Having heard Chief Engineer Nana out,
Zhao Chen asked, "Then what does it cost to build one of these interstellar warships, and do the building materials it needs include highly rare raw materials?"
A mass-produced interstellar warship could not be judged good or bad by its fighting power alone.
Whether it suited mass production had to be considered too.
So its cost and how rare its building materials were mattered a great deal.
Otherwise an interstellar warship, however strong in a fight, if it could not be mass-produced on a large scale, could only be called a powerful interstellar warship,
not an excellent mass-produced interstellar warship.
The two were very different ideas.
This question was naturally Spider Queen Iris's to answer.
She explained, "First, the raw materials: we use common raw materials throughout. If anything counts as rare, it's the hearts of T6 Hive Motherships. But on that, Lady Hive Princess has promised to guarantee our supply: however many of these interstellar warships we can build, she can supply that much of this raw material."
T6 Hive Motherships had once been fairly important among the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race.
But as the Hive Princess kept raising the Owl Dragon interstellar race, the number of T6 Hive Motherships was now simply bound up with how much "food" was needed.
So long as food enough was provided, more T6 Hive Motherships could naturally be bred.
And using up a few T6 Hive Motherships to build one quasi-T7 interstellar warship was beyond doubt a very good bargain.
And the Hive Princess could even breed a special multi-hearted Hive Mothership just to supply this raw material.
"As for the building cost: the figure we have now is about 2,000 trillion star coins. And as we go on to large-scale mass production, the cost can come down by about 30%. If the scale of mass production grows further, the cost can be controlled further still," Chief Engineer Spider Queen Iris answered.
A building cost of 2,000 trillion star coins a ship.
No small figure, but for a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship, a wholly acceptable one.
After all, the T6 interstellar warships now in Owl Dragon-line service were all very expensive.
A single T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship cost 300 trillion star coins, and a giant ship like the T6 Divine-Wing Empress-class Super-Heavy Carrier Starship cost as much as 900 trillion star coins.
That is to say, about two T6 Divine-Wing Empress-class Super-Heavy Carrier Starships would pay for one of these quasi-T7 interstellar warships.
If its fighting power proved worthwhile, it would certainly be a quasi-T7 interstellar warship of extremely good value!
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied, and said seriously, "You've done this project very well. Once this test ship finishes its core trials and trial voyages, you can go straight into building the first batch. Within three months I want to see the first batch of this interstellar warship in service!"
"Yes. Please rest assured, Your Majesty. We guarantee to finish this project on time!" Chief Engineer Spider Queen Iris said with great confidence.
At this point Chief Engineer Nana blinked at Zhao Chen and asked, "This interstellar warship has no class name yet. Please, Your Majesty, give it one."
Zhao Chen scratched his head; once again he had to come up with a name.
"You must have some suggestions?" Zhao Chen looked at the chief engineers.
Chief Engineer Nana glanced at the angel assistant Nicole behind Chief Engineer Annie.
The angel assistant Nicole at once stepped forward and opened a document with a dozen-odd names in it.
"These are some suggestions put forward by the heads of the engineering teams. You can look them over," the angel assistant Nicole said excitedly.
She was only an assistant, but she had taken part in this project from start to finish too.
To take part in designing and building a quasi-T7 interstellar warship was the thing that engineers and technical people like her were proudest of.
Zhao Chen looked at the list of names, and after a glance,
his eyes settled on one of them.
He reached out and pointed at it.
"This one. The quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought," Zhao Chen said.
At the name, everyone's eyes lit up.
Chief Engineer Nana said with a smile, "A lot of people did lean toward this name. This quasi-T7 interstellar warship's design concept is very like that of the Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought now in service. Calling it an interstellar dreadnought fits very well. And the golden scarab shows traces of both the hive-race and the Mechanical Race. Since Your Majesty agrees, this interstellar warship will be formally registered in the database as the quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought!"
Zhao Chen nodded.
Everyone around clapped and cheered, celebrating that the Owl Dragon Empire's first self-developed, self-built quasi-T7 interstellar warship was about to be born.
"Our war with Order and the Devourer Civilization has only just begun. This Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought will become our main force against them in future. I hope to see them on the battlefield soon, defending us against the enemy!" Zhao Chen said seriously.
After that, Zhao Chen went to look at several other important projects.
Basically, all the research into true T7 technology was up against bottlenecks; without breakthroughs in raw materials and energy, these bottlenecks would be very hard to break through.
That too was why everything was being thrown into researching quasi-T7-grade technology now.
After all, the Owl Dragon Empire truly could not afford to wait now.
When he had finished inspecting these projects, Zhao Chen left too.
He had far too many things to deal with now; there was no time to linger at this research institute for long.
But he promised that when the first batch of real quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts rolled off the line into service, he would come in person to cut the ribbon and celebrate.
At the same time Zhao Chen contacted Marshal Charlotte too,
ordering her, while commanding the present campaign, to get ready a batch of crews who could board the quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts at any time.
They had to take over the first quasi-T7 Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts the moment they were completed and rolled off the line, finish wearing them in in the shortest time, and form effective fighting power that could be used in real battle.
The Owl Dragon Empire now had to race every minute!
His round of inspection done, Zhao Chen went back to the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship.
He rubbed his temples.
"Is that project going well, at least? To keep that project going, even in the present situation, I've given them the highest authority: whatever resources they want, they get," Lilith said, appearing beside Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen nodded. "That project is going fine. Iris says we'll soon see the first batch of interstellar warships roll off the line into service."
Lilith's eyes were full of excitement; she said, "Our Owl Dragon Empire has a truly mass-produced quasi-T7 interstellar warship at last. It's only quasi-T7, true. But so long as Order doesn't appear, put on the battlefields we have now, it's invincible. It'll certainly be of great use on the battlefield."
Zhao Chen nodded; there was no doubt about that.
But Zhao Chen still said heavily, "I used to think that, having founded the Owl Dragon Empire and holding the resources of a whole universe, we'd already become a great house with a great fortune. But only when we truly fought a war with another interstellar universe did I find out how short a time we've had to develop; next to them we're small fry. If it weren't for the fighting power of our interstellar warships, we could never have held out until now. And not even two months have passed, and we've fought ourselves nearly down to our underwear."
As he said it, Zhao Chen shook his head at himself.
Lilith sighed and said, "There's no help for that either; our interstellar universe is only so big. The industrial facilities we've upgraded, and the interstellar industry, interstellar trade and interstellar agriculture we've built on them, have already raised our income greatly in a short time. But the rice bowl is only so big, after all; we can't conjure up another one out of thin air. Unless……"
Lilith's voice paused here.
"Unless we have more territory," Zhao Chen said what Lilith wanted to say.
Lilith looked at Zhao Chen with complicated eyes.
Outward expansion!
In truth it was a plan Lilith had already prepared, lying in her documents.
But at the same time she knew Zhao Chen's character very well; he was by no means someone who liked invading.
So she had not proposed this outward expansion herself.
Outward expansion was never peaceful; it always came with war and bloodshed.
Zhao Chen clasped his hands before the tip of his nose, his eyes closed, and said nothing.
Lilith said nothing beside him at this point either, for she knew that, things having come to this, the Owl Dragon Emperor had to change.
He was long since no longer the supreme commander of the Owl Dragon Legion's fleets he had once been, who could go his own way for his own ideas.
Now behind him stood the Owl Dragon Empire, a whole universe, thousands of trillions of living beings in this universe.
And the enemy he had to face was the mighty Order.
And because they had been struggling against Order for a long time, Order had perhaps long since put their universe on its death list.
If they were defeated, the whole Owl Dragon Empire and this universe would come to only one end:
utter destruction.
There was no other choice.
So, to protect all this,
Zhao Chen had to let some things go.
How long passed, no one knew.
Zhao Chen opened his eyes.
In this moment there was something colder in his eyes.
The somewhat "naive" Zhao Chen of before had now gone to sleep deep in his heart, and perhaps would never have the chance to wake again in this life.
"Within the range of the universe we've explored so far, there are only the Devourer Civilization's universe and the Sacred Elf Empire's universe, those two places. And we can't possibly expand into the Devourer Civilization's universe or the Sacred Elf Empire's universe. Then we need a new target."