Author Notes:
Welp, what else can I say but this chapter is brought to you by the great people in my Patreon and Discord server! And don't forget RNGesus as well, as the upcoming plot is basically something RNGesus chosen between an exploration gone wrong and a naval bitch slap!
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Tehe~!
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https://www.webnovel.com/book/reich-marshal-of-the-belkan-reich_23809095505377305
https://www.webnovel.com/book/in-the-grimdark-sector-with-a-system_31596105108346205
https://www.webnovel.com/book/my-soul.-occupied-body---please-the-other-me...!_35377211308783905
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/2271569/reich-marshal-of-the-belkan-reich/
https://photos.app.goo.gl/waZgkRa3UQhqKQBi9
OBOM Visual Guide:
https://postimg.cc/gallery/5fQs4Fv
FA-1 Valkyr:
https://postimg.cc/1ggwgp1z
https://postimg.cc/DWWLWqkN
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"The Syncra Ascendancy is, first and foremost, a nation that primarily consists of Dolls as its citizens and soldiers. As such, I think our multirole jet fighter should be built to reflect not just that, but also our current doctrinal needs." I start my proposal. "My suggestion is that our premier fighter craft, other than the obvious naval requirement, should be optionally manned. The unmanned aircraft, while retaining the same capabilities as the manned version, would be controlled either via a local hub or remotely, with Iris at the helm. This will lessen the manpower requirement in the period when we don't have enough Dolls to fill up our air wings."
Iris perks up when she hears my remote-controlled suggestion.
"An Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle, you say? That will solve the manpower issue, alright. But its most glaring weakness currently is the connection range. We don't have satellites, so we will have to rely on planetside relay stations to control the UCAVs from afar. With our current industrial capability, UCAVs are, at best, coastal defense and maritime patrol platforms. Achieving a large enough connection range for anything remotely offensive will be hard, given the vast stretch of ocean we have to cover on Arcadia. There's also the minor demerit of latency, something that can only be perfectly fixed if we can get our magical industry up to par with our current technological industry. I expect maintaining the soon-to-be-completed Dolls Revival Hub to occupy what's left of my Psionic prowess. Again, we will need Psionically-adept manpower to prop up our non-science side of things."
I nod understandingly. "I will take what I can get then. It's not like we will invade someone so soon anyway. In the near future, we will only concentrate around Everlight."
Iris hums. "In that case, it's technically feasible to make other aircraft unmanned as well- those that will be operated out of Everlight, at least. I am more than capable of running aerial chauffeurs, sparing the Dolls for other security and production tasks. This can continue until we have enough manpower to make a few Dolls into dedicated pilots."
"Between building, maintaining the Revival Hub, and other tasks, do you even have enough processing power left?" I ask, curious.
"I am only hampered by my limited Psionic prowess after taking all that damage, self-inflicted or otherwise. But processing power? That I have in abundance, not to mention you pretty much give me an entire city's worth of infrastructure. I am more than capable of handling these menial tasks, and I can even write up some automated programs to offload things like long-range patrol work." Iris reassures us all with her ability. There's this smug expression on her face as she puts her hands on her hips.
I breathe out, feeling grateful that I managed to get to Iris and Reizen in time; otherwise, I would be sorely lacking in capable partners now. "That's great then."
"By the way," Iris says. "Since you proposed the UCAV, you have something in mind already, right?"
I nod, replying.
"Pretty much, yeah. The Sweden in my universe made a quite capable light single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft. Initially, it was only land-based, but soon evolved into carrier-capable and UCAV variants."
"A light fighter jet, you say?" Iris hums, pondering. "Well, considering the characteristics of Arcadia, a light jet should be more than enough to tackle pretty much any mission on this planet. Alright, give me some data to work with, and I will have the holograms ready in a jiffy."
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"Well, that seems like a cute aircraft." Kokona, not much of an aviation enthusiast, comments after seeing Iris' three-sided projection of the Swedish-made JAS 39 Gripen, adapted for our specific needs.
"I am not sure if cute is the correct word to describe it." Reizen: "It's like an arrowhead in the air."
"Not dissimilar to the Tempest the Eternal Reich used for a while before the gradual transition to exo-atmospheric capable fighter craft." Iris notes before going on to say. "Anyway, let's call this thing FA-1 until the nickname is decided upon."
"No need to make it into a mouthful," I interject with a raise of my hand. "Let's call it the Valkyr, quite fitting since we already have the Viking and Gokstad."
"Huh, that's actually a good name." Iris comments, giving me an appreciative look as she goes on to say. "So, as desired, the Valkyr is indeed a carrier-capable, multirole fighter aircraft with an optional unmanned interface. It's intended as a single-engine, lightweight and agile aerial platform with advanced, highly adaptable avionics, considering it may have to go up against some very unorthodox threats."
Seeing that we are all paying attention to her explanation, Iris continues to say with brimming expectation for the Valkyr airframe.
"Playing into Dolls' non-biological nature, hence inheriting none of the common biological fallacies in jet pilots, and the potential for the unmanned version, the Valkyr's agility is pushed to the extreme of what is feasibly achieved. It has canard control surfaces that contribute a positive lift force at all speeds, while the generous lift from the delta wing compensates for the rear stabiliser producing negative lift at high speeds, increasing induced drag. Being intentionally unstable and employing digital fly-by-wire flight controls to maintain stability removes many flight restrictions, improves manoeuvrability, and reduces drag. It is easily capable of flying at a 70 to 80 degrees angle of attack. The agility envelopes can also be pushed if we are willing to invest in either a 2D or 3D thrust-vectoring nozzle."
"Are we expecting to dogfight a dragon or what?" Vi asks with a bit of incredulity. "With all the missiles we can invent, why do we need a thrust-vectoring engine and the added weight and complexity that come with it? Just stay beyond visual range and chuck warheads at it."
Iris shrugs, smiling.
"Just saying that we can play around with this airframe whenever we can. But yeah, for sure we can give this thing a slingshot or two, and the base agility of the Valkyr is enough for it to get out of trouble when push comes to shove. An added benefit of this agility-focused airframe is the good Short Take-Off and Landing performance if there's no catapult to be found, requiring only 500 meters of runway at max combat load. The distance could be made shorter if I hadn't decided that a longer service life and ease of maintenance are key criteria instead of raw thrust. The powerplant for the Valkyr is thus capable of producing 85-110 kN of thrust."
"Usability-wise, the Valkyr has all of the necessary bells and whistles, like AESA radar and IRST sensors, many of which share the same architectures as those used by the CAV-1 Viking. The Valkyr features a sensor fusion capability; information from onboard sensors and databases is combined, automatically analysed, and useful data is presented to the pilot via a wide field-of-view Head-Up Display, three large multi-function colour displays, and a Helmet Mounted Display System. All of this usability is then extended to lethality, with the Valkyr having an RC-27 autocannon and can field either a beyond-visual-range AA loadout, a heavy surface-pounding loadout, or a mixture of the two, role-swinging in a seamless manner."
"As expected of Iris," I smile. "You are able to plan that far ahead when we don't even have a full inventory yet."
"I can promise things that far ahead because I am confident in the Valkyr's open-ended design and plug-and-play characteristics. We can upgrade the airframe and give it whatever air-launched weapons later as we develop our military. Much like what the Swedes in your world did to their Gripen, it's pretty much the same here, albeit I have taken some creative liberties." Iris confidently replies with a wink.
Vi, who is more concerned about the logistical profile of the FA-1 Valkyr, raises the question.
"Then what about reliability. You said a field turnaround will need only ten minutes, but haven't mentioned anything about a maintenance makeup."
Iris smirks, declaring with arms crossed.
"You will be glad to know that I have taken it into account as well. What the Swedes of Umbra's world promised, I can promise the same. Hell, on some fronts, I can even do better! But broadly speaking, great priority is placed on facilitating and minimizing aircraft maintenance; in addition to a maintenance-friendly layout, many subsystems and components require little or no maintenance at all. Aircraft will be fitted with a Health and Usage Monitoring System, which we will also use in many of our vehicles, that monitors the performance of various systems and provides information to technicians to assist in servicing them. Cost per flight hour will be kept to a minimum, with me streamlining the Valkyr using modern knowledge and experience. Lastly, we can expect a single Valkyr to have roughly more than 50 years of service life, limited only by the lack of exotic material. All of what I said earlier applies to both the manned and unmanned versions of the FA-1."
"I rest my case." Vi raises her hands. "Glad to know it won't be a mess to work with the Valkyr. Although I fully expect we won't be able to get many of them up in the air soon. The focus should be on getting the necessary stuff out first, then getting something cheap like the Viking and Catalina for patrols. Once we have enough of a working industry, we can think about the truly high-end stuff like the Valkyr."
"Slow and steady wins the race. You won't see us wringing you dry, Vi." Iris replies, and we all nod at her words. "As a matter of fact, I think a priority should be given to setting up a truly robust remote-control infrastructure for our vehicles after the Revival Hub has finished its construction. Once that is done, the first few batches of low-rated production vehicles will be unmanned, leaving the Dolls free to be delegated by either Reizen or Vi to tackle other matters. I can establish a little-to-no-latency remote control radius of roughly 300 kilometers, which should be more than sufficient for operating around Everlight alone until more relay stations can be constructed to expand the range."
"Sounds like a plan then." I nod, thinking to myself that we're done with the aviation department, for now.
Stretching in my chair, I massage my eyes afterward, breathing out a sigh of relief then and there.
"That's the second biggest mental hurdle eliminated. Now we need to finalize the Navy and be done with it, at least for the short term. Heaven above, I am so needing some coffee right this instant."
"I get what you mean, Umbra." Reizen smiles softly in my direction. "But don't forget about the Knight Corps. Since it will be an experimental unit first and foremost, I reckon there will be many restless nights centered around that particular service branch."
"... Is it too late to rescind the decision to make the Knight Corps?" I say dryly as I lay myself on the table while Kokona waves at me before skipping away to the table and cabinet with coffee-making necessities.
Iris replies to my question with a shrug.
"Not unless you want a conventional military to be trumped by an obsolete relic. There's no telling how each nation out there has built their mechs. And while I expect our conventional force to reliably outperform cheap, mass-produced mech frames, the same can't be said for the higher-end ones, much less those that are classified as either Tactical or Strategic. And I haven't touched upon how the supernatural combatants will match up to our future military. Reizen, with her Angel Break shotgun, is practically a Tactical-level combatant on her own. There's no telling how many individuals out there possess Tactical-level or, Yggdra forbid, Strategic-level prowess."
Reizen nods, emphasizing.
"The Knight Corps needs to exist, for it will spearhead the mecha component of our military. More than that, it will be the foundation of the Ascendancy's future Psionic units. In the Eternal Reich, a Raven is not just a Psionically-adept supersoldier with an enhancement suit; they are a game-changer when paired up with their bonded partner, a Psionically-attuned mech. Together, a Raven and his or her mech are considered a Strategic-level force in the eyes of the Reich military... But unfortunately, it will be a while till I can acquire my bonded partner."
Reizen smiles regretfully with closed eyes. "I haven't even finished my Raven training, much less getting bonded with a Raven-specific Core."
"Well, you will always be the Raven we need in our hearts~!" I look up from my face-planting position on the table, grinning cutely.
Hearing that, the others look at me weirdly, with Iris commenting.
"That's so unbelievably corny, cringe-worthy even."
I fake a wounded expression with my hand over my heart. "Aww~! You hurt my feelings, Iris!"
"And it was deserved." Iris rolls her eyes with a small smile. "But honestly, I will second Umbra's sentiment, Reizen. Worst comes to worst, we make our own plan to make you a true Raven."
"... Thanks, you two." Reizen nods, smiling gratefully.
"Enough sappy talk; who's here is waiting for your coffee?" Kokona comes back with a tray of dark liquid and milk.
At this, all of us, sans Iris, raise our hands.
"Me!"