"Hmn… done. That should do it." Adam rear his bloodshot eyes on the blueprint on the railgun AA cannons.

He then opened his System Manufacturing function and selected that blueprint to start producing one for the purpose of testing.

[Production cost is 1.5 Million Credit. Proceed with the production?]

"Yes." Adam replied as second later, the finished product was deposited into his inventory.

"Wonderful." He said as he stretched his body with a satisfying crack before he finally left this place above ground.

On his way out, he dropped by the construction queue and saw it was empty, which meant the last two ships had been built. He actually had been staying cooped in the underground for a whole week straight without stopping to work on producing railgun cannons for each type of ship. So, he had no idea who the identity of the last four ships was.

The first six actually included Enterprise's sisters, Hornet and Yorktown. There's also the resident drunkard, Laffey. The nurse, Vestal. Clevebro and actually San Diego or Sandy. She is even more annoying in real life but also hilarious because she is somewhat of a trouble magnet, clumsy and also an airhead or maybe just a straight idiot.

Anyway, as one would imagine. The base is more lively with the new additions and Adam is also eager to meet the other four shipgirls.

But first, he might need a thorough bath before meeting anyone because he hadn't taken any for the past week. Also a proper meal because he hadn't had any real food.

———

"Is that true, Cleveland?" Enterprise asked with eagerness in her voice.

"Yeah, I saw Commander walking into his quarters when I was helping Miss Jeanne in the garden farm." Cleveland nods and waves Enterprise a goodbye since her job isn't done yet.

After Cleveland left, Hornet walked out of a corner and hooked her arm around her sister before she whispered. "Aren't you a little too eager to meet the Commander? Don't tell me you are actually falling in love with him already?" She shoots Enterprise, a stare filled with suspicion. Little did she know, Enterprise actually did.

But Enterprise didn't blush or stutter as she might normally react in such situations. Instead, she looks a little sad that her sister, although still her sister, isn't the sister she once knew and loved. This Hornet is a different Hornet. But she is still her sister, USS Hornet.

Seeing Enterprise's reaction, it felt very foreign. The Enterprise she knew isn't like this, Hornet thought. In fact she had long suspects there is something wrong with Enterprise but she never bother talking about it because her sister is now in a better state and happy instead of being suicidal and hard headed. But still, Hornet and even Yorktown are curious who changed Enterprise that easily and their eyes landed on the illusive Commander that rarely appeared in the base despite being the Commander himself.

"It's not like that, Hornet. He asked me to help him test out new weapons he is creating. That's all." Enterprise replied evasively and pretty obvious she is hiding something.

"Hmn. Sure… Let's go with that. Anyway, since Cleveland said he is returning to his quarters, he probably needs some time to get ready before meeting us."

"What are you suggesting?" Enterprise wonder.

"Hmn. How about dressing you up for the date? You can't exactly wear the same clothes as you usually do. Doesn't it?" Hornet said in a teasing manner which intended to tease Enterprise but surprisingly, she didn't show any extreme reaction either and instead smiled and sigh. "Teasing me aren't we? Since when did you have the courage, Hornet?" She asked in a mildly threatening manner, jokingly.

Hornet looked left and right trying to escape the Enterprise before she said, "Iya… I think it's my turn to do the patrol. Got to go, bye." She disappeared from the same corner she appeared in the blink of an eye. Enterprise was laughing at Hornet's amusing behaviour before she walked to the dock and waited for Adam.

———

On his way to his room, Adam noticed someone was actually inside his room because he could hear the snoring from outside the door with his enhanced hearing sense.

He figures maybe Tina or Alices or probably his wives since he never really bans anyone from his room. But when he opened the door, he saw a few empty bottles on the ground and Laffey was snugly tuck under the blanket and snoring away comfortably on his bed.

"Damn, she raided my stash." Adam whispers as he notices those bottles are actually wines and liquors he stashed in his room.

Adam sighed and picked up the bottles before properly disposing of them. He figures the reason why this drunkard raids his stash is because there's no other alcohol in this island base other than his stash.

He then went to grab some clothes changes and a towel before he went to his bathroom to clean himself up.

After he closed the door to his bathroom, Laffey actually opened her eyes for a moment to look at the room and the now occupied bathroom. She said nothing and left. But before she walked out the door, she held herself to another bottle before she truly left and Adam inside the bathroom heard everything very clearly. He could only sigh and will have to ask Agent to help supply Laffy her own alcohol before she emptied all his stash of expensive ones.

———

Half an hour later, Adam arrived at the dock after he asked around where Enterprise was and he also asked Sandy and Cleveland to join him to test out the weapons.

"Sorry to make you wait." Adam said to Enterprise who is sitting at a bench and looking at the sea.

"Oh, Commander. It was nothing. I didn't wait that long anyway." Enterprise shrugs and urges him to begin his test quickly because she is excited to try out what he made for her.

"Alright. But first would you explain how do KANSEN swap weapons?" Adam tries to figure out this crucial information because in-game there is a weapon slot but IRL, there isn't.

"That's very simple actually." She said and summoned her rigging in its ship form. "You just need to manually swap out the weapons onboard. It's the same when loading munitions. Everything has to be done manually and usually is done by the Manjuus."

"The Manjuus?" Adam mutters in a thoughtful pose.

The Manjuu still hadn't been activated because well, he didn't have a blank Wisdom Cube lying around. Enterprise said they can be found from salvaging Siren fleets after defeating them as part of material gathering or manufacturing but the method of making Wisdom Cube is tightly held by each nation in order to regulate them. So, getting one is very difficult for now.

"Nevermind. I'll do it myself." Adam said and teleported himself on to the Aircraft Carrier and replaced the fighter planes onboard with fighter jets.

Enterprise boards her rigging on her own later and curiously observes Adam at work, ordering the engineer mechs to add AA batteries on the lower side of her deck.

Once he is done, Adam asks if she was properly 'armed' with the fighter jets and she says yes as she shows Adam that she can manipulate them just like her previous planes.

"So it worked!" He exclaimed with excitement. "Now try launching them next."

"Yes, Commander." Enterprise is also as excited as Adam as she launches the fighter jets on her deck which was the F-35C variant for use on carriers with modification to allow catapult assisted take off.

Adam worried if the Carrier itself isn't modern enough to accommodate the F-35 he made. But apparently those worries were unfounded as they all managed to be launched into the air. But he did observe a frown on Enterprise's face. When he asked about it. She said the take off wasn't as smooth as she wanted and the jets barely launched as her catapult isn't strong enough to launch the jet.

"Is that so?" Adam asked.

"Indeed. If we are conducting tests and training, it doesn't really matter much but during a proper battle, any error no matter how small can be a liability." Enterprise explained with an unusual serious expression.

"Well, I'll do something about it later." Adam said as he made a mental note to make a trip back to GFL world again since they are the more modern world amongst the worlds available to him. He might even attempt to retrofit or overhaul Enterprise to her third form, the CVN-80 supercarrier that should already exist in the GFL world.

"Anyway, let's test the AA batteries I just installed. Can you use them?"

"Yes, I could." Enterprise nods as she is able to control all the 12 newly installed AA railguns and even tries to shoot them.

Enterprise then multitasks to control the fighter jets while also trying to shoot her own fighter jets with the AA batteries. Thankfully those planes will 'regenerate' later. He didn't really worry and let Enterprise test out her new weapons on her own.

Adam looked back at the dock and found several shipgirls gathered as they curiously watched Enterprise flying fighter jets while also simultaneously trying to gun her own jets down.

They watched in awe and clapped hands at the wonderful performance display by Enterprise.

Adam teleported himself off the aircraft carrier and greeted the crowd. He also noticed the four new shipgirls, Indianapolis, Portland, Saratoga and New Jersey?!

Adam is very shocked and stunned to see New Jersey as she is an Ultra Rare ship. The arguably best Battleship in the game for quite a time since her release and dominated the tier list for quite some time just like Enterprise during the early days of the game.

Seeing the stunned state of the Commander, New Jersey couldn't be more proud as she puffed up her chest in excitement and introduced herself.

"Hey, Commander! I can see you are quite shocked to see me. Well, let me introduce myself officially. I am the Iowa-Class Battleship, New Jersey. The indomitable Black Dragon of the Eagle Union."

"Nice to meet you, Commander." She walked up to Adam and offered her hand for a handshake but Adam was still stiffly staring at her with a combination of shock and disbelief.

"Hmn. Hello?" She waved at Adam to check if there's anyone inside the body or was it empty.

"Ah… Ahem. Sorry, I was just a 'little' surprised." Adam coughed to his fist and quickly accepted her handshake while New Jersey is giving him a suspicious stare.

"I read the document regarding you, Mr White. It stated you were a Commander of Azur Lane from another world, a coalition of all KANSEN factions. Could it be, this isn't the first time we meet?" New Jersey said as if she could easily read Adam's thoughts.

"*Cough* Indeed, you are correct and I spend quite some effort to… Ahem, recruit you to my fleet. That's why I was surprised how you suddenly appeared here." Adam can't exactly explain the rarity system to her and she was a UR ship, the second hardest to obtain after the Legendary rarity.

"I see." New Jersey nods with her eyes closed a few times before she opens again and looks at Adam with brilliant eyes and a smug looking grin but refuses to elaborate as she takes a step back along with whatever thoughts are in her head.

Anyway, Adam diverted his focus back to the weapon testing and ordered the few he requested to come forward while the rest took a step back to observe.

Adam ordered the engineer mechs to replace various turrets and guns onboard Cleveland and San Diego's rigging ships. It took a while and Enterprise was already done testing her new equipment and approached Adam.

"As expected, I don't think my rigging is capable of handling the modern jets, Commander." Enterprise said, looking a little depressed as she honestly loved the jets. They are fast, stronger and better than her older planes.

"Don't worry, I'm going to upgrade your rigging anyway after this." Adam patted her head out of the force of habit as he reassured her. Enterprise basically just melted at such open skinship between them that he didn't bother to hide as if saying he acknowledged their past relationship openly.

On the sidelines, not just Hornet but almost everyone knew how Enterprise usually acts and now looking at how she acts bashful and lovey dovey with Adam made their collective jaws drop except Yorktown who giggled, looking somewhat relieved with Grim perched on her shoulder who let out a happy caw and flapped its wings.

Once Cleveland and San Diego had finished changing their weapon, Adam ordered them to do a combat practice with their rigging on.

"Finally! I got bored of waiting!" Sandy instantly regained her spirit and jumped off the port while transforming into her KANSEN form, equipping her rigging.

The transformation went smoothly and all in all, it went well. But the important part is if the guns and cannons can shoot or not.

But upon landing on the water after she is done transforming, Sandy stood still in shock and gulped as she processed all the new information about the spec of her weapon systems onboard.

"What's with this absurd firing range? It's over 100 miles." Sandy looks stupefied as she processes the information.

"Well, railgun or coil cannon fires projectiles at Mach 9 and is still upgradable. So, such a long range is to be expected. The goal here is to destroy your enemies before they can even notice you." Adam said and told Sandy to stop fawning over her new gears and quickly test the guns out because he needed those data.

The Aircraft Carriers help provide planes for the test and honestly, performance wise, the Railgun/coil cannon is a big success. In a brief dozen seconds, three airstrikes worth of planes obliterated.

"Haah… this is tiring, Commander." Sandy said as her expression looked visibly exhausted.

"Hmn. The test was successful. Though, the consumption of electrical energy is too high for steam boilers to support." Adam continues making mental notes of what upgrades he needs to work towards.

"Anyway, you did well. You can take a rest now." Adam dismissed San Diego who whined about the evil coil cannons sapping away all her energy and left her in a dispirited and exhausted state like Laffey.

Speaking of Laffey, Adam didn't see her within the group of spectators.

"You next, Clevebro." Adam blurted out, out of habit.

"Why are you calling me Clevebro? I'm a girl too, you know? Just like the others." Cleveland grumbles and transforms while looking at the shooting targets that have been placed down in the distance. "Hmn, now I understand why San Diego made that expression…"

Cleveland took some time to adjust to the new cannons. Once she did, the turrets on her rigging aimed at the targets and fired away. She put a hand above her eyes to shield from the sunlight and look at the shooting targets with a few holes.

"Perfect hits." Enterprise said and asked, "How do you feel? Is it very draining too?" because she is curious as Cleveland didn't look tired like San Diego.

"It's draining. But not as much as San Diego I think. As long as I don't shoot too much, the stamina consumption will be lower. Although, I don't think it's safe to go out on a sortie like this since the number of times I can shoot before becoming exhausted is just a dozen." Cleveland replied to Enterprise before her eyes landed on Adam.

Adam already knows what she is going to ask. "Yes, I will try to outfit you and San Diego with better energy generators." Adam answered as he already has the technology to build a powerful power generator back in the RWBY world to power those mech recharge stations, factories and manufacturing plants. Though to equip one on a warship will require modification.

"Well, that's the conclusion of today's test. I will try to come up wil solution as soon as possible. Also, Enty, Clevebro and Sandy will be excluded from sorties and patrol missions for the meantime." Adam said as his head was already in another place before greeting everyone good day and then vanished.

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