Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 545

Chapter 543, Battleship Technology

Gu Hang smiled slightly when he learned that the choke point between Shangdong and Guangfeng had been resolved.

This passage from the Menghe Star Region to the Aozhua Star Region was essential, a vital passage for the subsequent war, and therefore crucially important.

Opening up the jump points on both sides only made the route passable; only now was it relatively unobstructed, less of a threat.

In truth, for Gu Hang, if the Fury Fleet had remained on Guangfeng, relying on its comprehensive planetary defenses, he wouldn’t have dared to charge forward recklessly, and the war situation would have been very different.

However, the current situation wasn’t necessarily better than that scenario.

After all, if the Fury Fleet and the main forces of their regiment had converged on Guangfeng, Gu Hang could have adopted a strategy of decisive battle. The battle itself would undoubtedly have been much more difficult, but if he won, the rest of the Aozhua Star Region would have been a smooth road for Gu Hang to conquer.

It’s nothing like now, where, after conquering just two star regions, one has to consider the risks and pause to digest the gains. Only after eliminating as many potential risks as possible can one resume the offensive.

Since the current phase is to digest the gains, Gu Hang has decided to use his own Grace Points to boost his efforts.

He currently holds a considerable number of Grace Points.

Over the past few years, the Alliance’s monthly Grace Points have consistently increased. The primary driver of this growth has been the planets and star regions of the Dragon Eagle Star Region. Following the Alliance’s institutional reforms, centralization and control over local areas have become increasingly stronger.

This, in turn, has enabled the Alliance to better allocate resources and develop the economies of these planets in a manner tailored to local conditions.

The Alliance’s rank system can effectively improve the living standards of the people.

Increased control, increased productivity and economic development, and improved living standards

are the three most important factors contributing to the monthly Grace Point income.

Furthermore, a significant source of income comes from the control of the Menghe Star Region.

While the Menghe Star Region’s control, development, and living standards weren’t quite up to par, it was still vast, encompassing hundreds of worlds, providing a considerable amount of Boon Points.

Gu Hang’s monthly Boon Point income had already reached 330,000.

This was double what it was four years ago.

From this fixed monthly income alone, Gu Hang had earned over 12 million Boon Points over the past four years.

However, he hadn’t saved any of these Boon Points.

The past four years had been spent preparing for war. Of course, Boon Points couldn’t be saved; they were spent.

Furthermore, a significant amount went mostly into military training and building acquisitions to increase productivity.

As for technology, only 4 million was spent. Four million-level lotteries were held.

None of these draws resulted in an Apocalypse-level

technology. The probability of winning a million-level Apocalypse-level technology is only about 10%.

However, he did win two Epic-level technologies:

the [Engineering Research Facility] and the [Phase Weapon].

The former is used for engineering research, helping the Alliance build better research institutes. Its greatest benefit is that it allows the Alliance to better and more quickly assimilate various extracted black box technologies, allowing the Alliance to maintain continuous production of these new technologies even after they are released from the black box, leveraging its own supply chain.

Gu Hang had previously drawn something like this, but that was in the field of biochemical research.

While biochemical technology is certainly important, engineering is relatively more crucial.

The manufacturing of all types of machinery, from tanks to mechas, from Titans to starships, falls under the umbrella of engineering.

With this technology, the Alliance’s own technological capabilities will be significantly enhanced, allowing them to reverse engineer many things that currently can only be produced through black box research.

As for the second epic technology, the Phase Weapon, it’s also quite powerful.

The Alliance had never heard of this technology in the Empire’s conventional technology before.

However, various records and anecdotes collected by the Alliance Intelligence Department have mentioned it.

These green-glowing weapons can occasionally be seen among some Chapters and even within some very secretive Imperial forces.

They mostly appear as cold weapons, unable to be turned into projectiles; yet their destructive power is astonishing. Phase swords crafted using this technology can practically ignore all physical defenses, directly destroying the desired area.

In other words, if Martins had swapped his exquisitely crafted power sword for a phase sword during the bloody duel between the Phoenixes and the Fury, the battle wouldn’t have reached the point of exhaustion for either man. With a weapon capable of ignoring the protection of Terminator power armor and directly damaging the flesh within, Martins would likely have slain his opponent long ago.

Of course, the same would hold true in reverse.

However, Gu Hang wasn’t overly excited.

He reviewed the detailed technical specifications and spoke with engineers at the Alliance’s secret research institute, essentially confirming that the Alliance simply couldn’t mass-produce such a weapon.

Even with the motherboard black box, it wouldn’t work.

The Alliance simply didn’t have the necessary processing capabilities for the basic materials required. Even if they had established a production line, they wouldn’t be able to produce it without the necessary components.

We can only produce one in a week using the finished black box.

So the application scope is very small.

Not to mention large-scale deployment, even equipping the Phoenix Regiment would take twenty years.

Of course, this problem is actually related to the [Engineering Technology Research Facility] technology that Gu Hang mentioned earlier.

Engineering technology research solves this kind of problem.

Of course, Gu Hang did not require a large amount of research resources to be invested in this project.

As a cold weapon, although it is very powerful, the role it can play in key battles will also be very important. However, after all, its use is relatively narrow. Having the finished black box for manufacturing and small-scale equipment will suffice.

There are also numerous other important technologies requiring Alliance technicians. Phased weapons aren’t a high priority.

This is roughly how much Grace Points have been spent over the past four years.

While he hasn’t accumulated much wealth from his monthly fixed income, it’s important to note that fixed income is only a portion of Gu Hang’s Grace Point income.

Another major source of income comes from war.

In the early years, the campaign to conquer the entire Menghe star region didn’t provide much income for Gu Hang.

While the campaign was large-scale, encompassing an entire star region, the intensity of the war wasn’t particularly high. The Alliance’s conquest relied more on political tactics, and the enemy’s resistance wasn’t strong.

Under these circumstances, the amount of Grace Points accumulated was naturally limited.

However, when the rebel forces, led by the Fury Legion, began their southward advance, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle in the northern part of the Menghe star region, the Grace Point income from the war began to rise rapidly.

When the main force of the Alliance launched an offensive, breaching the Shangdong-Guangfeng corridor and reclaiming two star regions within the Proud Claw Sector, the war’s Bounty Point income saw another significant increase.

Although the Alliance didn’t find an opportunity to engage in a decisive battle with the Fury Flame Fleet during this process, failing to destroy its main force, the overall scale of the war was clear. Whether it was destroying the space defense systems of the interstellar tunnel jump points, conquering the Upper East Star, or suppressing the twenty worlds in the Proud Claw Sector… there were battles to be fought.

Gu Hang didn’t waste the Bounty Points earned from these wars, hoarding them all.

So far, the total income from these efforts has reached over ten million.

Perfect for a ten-draw draw of the million-level!

Apocalypse-level technology has a 10% chance of yielding a drop in the million-level range, so a ten-draw draw offers a high probability of a return!

And sure enough, just as Gu Hang had hoped, it delivered.

What’s more, it turned out to be exactly what he’d wanted most:

[Apocalypse-class Technology: Nemesis-class Battleship].

Gu Hang’s face once again wore an unconcealed smile!

The long-awaited battleship technology had finally arrived!

Although, having only just been released, it couldn’t be put to immediate use. After all, from the construction of the dockyard to the lengthy manufacturing cycle of the starship itself, it was no easy feat for the Alliance to build its own Nemesis-class battleship.

But it was a good start!

Gu Hang almost immediately shared the relevant technical information with Wu Jiarong via highly encrypted astropathic communication.

Ms. Wu Jiarong, a sage of the Ming Yang Cult, was now a key participant in the close cooperation between the Mechanicum and the Alliance, permanently stationed on the Wrathful Owl Star.

In other words, she had returned.

The situation had changed. Previously, Gu Hang had considered creating a Mechanicum-like facade, a branch sect, to conceal the black-box technology.

But now, it seemed unnecessary.

The Ming Yang Cult was highly cooperative.

In the context of the entire universe and the entire empire, the Ming Yang Sect is, of course, a small, remote sect with little reputation and very little influence. However, they possess a long history. Jindi Star, as a forge world, has developed over three thousand years, giving them a certain foundation.

While they possess this foundation, their actual power is rather modest. Their core power lies within the Dragon Eagle Star Region, the alliance’s home turf, and their influence, at best, covers half of the Eastern Universe… Such a sect is simply perfect.

The diplomatic exchanges conducted through a black box four years ago were relatively successful.

Under these circumstances, Gu Hang put aside the idea of Wu Jiarong establishing her own sect. With her status as a sage within the Ming Yang Sect, she could simply exploit the Ming Yang Sect’s cover.

Of course, simply sending back information about the Retribution-class battleships would not be enough.

He redeemed both black boxes related to this technology—one for assisting with dock construction and one for directly manufacturing the core components of a Retribution-class battleship—and tore open a Warp rift, dropping the contents into his Kingdom of Storms.

Most of the Alliance’s current black boxes are housed in the Black Box Workshop within the Kingdom of Storms. These two black boxes will be no exception.

The Heroic Spirits will diligently work in the Black Box Workshop, producing components according to the research institute’s needs and regularly delivering them to the secret research institute on Wrathful Owl.

According to Wu Jiarong’s estimation, taking into account the dock construction and the ability to directly manufacture key components from the Black Box, the Alliance’s first domestically produced Retribution-class battleship should be completed in six years.

Thereafter, the Alliance could maintain a production rate of two ships every eight years.

It’s important to note that “producing two ships every eight years” doesn’t necessarily mean one ship every four years.

A single Retribution-class battleship’s production cycle of eight years is truly remarkable. At most, the Alliance could, with the help of black box technology, begin construction on two ships simultaneously, leaving the technically challenging and time-consuming steps to the finished black box.

At this rate of construction, in eight years, the Alliance would have two more Retribution-class ships, one Zhuge-class ship, two Holy Grail-class ships, and two Dragon Serpent-class ships purchased from the Mingyang Sect.

Adding their current eight ships, the Alliance’s main battleship count would soar to fifteen!

If this scale is successfully reached, the Alliance would have a chance of engaging in a major battle with the Iron Fury Stone’s main fleet!

After all, the Ironclad only boasts twenty-one battleships, aircraft carriers, and thirty or so battlecruisers.

But they can’t bring all of their ships south, or else the rest of the world will be in trouble.

Unfortunately…

even with all his optimism, Gu Hang couldn’t predict what the war would look like in eight years.

Perhaps, if the war drags on, it could indeed reach that point.

But would the Ironclad allow the Alliance to continue its quiet expansion southward for another eight years?

It seems unlikely.

Moreover, the Alliance itself needs to make further adjustments to its economic structure. Even if two more battleship production lines are put into operation, the economic structure of Angry Owl Star may not be able to withstand it. More people will need to be relocated, and more consumer goods and materials will need to be imported from the planetary level to support it.

However, Gu Hang did not think there was much to regret.

With battleship technology, their war potential would be greatly enhanced.

Time will be on their side.

As for the current war, they will fight at their own pace.

(End of this chapter)