53: The calm before the storm

Another incredibly handsome guy (Olga Chair Card) sent a burst update with flowers.

I decided to get up in the middle of the night and update another chapter for him... On the Bridge of the lucky,

the torpedo, carrying everyone's hopes, silently struck the steel-armored monster,

erupting in a dazzling white light—

The principle of this extremely low-yield neutron armor-piercing torpedo is to use a plasma warhead to breach the armor,

then release a large quantity of confined high-energy fast neutrons at the breach,

to kill soft targets inside the Warship.

However, countless eons ago,

most Warships began to install localized magnetic field shields in important areas.

Subsequently,

the combat strategy for torpedoes and missiles shifted to primarily destroying the main structure of enemy Warships.

This type of warhead, which isn't even compatible with universal launch tubes,

is basically only used for bandit suppression and anti-smuggling duties.

The lucky only carried one such torpedo to pass its annual inspection—

The rampaging neutron stream quickly rushed into the giant beast's body from the breach,

rapidly destroying the connections between cells,

and breaking through the external structure of each cell.

Its tail tentacles twisted and fell off,

and its torso continuously contorted.

Several armor plates covering it

were instantly deformed by the immense pressure,

twisting into a tangled mess.

Even though they were an unknown distance away,

everyone on the Bridge felt its pain.

"I can't believe it actually worked?"

Watching the giant beast struggle towards death,

Gulac sighed softly.

Then, he turned his head to the pilot,

and ordered:

"Shut down the maneuver engines,"

"Return to the safe route planned for us by our allies!"

"Return to port!"

..."Warp Drive Module, cooling down."

A white flash streaked across the sky, and the fleet, led by four CAS066s, finally completed its warp travel.

The scattered Swarm around them seemed to have discovered this suddenly appearing fleet,

and instantly swarmed forward,

only to be decimated into a mass of floating organic matter by a barrage of concentrated firepower.

Xi Hai stood on the Bridge,

looking at the Pathfinder base outside the window, enveloped in a translucent light shield.

Azure production lines, silver-gray exterior—this was where every setting Pathfinder's dream began.

Due to resource limitations, the current base only has two capital Warship production lines, one joint production line, and one carrier-based aircraft production line.

(PS: The joint production line can produce all types of Warships, from aircraft to aircraft carriers)

(The capital Warship production line can produce Warships from frigate to cruiser class)

The previously scheduled shipbuilding task was paused after producing 30 kalilein and 20 lancer, not only because production capacity was allocated to neutron torpedoes,

but also because the port area simply couldn't accommodate any more—

The port was packed, dozens of Warships arranged crisscross,

without an inch of wasted space.

After removing the base's shield status from the night lamp, Xi Hai's flagship, the CAS066 marked 01, slowly sailed towards the port area,

while other Warships remained in place,

setting up a makeshift defensive line.

Several lancer crowded in the port area slowly ascended and departed under dispatch, making room for the CAS066 carrying Xi Hai.

With the Warship successfully docked, Xi Hai, accompanied by White Shark and several Marines, went aboard.

The Marines' powered armor clanked on the metal floor of the port area,

making a "duangduangdaung" sound.

Xi Hai listened to the footsteps behind him,

walking and pondering.

Actually,

compared to holding this existing base,

he preferred to develop in another star system.

The current Ursa Major V12.22, after being scoured by the Swarm,

no longer had a proportional cost-to-benefit ratio.

He returned

to see if he could put this base into the folding space given by the night lamp,

and take it directly with him.

If not, he would pick up Xu Chang and his sister, and dismantle this base for resources.

Thinking this, the group silently walked deeper... In the Claude Military-Political Consortium,

the capital star system, Ursa Major V01.01.

The supreme leader of the Claude Military-Political Consortium, Marshal Dietrich Claude, sat at his desk,

listening to new information about the Order Grand Ceremony sent by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

This probing of the Military Alliance was undoubtedly successful.

They had reduced their annual resource contributions by half,

and also gained an opportunity to intervene in Military Alliance affairs.

He nodded in satisfaction,

opened the bottle of naturally brewed white wine, nominally belonging to all citizens,

and critically took a small sip.

—That's right,

—The great Marshal had no private property.

—Everything around him was public property belonging to all citizens,

—It was just that, as the leader, he exercised the right of use on behalf of the citizens for 24 standard hours a day.

The alcohol slightly stimulated his nerves,

prompting his brain to rapidly secrete more dopamine.

Half the aid materials meant that The Consortium's economy, which was in a mess, could be completely revived.

Besides, there were also supplies from other secondary regimes.

The initial processing of basic resources would definitely fall to their five top regimes.

They couldn't possibly rely on the Military Alliance's light industry, which struggled even to produce personal terminals, could they?

Thinking this, he was about to strike while the iron was hot,

and summon the Minister of Finance of The Consortium to discuss the matter of "spoilage" when,

just as his hand was about to dial the Minister of Finance's direct line on his desk,

his secretary suddenly sent him an emergency contact—

This was a channel that could only be connected when the situation was extremely serious and he needed to know immediately!

As soon as it connected, an anxious voice came through:

"Marshal, reporting!"

"Ursa Major V12.22, bordering the Lacray Empire, lost contact today!"

"Before that, the Interstellar Defense Force there sent a distress call!"

"Duang!" Instantly, the communicator belonging to all citizens fell to the ground.