Black Fox Society headquarters.
"The Chu family's Eldest Miss?" The Black Fox Society's boss, hearing the name, gave a start.
"The matter's been settled; that young lady likely won't hold us to account," the small-boss said. "But the business of those succubi — that we may have no way to lay a hand on anymore. Though we still don't know the standing of that man who was with the Chu family's Eldest Miss. The Chu Eldest Miss plainly thinks highly of him — declared outright that he's her friend. The meaning in it was clearly a warning to us."
The Black Fox Society's boss knit his brows and thought a moment. "This was a task Young Master Han charged us with; we've not yet completed it…"
"Important as Young Master Han is, he's still no match for the Chu family!" the small-boss muttered.
The Black Fox Society's boss nodded. "That's true enough. Never mind it, then. Set against the Chu family, our Black Fox Society isn't even enough for them to bother wiping out. I'll pass word of this on to Young Master Han; the lot of you, keep still over the coming while — don't go stirring up any great trouble."
"Yes."
……
Time slipped by in a blink, and it was the end of December.
The once-spacious large ship workshop was, at this moment, grown rather crowded.
For there were now a full 10 more ships in it.
Had these 10 ships not been small in size, there'd have been no fitting them in at all.
Zhao Chen stood before the 10 ships, swept a look over them, and let a satisfied smile show.
"By my order — make ready to power up and test the ships!" Zhao Chen gave the command to the 10 ships' bridges.
The 10 ships stirred at once.
At the same time, 10 video windows appeared around Zhao Chen, each captain going, step by step, through the ship-startup procedure.
"Report — Black-Rhino No. 1, starting the ship engines."
"Report — Black-Rhino No. 2, ship engines started, normal."
"Report — Black-Rhino No. 5, ship drive-system running automatic diagnostics… complete… operating well…"
"Report — Black-Rhino No. 7, weapon system running automatic diagnostics… complete… operating well…"
……
Zhao Chen listened to the reports come in.
Soon, ships began completing the whole first-startup sequence.
"Report — Black-Rhino No. 8, first startup, full-sequence diagnostics complete, all systems normal!"
"Report—"
"……"
The reports of the T2 Black-Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy-Assault Frigates completing their self-checks came in, one after another.
Once all 10 had reported, a brilliant smile spread over Zhao Chen's face, and he lightly clenched a fist. "Beautiful!"
It had taken near a month.
Zhao Chen had produced 10 T2 Black-Rhinos in one go; because the T2 Black-Rhino was small in size, and produced on an assembly line besides, ship-production efficiency was greatly increased.
Add to that its low build cost — a mere hundred thousand star coins apiece.
These 10 had, all told, only consumed the 1 million star coins of raw materials he'd bought before.
"I hadn't expected you'd build 10 T2 Black-Rhinos in one go." Charlotte stood at Zhao Chen's side, running her eye over the 10 black interstellar frigates before her.
Every ship, but for the 001, 002, 003 and so on painted on its hull, was basically identical.
Zhao Chen laughed. "They'd all have to be built sooner or later, after all. Our fleet has only two ships, and one of those is a carrier — which has a star shield, true, but that's no all-around defense. We must have a certain number of interstellar frigates fitted out before we can count as having the rudiments of a fleet, no?"
Charlotte looked at this class of frigate and marveled. "It's truly hard to believe an interstellar frigate with performance data like this costs a mere hundred thousand units in star coins to build. And that in a single month, 10 of them were built! Both efficiency and quality, secured."
"That's all the T2 Iron-Hammer's doing, of course! Without it, on the ship-workshop capacity here alone, a month would have built three at the most." Zhao Chen looked to the one flank of the ship workshop.
The T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship, worn with hard and honorable toil.
And it was thanks to it that this round of shipbuilding hadn't needed him to go down and hand-shape ships himself; he'd needed only to complete under 1% of the core-technology links.
"In a while let's go out for a shakedown run; once that's done, we'll buy a batch of military supplies and living supplies, and then head back to the Northstar system." Zhao Chen arranged.
Three months had passed since Zhao Wan'er's early return to the Northstar Starship Military Academy.
For him to have taken three months' leave — as a student, it was, frankly, a bit beyond the pale.
In truth it made no difference now whether Zhao Chen attended school or not; but there was one thing that made obtaining the Northstar Starship Military Academy's degree certification a must.
For the Starlight Empire had a regulation: any lord had to obtain a graduation certification from an interstellar military academy within the empire.
There was no requirement as to which interstellar military academy, so long as it was a proper one.
Hence some fops would simply find some third-rate interstellar military academy, muddle through six years, and go back to formally inherit their titles.
Zhao Chen, on account of his father's early death, had by imperial statute inherited ahead of time.
But if he failed, within a set span, to obtain a certification from an interstellar military academy, his title might well be forcibly stripped.
"There's one more thing, I think, that ought to be seen to," Charlotte said.
"What?"
"The establishment of our Owl Dragon Fleet's system," Charlotte said.
Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte.
Charlotte went on, "Before, we had only two ships, so post-assignments were rather loose. But it's different now; we have 12 combat-type ships and one support-type ship. We already have the rudiments of a small fleet, and for ease of management going forward, we must establish a fleet system."
Zhao Chen nodded his agreement. "Since you've thought of it, you must have a plan drawn up as well?"
"From today, your post is no longer captain, but Fleet Commander; you may choose any ship as your flagship — the head ship of our fleet. I'd recommend the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship, as it's the safer. I'll serve as captain of Blizzard Zero, and concurrently as Deputy Fleet Commander. Lilith can serve as your flagship secretary and concurrently fleet secretary. Then aboard the rest of the ships, a captain assigned to each in turn. We have also some 200 female soldiers without formal posts as yet. A single T2 Black-Rhino needs only 20 to operate — just enough for these 200 to fill the vacancies. As for the choice of captains, and the core bridge crews of each ship — those you'll need to arrange yourself." Charlotte laid it all out, point by point.
She hadn't been a fleet commander for nothing; she'd already thought through every arrangement for Zhao Chen.
"You must have a name-list ready. Show it to me in a while; if there's no problem, I'll approve it outright. I'll leave all of this to you to see to. I'm a bit tired; I'll go rest first." Zhao Chen deliberately stretched, and pitched the work off onto Charlotte.
Charlotte rolled her eyes. This captain of theirs — no, she should call him Fleet Commander now — grew fonder by the day of being the hands-off overseer.
Zhao Chen, of course, would sooner die than do himself any work he could avoid; with people under him, why toil himself, no?
And just now, Zhao Chen wasn't off to rest.
He was off to look over the Quarterly Mission he'd completed, and claim the reward!
Quarterly Mission: Own three classes of starship (system-produced).
Mission complete; reward available to claim.