Super Mothership
Solar System Wormhole Region.
Just as the Immortal broke through the first line of interception, the wormhole’s transit capacity also finished cooling down.
In the deep void, the dark vortex flared up once more, and silver warships crossed light-years of distance in an instant to arrive on their expedition!
One ship… two ships… five ships…
By the time the wormhole’s energy was exhausted and it closed again, a total of eight warships appeared in the Proxima star system!
At a glance, silver light glinted everywhere — this was the second wave of the Solar System Expeditionary Force, among which five were strikingly new-model warships made entirely from mechanical-insect materials.
Of these, four were uniformly the firepower-heavy “Hou Yi-class”, while the lead ship had an especially distinctive design.
The hull was roughly spherical, its surface smooth and mirror-like, almost cute in its roundness. No external weapons were visible, but five huge silver mechanical arms trailed behind it. These mechanical arms, about 200 meters long each, moved flexibly like whips.
At first glance, this ship’s shape even faintly resembled an octopus, with five grasping tentacles.
This newly-modified warship — transformed from the original Sea Wolf — was Nie Yun’s other trump card for this operation!
These five new-model warships, plus the one Hou Yi-class deployed earlier, carried nearly a million tons of mechanical insects, almost depleting all of Nie Yun’s accumulated mobile mechanical-insect forces during this period.
Aside from what was necessary for development, construction, and Solar System defense, Nie Yun could be said to have thrown in everything he had this time, shifting the war effort fully to the Proxima star system!
The plan to “rescue the great tree Immortal” was proceeding quite smoothly. Nie Yun was already gradually seizing the initiative on the battlefield, and thus had enough confidence to commit these precious cutting-edge forces to Proxima.
When deploying the first wave, Nie Yun had held some back — sending only one Hou Yi-class — in case the plan failed midway, so that this ship could quickly return to the Solar System and avoid exposing his greatest secret.
As for those ordinary-material mecha cannon fodder, they were of course the “pawns” sacrificed to protect the “king.”
But now the tide was in his favor, the situation was becoming clear, and Nie Yun naturally no longer needed to worry about retreat — the more he bet now, the bigger he would win!
Aside from Nie Yun’s cutting-edge weapons, the second batch also included three other warships: the Alliance, Courage, and Fearless.
These three silver-gray warships were modeled after sea-tribe standard frigates, bristling with gun barrels, and were part of the Earth Defense Force combat sequence.
Since the Earth Defense Force procured the first Alliance, three more frigates had since been launched in the Solar System, named Courage, Fearless, and Watchman respectively.
Aside from the Watchman, which was assigned to guard the other side of the Solar System defense line, this time the Earth Defense Force also deployed everything it had!
By now, the shipyards in the Solar System’s asteroid belt had already been joined into a vast industrial complex. Various supporting factories had been completed and brought online one after another, leveraging rich mineral resources to become Nie Yun’s largest Solar System–based export-oriented warship manufacturing base.
Although at present only two sea-tribe standard frigates could be mass-produced per month, as scale continued to grow, output was expected to steadily rise.
Even more noteworthy was that, apart from the initial phase when Nie Yun invested large numbers of mechanical insects to accelerate construction, this shipyard base could now operate independently without mechanical-insect help.
This meant that over this period, Nie Yun had fully digested the manufacturing technology for frigate-level warships and achieved localization of the technology.
For the mechanical insects, this level of industrial capability was trivial — but it was the most direct proof of Nie Yun’s growing technological strength.
While it was easy enough for the mechanical insects to devour and replicate, achieving large-scale mass production and further R&D still required fully mastering the relevant manufacturing techniques.
And many of the advanced manufacturing processes had to be analyzed step by step through reverse engineering.
In this regard, the Earth scientific community — having already achieved initial integration — provided at least 40% of the solutions Nie Yun needed.
With the Cloud Research Institute at its core, the tech-tree virtual world as its network, and generous Infinite Coin incentives, countless scientists on Earth unleashed boundless enthusiasm for research.
They tackled and cracked the manufacturing techniques for the millions of components of an entire frigate, one by one!
In this process, not only did Nie Yun strengthen his own side’s power and foundation, but the major factions on Earth also reaped rich rewards. They gained more Infinite Coins to invest in technological research and development, and even to purchase advanced interstellar warships from the Ghost Captain!
However, so far, the only force that actually possessed frigate-class military warships was the Earth Defense Force.
For the few wealthy nations that now had considerable assets, a military warship costing one million Infinite Coins each wasn’t entirely unaffordable if they just tightened their belts a little — but the enormous ongoing fuel and maintenance costs were actually where Nie Yun made the real money.
Selling cars is nothing compared to selling spare parts!
The weapons themselves weren’t so expensive — it was the matching ammunition and spare parts that really “ate people alive and spat out only their bones.” This, too, was standard practice in Earth’s arms markets.
Still, as allied “comrades-in-arms,” the Earth Defense Force enjoyed a 20% discount, and coupled with Nie Yun’s generous employment fees and UN military funding support, the Earth Defense Force’s space fleet had already begun to take shape.
“…This… they still have so much more strength?!”
All the officers of the Sea Tribe’s Third Squadron widened their eyes, unable to believe what they were seeing.
Eight warships — the four firepower-heavy Hou Yi-class ships already made their hearts sink, and that oddly-shaped spherical ship, surrounded protectively by the rest, was clearly even more extraordinary.
Together with three Sea-Tribe–style frigates, the apparent forces on each side now stood at 9:12.
Although the Sea Tribe still held a numerical advantage in warships, when it came to actual combat strength even their commander felt uneasy — let alone the fact that the opponent still had 2,500 Jiànxiān mechs in standby on the periphery.
“Damn it! It must be the Ant Empire! That unknown-model ship clearly bears the strong stylistic marks of Ant Empire weapons!” the commander of the Third Squadron slapped his armrest angrily.
The Ant Empire’s Pioneer Knight Bātiáo (Eight-Tentacles) had left a deep impression, and combined with the small robots on Europa, the octopus-face had undoubtedly become something of a calling card of the Ant Empire…
And as it turns out, salted fish can never have portrait rights…
Bātiáo: “….”
Indeed — under normal circumstances, only external aid could explain such a sudden surge in enemy forces.
And the three Sea-Tribe–style warships awkwardly mixed in with the other new-model ships… say no more! This was clearly a mixed joint fleet!
Even if the Ant Empire wasn’t directly fighting, it was obvious the Unity of All Things Society must have paid some price to purchase large quantities of the Ant Empire’s new weaponry!
“These ungrateful traitors!” the commander gritted his teeth until they creaked.
Now that the enemy’s strength had skyrocketed, his own forces alone were no longer enough to pose a threat — he even had to worry about whether the enemy would switch from defense to offense and decide to wipe out his squadron first…
Just as anxiety gnawed at him, Isar’s order arrived right on time.
“They want us to carry out a second interception on that biological fortress? The enemy is likely already injured?”
The Third Squadron commander’s eyes lit up!
After briefly analyzing the intel data Isar had sent… no problem! The enemy was probably just forcing themselves to hold up!
This was a great opportunity!
“Turn around! We’ll take out that big guy first!” the commander ordered excitedly.
If you can’t bite through the hard bones, can’t you at least chew up a soft persimmon?
TL Note- Weakest link?
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