The acceptance of the new spaceship is an important matter, and because this is a project that Sandora and I personally follow up, we also need to go and see it in person during the acceptance. So after breakfast, I left the noisy protoss guys aside, and came to the shadow space with Sandora who was in a good mood.
The new spaceship is assembled on the back of the parent planet Gaia—I usually call the side of Gaia facing the shadow city the front—on a high-level orbit. Tavel has established a medium-sized star port here, which is specially used for Construct various verified space facilities. When Sandora and I came here, Tavel was still directing his team to make final system adjustments and initial energy injections for the new spaceship. We are standing at the top of the A-2 tower on the space side of the star port. There is an open observation hall. Through the transparent barrier of the observation hall, we can see two silver-gray alloy "bridges" that are more than ten kilometers long. Protruding from the main body of the star port below, it goes straight into space, and a large number of metal or light beam "skeletons" extend from the bridge, making them look like strange multi-legged arthropods: this is a variable berth, It should be used to fix the new spaceship. But in the middle of this slipway, all I can see is a dark space where there is nothing.
"The new spaceship is temporarily shielded by the invisible force field, and the subordinates hope that this can achieve a surprising effect." Tavel's... I don't know how many clones came behind me, and said in a proud tone, "When the final debugging is completed, Your Majesties will be able to see it. It's a beautiful big thing."
The corner of my mouth twitched, and I thought it was still a coffin. I saw the sketch of the new spaceship in Sandora’s room that day. The only improvement in the shape of this coffin-controlling glasses girl is to turn one coffin into two parallel ones. Arranged coffins. But seeing the happy look on Tavel's face, I didn't have the nerve to say it directly.
"If the new spaceship passes the inspection and acceptance, it can be put into production directly," Sandora said without turning her head. "In addition, as soon as possible, the technology with general value on the new spaceship will be regressed, and a large-scale inspection of the existing starships of the empire will be carried out." authorized upgrade."
Tavel's mass projection returned a military salute: "Yes, Your Majesty, this is already being done."
Sandora mentioned "authorized upgrades" and the replacement of Imperial starships. I have also been in touch with a lot of things in this regard, so it is better to explain this high-tech-sounding term.
We all know that the Xiling Empire has many things that have been in service for millions or even tens of millions of years. A series of starships may even have been active on the battlefield for longer than the civilization cycle of many races, just like Eternal-class battleships, they have been in service since the end of the old empire expansion era, and they are still one of the most important main battleships of the Imperial Army - it is easy to give people the wrong impression that the imperial weapons are old antiques that have not been updated for so many years Pass.
In fact, on the contrary, the war machines equipped by the Imperial Army have not only been updated, but their speed of progress can reach an unbelievable level, and even new equipment will be put into the frontline troops almost every moment. It's just that after the stage of "restricted by shape and use", the military experts of the empire no longer carried out drastic reforms on the shells of those war machines. They turned to carry out subtle but continuous "fine-tuning upgrades" on in-service equipment, that is, to continuously improve the spacecraft with small technological breakthroughs, and then conduct a major upgrade when new technologies accumulate to the breaking point. The Eternal-class starship seems to have remained unchanged for millions of years, but in fact its main structure will be completely updated almost every thirty to fifty years, and this thorough update will be split into tens of thousands of times to complete.
And every update is carried out simultaneously for all troops in the whole empire.
This way of upgrading equipment sounds a bit crazy, like a whimsical setting. In the real world, there is probably no normal logistics system that can support this kind of replacement plan: if you develop a new type of screw, you have to run around. Unscrew all the equipment in the country, and ask you to do it every three to five days-the Minister of Logistics must be crazy.
Therefore, the Xiling Apostles have established an unusual and abnormal so-called "logistics" system. They use something called an "authorized upgrade agreement" to perform ultra-high-speed routine updates for their troops.
The effective mechanism of this "authorized upgrade agreement" is very complicated, and the manual weighs several kilograms. We only need to know its general process: First, this agreement is established on two premises, one is the different space storage and link of Xiling Apostle Technology, one is the "information-matter" conversion production module that will be carried by medium and large war units. These two technologies are the basis for "authorization upgrades".
The first step in the "authorized upgrade" is naturally the work of R&D departments at all levels. Military experts develop new war machines, or a small component of this war machine. Any slight technological progress can be used as an authorized upgrade. Even if this unit is just a new type of spaceship seat. This new "unit" that can be upgraded is designed and manufactured by technicians. After passing the inspection, the advanced research and development team will make a judgment. If this is a new model of independent equipment, the blueprint will be sent to various arsenals for regular production. , if it's a component of some existing device, and meets certain "indicators," then do an "authorized upgrade."
All the information about the new model components, including the production process, technical indicators, replacement process, etc., will be sealed into "data packets" in detail, uploaded to the Imperial Data Network, and then downloaded simultaneously to the entire Empire in an instant. In every spacecraft or military base in the environment, the terminal that downloads this data package can even be as small as a troop carrier, or a deep space observation station with only a few dozen people stationed. As long as this grass-roots site has a set of "information-matter" conversion production modules, it will be fine. And we all know that building an arsenal on your own spaceship has always been a good habit of the Apostles of Xiling, and the empire's "information is everything" technology allows these factories to produce almost everything with blueprints...
Therefore, these terminals downloaded to the data package will manufacture new parts in a very short period of time, and then the self-discipline machines that are downloaded to the installation tutorial synchronously can complete the refitting in a short time: all devices are reserved for this kind of refitting. The operating space, even a fully powered reactor, can be replaced with a new buffer chamber without shutting down. For the "information-matter" conversion production module, there are no common problems such as the difficulty of processing technology. As long as there is enough accurate information expression, it is basically difficult to manufacture an armor plate and a starship mainframe in the Imperial Factory. it's the same.
The only thing that restricts its production process is the "authorization" of each grassroots factory, and the "authorization" in "authorization upgrade" of course also refers to the steps of this authorization certification and transfer.
For those lower-level units that do not have production modules, such as an ordinary imperial soldier, the rifle he usually uses needs to be replaced with a new type of trigger-of course it is impossible for the imperial soldier to carry an arsenal, so their equipment uses different space Storage and link technology to upgrade. Everyone knows that the weapons and equipment of imperial soldiers are placed in portable spaces, and these portable spaces can actually be opened by other people under certain circumstances, such as the soldiers' immediate superiors. The portable space is not really like a pocket that is always by your side. It is a large warehouse that is independent of the current world and established by the General Administration of Space Allocation. ", and then divide it into countless small areas, just like the folders in the hard disk, and what each soldier gets is actually the access code of one of the folders, or the virtual path and opening password of this space. As long as you master this access code, you can open a different space at any coordinate in any universe. And by using these access codes, you can also link all different spaces together, such as the arsenal.
When the authorized upgrade begins, the soldier only needs to put his equipment in the different space, and his superior officer will link these equipment to a general upgrade and replacement center. Usually, this upgrade center will be the nearest arsenal to the garrison. Direct connection, through directly modifying the information, the equipment will be upgraded in a very short period of time, and when the soldiers take out the equipment next time, it will already be an upgraded and strengthened model. If it is a relatively large improvement, the imperial soldier will also download a "weapon learning tutorial" authorized by the imperial high command at the same time. After a second or two of learning, they will be able to master their new weapons proficiently, and then Happily used the more powerful weapon to open the human head.
This is the entire process of the "Authorization Upgrade Agreement": the research and development department conducts research and development, and then makes blueprints and other materials into data packages, and distributes them to all troops of the empire together with authorization letters and tutorials. Every war machine in these troops can Produce parts for yourself and complete the refitting, or refit your lower-level units through the different space arsenal. A license upgrade can be completed in as little as 30 minutes—now do you know what a crazy development model is
If the Supreme Research Institute develops a new type of cannon, then within 30 minutes at the earliest, every spaceship that can afford this kind of cannon in the entire empire will have the ability to smash the steaming muzzle on the enemy's On the forehead - all produced on site!
Of course, the "authorized upgrade agreement" is not a panacea, it can only be applied to regular upgrade projects, if it is a component that exceeds the production capacity of the grassroots unit (such as the new model of the Galaxy main gun), or there are special production requirements and resources For the required items (for example, raw materials that cannot be manufactured with "information-matter" interchange technology such as source energy mines), it can only be produced in a special inland production base by conventional means and then slowly It's slow to change the equipment. Basically, this is a large-scale equipment change. It may only be carried out once in several years or even decades. For ordinary small-scale upgrades, such as updating a gun mount and replacing an armor, the "authorized upgrade agreement" Already able to fully cope.
Well, I didn't expect to explain the "authorization upgrade" to be quite troublesome...
At this time, Tavel's assistant team finally completed the debugging of the sample spacecraft, and the steady broadcast sound of the Starport host sounded in the observation hall: "Attention No. 2 berth, the evacuation channel is unblocked, and all B-level working groups leave the berth within one minute. All B-level teams leave the slipway within one minute. * Level teams check initial energy injection levels."
"The initial energy injection is 75%, and the target value has been reached. The first-level working group evacuated the slipway, and the scene was taken over by the autonomous machine."
"Connected to the verification starship, the current starship is in external takeover mode, and is checking the operating status of each system."
"The energy system is normal, the security system is normal, the core control system is normal, the power group is on... normal, the armor enhancement system is on... normal, the shield is on... normal, the weapon group is normal... the communication array is on... normal, start verifying equipment 1 to 36 Combined link... The link is all online, booting up normally, and responding normally. Confirm that all necessary equipment is online, the core warm-up is complete, the emergency stop propulsion component responds normally, and exit the self-test program."
"Start verification starship host—external activation... The host is turned on, hello, starship, this is Starport."
"Hello, Xinggang, this is an unnumbered starship. This machine has awakened and is functioning well."
"Starship, His Majesty the Emperor will inspect you personally, I wish you success, long live the empire."
"Starship honors, long live the Empire."
The main engine of the Starport disconnected the external control of the new spaceship. From this moment, the main engine of the starship that had just awakened officially took over the control of the spaceship. Stealth camouflage for spaceships.
As the water film-like invisible force field quickly faded, a silver-gray colossus appeared in front of Sandora and me.
Elegant, magnificent and perfect as a work of art - it's not coffin shaped!
A set of holographic images appeared in front of us at the same time, showing the details of the new spaceship from all angles, so that Sandora and I could see every corner of it clearly. At the same time, the holographic projection also showed various parameters of the spaceship, but I only noticed its size: 6.2 kilometers, which is considered a small man in the family of imperial warships that generally follow the giant route, and is larger than a small spaceship There are many, but it should be the lightest among medium-sized starships. However, this is a brand new special warship, so there is no need to delve too deeply into its scale.
It still retains the general structure of the sketch I saw in Sandora's room, which is a catamaran with two main bodies arranged in parallel, but the two parts of the hull abandon the angular cuboid The shape is replaced by a streamlined shell, like two extremely elongated footballs. This streamlined shell only covers the upper part, the lower part looks naked, but is additionally protected by a dense translucent shield: I believe it will be stronger than the part wearing heavy armor. Through the translucent lower shield, one can see the deep black structure inside and the pulsating blue energy flow like a capillary network. All the energy flow is concentrated to the middle of the hull, forming two formations below the catamaran. A dazzling blue halo.
What connects the two parts of the streamlined hull is a series of curved "arch bridges" located at the middle and rear ends of the hull. These arch bridges also have graceful lines, like the curved neck of a swan. It is also inlaid with golden stripes. According to the consistent style of the Apostles of Xiling, those stripes are definitely not decorations, but no matter what they are for, they make this swan-like elegant streamlined catamaran look like a starship in space. Perfect as a work of art.
I stared dumbfounded at this new spaceship. My first reaction was that I finally didn’t have to visit Tavel’s laboratory with the mentality of visiting the martyr’s cemetery. My second reaction was to pat the arm of the glasses girl next to me: “This shape… Didn't you design it?"
Tavel rarely showed embarrassment on his face: "It is true, Your Majesty, after listening to your... teachings, I realized that my aesthetic sense may be a little bit rigid, but I really suffer from lack of more modeling inspiration, so I would like to ask Lady Lilina to give me some advice. Your Majesty often hears that you like the graceful buildings of the Protoss, so I guess her ideas will satisfy you... "
I immediately smiled, and thought that the blackened loli who was constantly in a state of curiosity could do something good, and then connected to Lilina's spiritual connection, intending to praise that girl. Then he asked with a smile, "Lilina, you helped improve the shape of the new spaceship, right? Where did you get the inspiration from? It looks pretty pretty."
Lilina was finally praised once, her voice was obviously very excited, and she replied happily: "The connecting bridge is an imitated rib, and the hull is an elongated waist..."
I:"… "
"Your Majesty?" Tavel saw that I hadn't moved for a long time, so he couldn't help but speak.
With tears in my heart, I hung up the communication and hit myself on the forehead with my fist: "Forget what happened just now, forget what happened just now..."
Sandora also overheard the conversation between me and Lilina, but she didn't show any signs of a broken dream. Instead, she looked at the spaceship outside the observation window and suddenly sucked her saliva: "Tavier, let's start, let's start with the weapon system. exhibit."
"Yes, you will be satisfied with its new attack method."
The new spacecraft on the berth floated up silently, and quickly advanced to a place several kilometers away from the star port, deftly turning around to face the A-2 tower. I can't see where the propulsion device of this spacecraft is, so it probably skipped the external engine directly and used a high-end product like a coordinate engine as its main thruster.
At the same time, a giant sphere used as a target was also launched into space, and was pushed more than ten kilometers away in the blink of an eye—because now only the power and operational stability of the new weapon are verified, and the range verification is a later project .
When the attack command was issued, the new spacecraft did not fire directly from the front as I imagined, but was instantly wrapped by a black and distorted giant sphere, and disappeared into space in the blink of an eye. At the same time, the target seemed to be covered by a rubber The erasure generally disappeared in the distance, and then, the black spherical layer with a diameter of nearly seven kilometers reappeared, but it was already several kilometers away from where it disappeared. After the spherical layer faded, the spaceship reappeared in front of us.
"The subordinates have designed a new firing procedure for it," Tavel said with a smile. "It's more like an assassin now. As for the sphere... I would like to thank Lady Alleria for her technical guidance. It is a shadow field." RS