Owl Dragon star system
Zhao Chen had, naturally, likewise seen the message Chu Changhe put out.
"Looks as though the old fellow was prepared well in advance," Zhao Chen said with a light laugh.
At this point Secretary Lilith walked to Zhao Chen's side.
"The combat report from before — the rapid-annihilation battle fought while rescuing Governor Chu, including the rescue operation itself — is out. Would you care to look it over?"
"Just give me the key points," Zhao Chen said.
Lilith began to lay it out: "In that campaign, including the rescue operation itself, we expended 24 billion star coins all told. Of that, 30 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships, over three rounds of interstellar-missile bombardment, ran to an expenditure of 18 billion star coins. On our side no starship fell; there were only 13 T3-grade interstellar warships of various models severely damaged, and 123 lightly to-moderately damaged. The personnel losses were chiefly made up of interstellar-fighter pilots; 39 unfortunately gave their lives. In this campaign, the count of enemy interstellar warships annihilated was 13,000, including five T4-grade interstellar warships and close to 500 T3-grade interstellar warships. Enemy personnel deaths are estimated at upward of 7 million. Of these, we've confirmed from the intelligence we've obtained that among the fallen were two three-star lieutenant generals, seven two-star major generals, and twenty-six one-star brigadier generals."
"The Imperial Capital star system indeed lives up to its name — out of some 13,000-odd interstellar warships, over 30 generals killed." Zhao Chen quipped.
The legion fleets of the Imperial Capital star system were, in themselves, the safest of all.
No small number of the power-holders would naturally like to slot their own offspring in here to pad out a résumé, and so it had also become a place where generals clustered thick.
The overwhelming majority of them were men the Prince Faction had cultivated in these recent years — only, on the score of ability, the water ran rather deep.
"Because this campaign ran a length of one hour front to back, the chief attack method employed was this one of interstellar missiles, to deal the enemy the swiftest, strongest assault." Lilith laid particular stress on this point of the interstellar missiles' use.
One should understand that, before this, when the Third Prince's fleet of 20,000 interstellar warships was annihilated, the interstellar missiles' use had come to only 12 billion star coins.
"That I'm aware of — I was the one who agreed to Charlotte doing it that way at the time. We had to let the other power-holders and factions of the Starlight Empire hear our voice, let them clearly realize that the Prince Faction is not without a rival — that we, the Owl Dragon Legion, and the Chu family, have every bit the strength to arm-wrestle the Prince Faction." Zhao Chen propped his chin on his palm and said with a slight smile, "It's just a pity there wasn't time enough then; if we could've matched ourselves against the Royal Legion, the effect would surely have been out of the ordinary." The Owl Dragon Legion wholly annihilating the Royal Legion — the mere thought of it was thrilling.
"This is the Prince Faction's present military-action deployment; General Charlotte estimates the Prince Faction will mount an active offensive within a week at the latest. It's projected they'll attack these several places first." Lilith took out another set of materials.
It was the positions of several of the Prince Faction's massed fleets, and the routes along which they might launch their offensive.
Zhao Chen glanced at it, without paying it too much mind; the direction of attack was split half-and-half between the Chu River Star Region and the North Wind Star Region.
Though the North Wind governor had made no statement, the Prince Faction had simply and cleanly drawn the two onto a single line — which was, likewise, a result everyone else tacitly assumed.
"General Charlotte says that, in all likelihood, they'll choose the North Wind Star Region as the first direction of attack. Compared with the Chu River Star Region, the North Wind Star Region is the soft underbelly of this defensive line; add to that the fact that there were, originally, those trusted men the Prince Faction had cultivated in the North Wind Star Region before. Governor Chu will absolutely not stand by and watch the North Wind Star Region come to grief, and so he's bound to send his own legion fleet to reinforce it. And when that time comes, it can also serve to scatter Governor Chu's forces." Lilith conveyed General Charlotte's meaning.
"This point, I imagine, both the North Wind governor and old Chu understand; they'll have arrangements for it. No need for us to trouble ourselves; what we must do well right now is our own affair." Zhao Chen raised his hand, and opened the interstellar map to the north of the Chu River Star Region.
"Lilith — I had you calculate this before: to make maximum use of these star-system resources, how many T3 Prospector-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ships do we need," Zhao Chen asked.
"By our calculation, and going by the existing survey data we've gathered on these star systems' resources — and factoring in that our T3 Prospector-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ships will, in all likelihood, make new discoveries besides, so that we double the original survey-data projection — we need at the least to make ready 20,000 T3 Prospector-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ships; and in all likelihood there's still room for this figure to rise," Lilith answered.
"20,000? Then the build cost alone, just to construct them, would run to very nearly 200 billion star coins." Zhao Chen was somewhat taken aback.
"To mine these star systems' resources, building these T3 Prospector-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ships is only one element. We'll also need a great many working personnel; 20,000 T3 Prospectors would require, at the least, close to 500 million supporting staff — only so can these 20,000 T3 Prospectors be guaranteed to run and work smoothly. Beyond this, we'll also need to build such vital interstellar facilities as star-ports and star gates in these star systems. It's projected we'll need to build at the least 100 star-ports and 100 star gates. If reckoned by our two existing technologies — the T3 Radiant-Moon-class star gate and the T3 Storm-Fortress-class Large Star-Port — then the expenditure to build these two alone would run to at the least 400 billion star coins. And there's another factor to consider: you must understand that these star systems at present have no fully built star-gate hubs, so transporting raw materials to these star systems is a further expense too. All in all — the whole of the relevant deployment and construction can't be brought off for under 800 billion star coins. And this is merely the cost of the first step; the later maintenance, personnel logistics, deployment of patrol fleets, construction of habitable cities on the planets, and so on, will run up no small sum besides." Lilith spoke out an earth-shaking figure.
800 billion star coins!
Zhao Chen was left in a daze a good while; he'd known this job would eat money, but he hadn't reckoned it would eat this much money.
He'd thought, originally, that the Owl Dragon Legion's family fortune, now upward of 100 billion, was already quite ample; now, at a look… it fell far, far short.
"Then if reckoned by these calculations, what are our future returns?" Zhao Chen asked in earnest.
As a merchant, he naturally had to be clear on just how much return he could get for what he laid out.
"Once the above is all built and complete, and all 20,000 T3 Prospector-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ships are put into production, we'll be able, in a single future month, to mine out at the least 500 billion in resource wealth." Lilith looked at Zhao Chen.
Within Zhao Chen's originally steady gaze, a look of excitement began to appear — a kind of 'radiance.'
"This project — we must, without fail, see it through. If there's a chance, we go in! And if there's no chance, then we make a chance and go in all the same! Come what may, this piece of ground — I'm having it, and that's flat!" Zhao Chen said, swearing it with an oath.
A single-month output of 500 billion…
Oh my, my — think how many interstellar warships that'd let me hoard away.