Chapter 61 The Pilot's Pride

"D-Don't joke around... I usually hang out with those kids..."
Shakya’s face flushed slightly as she knew Shion was reading between the lines.
"It's rare to have a chat with adults, just like you do with Shizuka and the others!"
Shion chuckled mischievously and said, "What's wrong with hanging out with kids? I'd kill for that opportunity."
"Heh~ I never took you for that kind of person."
Shakya gave a quiet retort, refusing to back down.
Jokes aside, Shion still reminded Shakya that Clark wasn't as familiar with her as Shion and Shizuka were, so it was best to exercise caution in certain matters. This world was terribly complicated.
In truth, Shakya knew this well enough; she had her own internal compass.
In less than ten minutes, the subway reached the platform.
Led by Shion, the group walked out of the station exit toward the Technical Department's sector platform.
This was the place where the secrets concerning the Traum were buried.
At the exit of the shuttle metro, the head of the Technical Department was already waiting with all staff members to welcome the expert panel.
"I am Dr. Strey Clark from the United Nations expert panel. Hello."
Dr. Clark, who had been conversing the whole way with the other experts on the subway, stepped forward first to shake hands with the head of the Schweitzer Technical Department.
At this moment, no trace of the childlike demeanor he had displayed in front of Shakya and the others could be seen.
It seemed the atmosphere here had ignited his inner scientist's soul.
"Hello, I am Zhang Zhaozhong, Minister of the Schweitzer Weapon Technology Department."
Although Shakya knew the minister's name, she rarely crossed paths with him, so this could be considered their first formal meeting.
After shaking hands with Dr. Clark, Minister Zhang also nodded in acknowledgment to Shakya and Shion.
"Well..."
Shion found it inconvenient to say much right now; she knew this was the time for communication among these scientific masterminds.
The top minds in weapon development and robotics on Earth today had converged in this underground laboratory.
At this stage, Shakya and Shion were truly only qualified to serve tea and water for them.
The task of guiding the expert panel temporarily shifted to the head of the Technical Department, and Shakya and Shion simply needed to follow behind them.
As for the topics being discussed, Shakya and Shion, trailing behind, could not understand a single word.
Some analysis reports concerning the Traum were handed over to the expert panel led by Dr. Clark.
Of course, these reports had been reviewed by high-ranking officials such as the Director.
While the contents did not deliberately conceal anything, the parts concerning Anima-fusion were omitted.
Some sections were left blank, while others were simply marked as "Unknown."

"Eh... So that's how they do it..."
Shakya and Shion whispered to each other at the back, having caught a glimpse of the reports just handed to the expert panel.
Even though Shakya was the one piloting the Traum, she wasn't entirely clear on the technical specifications and various data points.
Just like a car driver who mostly only understands the driving itself and occasionally knows some basic repairs,
improving the vehicle's overall performance or technical specifications still had to be left to the car manufacturer.
"Allow me to ask a question first. What on earth provides the power source for this Traum of yours?"
Dr. Clark and the members of the expert panel arrived at the Technical Department's research room, where they were shown the analytical blueprints of the Traum.
The blueprints were projected onto a holographic display platform suspended in mid-air.
"Well... that's a long story..."
Minister Zhang of the Technical Department stepped forward and reached out to grab the holographic image, freely enlarging, shrinking, and rotating the contents within.
Scientists from other countries were casually chatting with other staff members of the technical department nearby, looking around the laboratory. After all, Clark was their leader and had priority in conversing with the minister.
The equipment inside the Schweitzer Research Institute was a novelty in the eyes of these world-class scientists; even this holographic display equipment was rarely found anywhere outside a few research centers in the United States and the Europa Alliance.
"I've always been curious. To be honest, we've been developing similar humanoid mobile weapons for a while, but their energy source has always been a severe problem."
Dr. Clark stroked his chin, pacing around the content displayed on the holographic screen.
"Indeed, given the current level of technology, electricity is far from sufficient to generate combat capability. It takes a miniature nuclear reactor to drive a robot the size of the Traum."
Minister Zhang confirmed Dr. Clark's statement.
"Then... what is the underlying principle of the Traum? How can it move so flexibly? And from what I've observed, its endurance is also quite impressive, with no cables or anything trailing behind it."
Dr. Clark had reviewed the combat records of the Traum, where combat durations ranged from five minutes to over ten minutes, and even half an hour.
"According to the test results we got at Area 51 earlier, such giant robots have terrifyingly high operational costs. Have you people already achieved the miniaturization of nuclear reactors?"
Shakya and Shion stood aside, listening carefully.
Although they couldn't fully comprehend everything, a little extra knowledge never hurt.
"What does 'operational cost' mean?"
Shakya was whispering to Shion again.
"Oh, it's the manpower and material resources required for a certain weapon to operate per unit of time, simplified into economic data."
Shion used to be a fighter pilot, so she understood these terms.
"As expected of a former pilot... Can you give me an example?"
Diligent and eager to learn was Shakya's current virtue.
"Uh... let me gather my thoughts..."
Shion hadn't flown a plane in years. If she were to give an example, it would be best to start with the fighter jets she was most familiar with.

During Shion's service in the United Nations military, fighter jets were not as advanced as current ones. Perhaps today's fighters were slightly more energy-efficient, but the difference shouldn't be massive.
Fighter jets not only required exorbitant research and development costs as well as manufacturing expenses, but every single flight also generated a massive consumption of money.
This included runway usage for takeoff and landing, ground logistics, fighter maintenance, and aviation fuel. These expenses were also closely related to the fighter's different performances, flight speed, and payload.
"Let's calculate the cost of a fighter jet flying for one hour."
Shion gestured for Shakya to sit on a nearby row of small sofas to chat slowly.
Anyway, since those scientists were chatting away happily, standing and waiting for them the whole time was tiring.
When Shion was in active service, a fighter jet's full fuel load was generally around 6 to 9 tons of aviation fuel.
Assuming the fighter maintained a normal cruising speed of Mach 0.8 at full load, it could fly for about 3,000 kilometers.
Through a simple conversion, a fighter jet would consume roughly 2 to 3 tons of aviation fuel for every 60 minutes of flight.
Coupled with the fact that military aviation fuel was much more expensive than civilian aviation fuel, an ordinary fighter jet would consume nearly 100,000 units in fuel costs for a single hour of flight—calculated in the currency of the country where the Schweitzer headquarters was located.
"One hundred thousand for one hour!?"
Shakya was shocked.
"However, this isn't even the most expensive part of flying a fighter jet. As the sharp blade of the military, its routine maintenance and upkeep costs are astonishingly high."
Shion smiled and continued.
The engine oil, lubricants, and even some simple spare parts used just for the airframe were crucial reasons why fighter jets were such money pits.
Calculated this way, a regular fighter jet would cost close to 200,000 units just for a 60-minute flight.
If one factored in mounted missiles and other weapon systems, it became an even more immeasurable expense.
"I see..."
Shakya thought of the fighter jets being smashed to pieces during battles against the Edicts.
All that money was literally falling from the sky!
"The fighter jets of our era were mostly fourth-generation, and now they are already sixth-generation. You know what 'generation' means, right?"
Shion asked.
Shakya shook her shake. It seemed she needed to take some time to brush up on her weapon knowledge.
"Counting from the last world war in this world, after aircraft were officially put into the battlefield, they underwent numerous improvements..."
Since there was plenty of time now, imparting some trivia to Shakya was a good idea.