Lin En came to inspect the shipyard.
Hearing someone approach, Iron Hammer looked back, saw it was him, then turned back to continue talking to the foreman.
Lin En: "...?"
What? He actually dared to ignore me?
The sheer nerve... not that I can do anything to him.
Lin En walked over to Iron Hammer and the foreman and saw a half-finished civilian ship sitting on the enormous assembly line before them.
There actually wasn't much difference between a small civilian ship and a small warship. The main shortcoming was its defenses.
But that wasn't much of a problem. Once a weapons system was installed, who could really tell it apart from a small warship?
The steel plating had been fitted together, the engine installed, and the portholes put in. All that remained was testing.
After watching for a while, Lin En suddenly felt that not all the cannon-fodder ships coming off Iron Hammer's assembly lines needed to cost so much.
Some of the better small warship models could be used for attacks, but most of the rest were really meant to blow themselves up.
Suicide ships only needed to fly. Why bother with airtight seals or defenses?
Using standardized ships like these for suicide attacks was a waste, wasn't it?
"Comrade Iron Hammer, how many have you built?"
Iron Hammer glanced at his dataslate. "Over two thousand completed so far. Why?"
Lin En pointed at the half-finished ship. "Why does this ship need portholes?"
Iron Hammer froze for a moment. "What nonsense are you talking about? Portholes? Of course it needs portholes. How else is the crew supposed to see outside?"
"Crew?" Lin En turned to him. "Someone's going to pilot this ship?"
Iron Hammer opened his mouth, utterly unable to understand what he was saying. "No one's piloting