The T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship, at this moment, set about its very first job.
Inside the interstellar industrial ship was a full suite of industrial construction equipment; from the large — starships, mecha, interstellar fighters, interstellar drones — down to the small, even the combat suits and laser rifles worn by interstellar soldiers, it could produce them all.
It was only limited by the tier of the build target, its own production capacity, and the like, with certain constraints.
It could carry out engineering construction within the hull.
And when hovering in space, it could even extend its work platforms outside the hull.
That way it could build some large starships — a same-tier carrier starship, for instance.
The T2 Iron-Hammer ran in a semi-intelligent mode, fitted out with a certain number of engineering robots of various models; feed in the task codes and the corresponding technical specifications, and the industrial ship's system could set these engineering robots to work.
But it still needed personnel aboard to oversee, for a further 20% of the procedures required people to operate the mechanical arms and other industrial equipment; the engineering robots, too, needed people beside them to supervise, to check the quality of the finished work, and so on.
And a single T2 Iron-Hammer needed a full 200 people working aboard it — far more than a same-tier combat-type ship.
At this moment, Zhao Chen set about leading 200 beast-folk crewwomen with some grounding in industrial technique, opening up task after task.
"This team of yours, work the repair robots and see to repairing Blizzard Zero. You over here, organize the production of the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship's interstellar drones within the T2 Iron-Hammer." With a Master Engineer's gifts about him, Zhao Chen set to directing everyone through their tasks swiftly and efficiently.
His assignments given out, Zhao Chen came to the T2 Iron-Hammer's bridge and began feeding in a ship's blueprint technology.
The T2 Black-Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy-Assault Frigate!
That was right.
The third class of ship Zhao Chen would build next was the T2 Black-Rhino.
Though Zhao Chen still held the blueprint for the T2 Bronze-Eden-class Starship, that ship couldn't necessarily be finished within a month, and cost a full 3 million star coins to build.
For the sake of the Quarterly Mission, it would have to wait.
Once the blueprint technology was fed into the T2 Iron-Hammer, the industrial ship's system encrypted it; in future, even this ship's captain couldn't call up the whole blueprint without Zhao Chen's special authorization.
When a build task was set, the industrial ship's system would scramble the whole blueprint and parcel it out to the crew below, and would further encrypt a very small portion of core technology, which Zhao Chen had to handle personally.
Should this T2 Iron-Hammer come under threat, the system would self-destruct all encrypted information.
"Phew… done." Zhao Chen fed in the last of the blueprint technology and dismissed the control interface.
He leaned back comfortably in the captain's chair and swept a look round the T2 Iron-Hammer's bridge — a layout in dark iron-gray, not much for splendor, all clean, plain lines, giving a sense of steel-and-industry.
From here he could bring up imagery of every part of the T2 Iron-Hammer, and check the state and progress of each work-unit.
"At long last, no more risking life and limb hand-building ships myself, the way I used to." Zhao Chen thought back on the days of building Blizzard Zero and the T2 Queen Bee, and could all but weep old-man's tears.
His work in hand settled, Zhao Chen then received notices that two sums of funds had landed, and that the raw materials had been delivered outside the workshop.
Barely half a day, and it was already sorted — a fine efficiency indeed.
With Zhao Chen's materials bill deducted from the two sums, the rest was all transferred into Zhao Chen's own imperial bank account.
He had 1,200,000 star coins left.
Once the T2 Black-Rhino was built, he could think about building that T2 Bronze-Eden-class Starship — fully realizing the fleet's food freedom, and even opening up a commercial map in the grain trade.
Zhao Chen called Lilith along and went to the workshop's great door, opening it.
Because the T2 Iron-Hammer sat in the innermost position, out of sight from the door, Zhao Chen didn't trouble to hide anything, and simply had the material-delivery workers outside stack the raw-material crates, one shipping-crate at a time, in a spot just inside the door.
"Sir, these are the raw materials from your order; would you take a look and see if there's anything else you need?" The woman liaison — whom he'd until now seen only over the video comm — stood, at this moment, before Zhao Chen.
A professional smile on her face, she wore a hip-hugging short-skirt uniform, one button at the chest deliberately undone.
But Zhao Chen paid none of this any mind; what he cared for now were the raw materials for building ships. Looking at those crates of materials—
—he seemed already to see rank on rank of finished T2 Black-Rhinos!
The woman was a touch awkward. She reckoned her own looks nothing to be ashamed of, and had thought to find a spare moment to invite this great personage out.
Then she caught sight of Lilith, at Zhao Chen's side in her white ladies'-military uniform — and her eyes lit up on the instant: stunning!
Too beautiful!
Between her brows was an allure wholly natural, stirring an urge at once to protect her and to tease her.
The woman gave a rueful inward laugh. With so peerless a beauty already at his side, how could a little starport customer-service clerk like her ever catch his eye?
"Lilith, you handle liaising with this lady," Zhao Chen said, handing the task to Lilith.
Lilith was the secretary now, after all; matters of this sort would fall to her in no small measure going forward.
Much theoretical knowledge as she'd gained, her true growth would still have to come in practice.
From fleet combat, to a fleet's internal affairs, to a fleet's logistics, and so on.
Lilith stepped forward and set about the talks with the woman on her own initiative.
Zhao Chen, meanwhile, gave his whole mind to the raw materials in those crates, a faint smile on his face, no telling what he was turning over in his heart.
At the ship berth next door.
"Old Chen, why so out of sorts?" A slouching, cocky young man walked out of the ship berth with a middle-aged one.
The one called Old Chen was the commander of an interstellar-transport fleet, just back from a mission and settling in for a rest.
"You have no idea what a colossal fool I ran into this time — he actually threatened me with a ship's cannon? And truly dared fire, the shell landing this far from my bridge!" Old Chen grumbled.
"The hell — someone dared do that? Dared threaten my brother Chen! Tell me who did it — so long as it's in the Arctic Fox star system, my Black Fox Society brothers have ways to sort them out!" the young man boasted.
Old Chen shook his head. "How would I know? I only heard it was some outfit called the Black Dragon Fleet. There wasn't even a video comm; I only saw the other side's ship."
As the two walked and talked—
—they passed a ship-workshop doorway; and seeing a great mass of shipping-crates there, Old Chen, being in the interstellar-transport line, instinctively turned his gaze that way.
And this one look was no small thing: for through the huge workshop door, he saw, berthed in the ship dock there, that very ship he loathed to the marrow!
Battered though the ship looked now, its bow crumpled in—
—he'd know that damnable ship even if it were ground to ash.
In an instant, fury blazed up in him.
His face going black, Old Chen headed straight for that ship workshop.