Warpath (Rise of the Empire Book 4) by Ivan Kal Read Free Book Online Page A

over. He even had a few be downright disrespectful and condescending when he asked them a question. Chief Lasani on the other hand was always respectful and cordial, even though her choice of words might not always make that apparent, but Adrian could feel her emotions through Sora and Akash and knew she was sincere. She always took the time to explain to Adrian anything he was interested in. He liked that about her.
    “Chief.” Adrian nodded back, “I hear that you finally managed to reproduce the Ra’a’zani hull plates?”
    Lasani glanced at Isani then behind her at her coworkers before responding. “Well… we did, in part.” She said.
    Adrian raised an eyebrow, “In part? What do you mean?”
    “Reverse engineering something isn’t as simple as scanning a piece and unlocking its secrets. We had to learn and develop completely new concepts and technology.” Lasani said distractedly, almost as she was saying it to herself and not Adrian.
    Adrian felt the side of his mouth quirk up, “I am aware chief, we recovered pieces of Ra’a’zani ship a long time ago. I have never pressured you about results, I am not criticizing you.”
    Lasani’s eyes locked with Adrian’s and focused. She watched him for a long second and then he felt her relax. “I’m sorry Clan Leader, it’s just that sometimes it can be very frustrating, having something in front of you that you can’t explain and yet you know that it works.”
    She shook her head, and continued. “Right, where was I… Yes, we have been able to learn a lot from the Ra’a’zani hull pieces, and from the footage that the Monarch and the other surviving ships took. Scans of the Ra’a’zani hull had revealed that it was a composite of a metal-nonmetal alloy and a ceramic like material, with a kind of circuitry imbedded inside it. We don’t really know how the circuitry works, but we know the effect, it somehow allows for a sort of matter compression, that is what we believe allowed the Ra’a’zani ship to basically change hull modes, the rippling effect that our ships documented when the Ra’a’zani ship’s weapons raised from inside the ship. It also makes the hull virtually invulnerable to laser and particle beam fire of a certain magnitude – similar to our hull coating, only much more effective. We have tested and found the level at which the shimmering field of the Ra’a’zani hull loses its effectiveness, our current laser and particle weapons would be able to inflict damage to the Ra’a’zani hulls although the shimmer would still dissipate about half of the strength. The truth is that even now we haven’t been able to identify all the materials used to make the hull. The only thing that we have identified are titanium, carbon and a small amounts of risuminum – a metal that we have discovered just twenty years ago.”
    Adrian narrowed his eyes, “But I thought that you managed to replicate the process? Create the same hull as what the Ra’a’zani have?” Adrian said glancing at Isani who kept his face expressionless. Sometimes Adrian really hated how Nel could do that, erase any trace of emotion from their face, even more infuriating was that he could feel his smugness through Sora.
    “No, we haven’t been able to replicate the Ra’a’zani hull. It’s not like that technology is beyond us, it is just that we don’t know the ingredients, we could eventually crack the problem. But I wouldn’t recommend focusing on it, there are so many paths that our shipbuilding technology can follow that it is pointless of us to focus on that one, particularly when we know that some of our weapons proved very effective against it.” Lasani said, “What we have managed to do is replicate the abilities of the Ra’a’zani hull using our own materials and technology.”
    Impressed, Adrian brought his left hand to his temple then down to his chest and turned his palm outward in a Nel gesture, telling her to elaborate. Lasani smiled softly at