Chapter 64: Shortage of 20 Billion Blue Moon Dollars
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Commander, would you like to know the cost in Blue Moon Coins for the resources required for the second defense line?”
“Let’s not, we will discuss it later…”
A wave of exhaustion washed over Zhao Yu. The first defense line demanded a resource value of 10.9 billion Blue Moon Coins. The second line, with its wider operating orbit, would undoubtedly cost more.
Uncle Da nodded and continued,” Commander, our lunar base needs expansion. The fleet of warships and the production lines required for both defense lines…”
“Cut to the chase, what’s the cost?”
“Roughly, we’re talking about 5 billion in Blue Moon Coin equivalent resources for the production line alone. Once established, we can ma.s.s-produce soldiers within a short period…”
Alright, 5 billion Blue Moon dollars worth of resources, and it was merely for the production line. Did the soldiers not come with a price tag?
…..
Just the U-shaped warships alone cost 15000 Blue Moon dollars. 10,000 warships would cost 150 million, not including the other types of warships.
Zhao Yu felt a headache creeping in. “Uncle Da,” he began, “what’s the progress on the Mercury and Venus projects?”
Uncle Da shook his head. “Without the upgrade of the third-generation nuclear fusion reactor, the projects are practically on hold. After all, at our current speed, even a round trip to Mercury, our closest planet, would take several months. We simply can’t wait that long…”
Seeing Zhao Yu’s disappointment, Uncle Da quickly added, “Commander, there’s no need for such pessimism. Our lunar resources might not be as rich as Earth’s, they’re about one-tenth, but our daily mining output is not insignificant…”
“How much can we mine every day?” Zhao Yu hurriedly asked.
” About 10,000 blue Blue Coins worth of resources…”
“That’s all?!” This amount was paltry compared to the billions of resources he needed.
“On our moon, we have abundant reserves of iron, copper, sodium, silicon, helium-3, t.i.tanium, pota.s.sium, and more. If we converted all of this to Blue Moon Coins, we could mine an equivalent of about 100 million Blue Moon Coins per day…”
Uncle Da shook his head. “But many products require more than these resources. So, mining these surplus materials is pointless. They’d just sit there…”
Zhao Yu grasped this point. Every piece of technology needed a diverse set of resources. Not everything could be built with iron alone. They lacked rare metals and rare earth elements, many of which could be found on Earth but not on the Moon.
“To give a simple example, a projection touch watch involves millions of manufacturing processes…”
“One step in creating the optical sensor, which involves dealing with the electromotive force generated by the photoelectric effect, requires many semiconductor materials like Ge, PbS, CdS…”
“Many of the elements required in refining these semiconductors are scarce or completely non-existent on the Moon. We need to import them from Earth…”
“I know!”
Zhao Yu ma.s.saged his temples, feeling as if he was drowning in unforeseen debt. He regretted allowing Uncle Da to quantify resource needs in Blue Moon Coins. How wonderful it would be to simply be a carefree commander.
After catching his breath, Zhao Yu finally voiced about his plan, “Right now, the priority is to upgrade the third-generation nuclear fusion reactor. We’re still short of 7,500 Tech Points. Make another list, see which non-essential tech products we could trade with Earth…”
The third-generation nuclear fusion reactor upgrade needed 10,000 Tech Points. Once achieved, it could increase the speed of s.p.a.ceships and warships. This would possibly allow exploration and development of other planets, easing his pressure.
But for now, Zhao Yu realized, they needed to conduct ma.s.sive trades with Earth to acquire resources.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t need to visit Earth anytime soon, but it seems I must make the trip…”
Zhao Yu wanted to expedite the production line, quickly push the three main products into the market, so that the lunar base could progress rapidly.
“Commander, the two lines of defense are just a defense system, however, is often a strong offense. I have here a list of offensive forces we could utilize.”
“Tell me more!”
Uncle Da projected the 3D image again.
“According to my simulation, the speed of an extraterrestrial fleet should exceed our warships, which makes weapons like our Star Destroyer Cannon, aimed at fixed targets, inappropriate…”
The Star Destroyer Cannon was relatively slow, firing a single shot could easily alert the enemy from distance, allowing them to evade in advance.
” After our two lines of defense are established, it would be quite difficult for the enemy to use similar weapons to attack our main base…”
” In this situation, if they desire to invade, they would first need to dismantle the base points on our two defense lines. Similarly, if we aim to eliminate them, we must destroy their fleet…”
“Eventually, it would inevitably evolve into a battle between our warships…”
“Wait, base points can be wiped out?!” Zhao Yu was taken aback. He had a.s.sumed that once a defense system was established, it was invincible as long as the technological superiority was not significantly in the enemy’s favor.
“Absolutely, each base point has a limited energy reserve. If the enemy intensely attacks a specific base point, its energy could be completely drained…”
“In that case, you’re saying even our defense line isn’t secure, and there’s a possibility of alien s.p.a.ceships breaking through?”
” Exactly. At such times, we would need our s.p.a.ce warships to compensate for the loss, fend off enemy ships, and repair the base points…”
After listening to Uncle Da’s description, Zhao Yu scratched his head.” So, our war with the alien would essentially be a drawn-out war of attrition?”
“Not necessarily!”
“There might be two possibilities…”
” The first option, as mentioned above, the alien fleet’s technological level might not greatly exceed ours, and they might not be significantly stronger. In this case, both sides would have some wiggle room to manoeuvre…”
” The second possibility is that the alien fleet’s technological level outcla.s.ses ours, then we could be easily obliterated…”
Zhao Yu nodded. As he had previously thought, if they faced the second scenario, they might as well await their doom. The enemy might employ advanced dimensional reduction technologies, like a two-dimensional foil described in some novels.
“We can only prepare for war based on the possibility that the alien fleet is not much different from us…”
“At that point, behind each defense line, we would need to establish 12 military bases, deploy numerous mobile units, and be prepared to support any base point under attack at any given time…”
The 12 bases would be evenly distributed, encompa.s.sing the spherical defense line with Earth at its core.
“How many warships does a military base need?”
“At Minimum, one mothership, a hundred reconnaissance ships, a thousand frigates, ten thousand destroyer, a hundred cruisers, ten battleships, a hundred transport ships, and a hundred supply ships…”
Zhao Yu started counting with his fingers.
A destroyer without weapons would cost 10,000 Blue Moon Dollars. A base would cost 100 million Blue Moon Dollars. 12 bases would cost 1.2 billion Blue Moon Dollars.
Including various other warship types, the overall expense likely wouldn’t drop below ten billion.
“These are the forces needed to permanently station at the military bases. Besides this, we need a primary a.s.sault force capable of leaving our defensive line to initiate attacks…”
“How many in the primary attack force do we need?”
“That’s not finalized yet. We have to wait until the third-generation nuclear fusion reactor upgrade is complete to determine how fast our s.p.a.cecraft are…”
“Otherwise, if we’re slower than our adversaries, we’re just sitting ducks once we venture out…”
” Of course, if our speed has no match to the enemy, we can put in more effort in concealment. At that time, the main attacking force might have to choose smaller warships…”
Scratching his head, Zhao Yu asked, “Could my s.p.a.ce soldiers come in handy?”
“Yes!”
Uncle Da nodded. “The smaller the stealth-equipped warship, the more effective it is. If we’re slower than the enemy, our s.p.a.ce soldiers could use these smaller warships to get close to the enemy fleet…”
“Can their weapons penetrate the enemy’s warship armor?”
” These can all be adjusted. We have various types of s.p.a.ce combat robots. Depending on the specifics of the enemy warship, we can make the necessary modifications…”
Zhao Yu shook his head realized it was futile to contemplate so much now. They’d have to wait until the alien fleet arrived and they’ve gathered enough intelligence to strategize the next steps.
From Uncle Da’s explanation, Zhao Yu learned that to erect a substantial defense line before the alien fleet’s arrival, he’d need resources equivalent to more than twenty billion Blue Moon coins.
Therefore, there are two immediate priorities. First, to take out less critical tech products and trade them with Earth to reclaim Technology Points. Second, to rapidly scale the production of the three main products, trading them in large volumes on Earth to acquire resources..