At the founding of the Warhammer Interstellar Federal Kingdom there were of course certain tribal powers dissatisfied.
But in the present state of things, whoever showed dissatisfaction was seeking his own death.
The neutral tribes came over wholly to the Hundred Beasts Alliance's side.
Even the Dragon-folk tribe took their stand with the Hundred Beasts Alliance.
It might be put thus.
Of those powers that originally made up the Warhammer, above two thirds now stood upon the Hundred Beasts Alliance's side.
To say nothing of that colossal thing standing in the darkness behind the Hundred Beasts Alliance.
The existence of the T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought had already been made known to all.
And that took in besides the course of this interstellar warship's engagement with the Demon Race fleets upon the forward field.
Time began, little by little by little, to drive forward the gears of the Warhammer's fate.
On the 23rd of October, Galactic Star Calendar year 3034.
The Warhammer Interstellar Federal Kingdom publicly proclaimed its founding.
The first supreme leader was Charlotte.
Princess Blanche served as Charlotte's second, a standing beneath one person and above 10,000.
The Upper House's 20 seats.
Had long since been allotted as well.
The White Tiger tribe, the Wolf Race, the Harpy tribe, the Spider Queen tribe, the Siren tribe, the Frost-Wolf tribe, the Fury Bear tribe, the Golden Leopard tribe, the Hound tribe, the Dragon-folk tribe, the Fox-folk tribe, the Black Fox tribe, the Giant Lion tribe, the Minotaur tribe… and others each held one seat.
Of these, the Wolf Race had over this last while carried through a round of internal consolidation.
The White Wolf line stood once more at the Wolf Race's summit.
There had been discussion at one point of whether the Frost-Wolf tribe should be brought back into the Wolf Race.
But at the last it was chosen to let the Frost-Wolf tribe keep its present state.
On the one hand, one further seat could be had by it; and on the other, the Frost-Wolf tribe had been gone from the Wolf Race a very long while, and had a tribal system of its own.
To return to the Wolf Race now was wholly unnecessary.
With the Fox-folk tribe and the Black Fox tribe the case was the same.
And it is worth mentioning besides that, upon Princess Blanche's proposal, the Warhammer Interstellar Federal Kingdom specially invited the Owl Dragon lord to serve as a permanent honorary member of the Federal Parliament.
Of that little calculation of Princess Blanche's Zhao Chen was naturally aware; and he granted this Princess Blanche the face of it.
Though the Warhammer Interstellar Federal Kingdom was founded, there remained a great many matters to be handled thereafter.
Charlotte had said she was very busy, and this too was the plain truth.
The changes among the several tribal territories could hardly fail to raise conflicts, and at such times it required this supreme leader Charlotte to come forward.
And Charlotte's rate of success at mediation was exceedingly high.
The method she employed was courtesy first and arms after.
Upon the two parties to a quarrel she would simply send her own Owl Dragon First Legion over, to hang politely, at first, outside the other side's planet.
Commonly, once matters had gone so far, there were not many tribal powers that failed to accept mediation.
And in the course of Zhao Chen's waiting, the three chief engineers very soon gave Zhao Chen an answer to his satisfaction as well.
"At present, within our Owl Dragon bases, the T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships in service have already reached 100 ahead of schedule. And to produce these two T5 interstellar warships requires T4-grade industrial technology. But upon our analysis we have found that 10% of the components can in fact be produced by the T3 Furnace-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship as well. By which we can apportion that 10% of the workload out of the original build time, and greatly reduce the time we must put into building. And with our continual optimizing of the build steps besides. The plan we set out upon our side is this. Before the year's end, we can bring off the line and complete at least one T5 Lightning-Wraith-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Cruiser, and five T5 Chaos-Knight-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Destroyers," Nana said in her analysis.
Spider Queen Iris put in beside her, "Upon our side we have completed the consolidation and construction plan for the three industrial bases of the Warhammer Interstellar Common— of the Warhammer Interstellar Federal Kingdom. Because a great deal of the industrial infrastructure is on hand, and needs only to be moved by interstellar transports. Where the work goes quickly, it can be completed within a month. And working efficiency after consolidation can be raised by at least 50%."
Looking at these two chief engineers and their diligent, painstaking attitude, Zhao Chen was exceedingly satisfied.
And at this point he noticed that Annie was not here.
He looked toward that departmental post over at the far side of the bridge, and Annie was actually still there, busy at none knew what.
"What is Annie still busy with over there?" And just as Zhao Chen was inquiring.
That figure came running over at an exceedingly high speed.
In no more than a whisk she had darted up before Zhao Chen, gasping for breath.
"I… I… I think the efficiency of our producing T5-grade interstellar warships can be raised further."
"How is it to be raised? We have already called up very nearly every industrial force that can be called up. For within the Galactic Alliance there were never many that possessed T4-grade build industry to begin with," Nana said with knitted brows.
Annie shook her head and said, with light coming off her eyes, "No! There is one point you have all forgotten! The Warhammer! The Warhammer possesses T4-grade starship manufacturing industrial facilities too!"
Zhao Chen, hearing it, had his eyes light up.
Annie went straight on, "Just now I asked Sister Charlotte for a full set of the Warhammer's industrial materials. Though everyone holds the Warhammer's industrial system to be very crude and backward, it is a T4 industrial system for all that. They possess an industrial system able to produce at the T4 grade as well. So I sifted out a portion of the components of these two T5 interstellar warships of ours, and a further portion can be apportioned out and handed to the Warhammer here to make under contract. By which the number of T5 interstellar warships we obtain before the year's end will be greatly increased. We can obtain at the least one T5 Lightning-Wraith-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Cruiser and eight T5 Chaos-Knight-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Destroyers!"
Annie looked at Zhao Chen in her excitement.
But Nana raised a doubt. "Yet starship technology so important as this, handed to the Warhammer here to answer for… will there not exist a risk of technical leakage? And the question of the components' quality besides…"
"Upon that point you may rest easy. Technical personnel on the starship side here in the Warhammer are exceedingly scarce. The overwhelming majority in fact understand only their own quarter of technical knowledge; they have not yet fully mastered even T4-grade starship technology. Even were this T5-grade interstellar warship technical blueprint flung down before them exactly as it stands. Without 10 years they could not so much as begin a preliminary build. As for the worry over the quality of those contracted components, we can perfectly well send people to strengthen the acceptance stage," Spider Queen Iris said with certainty.
At this the gazes of all three chief engineers fell upon Zhao Chen.
To say that the risk of technical leakage did not exist would be false.
Zhao Chen sat upon the sofa, and his gaze held fixed for several seconds.
At the last he looked to Annie all the same, and said in a low voice, "See well to the work of technical secrecy, and execute your scheme."
Riches are sought amid risk.
The most important thing at present was to expand the number of T5-grade interstellar warships.
There never was any such thing as a business wholly without risk.