Chapter 34: Machine Guns, Cannons, Tanks
Based on the vehicle’s construction and operating method, the Clone seemed to be all thumbs, yanking various gearsticks, pressing numerous buttons, and pulling a slew of levers. It took quite the series of operations before the vehicle slowly started to move.
It couldn’t be helped. Primitive vehicles with no automation were simply that difficult to operate.
An automatic transmission was out of the question—completely impossible. Even a modern manual transmission was beyond his capabilities.
To shift gears, the Clone first had to disengage one cog, then manually engage another within the gearbox.
To start the engine, the Clone had to watch the instrument panel closely, monitor the methane and oxygen pressures, and manually adjust the flow of both gases.
At higher speeds, it also had to manually increase the fuel supply, or the engine would stall.
But it didn’t matter. The operation might be complex, but for Li Qingsong, it was a trivial affair.
The Clone acting as the driver practiced for a short while until it was familiar with the process. And just like that, all the Clones learned how to drive the incredibly complex vehicle.
After driving the vehicle for a few hundred kilometers around the perimeter of the base, Li Qingsong inspected it again.
The results were satisfactory. After making a few hundred minor adjustments, he immediately finalized the design and put the vehicle into production.
The vehicle was obviously far from perfect. Through practical use, Li Qingsong discovered some design choices that could only be described as user-hostile, which he couldn’t fix for the time being. He was certain that as they were used on a massive scale in the future, more and more design flaws would surface.
But that was fine. As long as they worked, it was good enough. It’s not like the Clones were going to file a complaint.
To produce the various vehicles, Li Qingsong temporarily requisitioned dozens of workshops and built dozens of new factories.
There were factories dedicated to producing engines, steering assemblies, fuel tanks, tires, bodies, glass, and so on and so forth.
And so, this crude off-road vehicle, which Li Qingsong named the "Hunter Mark I," was rapidly produced. Soon, he had a thousand of them.
Li Qingsong assigned 1,000 Clones to act as drivers. He filled each vehicle with enough fuel for over 10,000 kilometers, packed them with food, water, and ample oxygen, and dispatched the 1,000 scout vehicles.
From this moment on, they would roam all over Ceres, searching for and pinpointing the numbers and locations of the strange bird clusters.
When not searching for the strange birds, they wouldn’t be idle. They would use the opportunity to survey the surface of Ceres, confirming the location and quantity of various mineral deposits in preparation for future large-scale exploitation.
With his new car-making experience, Li Qingsong immediately began developing armored cars, tanks, fuel tankers, and other specialized vehicles.
In terms of basic principles, these specialized vehicles weren’t fundamentally different from the off-roaders. They were all just large shells powered by internal combustion engines, albeit with added armor, weapons systems, or other components.
The requirements weren’t that high, anyway. As long as they were functional, it was good enough.
While vehicle R&D and production were underway, another part of Li Qingsong’s consciousness was focused elsewhere.
Machine guns and Cannons!
Building on the foundation of the Assault Mark I firearm, Li Qingsong wanted to develop weapons with more power, a higher rate of fire, and a larger magazine capacity.
Ideally, he wanted weapons that didn’t even need magazines—the kind that were fed by ammunition belts.
Then there were Cannons.
In principle, Cannons weren’t too different from firearms. Both used burning powder to generate hot gas, harnessing the pressure to launch a projectile.
The main difference was that cannon shells also contained an explosive charge, whereas bullets relied purely on kinetic energy to kill.
Even so, this required Li Qingsong to dedicate a considerable number of Clones to the research.
These were weapons, after all, not civilian equipment. If a barrel were to burst and detonate the armory, it would be a catastrophe.
With all these projects advancing simultaneously, Li Qingsong clearly felt the strain, even though the war had paused and the front lines no longer occupied so many of his consciousness-link slots.
Not only were all the Clones withdrawn from the front lines thrown onto the new production lines, but Li Qingsong also had to "cut a corner" to meet the current demand for labor and brainpower.
The Clones responsible for perimeter security at the various bases didn’t all need to be fully alert. It was sufficient for just a few to maintain a conscious link and the ability to patrol.
So, Li Qingsong "reclaimed" three thousand consciousness-link slots and deployed three thousand reserve Clones into production, just barely managing to handle the current construction workload.
Time flowed by. At the firing range, the rumble of machine guns and Cannons was constant, making the earth tremble faintly.
In the vehicle factories, machinery roared day and night. Steel was molded and shaped like dough, then assembled into an array of different vehicles.
There were three-meter-high armored cars weighing over five tons. There were two-meter-high, 15-ton tanks that moved on caterpillar tracks, each sporting a long barrel—a tank cannon specially developed by Li Qingsong. There were also vehicles five meters high and twenty meters long, hauling enormous 120-cubic-meter tanks for transporting methane or oxygen...
Like mushrooms after a rain, all sorts of weapons and equipment soon appeared at the main base. It was a world away from the time when kitchen knives were their only weapons.
Li Qingsong’s confidence swelled to an unprecedented level.
He still couldn’t build aircraft, but with so many submachine guns, machine guns, Cannons, and tanks, Li Qingsong was confident he could annihilate another hundred thousand of those strange birds if they appeared.
But the current situation was a little strange.
A thousand scout vehicles were roaming all over Ceres searching for the strange birds, but so far, aside from a few carcasses, they hadn’t found a single living one.
’Where did they all go?’
Li Qingsong was filled with doubt.
Li Qingsong refused to believe that the hundred thousand or so strange birds they had fought were the only ones on Ceres.
’They must have all gathered somewhere, which is why I can’t find them.’
’But what are they doing all gathered together?’
The unknown made Li Qingsong faintly uneasy.
The search continued without any progress, but something was happening in the biolab.
Li Qingsong stared at the undeveloped embryos in the cultivation tanks, his mind reeling with shock.
They had not yet been "born," but even as mere embryos, Li Qingsong could clearly perceive their "superiority" and "vigor" from the data.
’Compared to the embryos I’ve cultivated before, these are so much more robust!’
’And... with such strong, healthy bodies, what kind of high-quality brains would they develop?’