79: Eternal Storm's first ship launched

"Father, when you said 'pilot a starship,' did you mean pilot a battlecruiser?!"

Inside the Main Control Tower of the Node Space Station,

Norma stared blankly at the silver-white behemoth lying silently in the Starport, assembling its modules, and asked in astonishment.

That's right, with three joint production lines operating at full capacity,

the first eternal storm in this universe was nearing completion.

"Hmm... not entirely,"

"There's also that series of smaller ships over there."

Xi Hai looked at the dumbfounded Norma and pointed to the monitoring screen of another Starport.

Norma's gaze followed Xi Hai's finger,

to a series of warships that had just completed their modifications.

kalilein's "Comet Tail" Close-In Weapon Systems were evenly distributed across every warship, covering every possible blind spot—

whether it was the lancer, the FG300, or the CAS066 (the ruby had its own general-purpose close-in weapon system, some of which were just subpar).

At the same time, the four CAS066s each had different modifications:

Two of them had "Eternal Polaris K" anti-air missile pods from the eternal storm mounted in the originally designated pod bays on their undersides;

The other two had their mounts changed to drones from the eternal storm—two "NT" anti-air drone pods and two shield-generating drone pods per ship.

Operating these added weapon systems was indeed as simple as night lamp said,

manual input only required assisting the weapon system to lock onto a target, then issuing the fire command,

In short: you just need eyes and hands.

Therefore, Xi Hai was not too worried about staffing issues.

Meanwhile, Norma's reaction was completely different:

Looking at the series of warships armed like hedgehogs, Norma's mouth opened even wider—

Standard length 1010 meters,

That must be a battlecruiser, right?

It definitely is, right?

How can that be called a small ship?

"Alright, alright, snap out of it."

Xi Hai reached out and waved his hand in front of Norma's eyes, saying,

"Where are the people I asked you to find?"

Norma quickly came to his senses and said hurriedly:

"Yes, yes, Father,"

"After an initial screening, we've found a total of 1998 people who can pilot starships."

Nearly one tenth?

Such a high proportion?

Xi Hai was a little surprised.

"Who are these people?"

He asked curiously.

Norma thought for a moment, pinching his chin, and said:

"Several hundred of the newly arrived debt workers were previously crew members on starships,"

"The remaining thousand-plus are drone tugboat operators."

"I figured since they all pilot ships, they should know a little bit."

Listening, Xi Hai was suddenly choked by his own saliva.

Did he just hear something about the left and right brain fighting each other?

What is a drone tugboat operator?

"Drone tugboats still need people to pilot them?"

Facing Xi Hai's question, Norma responded seriously:

"So when they are working, they are not people,"

"You should call them processing terminals."

"Of course, they prefer the nickname someone gave them before,"

"Homo Faber."

“...”

Kids, this isn't funny, but Xi Hai still laughed unkindly after hearing it.

After laughing and catching his breath, he pulled out a data disk, handed it to Norma, and said:

"This is the operation tutorial."

"Have them learn it in two hours,"

"In two hours,"

"We're going out."

"Remember, they must thoroughly master it!"

"It's life-related!"

Norma took it and replied:

"Yes, Father!"

And walked out.

Just as his left foot was about to step out the door, Xi Hai suddenly called out to him again:

"Wait twenty minutes, then come to the Starport for the battlecruiser's launching ceremony."

Norma was stunned at first, then overjoyed.

He turned around again, stood at attention, and shouted—

"YES!!!"

...The main body of the eternal storm had been completed tens of minutes ago.

It was now docked in the Starport, undergoing module installation.

Xi Hai stood quietly on the Starport's transparent observation deck, watching orange-yellow drones lift modules to their corresponding positions and install them.

As everyone knows,

in the game, this Jupiter Industry young lady's module slots were limited, even though many module positions didn't actually conflict.

—That was a design made for balance in the game.

But this eternal storm lying in the Starport was born entirely for war—

War hates balance the most.

"Commander, I'm here."

Suddenly, White Shark's voice came from behind,

followed by the sound of dense footsteps.

Xi Hai looked back,

White Shark, Baili Ying, Xu Chang... a series of people he had met since coming here, all walked in one after another—

That's right, Xi Hai wanted to hold a small launching ceremony for the first eternal storm born in this world.

After all, a sense of ritual is an indispensable part of daily life,

Without it, people are very likely to step into the abyss of nihilism.

"Hmm,"

"You're here."

Xi Hai turned around, looked at the large group of people behind him, and said:

"Do you know why I called you here?"

Except for Norma nodding, everyone else shook their heads.

Then, seeing everyone else shaking their heads, he also started shaking his head.

Xi Hai: ..."It's nothing,"

"I called you here to witness this surprise—"

"Right now, before our eyes,"

"The first ship of the eternal storm-class battlecruiser,"

"Is about to hold its launching ceremony!"

Saying that, he waved his hand and stepped away from the floor-to-ceiling window.

Only then did everyone notice that in the Starport docking area beneath their feet,

a silver-white behemoth was lying quietly!

Two huge torpedo bays were embedded in its wedge-shaped armor;

A giant cannon, gleaming with cold light, was hidden in the massive bow;

And the pulse cannon arrays, artillery, missiles, and so on distributed on the hull,

All were telling everyone—this was an indomitable war beast!