Madness

Ingot's solution to their current predicament sounded really good. If It brought them closer to their destination, Even better.

But Kita had a feeling that things weren't as simple as it seemed. There might be more to it. So He asked Ingot.

"What's stopping us from going through with the plan then?"

"Umm, There's nothing stopping us per say. But.."

"But what?" Kita quickly asked.

"We'd need to increase our speed by another 35% if we want to catch the gravity field in time to get the swing assist that we need." Ingot finally revealed under the pressure.

"What?!?!"

"35%?" Nova exclaimed as Kita was astonished when he heard the reason.

With the last gravity assist they had gotten, The Jeager was already moving at 4 times it's regular speed. And that was with the Rear thrusters running at maximum capacity.

How were they supposed to increase their speed by another 35%? That was simply impossible to achieve.

"That's not all..." Ingot said as his voice lost a bit of momentum when he saw the reactions of his superiors.

"There's more?" Nova exclaimed. He had lost his cool a bit.

"Uh.. Yes. We'd be going really fast. So fast that the G-Force aboard would skyrocket to above 8Gs. So those untrained must take the proper medications as to avoid any serious injuries during this period. Or they risk fainting"

"How long?" Kita asked.

"How long would this whole fiasco last?"

"According to my calculations everything should be done within 15 minutes. But that would be some really strenuous on everyone and the whole ship." Ingot said.

"Even if you say that, How are we supposed to reach that kinds of speeds in the first place? Do you have any idea how to increase our speed by another 35%? Do you know just how insane that is? I'm not even sure the Jeager can handle that kind of load without ripping itself apart! The Thrusters are already running at capacity, Any more and they'll start to incur real, permanent damage. Even if we get out of this system safely by doing so, what happens when someone attacks us again and we need to run away? What will we do when our rear thrusters give out on us?" Nova exclaimed!

Although he trusted Ingot the most, His fuse had been blown by what he was recommending. It was beyond reckless. It was pure madness.

There was a very real chance that the Jeager was gonna rip itself apart if it tried to go any faster. She hadn't been built with such high speed maneuvers in mind.

Although Nova was furious at the proposal to say the least, Kita didn't lose his cool. He knew that losing his cool was the worst thing he could do now. Someone needed to step up and take charge, and he needed to be the one. So he calmly asked.

"What are you thinking Ingot. That 35% of speed isn't gonna be easy." Kita said as he looked at Ingot expectedly.

Kita didn't believe that he would suggest it if he didn't already have an idea in mind. So with deep breaths, He awaited the answers.

"ReactorXene." Ingot revealed.

"ReactorXene!" Nova exclaimed yet again. His face almost turned red in fury.

"You mean that ReactorXene that's used to create those highly volatile explosives?" Kita asked confirmation.

"Yes." Ingot said in a resolute tone.

"You want us to throw that stuff into our rear thrusters? Do you know how explosive those are? This whole ship will be ripped to shreds! Have you lost your mind?" Nova exploded as he began to scold Ingot.

He was the one who put Ingot on the job, and right now, He was losing his mind from what his disciple was suggesting.

"Calm down Nova." Kita said. Trying to calm him down. It seemed that the pressure of the situation had gotten to the guy somehow.

"Speak clearly, What do you want to do with ReactorXene?" Kita asked Ingot.

"Sir, Although I know that ReactorXene is quite volatile and packs a huge amount of energy for each gram of this substance. It's quite explosive and catches fire quite easily. So although it might sound like a bad plan, But just hear me out." Ingot said as he looked at Nova. Hoping that he would calm down and listen to his plan.

"Go on." Kita gave him the go ahead.

"Sir, I suggest that we add ReactorXene with our fuel in about 70:30 ratio. That will be enough to give us the extra boost that we need. But as it's quite volatile and might explode even before being injected out the rear, We need to cool it down first. To about -1200 degree Celsius. That will give it enough room to be injected out the back with the fuel before getting far away enough from our rear thrusters that the damage to the thrusters would be at a minimum."

So that was what he was planning. Kita realized finally what gave him such confidence of suggesting this plan.

As Kita thought a bit, He realized that the plan was more sound than what one might expect. If one really took into account the output velocity of the thruster injectors and the live temperature of the output thrust, cooling it down to such lengths might just give it enough room to steer clear out of the thrusters before bursting into flames. Which might be enough to keep the damage to a minimum.

But there was still a problem, It was all theoretical. It hadn't been tried again and there was no time to run any simulations. All they could do now was to perform some rudimentary calculations and guess.

Time was running out. If Kita wanted to go ahead with the plan, they needed to move right now.

Kita still couldn't make a decision. So he turned to Nova who had calmed down by now.

"Nova, What do you say?"

Nova was looked like he was put on the spot with that question. But he quickly got back his composure and seriously contemplated the situation.

Even if he didn't like the solution, It was the only one they had, Their previous plans had all been thrown on the air by the sudden developments, They were already on their way, There no other option available to them.

This was the only one.

So he looked at Ingot before looking at Kita and giving a slight nod.

Kita acknowledged his approval and gave Ingot the go ahead with this plan. He was to coordinate with Hugo and his team to make sure everything went correctly, even the slightest hiccup could result in a catastrophe.