For instance, the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship, the Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought, the Demon Emperor Carrier Starship, the Gluttony Demon King starship.
These were all super-flagships Zhao Chen had once built relying on core technology the System had given him.
They could not be mass-produced, but their combat performance far exceeded that of interstellar warships of the same grade.
They could be absolutely invincible against interstellar warships of the same grade, take on a hundred at once, and on certain special battlefields play a part that changed the course of the battle!
And here,
though Zhao Chen could not reproduce these super-flagships,
that did not mean replica versions could not be built, with their performance cut down; it would be enough to reach a third or more of their performance as far as possible.
Zhao Chen had put this idea to Annie before.
He had originally thought it would be very hard.
The biggest problem in it was how much of the prototype's fighting strength could be achieved; if the gap was too large, then they would be better off building mass-production interstellar warships of the same grade.
But the answer Annie gave was this:
though the prototypes' performance could not be reproduced entirely,
that did not mean the desired effect could not be achieved by other means,
above all where grade was concerned.
If they wanted to build something of T7 grade, that was basically impossible.
But if they only wanted to build something of T4 or T5 grade,
that was entirely possible.
In the past, Annie had made a special study of this kind of super-flagship.
Though she had never managed to fully work out the technology of their core modules,
through the performance that could be achieved, she had found some substitutes that could achieve their effects.
For Annie had already seen and learned T6- and T7-grade technology.
Using these more advanced technological ideas to reproduce the performance of lower-grade interstellar warships was a road that could entirely be traveled.
"At present I've arranged a small T5 Galaxy-class Interstellar Industrial Base. Though its performance is far from the complete form's, and it can't mass-produce T5-grade interstellar warships, for now it's more than enough to complete the building of small batches of T5 interstellar warships. In this area we've already achieved it in theory. Take this one, whose prototype is the Rakshasa-Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought: by our calculations and assessments, we can reproduce 90% of its original performance! And we've named it the T5 Little Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought. But its building conditions are extremely demanding, above all the core module, which has a certain chance of failure. And the whole building process will be split into several phases. The first phase is to build its initial form; in its initial form it's already somewhat stronger than a conventional T4 interstellar warship. But after several rounds of heavy custom upgrades, its performance can reach quasi-T5 grade, and the building cost is still much lower than a T5 interstellar warship's. To be honest, its cost-effectiveness isn't very high, so it isn't suited to mass production. But used as a super-flagship, it's no problem at all. Most important of all, it can have performance infinitely close to a T5 interstellar warship's." When Annie got to this point,
the light in her eyes dimmed a little, and she said, "As for the other plan, the mass-production T5 interstellar warship, we've done several rounds of feasibility study. The final answer we reached is that the feasibility is very low; we've now basically decided to suspend this part of the plan for the time being."
"Why?" Zhao Chen frowned and asked, somewhat puzzled.
Annie held up three fingers.
"Three reasons. One: in pursuing mass-production T5 interstellar warships, the best means of production would be a T5-grade shipworks. But a single T5 Galaxy-class Large Interstellar Industrial Base costs ten trillion star coins to build. That's equal to half a year of our Fierce Dragon civilization's present output. Are we to put half a year of our output into one interstellar factory that can't be turned into fighting strength right away?"
Zhao Chen was silent.
Half a year.
If long-term development were the consideration, half a year was nothing.
But the problem now was how much time this Trial of the Gods of theirs still had left.
Two years at most.
Within these two years, spending half a year building one interstellar factory truly was not a good bargain.
"Second: building costs! Take the cheapest, the T5 Chaos-Knight-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Destroyer, as an example: a single ship costs two hundred billion star coins to build. That's without counting building time. Our present annual output value is only twenty trillion star coins; in all, that's only enough to build a hundred! And how long would it take to build those hundred? Would they give us the time? And that's the cheapest. If it's main-force starships, for instance the T5 Holy-Redeemer-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Heavy-Artillery Battleship, a single ship costs as much as four trillion star coins; a year of our output is only enough to build four. Four! Yes, against the enemy's warships we'd have a generational edge. But what if the enemy simply won't fight you head-on? They hit your supply ships, they hit your rear. Hundreds of thousands of interstellar warships fighting a war of attrition with your four interstellar warships. Marshal Chu Xuan and I have discussed this problem. These four T5 interstellar warships could perhaps hold out for several years, even ten-odd years. But they'd be held down by the enemy the whole time, worn down the whole time. Of course, if by then the number of these T5-grade interstellar warships could be brought up to three hundred… no, even just a hundred would be enough. But what has to be met is that there are ships of every type. How much would that take? We've worked it out! Forty-five T5 King-of-the-Hill-class Heavy Interstellar Comprehensive Strategic Frigates, twenty-five T5 Chaos-Knight-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Destroyers, fifteen T5 Lightning-Wraith-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Cruisers, ten T5 Frost-Tyrant-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Battlecruisers. And the rest would be main-battle interstellar warships like the T5 Holy-Redeemer-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Heavy-Artillery Battleship, the T5 Fire-Qilin-class Heavy Carrier Starship, the T5 Spear-of-Sin-class Heavy Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship and the T5 Crimson-Reaper-class Heavy Interstellar Strategic Missile Ship. Do you know what the cost of that comes to? Even without counting building time, the cost alone would take fifty trillion star coins. That's a full two years of our present capacity![1] No other starships built, no other starships repaired, no other building tasks: all resources piled into the capacity for these hundred T5 interstellar warships."
Annie's expression was very grave; she said solemnly, "Doesn't it look as if it might just work? Two years in exchange for a hundred T5 interstellar warships. I put this question before the staff officers and officers of the staff departments. The conclusion they reached was that this is an extremely risky, suicidal course of action. The chance of success isn't even 1%. Who would dare bet that within these two years the other Trial civilizations won't discover us? And who knows what things will be like two years from now? If the enemy then attacks our systems and ties down these hundred T5 interstellar warships, what do we do? So in the end we decided this plan is postponed indefinitely. To put it into effect, several conditions must be met. First, we must have a T5 Galaxy-class Large Interstellar Industrial Base; second, our Fierce Dragon civilization's annual output value must exceed a hundred trillion star coins! Only when these two conditions are met can we carry out this plan. So for now we've put all our weight on the other plan: the Super-Flagship Program!"
Having heard Annie's whole analysis,
Zhao Chen was persuaded too.
"You've said a great deal. Then how soon can we see our super-flagships?" Zhao Chen asked this all-important question.
"Most likely the first to appear will be the quasi-T5 Little Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought. Its building cost is expected to be only a trillion star coins. Half of its building work is already done. It's expected to come off the line into service in a year at most. Besides that, one whose theory is complete and whose building has begun is the Demon King-class Carrier Starship. This carrier starship will come off the line rather late; a year and a half from now at the soonest. But its fighting strength on the battlefield will certainly be beyond imagining," Annie said, full of confidence.
If two quasi-T5 super-flagships made their appearance, they could truly raise the Fierce Dragon civilization's present fighting strength a great deal.
"Mm, then we'll do it the way you've thought it out. Run the Super-Flagship Program at full strength! I'll be waiting for your good news," Zhao Chen said, patting Annie on the shoulder.
Annie raised her head and said with an air of complete confidence, "Rest assured. A little task like this is nothing at all. I guarantee that the interstellar warships I build then will make those Trial civilizations' jaws drop, every one of them."
Zhao Chen smiled slightly.
Super-flagships?
He would be waiting.
Over the next half year,
the Fierce Dragon civilization's five corps fleets set out one after another.
Five battles, five victories.
Even the Far Shore of Deep Space had never imagined it.
The Far Shore of Deep Space · Supreme Council
The three civilization leaders looked at the two latest battle reports, delivered almost back to back.
The expressions on the faces of the other two were quite something.
"This… how is this possible…"
"Half a year ago, when we saw the first battle report, didn't we think it impossible too? And the facts were laid right before us, slapping us in the face!"
The Korgi civilization's President raised his hand and opened the five battle reports.
Five months earlier,
in a chaos system of the Savage Beast Alliance,
a Savage Beast Alliance corps fleet was wiped out to the last ship in under twelve hours.
And another Savage Beast Alliance corps fleet, on its way to give support, was intercepted halfway and had a third of its interstellar warships destroyed outright, all its T4 interstellar warships among them.
Its corps commander had escaped death only by boarding an escape ship in the nick of time.
In this battle, the Savage Beast Alliance had nearly fourteen thousand interstellar warships destroyed, including a thousand T4 interstellar warships.
And just a month later,
at a naval port in the Savage Beast Alliance's home systems, where a corps fleet was stationed,
came a sudden attack.
The naval port, along with its corps fleet, was wiped out to the last ship.
Losing two and a half corps fleets in two months running enraged the Savage Beast Alliance's leadership.
It should be understood that this loss amounted to all the interstellar warships the Savage Beast Alliance had prepared over the past year and more going straight down the drain.
And in the time that followed,
the Savage Beast Alliance found enemies on every side; every kind of alert was raised to the highest level.
Every key location had its defense level raised, and every kind of anti-stealth equipment was brought out.
It could be said they were jumping at every shadow.
And unexpectedly,
forty days later,
a Trial civilization came under attack, but this time it was not the Savage Beast Alliance; it was the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society, which had been watching the show all along.
One of their fleet groups, responsible for opening up star-system territory, thirty thousand interstellar warships,
was ambushed in a battle.
The thirty thousand interstellar warships were wiped out to the last ship before reinforcements arrived.
This startled even the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society, which had been watching the fire from across the river; they had thought these attackers' target was the Savage Beast Alliance.
But they had never imagined that they too would be caught up in it.
And only half a month later,
even with the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society being as cautious as could be, one of their resource systems suffered a devastating blow.
All its production equipment was wrecked.
Under their development, this system's annual output value had reached two trillion star coins.
But after this destruction, its capacity fell straight to under a hundred billion star coins.
To restore its capacity would take at least a year, without counting the cost to be put into rebuilding.
At the same time, in this attack they also lost twenty thousand interstellar warships.
It could be called a very heavy loss.
Now two of the five Trial blocs were in a fury and began searching frantically for who on earth these attackers were.
And the ones most suspected were naturally the other three Trial civilization blocs.
This led, in the time that followed, to sharpened friction among the Trial civilization blocs; even the small-scale fighting of before escalated further.
And unexpectedly,
three months later,
the Crimson Flame Federation came under attack.
That the Crimson Flame Federation had come under attack might perhaps have ruled out any link between the Crimson Flame Federation and the attackers.
But in this attack,
the Crimson Flame Federation was in fact the one with the smallest losses of all the attacks.
Though the interstellar warships it lost numbered a full twenty thousand,
on close inspection it was found that the great majority of them were actually T2-grade interstellar warships.
This was not at all on the same level as the losses of the Savage Beast Alliance and the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society!
It could not help giving rise to conspiracy theories:
that is, the suspicion that this was perhaps a self-inflicted-injury ruse the Crimson Flame Federation had used
to lessen suspicion of itself.
This for a time deepened the intensity of the Savage Beast Alliance's and the Golden Pupil Mutual-Aid Society's military operations against the Crimson Flame Federation.
And only those who knew the whole truth knew how innocent the Crimson Flame Federation really was.
"The first four truly made two Trial blocs feel the pain. And the fifth looks as if it had no real value, but it's made these waters muddier still. I have to say, the Fierce Dragon civilization's leadership is truly very clever," the Korgi civilization's President said with feeling.
"Not only clever; the military strength they have now is beyond imagining too," another civilization leader spoke up.
"The most important problem is that so far we still haven't worked out how many interstellar warships the Fierce Dragon civilization really has now, nor the coordinates of all their systems. Before, when we talked of raising a tiger inviting disaster, perhaps it was only a worry. But I now have reason to suspect that what we're raising now is no tiger, but a true giant dragon!"