Dana woke up first, feeling completely refreshed after a good night's sleep. The Ashanath engineers had been tasked with completing the last of the work while she slept and she was so eager to check on their results, that she wanted to leap out of bed and go sprinting out the room. Instead, she stealthily climbed out from under the covers and tiptoed out softly, being careful not to awaken John, or the other three girls who were still fast asleep. She dressed in her own room, then walked down the corridor quietly, wanting to do a final check on everything before she presented the results of her hard work to the rest of the crew.
***
John, Alyssa, Calara and Jade woke to the gentle sounds of a melody, yawning and stretching contentedly as the tune drifted around the room. Dana pressed a button on the remote she held in her hand and the soothing music quietened and then turned off.
"Good morning ladies and gentleman." Dana said in a cheerful voice. "If you would care to get up, then the tour of the Invictus Mk II will begin shortly." she exclaimed excitedly.
Dana stripped off to join them in the shower and they all washed and dressed in double time. Everyone sensed the auburn haired girl's excitement and felt intensely curious about what she'd been up to. She led them out of the bedroom and down the corridor, stopping in front of where the old elevator used to be.
"Here's the first modification." she said proudly.
"We all know how annoying it used to be having to wait for the elevator. Well I've removed that completely and replaced it with anti-grav tubes." she said.
Dana hit the button on the wall and the doors swished open. The elevator shaft had been widened and was now divided into two, each side roughly the same size as the old elevator compartment had been. There was a light blue haze in the right empty elevator shaft and a light red one in the left. When they leaned out to hesitantly look over the edge, they could see the doors to each of the decks below.
"The colours are to let you know that the anti-gravity field is in place." Dana explained. "You wouldn't want to just step out and then find the field was out of action in the event of power loss." she said with a wry smile.
"The right side goes up and the left side goes down." she clarified for them. "I figured it was easier to let the fields do the hard work, rather than having to propel ourselves up and down the shaft."
"If you'd care to follow me, I'll show you what else I've done." she said mysteriously.
Dana stepped backwards into the anti-grav field on the left hand side and was swathed in a warm red glow. She waved at them with a smile on her face as she sank down at a comfortable speed, disappearing from sight. John glanced at the other girls with a grin on his face and stepped into the tube, the hairs on his arms standing up as he was enveloped in the field. He dropped down at a steady pace and then landed lightly at ground level, where Dana was waiting for him. Alyssa, Calara and Jade touched down too and they laughed happily at the odd sensation.
"That was really nicely thought out." John commended the redhead approvingly.
She smiled at him happily and then waved the group forward.
"The next thing to take a look at is our defences against boarding." Dana said, producing a remote with a flourish.
"I've set up panic buttons in the bridge and your quarters John, which are locked by a DNA reader." she explained.
Dana pressed the big red button on the remote after a showy swirl of her thumb, which earned her a few chuckles. A robust looking security door slid smoothly down from the ceiling, blocking off the airlock entrance completely.
"That ought to buy you some extra time, until you can get geared up and then come down here to use these..." she said, pressing a green button.
Panels on each side of the corridor slid open and two multi-barrelled turrets swung smoothly into position. At the same time, sturdy looking barricades rose up from the floor just outside the elevator entrance, large enough to provide substantial cover even for a person in full body armour.
"Oh these are excellent!" John nodded appreciatively at the heavily reinforced cover.
"These security precautions are built into all decks, just in case we have another hull breaching scenario." the redhead explained.
"What are the turrets?" Alyssa asked Dana curiously.
"Automated Gatling lasers." Dana shrugged. "They are easy to produce and maintain and we have more than enough power for them." she said.
"Will they be effective against the Drakkar though?" Calara asked, sounding concerned.
"Yeah, they should be." Dana nodded. "I'll explain why a little later on the tour." she said with a smile.
"Ok if you'd like to follow me, I'll show you what our home looks like now on the outside. It's had a makeover." she grinned, excitement shining in her eyes.
Dana bounced away down the corridor, hitting the red and green buttons on the remote which caused the defences to withdraw back into place, merging seamlessly with the walls, floor and ceiling. She pressed her hand to the DNA reader next to the airlock and the green light moved silently across the panel, scanning her hand. It beeped quietly in recognition and the airlock spiralled open.
"Ok hold hands, close your eyes and follow me." Dana said mysteriously, holding her hand out for Jade to take as she led the Nymph through the airlock collar.
The rest of the group followed her instructions and walked out in a line across the floor of the shipyard, following each other hand in hand. Dana brought Jade to a halt after they had walked out about a hundred paces and called out for everyone to stop. She walked down the line, gently turning everyone to face back towards the ship.
"Now open your eyes!" Dana urged them, hardly able to contain herself as she awaited their reaction.
There was a hushed silence as her shipmates stared in shock at the Invictus.
"Holy fuck!" Alyssa swore quietly under her breath.
Dana grinned proudly at the stunned reaction of her friends and lovers.
"I don't think I'm ever going to be able to pass myself off as a peaceful trader again." John said wryly.
The assault cruiser had been totally stripped of its old armour and had been completely re-sheathed in jet black armour plating. The lights from the shipyard glinted off the ship's hull, giving the whole ship a glistening lustre, like it had been highly polished to a fine sheen. Where their ship had looked sleek and ferocious before, now it looked positively terrifying.
"Why is it sparkling like that Dana?" Jade asked curiously. "The Drakkar armour plating looked slightly different, a bit more dull." she observed, having spotted the difference with her sharp eyes.
"I'm glad you asked." Dana said, grinning excitedly.
"I had to come up with a new alloy, so that we could use special psychic sensitive crystals in the composition. We wouldn't have been able to use the shipyard equipment to rearmour the ship otherwise." the redhead explained.
"I call the new metal: 'Invictium'!" she exclaimed proudly. "And its named quite appropriately." Dana added happily.
"It's a Titanium alloy, but the Etherite crystals have made it stronger. It's approximately twice the toughness of the old reinforced Titanium at resisting standard ordnance." she explained, overjoyed with the results.
"That sounds incredible!" Calara exclaimed. "But what about resistance against energy weapons?" she asked, remembering how effective the Drakkar armour had been against the Ashanath beams.
"Now that's the best part!" Dana grinned delightedly. "Come and check this out!" she exclaimed.
Nearby was a 10' square section of black Invictium armour plating which was held securely in place by four robotic arms. A small beam laser turret was positioned 50 metres away, with the barrel pointed squarely at the armour plating.
"Ok watch the armour plating." Dana said and produced a remote from another pocket.
She hit the button and a red beam of bright energy blasted out to hit the armour plating squarely in the centre. The beam pulsed angrily for a few seconds, before Dana flicked off the remote and the beam blinked out as suddenly as it had appeared.
"Wow!" Calara exclaimed with wide eyes. "The beam barely even scratched it!"
Dana grinned, beaming from ear to ear.
"The armour is partly reflective and deflects some of the initial energy of the attack. Whatever's left gets channelled through the armour and absorbed by capacitors that are spaced evenly around the hull." she explained for them in layman's terms.
"The Drakkar armour was able to channel and absorb the energy by using this incredibly rare element called Onyxium. Their armour is a Steel/Onyxium alloy." she noted.
"Invictium is a Titanium/Onyxium alloy, that is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of Etherite crystals and 15 other elements that I included to stabilise the bonds." Dana stated proudly.
"From the original attack strength of an energy weapon, Drakkar armour reflects 20%, absorbs 60% and allows 20% of the power through to cause actual damage. Invictium reflects 35%, absorbs 60% and allows 5% through to cause damage." she said smugly.
"So you've made us practically immune to laser weapons!" Alyssa blurted out. "That's fucking awesome Sparks!" she laughed in delight.
"We won't even need to turn the shields on!" the beautiful blonde girl added as she smirked.
"Unfortunately the capacitors can get overloaded if they absorb too much energy too fast." Dana admitted. "And Onyxium is incredibly rare, so try not to take any hits if you can avoid them!" she pleaded.
"But yeah, we're a whole heck of a lot tougher than before." the redhead smiled, well satisfied with her handiwork.
"I already thought you were one of the smartest people I've ever met, but you've managed to surpass my already sky high expectations!" John said proudly.
"You've done an amazing job Dana. Thank you!" he commended her gratefully, wrapping her up in a warm hug.
Dana sighed, ecstatically happy to have earned such high praise.
"Oh, I'm not done yet!" she exclaimed, wriggling out of his grasp.
"There's more to see!" the exhilarated girl chirped, beckoning them to follow after her as she jogged back to the ship.
Dana led them back through the two sets of doors on the airlock collar and then opened the double door into the hangar bay. The Raptor gunship brooded in the hangar bay, black and glistening like some kind of abyssal horror. John shivered for a moment, the ship bringing back a few unpleasant lingering memories from his recent nightmares.
"I replated the Raptor and added a new power core. The huge surplus of power meant I could add an upgraded shield generator, so the gunship should be able to shrug off most defence grid grade weaponry." she said happily.
