Three days later.
Annie came to find Zhao Chen to report on the matters of the work; and coming along with her, besides, was Lilith. Though it was Annie who set out the whole series of construction plans, on the side of raw-material supply she still needed the coordination of Lilith, that "matron-of-the-household."
The very first thing Annie did on walking into the meeting room was to circle around Commander Zhao Chen, sizing him up and down.
"Commander, I get the feeling that dissecting your brain won't cut it anymore. It's become necessary to study your gene sequence a bit — to see just what sort of thing you are."
Half a minute later, Annie was sitting quiet and proper in her chair, meekly clutching her head.
"This is the construction-plan outline I drew up over these past few days, based on the several new starship-technical blueprints the Commander provided, along with the starships our future Owl Dragon Fl— Owl Dragon Legion's build-out will require. If there's anything that needs supplementing, Commander, Sister Lilith — do have a look and raise it."
Lilith lifted her head, and looked at the document names of several of the brand-new starship-technical blueprints among them.
T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship technical blueprint
T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ship technical blueprint
T3 Imperial-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship
Of these, the T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship's technical blueprint was, beyond doubt, the one of the highest gold-content. For, after all, the Owl Dragon Legion had tasted the terrifying combat power of the interstellar missile ship — and a thing like that is addictive! Of course, the other one, the T3 Imperial-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship, was not one bit inferior either! And it just so happened to suit the Owl Dragon Legion's present positioning of "small but fine."
"At present we have in hand 10 T3 Furnaces and 30 T2 Iron Hammers. Of these, five T3 Furnaces need to carry out the original construction plan concerning the T4 Reviver-class Clone-Human Starship; they can roll off the line and enter service before the end of June." Annie first laid out the production capacity the Owl Dragon Legion currently possessed.
"Per your instructions: first, this batch of T3 Judicators is to be built to at least five units, to be undertaken by three T3 Furnaces. After that come five T3 Silver Edens, to be built by one T3 Furnace along with several T2 Iron Hammers. There'll further be one T3 Furnace building one T3 Imperial-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship. Besides, there's some spare capacity left over, with which five T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ships can be built. And apart from all this, we still have a portion of remaining capacity, which will be responsible for building that portion of interstellar warships lost in this hive-race campaign, along with the needed interstellar missiles, energy blocks, and suchlike strategic materials. Should any temporary changed construction demand crop up down the line, this portion of capacity can take charge of that as well."
As Annie recounted all this, that expression of hers was very solemn — for all the world like a little grown-up. But there was still one habit she couldn't shake: those two dangling legs of hers, swinging ceaselessly to and fro beneath the table.
"In sum, this construction plan: before mid-year of this year, it will produce and deliver one T4 Reviver-class Clone-Human Starship, one T3 Imperial-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship, five T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships, five T3 Silver Eden-class Ships, and five T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ships. The whole construction plan will require an input of 7 billion star coins' worth of production resources and raw materials as its build cost. The lion's share of it is, chiefly, still the T4 Reviver-class Clone-Human Starship under construction — three months, expending 5 billion star coins." Lilith delivered the final summary.
Zhao Chen looked to Lilith at his side.
Lilith, taking his meaning at once, called up the Owl Dragon Legion's current financial-resource situation.
"At the beginning of the year, on account of the 20 billion star coins in technology-authorization fees from Governor Chu's side, our books came to hold a reserve of 23 billion star coins in finances and raw materials. And this quarter's production plan consumes nearly 10 billion star coins; then there's the Owl Dragon System's build-out — the 1 billion star coins in appropriations given to Jiang Hong. Last of all is this campaign's combat consumption."
"The combat consumption for this hive-race campaign has been tallied up?" Zhao Chen cut in with an aside.
"It's out; I'd originally been preparing to report it to you shortly." Lilith pointed to another electronic document, and opened it.
Zhao Chen swept an eye over it.
In this hive-race campaign, his Owl Dragon Fleet had, for the first time, seen the situation of interstellar warships falling. Included among them were five T2 Black Rhinos and one T3 Blizzard. Of these, some had been destroyed by enemy ships; others had genuinely been too severely damaged, with no repair value left, and had been dismantled straight away on the spot — their core technology modules destroyed, and the remains sold to local merchants as raw materials. Beyond that, there was a whole series of losses among the interstellar fighters and interstellar drones equipped aboard the T3 Phoenix: over 4,500 T3 Black Phoenix drones, 32 T3 Phoenix-class interstellar fighters…
"Not counting the situation of those lost interstellar warships — in this hive-race campaign, our total campaign consumption came to 100 million star coins." Lilith had tallied out a figure quite astonishing.
A campaign consumption of 100 million star coins — set before the campaign-consumption figures of the North Wind Star Region's whole war against the hive-race this time, it counted for nothing at all. But what if one were to say that this hundred-million-star-coin's-worth of fighting had been produced by a mere hundred-odd interstellar warships? The guess was that no small number of fleet commanders would be dumbstruck, unable to picture it. By this ratio, then, would not a legion-grade fleet of 3,000 ships in establishment, once it had fought a battle through, come to a combat consumption of 3 billion star coins? The more one pondered it, the more chilling!
"In sum, reckoned this way — our Owl Dragon Legion's books still have around 11 billion star coins of funds and raw materials remaining," Lilith said.
"11 billion star coins; and this construction plan is estimated to expend 7 billion. That's still within our means to cover," Zhao Chen said. "Then let's arrange it and send it down just so."
In truth, Zhao Chen had originally wanted to build one more T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ship — but, alas, at present there was the need to expand the combat-type interstellar warships, and for the moment there simply was no spare capacity to free up. He could only shelve this notion for the time being. When the second half of the year came around, he'd expand another batch of T3 Furnaces then, further raising the Owl Dragon Legion's production capacity, and these missing interstellar warships could, of course, be made up naturally.
For others to forge one strong and mighty interstellar fleet took, at the very least, close to a hundred years' time. Here with Zhao Chen, in a few short months it had grown to a scale — and yet he was still somewhat dissatisfied with this efficiency. Were an outsider to learn of it, the guess was they'd only sigh that here was a man dwelling in the midst of fortune and not knowing his own fortune.
"Among these, the T3 Silver Eden-class Ship needs at least one rolling off the line and entering service before the start of April — there's no problem with that, I take it." Zhao Chen brought up an important point.
"No problem." Annie nodded.
"Then let's let this discussion-meeting draw to a close here." Zhao Chen declared the meeting at its end.
But Zhao Chen's gaze, of all things, came to rest upon Annie — with something not quite friendly in it.
Annie, quick-witted, sensed that something was amiss; she at once said with a placating, fawning smile, "I've suddenly remembered I seem to have some matters still not dealt with — I'll take my leave first. Lord Commander, bye-bye."
So saying, Annie hopped down off the chair, making ready to slip away.
But alas — that little noggin of hers was pinned down by a big hand.
"Annie. I hear that someone's been online, selling things connected to me. Things like bowls I've used, photos of me, and things I've used besides…"
A grim, sinister voice came from behind Annie.
"Gulp." Annie gulped, wearing the whole look of a "thief" caught with the loot upon her.