Chapter 458: SS-Cla.s.s Wars.h.i.+p
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
A crisis.
It was a major crisis yet again.
If it was mishandled in any way, Mu Yunhua’s previous efforts, experiences, and knowledge that she had acc.u.mulated would all be in vain.
Those Selains who had already submitted themselves to the rule of the Federation and were ready to survive as slaves would also join the rebel camp. The raging fire of vengeance against humanity would be ignited.
Besides, the total population number of the All-Stars Federation was only three-billion. They would be facing the Selains, whose population size was hundreds of times larger. Also, there was a more powerful and mysterious higher civilization. Even with the hundreds of A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps provided or leased by Chen Jin, it would still be a very challenging task for the Federation to resist the enemy.
If Chen Jin did not increase the level of support and did not provide more a.s.sistance, then the probability of the All-Stars Federation winning was undoubtedly zero.
Mu Yunhua could not see any hope of winning this war independently either. She could only fall back on old habits of reliance, of asking Jin for help.
“If Jin is willing to help, I am confident that we can survive this crisis!” Mu Yunhua said in a trembling voice.
…
After hearing about the situation as introduced by Mu Yunhua.
Chen Jin maintained a calm and light expression, it seemed as if he was not worried at all… even if this mysterious opponent had more than 100,000 advanced wars.h.i.+ps.
“Don’t panic!”
He said, “The enemy has arrived at an opportune time. Otherwise, you’d have too much leisure time on your hands with nothing to do and you’d keep thinking about returning home.”
This universe had a great many civilizations, and it was estimated that there were at least thousands of civilizations in their galaxy alone.
A portion of the civilizations was relatively weak, but there was also a portion of higher civilizations that were more developed and had advanced technologies… Their numbers were estimated to be over 100.
Even so, the human forces led by Mu Yunhua seemed to be riddled with bad luck.
First, it was the Selains who had extremely high potential and had pushed her civilization towards the brink of extinction with their schemes.
After decades, they had finally managed to conquer the Selains, though, they had barely survived.
No one expected that a new challenge would come sweeping towards them when they had only experienced a few peaceful days.
“Speak your mind. What kind of support do you want me to provide so that you will have the confidence to withstand this wave of attacks?” Chen Jin asked straightforwardly.
He preferred to have clear and direct indicators of the parameters, and then he could immediately set about fulfilling the requirements of the indicators.
“The enemy is very powerful!”
Mu Yunhua first introduced a rough outline of the opponent, “They originate from a force called the Lanyi civilization. The size of their territories and population are unknown. But the main wars.h.i.+ps that they pilot under their control are A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, which are similarly equipped with the superluminal warp engines, anti-matter bombs, gravity bombs, and the more commonly used force field technology.”
“The average combat power of their A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps is about 60% of the Silver Gun Lord, their maximum speed is only one-fifth of our speed (a per hour speed of 20 times the speed of light). Areas, where their wars.h.i.+ps perform worse than ours, include military equipment installed on the s.h.i.+ps. An A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p of ours can easily block three of their S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps. Once our main cannon is launched during the battle, it can smash their s.h.i.+elds and penetrate the hull of their wars.h.i.+ps.”
“But no matter how good the quality of our wars.h.i.+ps are, in a situation where the generation gap between our wars.h.i.+ps is rather small, there are times when it is difficult to withstand their overwhelming numbers.”
“But our wars.h.i.+ps have obvious advantages in terms of speed, our wars.h.i.+ps can reach a maximum speed of 100 times the speed of light, and the maneuverability is five times better than theirs.”
“So…” Mu Yunhua thought about things carefully and gave a precise figure, “If you could give me 10,000 A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, we would have a greater certainty of driving the enemy out.”
Pfftt~
If Chen Jin was drinking, he would have nearly sprayed all the liquid in his mouth.
Ten… Ten thousand A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, his annual production of A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps was only 50, yet she was asking for 10,000 wars.h.i.+ps unabashedly.
“Cough cough~”
He coughed twice, feeling the awkwardness. Chen Jin said helplessly, “This request of yours is a little too much. I can’t meet the demand for 10,000 wars.h.i.+ps in the short term.”
“Then, can that lend me an S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p?”
It seemed that Mu Yunhua had expected this response and so she changed her plan, “The power of the S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p is ten times greater than that of the A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p. If you can give me 100 S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, combined with a small number of A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, I’m confident that I can strike down the fleets sent by the higher civilizations.”
Pfft~~
Chen Jin’s reaction was even more dramatic this time around. One hundred S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps. It took ten years to build one of those, and she was asking for 100 of them now.
He began to feel regret. He should not have been bragged so much to Mu Yunhua in the past or acted like he was all that awesome. Now he was getting Karma.
However, on the surface, he still said inadvertently, “Oh, I understand. But the numbers that you are requesting is a little high. I can’t agree to these numbers right away. How about this? You wait for a day or two, while I discuss this with my fellow countrymen before giving you a reply.”
“Okay, Jin, I hope you will have a reply to me as soon as possible.”
Mu Yunhua said.
…
After the communication dispatch had ended.
The projections of the artificial intelligence, Nuwa and Alice, appeared in front of Chen Jin.
“You two, say something. How can we resolve this?”
“Master, I judge that the situation is probably not as serious as what Mu Yunhua described.”
First, Alice said, “As compared to our wars.h.i.+ps of the same cla.s.s, the A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps sent by the mysterious higher civilization that invaded the All-Stars Federation should be a simpler, low-performance version.”
“Their maneuverability is only one-fifth of ours, their defense capabilities are only a third of ours, and their attack power is slightly weaker. The comprehensive combat power of their A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p should be 0.33 of the Silver Gun Lord. One of our higher-grade versions should be equivalent to three of their wars.h.i.+ps.”
“And taking into account that we have the advantage in terms of maneuverability, where our wars.h.i.+ps are five times more mobile and flexible than theirs, there is no need to provide 10,000 A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps in reality. It is basically enough to provide five or six thousand wars.h.i.+ps.”
“However, the production of the Silver Gun Lord is on a reduced level and the craftsmans.h.i.+p is complex. Even if we were to produce at full capacity, we can produce only up to about 100 s.h.i.+ps per year. It would take 50 years to complete the production task.”
But it was clear that Mu Yunhua and her Federation could not wait for 50 years. At most, they could only hold up for five years.
“So what should I do now?”
Chen Jin wrinkled his brow. He had gone overboard with his boasting in the past, and now he could not do what he had boasted about. This was so shameful; he would be losing so much face.
He muttered, “Don’t tell me I have to admit that I can’t do anything about it and the support that can be given is limited, so they have to depend on themselves for everything?”
He could not accept this.
“Master, I do have a few solutions based on compromise,” said Nuwa
“Quickly say it.”
“It’s very simple, and that is to adjust the production line, we will no longer strive for excellence, instead, we will ma.s.s-produce the ‘simplified version’ of the A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps.”
Nuwa said, “I have computed this, if you give up the layer of strong acting material on the surface of the battles.h.i.+p, only spread a layer of force field alloy over it, and then combine it with a weaker version of the protective s.h.i.+eld, the defense capabilities of the wars.h.i.+p would be reduced to half of the original version; we will longer use the most advanced technology for the power system, instead, the power system will lag behind the original by one to two generations. we’ll do just enough to ensure that the power output is sufficient. As for the warp engine, I also have the means to create a warp engine with a maximum speed of 30 times the speed of light at half the cost.”
“As for the weapons outfit, all would remain unchanged except for the main particle cannon at the bow of the s.h.i.+p, which will have its power weakened by half.”
“After a round of adjustments, we can reduce our s.h.i.+pbuilding costs by more than half, and increase our production efficiency by three times.”
That was to say, 300 simplified versions of the A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p could be produced every year.
“I know that even if we do things like this, the output is still far from enough. But the All-Stars Federation should play their part and not rely on us for everything.”
“So I designed a further simplified A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p based on the foundational idea of simplified equipment. This just means that we will be modifying the B-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps. The All-Stars Federation can produce B-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, and they also have many wars.h.i.+ps in reserve. We’ll send the modification plan to them and then use the cargo s.p.a.cecraft to transport the units for the warp engines and the defensive s.h.i.+elds to them.
“As long as the B-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps are installed with the warp engine and the generator for the defensive s.h.i.+eld that we’ve produced, multiple ‘beggar versions’ of the A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps would be born just like that.”
“Of course, the combat power of this type of modified A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p is very weak. But as long as the Federation has numbers on their side, and the s.h.i.+ps are equipped with our attack weapons such as anti-matter bombs, gravity bombs, etc., there shouldn’t be any issue in delivering a similar amount of fire exchange and damage in a fight with the A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps from the Lanyi civilization.”
“As for the production capacity, as long as they have a sufficient amount of B-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, they should be able to reach annual production numbers of one thousand s.h.i.+ps.”
Add up all the available channels of resources.
If they were to fully mobilize all resources, under optimistic conditions, they could produce 1,300 A-Cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps outfitted with a variety of equipment each year.
“But… it’s still not enough.”
Chen Jin shook his head. If they were to deploy those low-grade A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, they would need at least 10,000 wars.h.i.+ps to be able to just barely resist the enemy. But they did not have so much time available to them.
“Master, I do have a slightly better plan,” Alice interrupted.
“Speak,” Chen Jin looked at her.
“When a fleet of A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps fights against another fleet of A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps, what will happen is only a low-level war of resource consumption. In a situation when one’s total productivity and resources lag far behind one’s opponent, this type of war is not a sensible course of action as the possibility of failure is rather great.”
“So you mean to…” Chen Jin understood the meaning of her words a little bit.
“Master!” Nuwa suddenly reminded him, “Currently, we have three S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps in our possession. It is the trump card from our stores of secret information and technologies. In any case, we must keep one of those wars.h.i.+ps on hand so we can only rent out two of them.”
“Also, the manufacturing process of the S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p requires the use of many minerals and mineral products originating from the Heavenly Realm that are s.h.i.+pped to Earth. But the Heavenly Realm has been reduced to being a part of the primordial chaos. It is difficult to get more minerals. Of course, with the celestial particles acting as a catalyst, the planets in Earth’s universe would also produce some special minerals, but the process would take thousands, even tens of thousands of years….. In general, we simply don’t have enough resources to create more S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps.”
Of course, for some of the advanced materials, it was not necessary to use them in the manufacturing process, and there were subst.i.tutes for them. If they were to go along with the line of thought of producing wars.h.i.+ps with low configurations, the S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps could still be built here… However, the ten years needed to produce one S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p remain unchanged.
Chen Jin suddenly became silent.
They seemed to have reached a dead-end regarding the solutions for this problem.
No matter how hard they racked their brains to come up with ways to build a large army in a short time, they still could not think of a good way to solve the problem of the 100,000 A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps.
They were all silent for a while.
Suddenly, Nuwa found inspiration! “Master, I just thought of a brand new plan, maybe there is a way out of this predicament.”
“What is it, hurry and explain,” Chen Jin quickly asked.
“We should produce an SS-cla.s.s interstellar wars.h.i.+p! On the battlefield, one such wars.h.i.+p would be equivalent to thousands of other lesser wars.h.i.+ps. We can realize this concept – one to represent a thousand – and destroy an entire fleet with just one wars.h.i.+p.”
“An SS-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p?”
Chen Jin was dumbfounded. “We are taking ten years to build just one S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p and we’re still b.u.mbling around with the production process. Do we even have the technological capabilities to build the SS-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p?”
“We do, Master.”
Nuwa had a confident expression, “This plan is related to your previous plan of transforming the crystals of the primordial chaos into spirit stones. Using the one-trillion-megawatt nuclear reactor as a foundation, we’ll build an SS-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p with the nuclear reactor as the core of its functions.”
She projected a set of blueprints and continued to introduce the plan.
“The length of this SS wars.h.i.+p is about 100 kilometers. It will be the largest wars.h.i.+p that we have ever built…”
“The energy generated from a one-trillion-megawatt nuclear reactor would be enough to sustain all the needs of a planet. This energy should be sufficient to power the warp engine, the large defensive s.h.i.+eld, and the main particle cannon at the s.h.i.+p’s bow that consumes a large amount of energy. ”
“And then, we’ll install more anti-matter missiles and gravity bombs to match the huge size of the wars.h.i.+p. Its basic combat power should at least ten times that of the S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps.”
“But its strongest combat ability lies in those celestial particles that are formed from the decomposition of the primordial chaos crystal. The differing natures of the celestial particles formed can produce extremely strange and amazing effects in an attack.”
“For example, after stimulation, the speed of the collected particles of spiritual energy is more than one hundred times the speed of light. They can hit distant enemies in an instant. Moreover, the infiltration of the psionic particles into the atomic structure will reduce the rate of fusion reaction. It may cause the opponent’s nuclear weapons to fail and the rate of power produced by their nuclear reactor to drop.”
“Another example could be ghost particles collected from the decomposition process. After stimulation, the speed of the ghost particle is also seven or eight times the speed of light. Aim it right, and it will score a hit. This type of particle also has a strong cooling’ property; it can generate a low-temperature field, causing the temperature of objects in the field to drop to minus 110 or 120 degrees Celsius, even to the extent of nearing the absolute zero… Such low temperatures are enough to damage some s.p.a.cecraft’s instruments and equipment that are not resistant to low temperatures, hence causing the lubrication system to freeze… its destructive power is not to be underestimated.”
“Each of the celestial particles collected through the decomposition of the crystals of the primordial chaos corresponds to a mode of attack.”
“The most important thing is that the celestial particles carry with them a special spiritual field, which is not restricted by the gravitational field, magnetic field, or electrical field. Therefore, the defensive s.h.i.+eld discharged by the enemy battles.h.i.+p cannot withstand the scouring of the celestial particles at all. It can be said to be a means of attack that ignores any form of defense.”
Unless … the opponent could also control and manipulate the celestial particles, but there was no such possibility.
Therefore, more than a dozen unstoppable attack methods had appeared in a short time. The SS-wars.h.i.+p designed by Nuwa could be described as the terminator on a battlefield.
“Good, good!”
Chen Jin rubbed his palms. He was filled with excitement, “This idea is so wonderful, you’ve turned the original decomposition reactor into an SS-wars.h.i.+p. Genius! This is genius!”
“But there are also hidden dangers, Master.”
“What are the hidden dangers?”
“Pollution. This can lead to pollution. Every time a special attack is released by this type of SS wars.h.i.+p, it will cause certain pollution in this universe, so it must not be used too frequently.”
“This is unavoidable,” Chen Jin nodded. “This is a double-edged sword. It has unimaginable destructive power, but it also has certain disadvantages. The perfect weapon system does not exist.”
“Do it, Nuwa! Build this SS battles.h.i.+p as fast as possible.”
“Yes, Master!”
…
The next morning.
Chen Jin took the initiative to contact Mu Yunhua and gave his reply, “I can’t fulfill the requirements you stated yesterday. I can only give you two S-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps. I have 200 A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps left with me. These can be sent to you right away.”
“Combined with the 300 A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps in your possession, this is a total of 502 advanced wars.h.i.+ps. I believe you will not have any problems in stopping a fleet of 1,000 wars.h.i.+ps from the Lanyi civilizations.”
“I can also provide some advanced technological information. I’ll dispatch a cargo s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p to send the core parts of the warp engines and the s.h.i.+eld generator. I’ll let you a.s.semble a batch of A-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+ps by yourself.”
“Yun, I am not your nanny. I can only provide so much help for this war. You still have to overcome the biggest difficulty on your own.”
“Of course, I will not abandon you so heartlessly. Ten years, I’ll give you and the Federation ten years. If the Lanyi civilization still can’t defeat the Federation ten years later, then I will help you to thoroughly get rid of the Lanyi civilization.”
“Yun, this is a test, I hope you can show me a wonderful performance!”
Ah~
Mu Yunhua was at a loss. A test. When she absorbed that information, she started panicking a little. Jin, don’t be like this. This kind of test is very dangerous, let me grab onto you as support directly.
However, Chen Jin ignored her.