Chapter 56: Huge Consumption
At this moment, in orbit around Ceres, another, much larger space base had appeared alongside the original space laboratory.
The space laboratory was long and narrow. While it was certainly long, it lacked sufficient thickness and width.
While this space base was not as long, it was spherical, with a diameter of around 1,200 meters.
Numerous struts extended from its surface, like needles stuck into a giant ball.
These were ship berths.
When a ship needed to resupply, it could approach and secure itself to these struts. Pipes would then extend to provide it with various supplies.
In addition to the supply struts, there were also numerous personnel gangways and ship repair bays.
This massive sphere, with a diameter reaching 1,200 meters, had a total internal volume of about 0.9 cubic kilometers.
At its very core were numerous enormous tanks, stored according to strict isolation protocols.
One group of tanks stored substances like liquid methane, ethane, and hydrogen, with a total volume of 1.5 million cubic meters and a total mass of about 800,000 tons.
Another group stored pure oxygen, with a total volume of 1 million cubic meters and a total mass of about 1.1 million tons.
Beyond these two most critical resource reserves, there was storage space for countless ship components, repair tools, shells, bullets, Missiles, generators, and various other equipment, as well as a dense and extremely complex network of internal passageways.
It also possessed the most ferocious firepower and the strongest defenses Li Qingsong had created to date.
Its entire outer hull was constructed from special armor steel with an average thickness of 100mm. Behind it lay buffer, retardation, and fiber layers, bringing the total thickness to 300mm.
Unless bombarded with shells, not even sustained Machine Gun fire could penetrate its armor.
In addition to its thick hull, it was also equipped with a wide variety of weapon systems.
It was armed with 1,500 high-speed machine guns, 200 Machine Guns, and 200 Interstellar Missile launchers.
It was also equipped with 20 of Li Qingsong’s newly developed high-precision radar systems, which scanned the surrounding airspace around the clock.
Furthermore, Li Qingsong planned to immediately deploy at least 100 Warships around the space base for protection the moment a battle broke out.
This complete set of measures represented the absolute limit of the defensive power Li Qingsong could currently muster.
If even all this couldn’t protect the base, then nothing could.
This was the first major task Li Qingsong had completed in the past two years.
The second was that Li Qingsong had finally assembled his first fleet of space Warships.
With over a million Clones working themselves to the bone, a thousand massive bases and factories roaring day and night, and supported by the abundant resources of Ceres, Li Qingsong had finally built a full 500 Mercury-class Warships!
At this moment, they were docked around Space Base One, standing guard and flying in formation with it.
Machine guns, Missiles, radar, optical observation equipment, optical positioning systems...
All this combat equipment made the fleet look menacing and formidable.
Numerous cargo ships transported supplies and fuel from the base clusters on the surface of Ceres up to the space base. The Warships, in turn, never had to land, obtaining all the supplies they needed directly from the base in orbit.
And so, with menacing purpose, they broke free from Ceres’s Gravity and set out for Deep Space.
There, they split into two groups and began a series of exercises, performing one high-speed maneuver after another and practicing their coordination.
Vast quantities of blanks were fired and countless Lasers simulating Interstellar Missiles were discharged. For a time, this patch of space was filled with the flames of war.
This was a military exercise.
Currently, Li Qingsong only possessed theoretical knowledge of interstellar combat from tabletop simulations; he had zero actual combat experience.
It was just like when the Clones had to face the flocks of strange birds with primitive weapons and rapidly accumulate combat experience. The situation was the same now.
After practicing fleet combat, they moved on to pursuit drills, then mock dogfights, planetary defense scenarios, and so on.
Because the Deep Space communications network was not yet complete, Li Qingsong had to lay down a temporary network just for this exercise. He also had every Warship enable coordinate sharing. It was the only way the drill could proceed; otherwise, everything would have devolved into chaos.
After a full day of drills, the fleet returned to the base.
Before he could even analyze the lessons learned from the day’s exercise, Li Qingsong noticed a particular data point.
It was just one exercise, yet the fleet had consumed 25,000 tons of fuel. Several thousand more tons of blanks and simulated munitions were expended. Factoring in the Clones’ own consumption, a total of over 30,000 tons of resources had vanished into thin air.
Replenishing those 30,000-plus tons of resources would require 1,000 cargo ships making two round trips. After factoring in the fuel consumption of the cargo ships themselves, the total cost came to nearly 50,000 tons of materials.
’If I had any fewer Clones, I wouldn’t even be able to afford these drills.’
Li Qingsong sighed.
After a short break to replenish their various supplies, the fleet’s exercises began again.
There was no choice. The enemy could arrive at any moment. If he didn’t use this time to prepare for war, it might be too late.
While simultaneously overseeing mass production, mass logistics, and mass-scale military exercises, Li Qingsong was also directing tens of thousands of Clones to work on the final of his three main tasks: technological research for the Deep Space communications network.
Two years had passed, and thanks to the Clones’ exhaustive efforts, a breakthrough in this technology had finally been made.
’Once the communications network is up, I can send a Detector to Enemy God Star. The fleet will also be able to venture far from the planet into deep space, instead of being stuck circling Ceres.’
Li Qingsong immediately mobilized his brainpower, created the blueprints for the Deep Space communications network, and began production and construction without delay.
The most critical components of this network were 100 large antennas, each with a 45-meter aperture.
Originally, only 20 would have been necessary. However, to guard against their destruction in wartime, Li Qingsong increased the number fivefold.
Some of these large antennas were placed in a specific geometric pattern, distributed roughly evenly across locations on Ceres like its poles and equator. The rest were deployed in orbit around the planetoid.
Li Qingsong did his best to protect each large antenna, striving to maximize its survivability.
In addition to these large antennas, Li Qingsong also manufactured thousands of satellites. He scattered them like sand in the space around Ceres and even launched some into orbit around the Sun.
Thus, with Ceres at its core, a vast and dense communications network was complete.
The very moment this communications network became operational, Li Qingsong launched a Detector.