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Greetings, Ikeda-san. It has indeed been far too long.

Octavarium Research and Development has spent an equally long time trying to figure out exactly how Canberra's reactor works, and unfortunately as near as we can tell, it uses some kind of antimatter-based injection system as a "spark plug" to start a proton-boron fusion reaction. The fuel for this reaction is a lot more common than H-fuel, and it has a much higher energy density than standard deuterium-helium-3 fusion, but also needs a proportionally higher temperature environment for ignition.

Now, the generation of temporarily-stable antimatter is easy. Most H-fuel fusion reactors can do it as a standard feature; you throw a pile of energy at just about any problem and you can solve it. The problem we don't know how to solve is injecting the antimatter into the reactor's interior pressure vessel without blowing half the injector rail off in the process. Clearly something in the construction of these reactors is beyond our technology, and ever since those extra-Sirian cultists disappeared from the edge worlds, we haven't had a chance to try to rip apart their technology and see what makes it work.

Maybe we're using the wrong materials. Maybe we don't actually know how to make the materials that they use. The only way we could figure it out at this point though would be to disassemble Canberra's reactor, which for obvious reasons, we can't do. But what we can do for you is send over some of the engineering team that helped rebuild the reactor of the Metropolis a few years ago in order to get it and the Fleet from Kansas to Cortez the long way round. It required tuning the reactor's injector rails for long-term efficiency -- a year and a half's extrasolar use of cruise engines in our case, orbital stationkeeping, inertial and freefall compensation, et cetera in yours -- instead of continuous low-level output punctuated by massive output spikes and capacitor regeneration -- antimatter generation and weapons fire.

We expect that you could get a 25% effective increase in fuel energy density. The tricky part is you really can't apply this to anything particularly active -- a warship retooled like this becomes a long-haul passenger ferry with a lot of armour, and a freighter using the modifications is a deep recon post. It's not magic, just sufficiently advanced technology.

I'll let the team pack some go-bags for a trip to Kinkaku-ji. And I'll let you know if there's anything we need.

Regards,
Adjutant Harold Kane
Fourth Octavarium Fleet

Konnichiwa. Coordinator Paracusia, OIC Tactical Logistics Command. It appears that I'll be fielding this from here.

I apologise about the Adjutant. In the aftermath of the Redshift misfire, he's been on a pretty intense medicinal regimen - he loses track of things sometimes. Far better than the alternative, but still occasionally a problem.

Now, the problem with your suggestion regarding common anti-warship ordnance is that... well, the Supernova doesn't really use antimatter in the same way that a reactor does. It simply contains it in as inert a state as possible, which isn't the same kind of shielded-but-active containment needed to use it as a trigger for fusion reaction.

We haven't been able to get the resources as yet to properly test reproduction concepts for Canberra's reactor, and I certainly wouldn't want to inflict an untested design on you. So unfortunately, as Kane indicated it'll have to be a refinement of standard tech instead of moving up to antimatter-induced fusion.

If you're still interested, I think we can draft up a plan. Now that the invasion's over, it should be much easier to send some technicians your way.

Excellent. I will arrange for transport for a team of engineers and technicians.

Now, you will need materials. You can work with our team to determine the exact quantity; I'm unfamiliar with the exact scale of station expansion you may have planned, and I'm only a coordinator, not a reactor builder. I can say that you'll need a fair amount of high-performance alloys. Critical-temperature alloys aren't as necessary, you'll most likely want some for immediate shielding but the reactor concept Kane proposed doesn't run as hot as many other upgrades would. Rad shielding is always a good idea for any expansion, even moreso with the reactor revisions being implemented. There are a variety of ways to do this, though with the recent replacement of King Chuck with a more civilized government, Gallic Ultralloy may be the best bet. And of course more parts.

As for tungsten, that will be very easy. I'll put in a call to some trusted civilian contractors.

Your tungsten has been delivered.

Gallia is very slowly adapting to being civilized space in the absence of King Chuck. They have, regrettably, preserved much of the royal bureaucracy that was convinced Gallia was a wonderland and Sirians should have to bribe them for the privilege of being allowed to do business there, but we have made some inroads. We may be able to source the Ultralloy ourselves, once we know how much is needed.

For more specific information, it seems the Maquis are not fully convinced the war is over. Which is true, the Royal Enclave is still a problem that needs to be dealt with - be careful in the Taus.