65: Chapter 65 Northern Edge

"Horizons Edge" controlled zone, Northern Border.

FVS-1001 "Admiral" class battlecruiser.

Although there was a bit of a rush in its construction, this warship was still built with quality and quantity guaranteed.

At the same time, Li Ming didn't forget to modify the specific armament and electronic equipment of this warship.

The seven 102mm anti-aircraft guns were changed to 38 MK12s. The position of that extra mount, along with the other 8-barrel 40mm Pom-Poms, was changed to quadruple 40mm Bofors, while also replacing/adding quadruple 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft machine guns.

The torpedoes were removed, leaving an empty area for future refits.

The electronic equipment was refitted with sg radar and a Mark 38 director equipped with MK38 radar (for which the forward mast had to be removed).

Although these modifications led to an increase in overall weight, for Li Ming, it was worth it.

Because of this, Li Ming went to invest in the Soviet and German naval tech trees, extracting their combined boiler-diesel power systems to upgrade the admiral class's propulsion system.

Although it made this already somewhat overweight giant ship even heavier, there was no doubt that this vessel had reached the ultimate limit of what current technology could achieve.

Now, this giant ship has become Li Ming's personal Command Ship (per the mandatory request of the Ship Girls) and the temporary flagship of the Horizons Edge Navy.

It still featured a dark gray hull with dark blue longitudinal stripes on the sides and diagonal slashes as its signature. Regarding this, Z23 once asked Li Ming why, and if it had any meaning.

"Because I think it looks cool," was Li Ming's answer.

And so, such a battlecruiser was launched. After completing the assembly work, it naturally took over the flagship and Command Ship duties from what was now called the FVS 4001 "Atlanta" class.

The goal of this "Imperial Cruise" was not a port that had been visited or conquered by the Royal Navy, but a newly developed virgin land.

"Javelin, do you think the others from the Royal Navy will still recognize this ship?" Li Ming suddenly thought of an interesting question.

"Um... maybe they can?" Javelin looked at the heavily modified battlecruiser and said with some uncertainty.

"I don't know either, but I think..." Li Ming looked back. To adjust the hull structure and enhance safety, Li Ming had also asked the Manjuu designers to adjust the layout of the superstructure to make it neater and cancel some parts that were currently unnecessary.

Now, except for the hull shell, main guns, rear mast, and funnel, this ship looked completely like a new vessel.

Although Z23 was somewhat concerned about the reliability of the ship after such major modifications, Li Ming wasn't too worried. The battlecruiser, which originally had a full complement of 1,433 people, was stuffed with 2,000 working Yellow Chickens by Li Ming for maintenance and troubleshooting.

This also included design personnel, making it convenient to lay the foundation for subsequent maintenance and refits.

For this voyage, Li Ming brought Fujian, Javelin, Z23, and Laffey, leaving A6 and Ayanami to guard the home base. Li Ming wasn't focused on the voyage itself, but was thinking about the Federation or Empire ships they might encounter at any time.

The presence of a top-tier Ship Girl and an escort was the best form of diplomacy here.

On the sea level, the largest island in the northern part of the archipelago had appeared before their eyes.

This was a large island with an area of over 500 square kilometers, and it happened to be located near the border of the northern controlled zone. Therefore, Li Ming chose this place as his site for external communication, preparing for possible future exchanges or even human settlement.

Thanks to the rapid expansion capabilities of the Molecular Assembler, Li Ming successfully built a preliminary industrial base on this island in less than a month. This scale was not exaggerated, yet it could maintain basic production and maintenance capabilities.

At the same time, this island had a bay large enough to accommodate a large fleet including over a dozen capital ships.

Of the wealth provided by the Hurricane Fleet, aside from a portion kept as reserves, Li Ming ultimately invested all the rest into this place.

For no other reason than it was worth it—at least, that's what Li Ming believed.

The fleet approached the island and prepared to moor under the guidance of the lighthouse.

The wind and waves inside the bay were much smaller than outside. Although Li Ming's seasickness had lessened significantly on the large ship, to be honest, solid land still made him feel more comfortable.

Due to it being a bay, even with professional tugboats, it still took the entire fleet several hours to fully enter. This made Li Ming realize that a port also needed to be built outside the bay for mooring small vessels and temporary stops.

The transport ships were unloading supplies, Fujian went to check the defenses, Z23 went to count information and check communications, while Laffey and Javelin stayed by his side.

The weather was getting hotter, and Li Ming's daily wear had changed to short sleeves. However, he seemed to always wear long pants, regardless of the temperature.

“Let's go, let's go take a look at the base.” Li Ming stood on the transport boat with his hands on his hips, looking proud.

“Oh...” Laffey lazily raised her hands in a gesture of agreement.

“Oh!” Javelin was jubilant; she was sincerely happy for the Commander's achievements.

Stepping onto the breakwater, before Li Ming was a naval base much more complete and formal than the port area where the qinglong ship was located.

Although the staff and garrison were still Yellow Chickens, for now, the Yellow Chickens were a perfect or even superior replacement for traditional personnel.

But now, Li Ming's attention was not on these, but on taking them to the living quarters first.

Considering there might be guests here in the future, the living quarters were divided into internal and external sections. The core living area was for their own people, while the outer area was for guests.

Compared to the darker environment on the qinglong ship, the pure white walls here looked perhaps more comfortable.

The furnishings in the rooms were basically copied from the qinglong ship, so they fully met the needs of a modern home, except for the lack of computers and a massive internet.

According to estimates, the next month would be the most likely time for the Ship Girl General Bureau to react. If time allowed, Li Ming also planned to bring Ayanami and A6 over here first.

No other reason, he just wanted to do it.

Industrial decentralization had been completed, and the qinglong ship was not that fragile. The defenses Li Ming deployed near the qinglong ship and the ship's own never-before-used self-defense measures were enough to last until Li Ming brought everyone back to reinforce it.

And the Sirens, who seemed to be the greatest threat, were precisely the least likely to attack there; it didn't fit the experimental requirements.

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