80: Chapter 80 Stellar Furnace!! Overlord-class Planetary Warship

ruler-class planet battleship.

When the Linxiao fighter squadron truly flew close to one of the Sovereign-class battleships, codenamed “buzhou mountain,” everyone finally gained a visceral understanding of the concept of “gas giant level.”

From a distance, it looked like two suspended metal planets. Now, up close, it filled your entire field of vision.

Its silver-gray alloy shell was pieced together from countless hexagonal and irregularly polygonal giant armor plates, each large enough to easily berth a dijiang-class star cruising battleship.

Ethereal blue energy patterns flowed along the seams between the armor plates. Massive arrays of heat dissipation grilles resembled continuous mountain ranges, spewing high-temperature excited fluorescent particles. Sensor arrays and turret bases were like strange peaks and rocks on a planetary surface, densely packed and stretching endlessly.

Li Yuan and his comrades' fighters, at this moment, truly resembled a group of insignificant flying insects attempting to land on a platform somewhere in the Himalayas.

“Ants…” Laya mumbled, her mouth slightly agape, as she peered through the cockpit’s front window, “We’re like ants looking at a flying mountain…”

“Correction,” Elia’s cool voice came over the channel, “It’s more like ants standing at the foot of a mountain, gazing up at Mount Everest.”

Even the usually arrogant Sai Wei fell silent, merely staring at the metallic bulwark that seemed to occupy the entire sky, his Adam’s apple unconsciously bobbing.

Chu Xinghe’s voice, tinged with a smile, echoed through the channel: “How is it, big enough? This is just a secondary landing platform in its ‘North Pole’ region. Hold tight, prepare for docking.”

The fighters followed the guidance signal, flying into a colossal channel wide enough for battlecruisers to enter. Both sides of the channel were lined with countless neatly arranged indicator lights and maintenance corridors.

After several minutes of flight, their vision suddenly cleared—a vast, enclosed hangar, resembling an underground city, appeared before them.

Above them was an arched dome hundreds of meters high, covered with mobile maintenance cranes and material transport tracks. The ground was as smooth as a mirror, densely packed with various types of fighters, all neatly arranged.

Personnel in different colored uniforms or work clothes and intelligent robots bustled like an ant colony, shuttling between the ships.

“Welcome to ‘buzhou mountain,’ ruler-class planet battleship, hull number T-07,” Chu Xinghe’s fighter was the first to dock at the designated berth, his voice coming through the external speakers.

“Everyone disembark, form up, and follow me. Don’t get lost—if you get lost here, the search and rescue team might be looking for days.”

The group, feeling a bit disoriented, climbed out of their fighters. Once their feet were on solid ground, they felt even smaller. The air in the hangar carried a faint metallic and ozone scent, the gravity was adjusted to be almost identical to standard gravity, and the temperature was pleasant.

Chu Xinghe reformed the team and led them towards a giant automated gangway leading into the battleship's interior, all while beginning his “tour guide explanation.”

“The ruler-class planet battleship, the ultimate decisive weapon of humanity’s ‘Defense Era’,” his voice echoed slightly in the spacious gangway.

“The design philosophy was simple: since the Zerg have biological mother nests like the Leviathan, we’ll build an even bigger, tougher, and more heavily armed steel monster to duke it out with them, and see who dies first.”

This crude and direct philosophy made many of the cadets’ mouths twitch.

“Of course, the actual design wasn’t that simple,” Chu Xinghe chuckled.

“Its core is the Stellar Furnace engine, its main weapon is the ‘Guixu’ Annihilation Wave Cannon, and its secondary weapons include three hundred Genesis Ray Cannons and forty-three Requiem Deflection Particle Cannons. Its defense relies on the Nibelungen array defense system covering the entire ship.

In that era, it was a mobile ultimate fortress, a symbol of hope, and the last shield of humanity’s defense line.”

Li Yuan couldn’t help but interject, “Senior Brother Chu, how could such a powerful battleship… be on the verge of obsolescence?” This colossal ship, by all appearances, had nothing to do with being “outdated.”

“Good question,” Chu Xinghe snapped his fingers, “The reason for its obsolescence is very practical—not because it’s not strong enough, but because the cost of making it ‘even stronger’ is prohibitively high.”

He slowed his pace to allow the cadets to catch up, continuing his explanation:

“The Sovereign-class design and construction are based on Stellar Furnace technology. However, our purple subtlety is equipped with a new generation of ‘Annihilation Engines’.

In terms of energy output, a single Dijiang-class Annihilation Engine’s power is already comparable to a Sovereign-class Stellar Furnace.”

Seeing the cadets’ astonished expressions, Chu Xinghe nodded: “That’s right, technology advances. Annihilation Engines are more efficient and more compact.

So, the question is: if we upgrade the Sovereign-class, and replace its ‘small sun’ with a more advanced Annihilation Engine array, would it work?”

He paused, then answered his own question:

“Theoretically, yes, it would.”

Chu Xinghe’s expression grew serious: “But according to the General Armaments Department’s estimates, a complete upgrade and refit of a Sovereign-class from a Stellar Furnace to a full-ship Annihilation Engine system—

The resources consumed—including special materials, energy, man-hours, and technological investment—would be enough for us to build over three thousand brand new dijiang-class star cruising battleships from scratch.”

This number made everyone gasp.

“Three thousand Dijiang-class!” Sai Wei couldn’t help but exclaim, “That’s enough to form thousands of complete rapid reaction task forces!”

“Exactly,” Chu Xinghe affirmed, “And in the tactical environment of the ‘Standoff Era,’ an upgraded Sovereign-class has no significant difference in strategic value compared to a single Dijiang-class. And in this era, without upgrading, it will eventually be phased out.

So, it’s not that the Sovereign-class is no longer capable, but rather that we have more cost-effective options. The existing Sovereign-class battleships will continue to serve their purpose as multi-functional fortresses supporting logistics.”

This calculation, based on resource economics and strategic perspective, plunged Li Yuan and the others into deeper thought. War, indeed, was a contest of comprehensive strength.

As they spoke, they had already passed through several heavy security gates and entered a relatively enclosed, yet extremely open, circular viewing platform.

Chu Xinghe stopped, pointing to the massive, curved floor-to-ceiling window in the center of the viewing platform, protected by multiple layers of high-strength transparent alloy and force fields.

“Alright, welcome to the heart of ‘buzhou mountain’—the Stellar Furnace. Look outside.”

Outside the window was a “room.”

An unimaginably huge spherical “room,” its inner walls covered with a dizzying array of energy conduits, confinement coils, and heat dissipation structures. And in the very center of the room, floated a…

“A… a star?!” Someone stammered out.

It was a “small” star, roughly the same diameter as North Star.

It wasn’t the scorching white-yellow of a natural star, but rather a deep, mysterious, continuously surging ethereal blue light.

The light was not dazzling. One could see huge, solar flare-like energy streams erupting from the surface of the “flames” from time to time, striking the confinement field on the inner wall and stirring up rings of magnificent halos.

“Indeed, an artificial star.”