Breathable Liquid | |
The breathable liquid, not so different from water. | |
Faction | Empire of the Rising Sun |
Function | Protection, Medical |
Brief | Substitute for air, keeps pressure constant in heights and depths. |
Japan, consisting of four main islands and thousands of smaller ones, is fond of the sea. The Japanese society has a unique connection to the water surrounding them. For centuries, living near the sea, taking from the sea and giving back to the sea what it demands, forced the Japanese to work together with the ocean. In the recent decades, when Nanotechnology gave the people more freedom in their activities and free time overall, because of the connection to water, the sport of diving became popular throughout Japan.
Ever deeper into the sea was the goal, and people from all over Japan would travel to the coasts to learn diving. From a young age, they would learn how to swim, thus diving the logical next step, due to human curiosity. However, there lies a problem. If an object attempts to travel into the depths of seas, the water pressure increases dramatically, even though it may only be meters below sea level. Someone not breathing the right way will lose consciousness due to the lungs not being pressurized correctly, and in many cases death follows swiftly.
The Imperial Navy, which utilized submersibles, ran into a similar problem with the Wing model submersible. This unique vessel uses a gyroscopic cockpit to negate g-forces during a "flip", either turning it into a sea-faring submersible or a sky-soaring fighter. However, the sudden increase or decrease in pressure proved fatal for some pilots, collapsing their lungs from the pressure change and the forces behind it. The Wing model was effectively "grounded" until a solution was found.
The solution came unexpectedly. From a small diving school in the Miyagi prefecture, an idea was proposed to make deep-sea diving possible. The principal of the diving school, a former chemical engineer and physiologist, worked on a breathable liquid that could be breathed just as easily as air.
Early prototypes of the breathable liquid were not very successful since her assistant was always drowning in it, but as time went on and more drownings by her assistant occurred, a breakthrough was made in the field of breathable liquids, but this was kept in secrecy due to the upcoming war. In time when Emperor Yoshiro himself became gravely ill due to overexertion while training stacked up with a whole lot of other illnesses, his medical adviser suggested an experimental "breathable liquid" which would help Emperor Yoshiro to breathe, since his nasal passages were inflamed.
The Shogunate doubted the unknown method, but as Emperor Yoshiro's health degraded, they decided to comply. The medical adviser contacted the diving school in the Miyagi prefecture, and they responded they would arrive in Tokyo in a short time. True to their word, the somewhat shady person who called herself Madaraki-hakase (professor) along with her humble assistant who she nicknames Veronica, arrived at the Imperial Palace a short time later. The Shogunate curiously asked if they used an Auto Go to reach Tokyo in such a short time, they simply replied: "We flew here."
The decision by the medical adviser was wise. Yoshiro survived and recuperated just in time for the war, due to an intended side effect of having herbal healing properties. The breathable liquid, now dubbed "Seimei no mizu" or "Life Water", went into further refinement, backed and funded by the Imperial Navy.
Literally a miracle, the Life Water was mass produced by the Japanese industry, including medical uses, such as in hospitals where Life Water is used to treat patients with breathing difficulty. The Imperial Navy uses it in the gyroscopic cockpits of their Wing model submersibles. This is due to the fact that Life Water cannot be compressed.
As a liquid, it can dampen and resist forces working against the pilot resides in, thus serving as a shield for the pilot. It can be cleaned easily from CO2 too and it reacts better with the pilot. Used mainly in the Wing series, pilots can accelerate to much higher speeds while staying in place, instead of being shaken around by forces, thus staying conscious even after a severe hit.
In the Imperial Army who uses Life Water in their King Oni, the liquid protects the pilot inside from the concussive blows dealt by enemy fire and indeed, any actions the pilot might execute such as punching or jumping and stomping, however King Oni are not advised to jump, in the first place.
In the civilian application of deep-sea diving, the liquid has proven itself countless times too, and a boom in the sport of deep-sea diving has risen again.
Military application: