The situation is quickly changing, and we have to keep up if we want to win this damn war. First of all, we have to organize so we'll be able to handle the new wave of recruits. I'll let Terrence handle it while I check on the Fabricators. I'll have to admit that I didn't have too much time to dedicate to our research group. So now is a good time to do so since there seems to be a bit of downtime.
I teleport near the workshops, and I can't help but let my jaw drop. The environment has changed a lot since I last came here. Every nooks and cranny has somehow been put to use, and the Printers are very close together to the point where navigating the workshop can only be done by teleporting into specific free spaces. The cooling system is also a lot more organized than the mess it was before, and the altars are pumping out essence of frost like no tomorrow.
But the most significant change might be the massive rune-covered metal cube with a gaping purple maw on one of its faces. The sheer size of the bundles of cables going into the mysterious tear in reality makes me pause for a moment.
"Ah, Prometheus!" Alan says with a wide smile. I smile back, "I see a lot has changed here."
"Ah, you must be referring to the spatial warehouse!" he says with a hearty laugh."It took us a while, and many of us didn't sleep for weeks on end! But it's done, we somehow made it able to store at least thrice what we had available before, and the combined effort of Krognar and Philip made it possible to make an interface between runes and our systems! There's still a few bugs we have to work out, but other than that it's working flawlessly!"
His spatial warehouse completely slipped my mind, but seeing it working with my own eyes is certainly something else. That will undoubtedly solve our storage problem for the time being, and the more space-efficient layout helps us squeeze as many machines as we can into the workshop area, which is the largest area of the Shard by far.
"I see that you made tremendous progress." I say, "So what are the Fabricators up to? I assume that you are all busy with producing all the ammo we need for the war effort."
Alan scratches the back of his head, "It's true that our research has slowed down, all the materials we receive are immediately sent to the main production lines, but we still have a bit of research done. It's mainly Krognar and Philip at this point; I'm too busy making sure that the workshop runs smoothly. But they still somehow found a way to make something amazing despite their reduced budget and resources!" The Chief Fabricator says with barely hidden pride.
I can't help but raise an eyebrow. I know what Krognar is capable of, and Philip did create the serum that turned Mary into the powerhouse she is today.
The Chief Fabricator leads me to a secluded area of the workshop. I spot the old Goblin and Mary's adoptive father arguing over something while gesturing towards a metallic object, which looks like some sort of shell for the Hammer.
I can't help but wonder at what the two geniuses have cooked up. I know that Alan said that they don't have a lot of resources compared to what they usually get, but the two already showed that a lack of raw material would not stop them.
"This will not work!" the old man bellows. "The diffusers are too close together, and there's too many of them, they will not reach peak efficiency and waste space that could be used for payload instead!"
"You're wrong! It's not-" I couch and interrupt the Goblin's retort. The two Fabricators immediately turn their heads towards me and make a wry smile.
"Prometheus, what a welcome sight!" Philip says, and Krognar nods.
"You were arguing just now, right? I suppose it's about this thing?" I say as I gesture towards the mysterious device, which rests on a table while the surroundings are littered with what looks like failed prototypes and various pieces of paper covered with arcane scribbles.
"You're right!" The Goblin nods, "I know that we are strained for resources right now, but we still managed to make something that will help us win our wars!" he says while making grand gestures towards what I assume is a shell for the Hammer. It looks like a standard explosive shell, but most of the surface of the device is covered with tiny little holes.
To be frank, it looks like they just took a shell and drilled it until they were too tired to continue.
"I know it may not look like much, but believe me when I say that this contains a lot more technology than even our Portal Attachments." Philip continues the Goblin's explanation.
I raise an eyebrow and prompt the old man to continue.
"You see, we know that the Hammer is mostly used to flatten enemy bases. However, we are all aware that it expands quite a bit of ammunition to pierce through the often tremendously powerful barriers that protect those strategic sites."
I nod, "You're correct, so you're telling me that you found a way to remedy that problem?" I say as I eye the shell with renewed interest. The main source of ammo consumption for the Hammer is defeating the enemy defenses. The second one is fighting ridiculous enemies like the Oracle, but I can't do anything about that... Yet.
"We did." The old man says, "You see, we understand that there's only one way to break through barriers, and that is brute force. We tried to make the Spell Jammer works on enchanted artifacts, but that didn't lead anywhere."
"I told you it was a waste of time," Krognar says with a smirk. Philip stares at the green engineer and sneers before focusing back on me.
"As I said," Philip continues, "We tried to do something with the Jammer, and it didn't work. But we found out an interesting property of the essence of emptiness during an accident for the spatial warehouse project."
"That thing almost blew up more times than I can count," Krognar grumbles, and I can't help but sigh.
"Anyway, we found out that releasing a large amount of essence of emptiness in a small space in a very short period warps the space around the essence for a brief moment." Mary's father explains.
"So just like teleportation?" I say as I recall Riley's explanation back when we were chasing the lich. I believe he mentioned some teleportation ritual that distorted space.
"It is indeed similar to certain spells, but we achieved something far greater than that! We made a non-magical way of distorting space!" Krognar exclaims.
The realization suddenly hits me. If we can distort space, then that means-
"It seems you've realized." Philip says with a grin, "We don't need to smash Imperial shields now; we can just make the space they occupy not exist for a brief moment, just enough to let an explosive payload inside enemy territory."
Holy shit, that sounds awesome!
"However, there are some drawbacks," Krognar says with a wry smile.
Of course, there are drawbacks. I should have known.