The T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship!
Zhao Chen's eyes lit up.
In his past life, a carrier had been, without question, the dream of every son and daughter of the old flower-planting land.[1]
And in the interstellar age, the carrier existed too!
If, in this era, there was a class within a given tier that could be called a giant ship, then it was, in all likelihood, one of two sorts.
The interstellar battleship, and the carrier starship!
Zhao Chen, at this moment, went straight to redeeming it.
Spend 250 System points and one no-task-point redemption opportunity to redeem the item "T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship"? [Y/N]
"Confirm."
Congratulations — acquired: the "T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship" blueprint.
Your remaining System points: 0.
As it happened, Zhao Chen's System points came to exactly enough to redeem this T2 carrier.
In that moment, the data on this T2 Queen Bee came welling up in Zhao Chen's mind.
Ordinarily, if an interstellar fleet had a carrier starship in it, it would of necessity require a great many escort ships — unlike an interstellar battleship, which could well hold its own alone.
And so the number of carrier starships actually in service ran, in truth, far below that of interstellar battleships; for the cost of building an interstellar fleet with a carrier at its core was an enormous one.
Otherwise, by all reason, a single carrier starship could form no combat power at all.
But this T2 Queen Bee was another matter entirely.
It possessed the ability to fight solo — and this was precisely why Zhao Chen was redeeming it.
A carrier starship's ways of fighting fell chiefly into three sorts: interstellar fighters, interstellar drones, and small-to-medium starships.
The third case was rare; a carrier that could carry starships was, at the very least, a T3-tier vessel and up — otherwise its bulk simply wouldn't allow it.
But to return to the matter — first, the T2 Queen Bee.
This ship took the "interstellar drone" as its way of fighting.
Zhao Chen looked over the detailed material.
Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship
Ship type: carrier starship
Tech tier: T2
Hull armor strength: 300 units – 350 units
Cruise speed: 40 star-knots
Warp drive: grade-4 warp engine
Length: 460 meters
Mass: 400,000 tons
Crew posts: 100
Weapons: T2 Baby-Bee-class light interstellar drones (interstellar interceptors); T2 Killer-Bee-class medium interstellar drones (interstellar fighters); T2 Hornet-class heavy interstellar drones (interstellar bombers)
Standard hangar loadout: 300 T2 Baby-Bee light interstellar drones, 100 T2 Killer-Bee medium interstellar drones, 20 T2 Hornet heavy interstellar drones
By the bulk and mass alone, one knew this would be a colossus.
460 meters long — near twice the length of Blizzard Zero.
400,000 tons in mass — near five times that of Blizzard Zero.
It could carry three classes of interstellar drone, 420 craft in all.
Under ordinary circumstances, a carrier starship would carry only a single class of interstellar fighter or interstellar drone, since a different class meant the need for a different maintenance team and a different set of systems.
But this T2 Queen Bee carried three classes of interstellar drone outright.
This was no foolish choice — it was because the T2 Queen Bee was fitted with an intelligent system near enough to T3-ship grade, and under sound, efficient management, it could keep all three classes of drone working without a hair's gap between them.
These three classes of drone, sorted by kind, were the interstellar interceptor drone, the interstellar fighter drone, and the interstellar bomber drone.
The interstellar interceptor drone could be called the carrier's close bodyguard, charged chiefly with keeping the carrier safe and intercepting every incoming enemy attack.
The interstellar fighter drone was the central force in seizing air superiority in space combat, and could strike at enemy ships as well.
The interstellar bomber drone was, as the name suggested, one with the power to bomb; it could, as need dictated, carry interstellar missiles, interstellar bombs, even interstellar torpedoes. Its power to strike enemy ships was the strongest of the three — but its own space-combat ability was very weak.
And so these three classes of drone could work in concert, forming a perfect complement of one another's functions.
Under ordinary circumstances, it took several carriers to fill that complementary role; this T2 Queen Bee took all three tasks onto itself alone.
And then the most important point of all — the very reason it needed no escort fleet.
It possessed, of all things, a star-shield function!
The star shield was a form of energy defense screen, standard equipment on a T3 ship. It could raise an energy shield across a given zone, intercepting enemy weapon fire coming from that direction.
It was the landmark technology of the T3 ships, and it enormously increased a ship's own defensive power.
This, too, was why one so often heard it said that a T3 ship was the only true starship!
But to return to the point.
The Queen Bee, T2 ship though it was, likewise possessed the star shield — and this vastly boosted its defensive power.
Paired with the T2 Baby-Bee light interstellar drones, it was a fusion of attack and defense both!
Against an interstellar fleet of T3 ships there might be some risk — but against T2 ships, it was, beyond all doubt, a terrifying existence.
One against many was by no means out of the question!
And so Zhao Chen had settled on this T2 Queen Bee.
"The build cost is… 1.3 million star coins!" Zhao Chen worked out the cost of building this ship, and drew a sharp breath.
For the total savings of his entire Zhao family, top to bottom, came to no more than 100,000 star coins.
As for his interstellar fief — on account of the barrenness of the system, mismanagement, and the rest — a whole year's taxes plus its other income came to a mere million star coins.
This was exactly why Zhang Haoran called him a down-at-heel baron. Zhao Chen couldn't even afford to buy a single T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer at its 4-million price.
But were Zhao Chen to take this T2 Queen Bee and sell it, it would be worth 20 or 30 million star coins at the very least.
Selling starships was a road to fortune; arms, after all, were a business of savage profit in any age.
But for now, Zhao Chen had neither the means nor the leisure to weigh all that.
"1.3 million star coins… with the money from selling the T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, it ought to be enough to build one T2 Queen Bee," Zhao Chen muttered.
Now all he awaited was word from Li Wei's end.
——————
Northern Goose Interstellar Trade Group · headquarters.
A board meeting was, at this moment, in session here.
Present, besides the Li family, were several other shareholder directors.
"These five years, our Northern Goose has run nothing but red ink in the starship-arms trade, propped up entirely by our other industries filling the shortfall. It even, at one point, dragged Northern Goose's overall profit last year into the red! So I hold that we ought to give up this starship-arms trade. The starship-arms trade is no business one can simply build up on a whim — the R&D investment is too great, the risk too high. Better we go on, honest and steady, with our interstellar trade-transport and interstellar industry." One director slapped the table as he spoke.
The other directors chimed in one after another, demanding a halt to the whole starship-arms venture.
"No! Northern Goose's growth has already reached a bottleneck; the competition in our established lines grows fiercer by the day. If we don't find a way to break through, Northern Goose is bound to decline sooner or later! If we mean to carry Northern Goose to the next level, then this starship-arms trade is a thing we absolutely must seize hold of!" A woman of ripe, striking beauty, her figure all curves and contours, rose to her feet as she spoke.
But the other directors voiced their opposition, one after another.
"Miss Yaqi, this isn't a matter for you to decide. Northern Goose may have been founded by your Li family, but you and your father now hold only 45% of the shares — and the rest of us are against it! This is the board's resolution!" the director who held the most shares, the Li family aside, said with a cold snort.
Li Yaqi bit lightly at her lip and said nothing.
This starship-arms trade was her dream, and the fruit of her heart's blood.
What others saw was five years of investment; in truth, Li Yaqi had begun laying the groundwork for it a full 10 years ago, and had poured every hour and every ounce of her energy into it.
In her thirties, and still unmarried.
How could she ever give up the work of her heart!