Zhao Chen, having finished laying out the affairs of the Reef Star Region, set out to return to the Owl Dragon System. What he brought back with him, besides, was a T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser, ship No. 30. This was the one Zhao Chen meant to use as his command ship for hastening to the imperial capital system. Though the T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship was the flagship, it was, after all, a carrier starship, and for it to sail alone was, in the end, somewhat unsuitable. The T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser was, as it happened, the most fitting command ship.
System prompt: the mission "The Reef Star Region Campaign" is complete. Please claim the mission reward.
No sooner had Zhao Chen's foot arrived in the Owl Dragon System than he received the System's prompt-tone.
"This Medusa's efficiency in getting things done is quite fast, it seems," Zhao Chen praised in his heart. But come to think of it, it stood to reason: right now, of the Reef Star Region's magnate-hegemons, the dead were dead and the fled had fled. And the remaining fish-forces, upon seeing the Snake-folk's nine-headed-serpent crest, surrendered at the very first moment. And so, for Medusa to take control of the whole Reef Star Region was near enough a matter of a mere few days.
Zhao Chen's thought stirred.
Claim the mission reward.
Congratulations — acquired one "T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser technical blueprint."
Zhao Chen stared at this technical blueprint before him, delighted beyond measure. He'd never imagined he'd, of all things, come to possess a T4-grade interstellar warship this quickly. Zhao Chen there and then began to look over this new treasure of his.
Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser
Ship-type: Interstellar Cruiser
Tech grade: T4
Hull armor strength: 5,000–6,000 units
Shield energy value: 230,000 units
Cruising speed: normal mode (630 star-knots); Vermilion Bird mode, first gear (910 star-knots); Vermilion Bird mode, second gear (1,400 star-knots); Vermilion Bird mode, third gear (2,100 star-knots)
Warp engine: tier-8 warp engine
Length: 3,600 meters
Mass: 980,000 tons
Crew posts: 600
Ship weapons: three Vermilion-Bird-class thermal cluster-laser bow cannons; twelve 4,000mm-bore medium electromagnetic cannon main guns; eighty-eight pulse-laser rapid-fire secondary guns; five hundred fully automatic medium point-defense guns; a five-unit interstellar-missile silo (200 Vermilion Bird interstellar missiles)
Special performance: Vermilion Bird combat mode · three gears
This T4 Vermilion Bird chiefly employed a full-shield defensive system; this was so as to reduce the impact of too much hull armor upon its sailing speed. The whole hull's form was somewhat a combining of a crimson-red tasseled spear with the form of a creature named, in the ancient ages, the Vermilion Bird — taking a narrow, elongated hull-form as its main shape. This was for the sake of a swifter sailing speed. And the ship-weapons it carried could be called quite abundant indeed, utterly unlike an interstellar cruiser. Even set against the ship-weapons of the T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship, in certain respects it was not one bit inferior.
And the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser's role and positioning were high-mobility combat, and so it carried a great many rapid-fire guns; these rapid-fire guns had a short cooldown time, and at certain moments could even fire in continuous succession over a short span. But their drawback was that their power was medium, their fire-range short-to-medium. For interstellar warships of other types this might be somewhat a rib of chicken — flavorless to eat, wasteful to toss — but for the T4 Vermilion Bird, renowned for its sailing speed and whose chief tasks were pursuit and the interpenetration of enemy formations, this was simply no matter at all.
Speaking of sailing speed, it had to be said that this T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser's speed truly left even Zhao Chen sighing in wonder.
Cruising speed: normal mode (630 star-knots); Vermilion Bird mode, first gear (910 star-knots); Vermilion Bird mode, second gear (1,400 star-knots); Vermilion Bird mode, third gear (2,100 star-knots)
Its sailing speed divided into four levels, among which was included a special performance of the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser's. First, the normal mode was the speed of ordinary sailing, able to reach 630 knots. This was already close to three times the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser's — though, of course, the T3 Blizzard's special Extreme-Cruise Mode was not reckoned in. And after that came the special performance of the Vermilion Bird combat mode · three gears, its corresponding sailing speeds being, respectively: 910 star-knots; 1,400 star-knots; 2,100 star-knots.
Why divided into three levels? That was because these were three modes combining sailing speed and combat power. For one must know: for the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser to enter Extreme-Cruise Mode, all weapon systems had to be retracted, all energy fed to the ship's engine. And the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser avoided just this problem.
First gear: ship's speed 910 star-knots — the three bow cannons will be shut off, their energy fed to the ship's engine.
Second gear: ship's speed 1,400 star-knots — the 12 main guns will be shut off, their energy fed to the ship's engine.
Third gear: ship's speed 2,100 star-knots — all the ship's weapon systems will be shut off, all energy fed to the ship's engine.
This technology, in the very act of ensuring the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser's high sailing speed, could, moreover, in accordance with various battlefield situations, ensure that it possessed the combat power required.
Having looked over this interstellar warship technology's flashes of brilliance, one had, then, to return to the most fundamental factor of it.
The build cost!
Zhao Chen looked carefully over its construction requirements. First, the one to undertake its construction had to be a starship factory or interstellar industrial ship of the T3-grade or above, or else some other relevant construction facility. The single-unit build cost was 1.5 billion star coins of resources and materials. This left even Zhao Chen drawing in a cold breath — a single-unit build cost of 1.5 billion star coins; this near enough caught up to the combat consumption of his fighting one small-scale campaign. Sure enough, a T4-grade interstellar warship was by no means a "toy" that ordinary folk, nor even ordinary nobles, could possess. And this let one understand, too, why the Starlight Empire had, up to now, only two classes of T4-grade interstellar warship technology. When even the build cost was this exorbitant, one could well imagine what a terrifying astronomical figure the research-and-development cost must be.
With a T4-grade interstellar warship technology in hand — what was the first thing Zhao Chen would do?
Find Annie!
……
T3 Furnace-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship No. 07 · starship dining hall.
"Really — I can order whatever I like?" Annie blinked her eyes, looking at Commander Zhao Chen standing beside her, being watched with glowing eyes by every female crew member in the whole starship dining hall.
"You were able, in so short a span of time, to complete the construction of 500 T3 Ranger-type Interstellar Warp Interceptors — letting us successfully ambush the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's three interstellar fleets. This merit — you take the topmost credit for it!" Zhao Chen said.
"Then I won't stand on ceremony…" Annie, her eyes shining, began to order the meal, muttering under her breath, "Tonight let's just eat a bowl of noodles."
Zhao Chen was somewhat astonished; he'd never imagined this little girl had, of all things, grown up and grown sensible — he'd thought she'd do a bit of revenge-splurge spending.