Back at the main base, Shi Tingfen followed Long Fei off the Albion 1 mothership.
Shi Tingfen looked in astonishment at the base built inside an asteroid. It was shared by the mercenary group and the factory.
Besides many staff carrying out maintenance on warships and MS, she also saw numerous warships and Transport Ships entering and leaving.
On the factory side, she found that many of the manufacturing machines and instruments were fully automated, completely controlled by a single system. The staff were only responsible for making adjustments and handling certain details.
After observing for a while, Shi Tingfen asked Long Fei, "Old classmate, the manufacturing machines and control systems at your base factory, as well as these warships and MS... you designed and built all of them, didn't you?"
"Yes. I made them all myself."
"Hey, hey, hey, old classmate, you're terrifying."
Shi Tingfen suddenly recalled their school days. Her old classmate had often participated in machine competitions or software control competitions and similar events. Not only had he won first place every time, but quite a few companies had wanted to buy those technologies from him. Yet he had refused them all and handed those technologies directly to his three sisters' companies.
Although she was unfamiliar with military matters, the standard equipment used by her old classmate's mercenary group was clearly far more advanced than the standard equipment of their country's military.
Sakchi came before Long Fei.
Long Fei introduced the two women to each other.
Shi Tingfen asked Long Fei, "Old class... no, Boss, can I stay here and work? I don't want to be transferred somewhere else."
"Sure. Sakchi, make the arrangements."
"No problem, Boss."
After watching the two women leave, Long Fei headed alone for the Gundam manufacturing workshop.
Long Fei looked at the still half-finished Deathscythe Gundam and Strike Gundam, as well as the Shield Gundam, Gundam Heavyarms, and Blizzard Gundam whose production had been delayed.
Factory Director Simmons came to Long Fei's side and said, "Boss, the scheduled completion dates for these Gundams may be delayed."
"Sakchi hasn't released any funds to you these past few days?"
"The money was allocated yesterday, but purchasing the required materials may take some time. Some materials can't be bought openly and have to be purchased on the black market. That all takes time."
"Mm, I understand."
"Also, Boss, the Deathscythe Gundam you developed needs a special coating that reduces radar wave reflection. That coating will take some time. As for the interference generator installed on its body, we'll be able to finish manufacturing it as soon as we acquire some materials."
"Mm. What else?"
"The Strike Gundam's Mirage Colloid system may be successfully manufactured in the next few days. Then it can be put through testing."
"Good. I understand."
"Boss, may I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead."
"The Deathscythe Gundam and Strike Gundam both seem to use ambush tactics. Why do the two Gundams use different technologies and systems?"
"Then which of those two technologies do you think is better?"
"Well..." Simmons scratched his head and said with a bitter smile, "I don't know."
"I don't know either. Which technology is better? Only actual combat can prove it."
"That's true. We workers just need to do our jobs properly. Whether they work or not can be verified by the people on the front lines."
Long Fei looked at the Deathscythe and Strike Gundams being manufactured in the ongoing construction project.
In recent years, every type of weapon sold by Skywing Arms Manufacturing Company had been in short supply, earning enormous profits. Manufacturing one or two Gundams each month had not been a problem.
But Long Fei had recently gotten carried away and directly begun developing nearly ten Gundams at once, putting Skywing Arms Manufacturing Company in a difficult position. It would wipe out several months of the company's total operating revenue.
They would not even be able to pay employee salaries then, so Sakchi had directly refused to increase the investment and maintained the monthly funding. Otherwise, she would have quit on the spot.
Fortunately, Yue Yangchun's target of revenge, the Evil Fang Pirate Group, had arrived like timely rain. The money and supplies seized from them eased Skywing Arms Manufacturing Company's difficulties.
Otherwise, Sakchi would have blown up at Long Fei, her boss. How would they explain things to the employees if they could not pay their wages?
Long Fei considered whether the Skywing Mercenary Group should also invest some money into Gundam manufacturing in the future.
The Skywing Mercenary Group's business was also doing well, bringing in a great deal of money. Calling it a daily influx of gold would not have been an exaggeration.
Long Fei returned to his office, summoned Li Jiaming there, and discussed the matter with him.
Li Jiaming had no objections. He also felt that Skywing Arms Manufacturing Company could not keep putting all the money into it. Every Gundam was being used by the Skywing Mercenary Group, and not a single manufactured Gundam had been sold. Pouring money into the bottomless pit of the Gundam project was indeed unfair to Skywing Arms Manufacturing Company. Li Jiaming believed the Skywing Mercenary Group truly should contribute funds as well.
"Will that affect your production of other warships, MS, and weapons?"
"It won't."
"That's good. I wouldn't want us to end up neglecting one thing for another."
Li Jiaming thought, Boss, I just hope you don't get carried away again and make us pour huge sums of money into this project. Though that was what he thought, he did not dare say it aloud for fear of upsetting his boss.
After all, whenever the boss manufactured a Gundam, he would always be the first to run off and test it. Li Jiaming could tell that the boss was especially fond of the Gundams he had designed.
Although the money spent on developing and manufacturing Gundams was a bottomless pit, it could not be denied that deploying Gundams on the battlefield could greatly increase their advantage.
Though they were expensive, Li Jiaming still strongly supported them. The more Gundams they could manufacture, the better.
Li Jiaming then reported an important matter to Long Fei. "By the way, Boss, there's something I want to report to you personally."
"What is it?"
"It's like this, Boss. One of our fleets was returning to the main base after escorting a mission when it accidentally discovered a spacecraft that had landed on a massive asteroid."
"What was special about this spacecraft?"
"As for what was special, its design looked very outdated. When our people boarded to investigate, they found that the equipment inside was also extremely old-fashioned, seemingly technology from at least sixty or seventy years ago. As they investigated further, they discovered that everyone aboard had been dead for a long time, and the spacesuits they wore were likewise designs from sixty or seventy years ago."
Hearing this, Long Fei became extremely curious and continued listening to the commander-in-chief's report.
"Furthermore, after investigating the dead aboard, we found that some had committed mass suicide while others had killed themselves in their own rooms. Every dead crew member had a gun beside them, and every gun was missing one bullet."
Long Fei asked curiously, "Why did they commit suicide?"
"Our investigation showed that their spacecraft had suffered an accident. Its engine exploded, leaving them unable to return or reach a rescue point. Worse still, while the spacecraft drifted, it crashed onto that asteroid. With no hope of rescue, the crew killed themselves to escape their despair."
"Didn't they send out a distress signal?"
"Our investigation showed that after the engine explosion, they did send out a distress signal using backup power. However, the spacecraft continued drifting while transmitting the signal. By the time its power was exhausted and it sent its final distress signal, calculations show that it was still more than 500,000 kilometers from the asteroid it eventually crashed into. The search-and-rescue team at the time likely failed to locate them."
After hearing this, Long Fei closed his eyes and thought for a moment before asking Li Jiaming, "Commander-in-Chief, you said that spacecraft was extremely old. Where do you think it was originally headed? Where did it come from?"
"According to our investigation, they came from Jupiter."
"Jupiter!" Long Fei shot to his feet. Many people had once gone to Jupiter to develop it, but for more than fifty years, there had been no contact at all with either the Colony Sphere or the Earth Sphere. No one knew how Jupiter had developed.
"Then, Commander-in-Chief, did you find anything else while investigating that spacecraft?"
"Yes. We found numerous containers loaded with metal inside the spacecraft. Our investigation determined that these metals did not come from the Earth Sphere or the Colony Sphere. They could be considered unknown metals."
"Then how did you handle it, Commander-in-Chief?"
"For now, I've sent some people to stand guard there and dispatched a crisis investigation unit to continue investigating in depth, in case there is any danger."
"Commander-in-Chief, make the arrangements. I want to investigate it personally."
"Boss, that's too dangerous. You should wait—"
Before Li Jiaming could finish, Long Fei raised a hand to stop him. "Commander-in-Chief, I've made my decision. No need to say any more. Make the arrangements immediately."
"Yes, Boss."
I've had a high fever recently. There should be an update before around eleven today.
Before you continue