But Sheyan was very clear on one thing - Mungo may feel like he was in deep trouble now, but the thing that would give him a real headache was currently still hidden away like a time bomb. Once it went off, Mungo would realise that his current predicament was a paradise in comparison!When Sheyan thought of this, he suddenly realised that the things he had unintentionally done would probably be blamed on the royal family!
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That"s right, the death of an important member of the Arnold family at this critical juncture would undoubtedly be endowed with a deeper meaning.
Perhaps if Sheyan stepped forward and gave himself up, confessing to the crime, the Arnold family wouldn"t even believe him.... They would probably say something like "Who the f*ck are you trying to fool? So you"re telling us, by coincidence, there happens to be an auction at the time, and, by coincidence, you happen to possess something that aroused his greed, and, by coincidence, you happen to be strong enough to kill him and his guards, and, by coincidence, you actually did kill him? F*ck off! Tell us who ordered you to do this, or we"ll make sure you die a miserable and painful death..."
So Sheyan could only raise his head to the heavens and laugh out loud. He expressed his sincere understanding of Mungo"s predicament. Although he came on this trip to rescue someone, he was no longer in a hurry, because a terrible storm was now looming over Alps Base 7.
Sheyan had faith in Ronnie. That guy specialised in Agility, and he was also proficient in scouting and making doppelgangers. Since his enemies failed to kill him in an ambush, thus giving him a chance to catch his breath, he should not have any problem staying alive for a while. He should at least be able to hold on until Sheyan arrived.
Next, Sheyan visited some of the prohibited military zones in Alps Base 7 accompanied by Archer. During the tour, Sheyan saw a monstrous s.h.i.+pyard under construction! This steel monster reached a height of five kilometers!
How tall was five kilometers? It was half the height of the Himalayas!! A s.h.i.+pyard that was half as tall as the Himalayas!! Think about how shocking it was! And, it also means that the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p that was about to be built here would be unimaginably huge!
Sheyan placed his hand on a thick porthole, feeling the cold sensation of the porthole gla.s.s pa.s.sing along to his fingertips. Yes, he was shocked! Shocked by the extent of human imagination and creativity. This was probably how the humans in ancient times felt when they saw the Great Wall or the Pyramid of Giza for the first time!
The construction of the s.h.i.+pyard was still ongoing. He saw a lot of engineering robots flying around in s.p.a.ce like a bunch of hardworking bees. Dazzling electric sparks broke through the darkness from time to time like flashes of lightning. Such a lively and thriving scene formed a strong contrast against the backdrop of the vast, indifferent, silent s.p.a.ce.
After watching for a while, Sheyan told Archer, "To build such a huge s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p here... It seems like the Empire is really determined this time. This s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p isn"t built according to the specifications of a normal wars.h.i.+p, right?"
Archer looked at Sheyan in amazement. "That"s right. Wars.h.i.+ps actually may not necessarily be better the bigger they are. The obsolescence of battles.h.i.+ps on Old Earth is proof of that. The reason wars.h.i.+ps are so big is mainly for the purpose of accommodating enough energy generation reactors inside. There"s a limit to this. When the energy generation system reaches a saturation point, the extra volume of the s.h.i.+p will just go to waste... Fine, I can see that your eyes are blank. Let me put it another way."
"According to a report I received when I was young, more than 72.3% of men are not satisfied with the size of a certain part of their body, and 99.98% of these people wished it"ll be bigger and longer. We would always advise the many patients that come for treatment in our clinic that the abnormal size they requested isn"t practical. These things aren"t necessarily better the bigger they are. The critical point is 20 centimeters. Going beyond the limit is as bad as falling short, at least from a female point of view. The Pacific-cla.s.s standard is the critical point for the current s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps, whose main purpose is for battle."
Sheyan nodded as if he had been enlightened. "What were you doing before you joined the army, Archer?" he suddenly asked after a while.
"I was a neet who stayed at home," Archer replied in surprise.
(From Wikipedia: NEET is an acronym that stands for "Not in Education, Employment, or Training". It refers to a person who is unemployed, not in school or vocational training.)
"All right," Sheyan sighed and asked, "So what business does your family do?"
"My father"s a veterinarian." A look of nostalgia crept into Archer"s eyes, "And my mother is the owner of a famous plastic surgery clinic. The clinic was so busy that even with my help, we still can"t handle everything. In the end, my father had to help with a lot of the surgeries."
"....If I go to your mother"s clinic now and ask for the 20-centimeter package, can you give me a 50% discount? And your father can"t be the main surgeon!"
"....."
***
After further conversation, Sheyan was secretly alarmed with the Empire"s progress on Uplos, because it was at a much more advanced state than he had imagined! The Empire had started a "Salmon Run" plan since half a year ago, and had executed it regardless of the cost.
Salmon run is a periodic annual activity where salmons, which have migrated from the ocean, swim to the upper reaches of rivers where they sp.a.w.n on gravel beds. The salmons often have to travel for thousands of kilometers while swimming against water currents that flow at a speed of dozens of kilometers per hour.
During the migration, the salmons also had to face the problems of being hunted by their natural enemies, the changes in the environment, and extremely high energy consumption. Less than one in ten salmons would actually reach the sp.a.w.ning grounds. The reason they can migrate successfully is because they migrate together in a great, dense shoal. When they were hunted by their natural enemies, the fish in the periphery would sacrifice themselves. When they swam upstream, the aerodynamic flow of water when they travel in a shoal would save energy for the fish behind.
To put it bluntly, the Empire"s Salmon Run plan was to ama.s.s a large fleet of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps to rush through the asteroid belts regardless of the cost. They only wished to ensure that a small number of their core airs.h.i.+ps could reach the planet despite the astonis.h.i.+ng casualty rate.
The actual implementation of the Salmon Run plan was extremely tragic. Although most of the outer s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps were out-of-service wars.h.i.+ps, they still had to form a real, solid fleet for the operation. The first Salmon Run plan ended in complete failure. They only managed to reach the middle section of the asteroid belts.
But the failed first attempt had provoked the arrogance of the upper and middle cla.s.s of the Empire! The second Salmon Run plan was quickly proposed. This time, they would use active wars.h.i.+ps!
Furthermore, the Empire had actually used the Emperor"s authority to force all the military regions, which had already shown signs of becoming secessionists, to fork out 400 active wars.h.i.+ps! The Imperial headquarters themselves sent out 100 wars.h.i.+ps! The Empire was clearly doing this to weaken the military force of each military region!
Thus, the second Salmon Run plan was successfully carried out.
The process was as tragic as before, but in the end, they managed to take root on planet Uplos and built a small base there.
However, the base only managed to last for seven days. A sudden cosmic storm struck, cutting off the communication link between the base and the headquarters, which was already fragile to begin with. They lost all contact after that. The base had most likely fallen into ruin.
The third Salmon Run plan would no longer use wars.h.i.+ps as the main force, but giant wars.h.i.+ps.
That"s right. The defensive system of wars.h.i.+ps in this era mainly comprised of energy s.h.i.+elds that were aimed at defending against energy weapons, but the monstrous impact from asteroids was a type of physical damage. That was why wars.h.i.+ps could not last long in the asteroid belts.
Therefore, they increased the thickness of the exterior armour of the wars.h.i.+ps to enhance their physical defence! Thicker armour means extra weight, and that naturally required a bigger energy system and propulsion system. So the giant wars.h.i.+p named "Mariana" that was being built here was actually more than six times the size of a normal Pacific-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p.
And its horrifying fusion-type armour, which combined steel and energy s.h.i.+eld, was strong enough to handle the impact from asteroids that were smaller than 50 meters in diameter!!
There were 376 particle projection cannons on the s.h.i.+p which could smash any asteroid larger than 10 meters in diameter within 300 kilometers of it. According to the data collected from the previous two Salmon Run plans, the proportion of asteroids with a diameter of more than 50 meters in the entire asteroid belts was only about 2.3 per 1,000.
After hearing these statistics, Sheyan could not help muttering, "So basically, once the Mariana is successfully built, conquering planet Uplos will no longer be a problem?"
"Correct," replied Archer, "And the Empire has begun to officially set up a development agency to form various organisational structures. According to the latest news received last month, a Predator s.p.a.cecraft was detected trying to fly to Uplos. The Empire gave the order to attack. We have yet to receive any further news from them."
Sheyan"s eyes narrowed. After considering all the information he had received so far, he suddenly thought of a possibility - a very real possibility. When Sheyan thought of this, he could not help falling into a dilemma. If his a.s.sumption was true, how should he deal with it?
When Archer saw Sheyan suddenly falling into a gloomy mood, he thought the sight of the large wars.h.i.+p made Sheyan recall the comrades-in-arm he lost on planet Uplos, so he tactfully avoided dwelling on the topic. Instead, he brought Sheyan to his personal workshop. He asked Sheyan to choose one of the models of military wars.h.i.+ps in service so that he could custom tailor and improve it for Sheyan to be used as his transport later.
All these trivial matters took more than three hours in total to complete. Archer was indeed a very sincere person. Although he must be a busy man with all the official duties he had to perform, he still dutifully kept Sheyan company the whole way, listening to Sheyan"s opinions and requests.
After a while, Archer felt that something was amiss. He checked the time and said puzzledly, "That"s strange. Lieutenant General Mungo should have finished his meeting with the guest a long time ago. Even if they"re in a negotiation, it"s impossible to come up with a result right away. He should have been able to temporarily excuse himself one way or another."
Sheyan smirked in his mind because he knew that the problem had surfaced. A member of the Arnold family had disappeared. That"s extremely serious business. Mungo probably did not even have the time to go to the toilet right now. How could he spare any time to meet with Sheyan?