The engineering ships began work based on the information the scientists sent back. They would excavate several enormous cavities beneath the first planet's surface before it entered the three-star furnace. Fleets arriving later would all enter the cavities, and humanity would live and develop in these underground spaces as well. The first fleet to arrive would not be the Deep Blue, but the fleet of 300,000 ships led by Generals Chen Peng and Yang Fan, which had retreated over a great distance before looping back toward Alpha Centauri. According to their message, they would arrive at Alpha Centauri in ten years.
The engineering ships had to prepare the underground space before that fleet arrived. At the very least, they had to prepare an underground survival base for its personnel. For 300,000 warships and 600,000 people, they would need to excavate at least four or five cubic kilometers of underground space just to provide the crew members with barely adequate living quarters. They also had to build the necessary residential facilities.
Time was short and the workload was heavy. The two engineering ships worked together, and large machinery and equipment had already begun operating. Several small smelting furnaces were also erected on the first planet's surface, and the excavated ore was smelted on-site. Five years later, an enormous pit 500 meters long, 500 meters wide, and 4,000 meters deep had been excavated.
If the entire pit were partitioned into living quarters, it would barely be enough to house the first 600,000 arrivals. This, however, was merely a passage. From then on, the section from the entrance to a depth of 3,000 meters would not be widened, and the underground section would not be dug any deeper. Engineering machinery would continue working inside to expand the space for human habitation, while steel pillars a hundred meters in diameter stood at intervals throughout the underground city, supporting its entire ceiling.
The excavated ore was made into steel plates after preliminary smelting. After five years of smelting, the plates had piled up like mountains. They would soon be transported underground to build housing. In the interstellar era, steel was far easier to obtain than concrete; it was a cheap, efficient product.
Another five years passed, and the first Hunter-Killer Fleet finally arrived at the first planet of Alpha Centauri after its long journey. Though conditions were harsh, the personnel aboard the engineering ships still prepared a small welcoming ceremony. The 300,000 Hunter-Killers landed in orderly rows on the planet's surface, completely filling an area a hundred kilometers long and a hundred kilometers wide. The small planetary rovers the crew members drove out of the Hunter-Killers also almost completely blocked the entrance to the underground city.
In the end, Chen Peng and Yang Fan, the officers in charge of the fleet, ordered all the planetary rovers to leave the entrance. The crew members were to assemble farther away and then be transported to the underground city together by spacecraft. The underground city's largest airlock was also opened for the first time to let the spacecraft through.
Although the fleet's arrival put tremendous pressure on the incomplete bases, it also brought a large labor force. Until then, the hundred-odd people aboard the engineering ships had been stretched thin. Much of the work could not be carried out simultaneously, and the machinery could not operate at full capacity. Besides, they also had to sustain themselves. Excavating these underground cities and building enough steel housing for 600,000 people had already been no easy feat.
Aside from the empty steel houses, however, the underground city had almost nothing. Even so, it was much better than the environment aboard the Hunter-Killers. Humans were social animals, and after decades of lonely travel, these crew members finally saw crowds of people again. They embraced one another, whether they knew each other or not.
There was not enough food or water in the underground city, so they brought in the supplies stored aboard the Hunter-Killers. For several days straight, the entire underground city was filled with noise and commotion as people sang and laughed, celebrating their reunion. Seeing it all, the people from the engineering ships could only be happy for them. They themselves had been lucky, at least having a small group for company. These crew members had faced the same person for more than thirty years; how could they not have grown tired of it?
After the celebrations came the demanding work of construction. Although the engineering ships had not finished building the underground cities, they had manufactured a large quantity of heavy construction machinery of various kinds. Now that there were enough people, the machines could finally operate at full capacity.
Spaces for underground cities were excavated one after another. Besides those used for housing, there were dedicated factories, farms, and production bases of various kinds. Everything would be done underground. They would complete this series of tasks as quickly as possible, because the Deep Blue Fleet would arrive in fifty years. Ten years earlier, the first planet had already entered an orbit where it was exposed to all three of Alpha Centauri's planets at once, and temperatures across eighty percent of its surface had already soared above 600 degrees Celsius. In another fifty years, there would be nowhere on the first planet's surface where humans or machinery of any kind could operate.
The first Hunter-Killers to arrive had been buried under a thick layer of earth excavated from the underground cities. Steel pipes running through it had been left as passages for personnel. When the Hunter-Killers were needed, personnel would enter them through these pipes, and their powerful engines would have no trouble flying them out of the earth. For now, the Hunter-Killers relied entirely on the earth for protection. Although they could withstand temperatures of several thousand degrees, prolonged exposure to high temperatures would undoubtedly accelerate the aging of their components. The earth covering could not only slow that process but, more importantly, conceal the Hunter-Killers well. Even if an alien civilization reached the planet, it would see no artificial structures or objects.
As the Deep Blue Fleet drew closer with each passing day, the underground cities on the first planet grew more numerous and their facilities more complete. Five underground cities had now been completed. To save space, their design had drawn on that of the Deep Blue. Those five cities alone could accommodate the Deep Blue's entire population. Everyone had been cooped up aboard the Deep Blue for far too long, however, and having finally found a planet to settle on, how could they go on living in crowded conditions? Thus, more than twenty unfinished underground cities were still under construction, along with an equal number intended for production.
There was no longer enough time to finish all the underground cities. The Deep Blue Fleet was already holding position in orbit around the first planet, and the escorting Hunter-Killers had become personnel transports, ferrying the Deep Blue's residents back and forth to the underground cities.
Standing in the underground city, Hu Yu sincerely thanked the personnel from the engineering ships who had arrived first. Without them, everything now would have had to start from scratch. Beginning with just a few machines, those hundred-odd people had worked to produce all these results. Besides commending them before the fleet and awarding them the honor of Pioneers, Hu Yu also gave them a generous number of fleet contribution points. They could use the points to exchange for comfortable lives and anything else the points could buy. They had earned it.
In the conference room, Yang Fan and Chen Peng were giving a detailed report on what had happened along the way.
"General, the 150,000 Hunter-Killers in our army group made a 700-light-year detour. Along the way, we discovered only one planetary-level civilization. To avoid unnecessary trouble, we did not disturb them or collect any samples," Yang Fan reported.
"Our army group found no trace of any civilization along the way, nor did we find anything unusual," Chen Peng reported.
"Finding one civilization in such a small area was good enough. We can barely protect ourselves right now, so don't disturb them for the time being. We'll take a look when our fleet leaves Alpha Centauri," Hu Yu said.
"General, has everything been all right with the fleet all these years?"
"Everything has been normal, and technology in particular has developed rapidly. By the time we leave Alpha Centauri, we'll no longer have to fear the star system-level civilization pursuing Mr. Daozi."
"Really? That's great!!"
"All right, you two get back to work. The newly arrived Hunter-Killers and the Deep Blue all need to be hidden, and there's a lot to do. I'll have to ask you two to put in the effort and personally oversee the work. For now, come with me to Science City."
"Understood, General. Don't worry."
Hu Yu set aside the work at hand and took Yang Fan and Chen Peng straight to another underground city. The distances between the cities varied, since they had been excavated according to the distribution of mineral deposits. Underground passages connected them to one another.
This small underground city had been prepared specifically for more than 150,000 scientists. To emphasize the scientists' superior status and foster a spirit of science above all else in the fleet, Hu Yu had given scientists better treatment than people in any other position. Even senior administrators were treated far less well than an ordinary scientist. The selection of scientists was also quite strict, however, and passing off unqualified people as scientists was absolutely forbidden. Though small, this underground city had an environment many times better than the others. After all, there were only 150,000 scientists, and even with service personnel, the population was only two or three hundred thousand. The other underground cities each housed tens of millions of people.
While aboard the underground railcar, Hu Yu also notified several other people to hurry to Science City for an important meeting.
"Academician Zeng, Zhonghua, good, you're both here. Have the others arrived?" Hu Yu asked as he entered the conference room with Yang Fan and Chen Peng.
"General, we're here." Just as he asked, two other senior officers walked in through the door: Gao Jianchuan and Li Zhixiong. Like Chen Peng and Yang Fan, both held the rank of lieutenant general. The four of them served as the Hunter-Killer Fleet's four commanders.
"I called everyone here today to discuss the direction of the new warship. Under Academician Zeng's leadership, we've basically finished analyzing the captured Sand Python Civilization technology that can be applied to warships. With the progress we've made building on that technology over the past century and more, the Hunter-Killer can no longer meet the needs of future warships. Academician Zeng is already leading the warship design team in its work. Today, I want to hear your design requirements for the new warship."
"General, we're rough men who only know how to fight. We don't know the first thing about designing warships."
"That's right, that's right," several army group commanders said.
"The hell that's right! You go around calling yourselves rough men all day, proud of being uneducated. Is being uneducated something great? The warships are for you to use. Since you have no opinions to offer, next time I'll give each of you four a fire poker and have you lead the charge," Wen Zhonghua scolded. Although Wen Zhonghua was also a lieutenant general, he was far more senior than they were. In front of him, the generals all behaved themselves, none daring to step out of line in the slightest.
"Chief of staff, aren't you asking the impossible? Look at me. I've worked in the fleet all these years and have barely studied at all. I only know whether a warship is good to use or not. As for how to design one so it's good to use, I really can't figure that out," Lieutenant General Gao Jianchuan said aggrievedly.
"That's right, Chief of Staff. Old Gao has a point. We aren't proud of being uneducated; it's just that everything we've studied concerns warfare. We really don't know the first thing about warship design," Yang Fan chimed in.
"All right, all right, I understand your situation. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Let me put it another way: what do you think the Hunter-Killer's strengths and weaknesses are, and what aspects of it are unreasonable? Your opinions will be taken into account in designing the new warship," Hu Yu said, getting them out of their predicament.
"You brats are hopeless," Wen Zhonghua continued to scold them. He was frustrated by their failure to improve. In the fleet, apart from Hu Yu, only Wen Zhonghua dared scold them so freely. What mattered was that these senior officers did not lose their tempers at all when he scolded them. They had all fought under Wen Zhonghua to varying degrees and had long since grown accustomed to their somewhat irascible old commander. They also knew that, aside from his temper and his fondness for scolding people, he actually treated them better than anyone else did.
"General, Chief of Staff, the Hunter-Killer's weaknesses are that its attack power isn't strong enough, its speed isn't fast enough, and its defenses aren't strong enough," Li Zhixiong answered eagerly. This commander treated his troops like brothers, was highly skilled in applying tactics, and was very resourceful. He was known as the military's Little Zhuge.
"What a load of nonsense! Is your head full of pig shit?!! You're an insult to the name Zhuge!" Wen Zhonghua snapped. These men were driving him mad.
"General, I was actually wondering whether, given our current technology, the Hunter-Killer could be made a little smaller. If it were smaller, it would be more maneuverable and quicker to evade, and it would be a much smaller target. That would improve its survivability. The current Hunter-Killer is enormous, but most of its bulk is taken up by protective armor, especially at the bow, where the armor layer is more than fifty meters thick." Gao Jianchuan thought for a moment before speaking again.
"Old Gao, making the warship smaller means thinning the armor. Although it would be a smaller target, it would be destroyed by a single hit, and our crew members would have no chance of survival." Chen Peng disagreed with Gao Jianchuan.
"I agree with Old Gao. When the Hunter-Killers fought the Sand Python fleet, their armor didn't do much good. Instead, their enormous size made them easy to hit. If I fought the Sand Python fleet again, I'd choose small warships. As long as their attack power isn't reduced, I believe the improved maneuverability could make up for the weaker armor and reduce casualties across the fleet," Yang Fan said.
"I think large warships are more effective. The larger a warship is, the more weapons it can carry, allowing it to launch multiple waves of attacks at once and strike the enemy effectively. Small warships might be more maneuverable, but they'd just be somewhat more agile targets on the battlefield." The last commander, Li Zhixiong, also favored large warships.
"What else, apart from that?" Hu Yu asked.
"Another thing is that our laser attack capability is too weak, but high-power lasers consume too much energy. Right now, antimatter is our only effective weapon. I think that if we increased the antimatter bombs' warp speed, we'd have more of an initiative in war." Gao Jianchuan offered his second suggestion.
"I have an idea. Combine the warship's control room with the escape pod, and give it excellent maneuverability and the best protection. That way, the crew will have a better chance of escaping after their warship is destroyed. General, I know the fleet will expand severalfold, but our crew members are all precious, and we lose a great many of them in every battle. We should value every crew member's life and think a little more about them. Many of these children grew up before our eyes. I really can't bear to watch them sacrifice their lives, batch after batch," Chen Peng said.