A mere five thousand ground troops—throw them into the grinder, and they wouldn't even make a sound.
"The first level doesn't need much change. We can't build a better defensive system ourselves anyway, so it only needs to be repaired before we can use it.
"The second level is a warehouse and materials production base, mainly for producing basic alloy materials. I took a look, and the technology is rather outdated. Right now, it can only produce Universal Alloy." Wu Tianyi continued:
"The equipment is quite old. If we want to produce Superalloy, we'll have to put a lot of effort into replacing the machinery. That'll require the Jujing Hao's support. As long as we buy the corresponding blueprints, we'll be able to start producing the finished product soon.
"Dr. Li Heng and I discussed it privately. Once the new materials production line is built, it'll be able to produce a hundred units of alloy a day at this scale, which will be enough for our early development.
"With the Jujing Hao's production capacity and the group of skilled technicians we've already trained, it'll probably take about half a month—or maybe even less."
Lin Zhichen nodded. "That's a good plan. Build Li Heng's materials lab on this level too, so we can industrialize any new products as soon as they're ready."
"Li Heng asked for the same thing, but he wants a pretty high-spec lab. The equipment alone will probably cost thirty-five thousand Energy Coins!" At that, Wu Tianyi looked pained.
That was enough to build two or three standard Battleships!
For the major consortium families on Earth, that was about what it would cost to spend their entire fortunes assembling a Micro Fleet.
"Give it to him. Science and technology are the primary productive forces. We're not short of a little money!" Lin Zhichen waved his hand and approved the expense.
"Uh, big brother, what about Dr. Wei Peng?" Wu Tianyi reminded him. "He's recently developed the latest Particle Light Spear, just as you instructed."
As he spoke, he activated his holographic wristband and projected an image of the new Particle Light Spear.
Particle Light Spear: Blazing Star Radiance Energy Consumption: 200 Cost: 200 units of Universal Alloy, 1 unit of SAC-17a Superalloy, 3 units of Tachyon Crystal Type: Energy Damage: 600–1500 Cooldown: 15 min/1 min Accuracy: 85% Tracking: 0% Range: 15 light-seconds Damage Traits: -50% shield damage, +100% armor damage, +50% hull damage Blazing Star Radiance Special Enhancement: 1. Near a star, it can draw on Stellar Energy to accelerate charging; 2. It can continuously draw on stellar energy and convert it into Energy Coins at a rate of 1 Energy Coin/h
SAC-17a Superalloy was a relatively rare red material used specifically to manufacture energy main cannons such as Particle Light Spears. Its production process was complex, and it had limited applications, so it was a military material controlled by the Federation.
"Now that's a good weapon!" Link watched with envy. Near a star, it could reduce the original fifteen-minute charging time to one minute. Fifteen times faster charging meant fifteen times the firepower!
"We need this. If we deploy dozens of Particle Light Spears on Dakan I and Dakan Ia, we won't have to fear any fleet that comes our way!" Lin Zhichen was delighted. He pressed on:
"So, how difficult is it to build?"
"Big brother, this is cutting-edge military equipment. How could it be easy to manufacture?" Wu Tianyi said with a bitter smile.
"Right now, only the Jujing Hao can produce equipment like this. And SAC-17a Superalloy hasn't been industrialized yet; it can only be manufactured in small quantities in a lab."
"Li Heng really is a genius. He worked out the production process for SAC-17a Superalloy in such a short time?"
Lin Zhichen was astonished. How many days had it been? Shouldn't Li Heng have been busy mass-producing BC-106 Superalloy?
That alloy was used for battleship armor and hulls, and demand for it was high. It was more urgent, too.
"That's old news, big brother. The industrial production process for BC-106 Superalloy is already complete. The engineers are now designing blueprints for the machinery according to the process. In about a week, we'll have BC-106 rolling off the line in a steady stream!" Wu Tianyi revealed another surprise:
"I only recently realized that Li Heng can easily reverse-engineer a production process from an existing alloy. That means that, given enough time, we can produce any alloy on the market!"
Lin Zhichen and the others were speechless. They had still underestimated Li Heng's talent. After awakening his Psionics, he had become a completely different person, ascending from an ordinary man in a single leap.
What was the biggest challenge in producing advanced industrial goods?
The materials! Only an extremely heat-resistant material like SAC-17a Superalloy could withstand the intense heat of a particle beam for an extended period. Only then could a Particle Light Spear be built.
Solve the materials problem, and half the challenge was already overcome.
"There's more, big brother. Paired with Blazing Star Radiance, the Particle Light Spear's greatest advantage is defense. Especially on Dakan I: if we place a Space Fortress in orbit and equip it with dozens of Particle Light Spears, we can stop any invaders far out in deep space." Wu Tianyi reminded him:
"We still need a Space Fortress blueprint!"
Lin Zhichen nodded. Space Fortresses were the third tier of military fortification, after Space Stations and Starports. They were designed specifically for warfare and had extremely powerful defenses.
Blueprints for military fortifications of this level were tightly controlled by the Federation military. Unless one went to the black market, there was hardly anywhere else to buy them.
What was the difference between a military fortress and a commercial port?
The biggest difference was the number of gun emplacements. A military fortress usually had five times as many as a civilian port!
"I'll figure something out." Lin Zhichen rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
Even the military's authorization store had no blueprints like that. He had never seen a Third-Tier Interstellar Fortress blueprint, or even a Second-Tier military Starport blueprint. That showed just how difficult they were to obtain.
"Big brother, I saw something about this on StarNet. Someone said that attacking Rebel Army bases might yield blueprints for military fortifications. Just like this time, when we occupied that large Pirate Base and got the blueprint for a large Starport," Link said.
Starports usually referred to commercial spaceports. The one recently built in Earth's orbit and the Starport in the Anlan Civilization's Ouwan Galaxy were both commercial ports. They were relatively weakly defended, but much larger than military ports of the same tier and easier to enter and leave.
"Rebel Army bases?" Lin Zhichen nodded. Pirate bases usually corresponded to civilian ports, while Rebel Army bases corresponded to military ports, with much stronger defenses.
Of course, this rule wasn't absolute, but it was generally true.
"Big brother, we actually do have some defensive capabilities." At that moment, Wei Peng cut in. "Have you noticed that when the Transformers take fortress form, they can mount an X-Slot Main Cannon?"
"What?" The others stared at him in astonishment, finding it hard to believe.
After all, Slot Main Cannons were generally enormous. The Particle Light Spear alone was over three hundred meters long, with a diameter approaching twenty meters!
How big was a Transformer, anyway?
The Pirate Raider was even smaller than a standard Frigate, and less than two hundred meters long!
"Have you forgotten? Transformers can change shape!" Wei Peng grinned. "They can completely enclose the main cannon and serve as a sluggish mobile gun emplacement in space!
"Even in fortress form, they still have their ion thrusters."
The others were stunned for a moment before Wu Tianyi questioned him. "That can't be right. How much energy does it take to fire a Particle Light Spear?
"I remember the Transformers' Energy Cores were later replaced with miniature Nuclear Fusion Engines, right? They wouldn't provide enough energy to power an energy-based Slot Main Cannon, would they?"
"They can, but I did the math in my spare time. Charging time would go from the standard fifteen minutes to one shot every two and a half hours, reducing efficiency by a factor of ten. In battle, you'd only get one volley, so it wouldn't be very practical.
"But that drawback becomes a perfect fit for a Slot Main Cannon equipped with Blazing Star Radiance!" Wei Peng chuckled.
"They could even draw on stellar energy in their downtime and produce some Energy Coins!"
The others were dumbfounded. They hadn't expected the combination of Blazing Star Radiance and Transformers to work so well together.
"As expected of two treasures from the same Instance World. Who knew they'd have such amazing synergy!"
Lin Zhichen's eyes gradually brightened. With this, the Transformers—which had been somewhat awkward in space combat—could go from practical heavy ground-combat mechs to gun emplacements that could also handle space defense.
There was one thing Wei Peng hadn't mentioned, but Lin Zhichen knew it: a Slot Main Cannon mounted on a Transformer wouldn't take up one of the slots on a Starport or other space fortress. It would be an additional defensive weapon.
Perhaps, in the future, this convenience would be little more than icing on the cake for the Meteor Mercenary Group, with its powerful Industrial Foundation. But for them, starting from scratch, it was exactly the kind of advantage they needed most urgently.
"We need this," Lin Zhichen ordered. "Tianyi, get the production lines for the Particle Light Spear and Blazing Star Radiance up as soon as possible. They don't need to be very large. Just make enough to refit our Battleships and equip the Transformers."
The base was at its weakest right now. They had to prepare for any enemies that might arrive.
"Understood, big brother." Wu Tianyi nodded and continued his report. "The third level of the base is mainly the shipyard, with relatively complete starship manufacturing lines and a total Ship Capacity of 360 units. It can carry out maintenance on more than half the Meteor Fleet at once.
"The equipment is outdated, and its efficiency is far below that of newer machinery, but it'll be enough for our fleet for quite some time. I think we don't need to renovate it in the early stages. We can make do for now."
Lin Zhichen nodded. "It's fine if we're a little slower. We don't have enough resources to go into battleship-spam mode anyway."
When they resumed producing warships, he didn't plan to build standard ones. After searching for a while, he had realized that the most popular fleets in the Federation had all been upgraded to varying degrees, even if it meant spending enormous resources and greatly reducing fleet size.
At first, he hadn't understood why. But after experiencing more battles, he gradually realized that the vast Dark Star Domain contained countless NPC Teams accumulated over countless years.
No civilized nation could afford to compete with them in sheer numbers. The enemy fleets came at no cost, while every loss to one's own fleet was real. There were limits to the scale of any fleet, whether in training its personnel or maintaining its ships.
That was why every faction in the Federation went all out to cultivate its own Heroes, hoping to increase its overall strength in fleet battles.
Improving the strength of individual ships was another approach. Even if it cost more, a higher survival rate and heavier firepower on the battlefield could give the fleet an overall advantage.
Thus, any major power worth its salt needed an independent warship industry capable of upgrading its ships' firepower, whether partially or across the board.
"The fourth level is a precision machining center, for processing and manufacturing precision weapons such as ship cannons and base cannons, as well as precision components for warships, like engines, Nuclear Fission Reactors, and fusion reactors. But as I said, we need blueprints for all of these.
"The blueprint designer also turned out to be a find this time. This dump even had a junior blueprint designer, though his talent isn't very good," Wei Peng said.
"This level will be our shipboard weapons processing center. From Particle Light Spears down to Electromagnetic Cannons and even missiles, we need to be able to produce them independently.
"But the problem is obvious: the equipment is outdated, too. Its processing precision and certain manufacturing techniques can't meet the requirements for current weapons. We'll have to rely on the Jujing Hao to upgrade it bit by bit. It's hard to say how long that'll take. We'll just have to identify and solve problems as they arise."
Lin Zhichen nodded and asked, "What talent does that NPC blueprint designer have?"
"Something like copying. He can quickly duplicate blueprints, but there are serious limitations. He can only copy blueprints one tier below the ones he already knows," Wu Tianyi said after thinking it over.
"He's a junior blueprint designer right now, so he can only draw Frigate blueprints. Shipboard weapons are one tier below warships, which means he can quickly copy the weapons and general-purpose components that Frigates can carry. While it takes someone else long enough to produce one blueprint, he can make ten!"
"He's talented, but he won't be much use to us in the short term."
Before you continue