The Tenth Law-Rulers had all been killed by Mei, wearing the Key of Blankness, and Kevin. During the several idle months, Qin Su had been laying down nuclear power plants and centrifuges. The full-scale application of nuclear energy resulted in an endless demand for uranium and energy, and one thing required extremely highly enriched uranium: nuclear bombs.
In terms of energy, Honkai energy reactors were less safe than nuclear power plants, especially mature nuclear fission plants. For living beings, the consequences of either one going out of control were not all that different. But for Qin Su, nuclear power was the best option that did not involve contact with Honkai energy. He had no desire for some of his subunits to lose control for no apparent reason.
Perhaps Qin Su would never stockpile enough nuclear bombs to destroy humanity before the Finality arrived. Having enough to defend himself was sufficient. Nuclear bombs could be used not only for deterrence, but also for defense.
He hoped Fire Moth would think twice before making a move. First of all, after ten Honkai outbreaks, the former United Nations' anti-missile systems had essentially ceased to function, either destroyed in the wars or left in disrepair for too long.
Moreover, if the Twelfth Law-Ruler awakened under the worst possible circumstances, she would not only destroy humanity but would also very likely launch nuclear missiles at Qin Su's main base, the Central Africa Space Center. With his current economic strength, he could not afford high-precision kinetic interception. Nuclear anti-missile interception, however, did not require excessive precision; it only needed to use radiation and electromagnetic pulses to destroy devices such as the enemy warhead's detonator. Of course, this interception method was entirely a case of harming oneself nearly as much as the enemy, especially for a mechanical intelligence like Qin Su.
After ten Honkai outbreaks, more than half the cities on Earth had been destroyed. Most of the remaining cities were located inland in Europe. Human activity along Africa's coasts had completely vanished under the triple assault of Honkai, tsunamis, and earthquakes, leaving only a few surviving human strongholds inland. Fire Moth might reclaim the mineral-rich regions of inland Africa, but apart from those places, the entire African continent was a dead silence. Only a handful of inland regions still retained traces of life. What had been destroyed was not only human society, but Africa's entire ecosystem.
As long as he avoided the mineral-rich regions while expanding his sphere of influence, Qin Su would basically have no conflict of interest with Fire Moth. Fire Moth had no interest in Africa's uranium mines; with humanity's technology, their only use was for nuclear bombs.
Furthermore, although humanity's entire industry had been severely devastated, most Soul Steel production lines had been transferred to Europe. The current industrial system still retained a certain degree of integrity. It might be missing a few pieces here and there, but overall, it remained complete.
Therefore, human civilization could not be destroyed before industry was transferred to the technological shelters. In later generations, the failure of the Spark Project would make it impossible for this production equipment to continue serving humanity, but it could serve Qin Su.
On Earth, the oceans separated many continents. With Africa as his core territory, Qin Su's sphere of influence covered the entire Southern Hemisphere: Southeast Asia, South America, Oceania, and even Antarctica all contained his subunits. The Northern Hemisphere was the traditionally developed region of human civilization, and all surviving major cities were located there. If he did not want to draw Fire Moth's attention, he absolutely could not push deeply into the Northern Hemisphere.
As his sphere of influence steadily expanded, the problems of resource collection and transportation security became increasingly severe. Supply lines crossing the oceans not only had to face the threat of numerous marine creatures infected by Honkai energy, but also the danger of attacks by packs of Assault-type Honkai Beasts.
On land, Tank-type and Temple-type Honkai Beasts also posed an increasingly serious threat to robots carrying out resource collection operations. Deadwalkers still wandered through areas once inhabited by humans. A T-800 could tear ordinary Deadwalkers apart with its bare hands and was also highly effective against the fragile Assault-type and Knight-type. Against heavily armored Tank-type and Temple-type enemies, however, it was somewhat inadequate.
Qin Su had once used T-800s to test the destructive power of Tank-types and the defenses of Temple-types. A Tank-type's full-force strike could severely bend multiple structures in a T-800's legs, leaving it with an estimated 60% of its mobility. A single unarmed T-800 simply could not breach a Temple-type's defenses.
Qin Su believed, "A group of three T-800s is enough to easily kill a single Tank-type or Temple-type, but that not only wastes computing power, it also ignores the role T-800s were meant to serve."
As infantry units, T-800s specialized in fighting agile, small targets. They were slightly inferior to C-Class Valkyries and made up for their disadvantage against A- and B-Class Valkyries through numbers. Under such circumstances, developing heavily armored units to counter large or clustered Honkai Beasts became increasingly necessary.
"It is now necessary to develop a heavy combat unit specialized in fighting large Honkai Beasts. Its designation will be—T-1." He had already worked out an initial design.
A four-track transformable chassis, a 125mm electromagnetic railgun, a plasma heavy machine gun mounted atop the turret, and honeycomb multi-purpose missiles on both sides. Mounting anti-air missiles on a tank was somewhat beyond its original role, but it was a necessary price to pay to deal with the compact and nimble Assault-types.
It also had a diverse range of shells, including nuclear artillery shells. However, loading nuclear shells would greatly reduce muzzle velocity and thus reduce its range. The T-1 could reach a top speed of roughly 110 km/h. It could run even faster without tracks, but considering terrain, tracks were still necessary.
With the ground covered, the air could not be neglected either. Facts had proven that air support was incomparably important to ground forces. The Gulf War had shown the world that without air superiority and air support, ground forces could only sit helplessly and await death. Drawing on Fire Moth's experience, armed helicopters were the obvious choice for dealing with highly mobile, heavily armored Honkai Beasts.
Twin jet engines, with engine nozzles adjusting their attitude to achieve vertical takeoff and landing or rearward thrust for full-speed forward flight. Beneath the nose were twin-linked plasma autocannons capable of rotating 360 degrees. Four honeycomb anti-Honkai Beast missile pods hung beneath the wings on either side, while four tactical nuclear missiles were mounted in an internal bomb bay beneath the fuselage. These nuclear missiles did not use impact fuzes, but remote detonation, both to prevent the craft from being caught in the blast of its own nuclear missiles and to enable airbursts at maximum power.
Its name also evoked vivid images for anyone who had seen the films: the Hunter Drone.
With the preliminary design complete, production of the first prototype began. These sturdy Honkai Terminators needed to undergo combat testing to reveal their shortcomings before further improvements could be made. It would still take roughly several months before the Hunter Drone and T-1 could truly take shape, and variant models would be designed on this foundation as well.
Flames blasted from the Hunter Drone's engine nozzles, while the attitude-control ports also emitted blue fire. It gradually rose from the ground into the air and headed toward the distant testing ground.
PS: In "The Terminator," Cameron once wrote a scene where a T-800 was struck and sent flying by a train, yet still got back up and continued hunting Sarah Connor. It was never filmed due to budget constraints. This gives some indication of just how tough the T-800 was.
Moreover, the T-800 here had been enhanced, and the same was true of the T-1000.
Before you continue