227: Chapter 227 The Assassin Finally Draws His Sword, A Headshot from Three Million Kilometers Away!
Countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship, fortieth day.
Pangu Laboratory, B2 level, afternoon.
In two days, three lines were cleaned up.
Academician Li Zhengyang finalized all parameters for the sniper cannon in the weapon adaptation area: three-stage tandem focusing structure, compensation coils, fifteen-second firing interval, and cooling circuits.
Each item had undergone at least three rounds of individual verification.
Academician Zhang Weide completed the final set of extreme condition simulations for the orbital torpedo ejection, with the constraint structure of the fusion warhead remaining stable under all preset impacts.
Zhao Mingyuan's reconnaissance system successfully interfaced the two algorithmic lines—passive detection and pre-stored entangled state silent locking—with the main god ai deduction layer, and the data flow completed a full cycle without any hitches.
Su Che fed the three systems into the full-machine simulation environment of the Mingdi Interceptor.
Layering on the previously finalized frame, inertial gliding, and orbital air-drop modules, he built the ultimate joint debugging scenario.
Simulated operating conditions were maxed out.
The Mingdi Interceptor launched from the Luan Niao Mothership, accelerated to a cruising speed of 720 kilometers per second, shut down to enter inertial gliding, and used cold gas thrusters for three trajectory micro-corrections.
Utilizing the gravity slingshot of Jupiter to change orbits, it drifted silently toward the simulated target formation near Mars orbit.
At the end of the glide, the reconnaissance system activated.
With pre-stored entangled state silent locking, the Luan Niao Mothership emitted detection signals from afar, while the Mingdi Interceptor locally read the state changes of entangled photons, radiating no detectable signals throughout the process.
Seven simulated targets were marked one by one against the deep space background.
The main god ai sniper fire control unit locked onto the primary target, with the motion prediction model correcting the 30-meter displacement deviation within the 0.3-millisecond communication delay window that Academician Qian Zhenhua had previously proposed.
Fire.
The particle beam shot out from the exit of the 3.6-meter cannon barrel, with three-stage focusing compressing the beam to a 0.3-millimeter cross-section.
Hit.
Terminal deviation was 1.7 meters.
Second shot, fifteen-second interval.
Hit, deviation 2.1 meters.
Torpedo ejection—the hatch rotated open, two 400-kilogram fusion warhead torpedoes left the rack one after another, autonomously changing orbits at the terminal to tangent toward large targets.
The reconnaissance system remained silent throughout, with the infrared radiation, electromagnetic signals, and propulsion characteristics of the Mingdi Interceptor all suppressed below the deep space background noise.
Finished the last frame.
On the public big screen, all seven targets were destroyed.
The Mingdi Interceptor itself had zero exposure.
Academician Li Zhengyang stood up from the weapon adaptation area, rested his hands on the workbench, glanced at the numbers on the big screen, and put the half-opened bag of salted peanuts back into the tool drawer.
He didn't speak.
No need to speak.
Su Che encapsulated and packaged the complete technical package, labeled it "Mingdi Interceptor · Solar System Edition · Firepower Reconnaissance System · Final Draft," and pushed it into the encryption warehouse.
Deep in his mind, the blue-white panel popped up.
[Ding! Main R&D task "Equip the assassin with a full set of killing gear!" completed!]
[Long-range precision particle beam sniper cannon three-stage tandem focusing verification passed, terminal deviation at a 3-million-kilometer range compressed to within two meters!]
[Full process of orbital torpedo fusion warhead ejection separation and terminal maneuvering reached the standard! Full-domain stealth reconnaissance and locking system pre-stored entangled state silent locking zero exposure! Mingdi Interceptor, the quietest killer in the Solar System!]
[Task reward: 900,000 skill points!]
Nine hundred thousand.
Su Che closed the panel.
Liu Huaqiang came out of the communication area, his notebook turned to the Mingdi Interceptor firepower reconnaissance page, and he drew a checkmark with a pencil.
He flipped through the pages before and after; the Mingdi Interceptor core, inertial gliding, orbital air-drop, and firepower reconnaissance, four checkmarks lined up in a row.
"Chief Engineer Su, the R&D line for the Mingdi Interceptor is fully lit."
"Hmm."
Su Che didn't elaborate, picked up his handheld device, and dialed a number.
It connected after two rings.
"Academician Zhou, what is the progress on the White Emperor components?"
In the background noise on Zhou Dehai's end, there was the buzzing of a conveyor belt.
"The new Zhulong has been working two shifts for the past few days to produce large parts, while the old Zhulong is interspersed with producing precision small parts."
He continued.
"The total volume of White Emperor components is nearly 30% more than the Xuan Nü, and the process parameters are complex. The main load-bearing frame for your two-seat tandem cockpit section has tolerances two grades stricter than the Xuan Nü, and every piece Zhulong produces must undergo a full inspection."
"How much is left?"
"Part of it is finished. At the current speed, it will take about five more days to get the full set of components."
"What about assembly after they are all out?"
"The White Emperor is far more complex than the Xuan Nü, with two-seat cockpits, pre-embedded Brain-Computer Interface cables, dual-mode flight control buses, and airbag cervical protection. I conservatively estimate the final assembly cycle at five days."
Su Che calculated in his head.
Five days for parts plus five days for assembly, counting down to the thirtieth day, the first White Emperor test flight.
"Okay, keep an eye on it."
"Wait a minute." Zhou Dehai's speech speed increased, "When will you give me the component production schedule for the Mingdi Interceptor?"
"Tonight."
"Give it to me tonight, and the new Zhulong can slot in the first batch of Mingdi Interceptor components tomorrow. However, there is a problem with the Mingdi Interceptor. Although this interceptor is small in size."
He paused, "But that 3.6-meter three-stage tandem focusing cannon barrel is the component with the highest precision in the entire machine. The man-hours for Zhulong to produce this part are longer than producing the White Emperor cockpit section."
Su Che pulled up the sniper cannon's manufacturing process parameter file on the terminal and quickly flipped to the cannon barrel section.
The precision requirement for the mounting surface of the three-stage magnetic lens reached the micron level, and the tolerance for the compensation coil's embedded slot was only one order of magnitude lower than the mechanical precision requirement of a sub-nanometer lithography deposition integrated machine.
It was indeed difficult.
"How long will it take for the full set of Mingdi Interceptor components to be finished?"
Zhou Dehai calculated for a few seconds.
"Twelve days. And then for assembly, although the Mingdi Interceptor has few modules, calibrating the cannon barrel is slow work. Assembly is expected to take eight days."
Twelve plus eight, counting down to the twentieth day, the first Mingdi Interceptor test flight.
"Understood." Su Che noted the two time nodes and hung up the phone.
He put the handheld device back on the table and leaned against the side of the main console.
The few people on the B2 level were each finishing up.
Zhao Mingyuan added full comments to the final version of the reconnaissance algorithm code; the inside of his work uniform cuffs was already full, so he flipped to the other cuff and wrote a reminder on the clean fabric.
"Engineer Zhao, that cuff will be gone after one wash." Academician Sun Qiwen glanced at it as he passed by.
"I won't wash it." Zhao Mingyuan flipped the cuff back, "This is productivity."
Academician Zhang Weide closed all simulation windows on the supercomputing terminal, stood up, and stretched.
Wen Bo came in from the corner of the corridor, having swapped the micrometer hanging on his waist for a folding ruler.
He walked to the test bench and put the previously spread-out ablation material test pieces and the material selection report for the torpedo cabin into a folder.
Academician Li Zhengyang gathered all the drawings on the workbench in the weapon adaptation area, stacked them in numerical order, clipped them, and put them into the confidential cabinet under the table.
That bag of salted peanuts was also locked away by him.
Academician Qian Zhenhua finished organizing the paper backup of the communication plan at the east workstation. When he stood up, he found his signature pen was not in his chest pocket, found it in the pen holder on the table, put it back, and left.
Su Che stood in front of the main console and switched the monitoring screen to Kaitian Base.
Three screens side by side.
On the left, the Xuan Nü mass production line.
Two Xuan Nü Solar System Edition jets were lying on the assembly rack doing final cable connections, while on the third line, one had just completed system self-checks, and a technician was signing for confirmation.
The mass production of the Xuan Nü had entered a stable rhythm.
In the middle, the new Zhulong component production area.
Silver-white White Emperor components passed through the full inspection station one after another on the conveyor belt.
A quality inspector wearing anti-static clothing measured key dimensions one by one with a digital display micrometer, sticking green labels on qualified ones and pushing them to the warehouse, while occasionally one was stuck with a yellow label and returned for rework.
On the right, the precision machining area of the old Zhulong.
A set of micro-connectors for the White Emperor's Brain-Computer Interface pre-embedded cables were coming off the production line, each smaller than a fingernail.
Su Che watched the three screens for two minutes.
He did the R&D, Zhulong did the production, Kaitian Base did the assembly, and the national power did the mass production.
Every step was racing against time.
He returned to the main console, sat down, opened the full-machine drawings of the Mingdi Interceptor, and began to export the component breakdown table and manufacturing tolerance table.
Give it to Zhou Dehai tonight.
The new Zhulong can start cutting tomorrow.
"Chief Engineer Su."
Liu Huaqiang walked to the side of the main console, his notebook tucked under his arm.
"The subsystems of the Mingdi Interceptor are all finalized. Should the next system task be the Mecha?"
Su Che lifted his head.
The Mecha, the final piece of equipment for the Nantianmen Project.
"No rush, you guys rest for the next few days." Su Che moved the cursor of the tolerance table to the next column, "Before the first White Emperor test flight, wait a bit."
"Wait for what?"
"Wait for the White Emperor to fly."
Su Che didn't explain further.
The White Emperor is a manned fighter jet; the test flight is not something that can be finished just by letting the main god ai run a lap.
There must be a pilot to go up.
The upgraded version of the Brain-Computer Interface has already been handed over to General Shen's side.
Whether the J-20 pilot's Brain-Computer Interface simulation training has started and whether the training progress can keep up with the White Emperor's off-line rhythm, these are things he must confirm.
Su Che continued to fill in the tolerance table for the Mingdi Interceptor. When he reached the cannon barrel section, he paused.
Three-stage tandem focusing cannon barrel, six key cross-sections, the coaxiality tolerance for each cross-section was written as plus or minus 0.5 microns.
He added a line of notes after the numbers: After Zhulong finishes processing, optical interference testing must be done in a cleanroom environment. If it is unqualified, it must be scrapped and reproduced directly; rework and correction are not allowed.
The precision of the sniper cannon is the lifeblood of the Mingdi Interceptor.
If this tube is crooked by a hair, the two-meter deviation three million kilometers away will become two hundred meters.
Su Che finished filling in the tolerance table, encrypted it, and sent it to Zhou Dehai.
Time stamp, just past six in the evening.
The handheld device vibrated.
Zhou Dehai's reply was only two words: "Received."
The B2 level quieted down.
Academician Zhang Weide was no longer in front of the supercomputing terminal, probably went back to the dormitory to catch up on sleep.
Zhao Mingyuan was curled up on the cot in the corner, the quilt only covering half of him, revealing the cuff covered in numbers.
Academician Sun Qiwen's thermos cup was placed on the second layer of the cabinet, the last bit of heat rising from the cup mouth.
Su Che switched the main screen back to the global view.
The Luan Niao Mothership was suspended next to the Near-Earth Orbit Base, and those empty installation ports on the hull were arranged in neat arrays under the starlight.
Xuan Nü mass production was running.
White Emperor components were being produced.
The Mingdi Interceptor would start cutting tomorrow.
In the corner of the main screen, the countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship.
Forty days.