A Giant Warship
Due to the supergravity, the detection signal would be distorted. Due to the sheer size of this gigantic metallic object, the metal detector was still able to distinguish it from the distorted signal.
The signal would gradually decrease as it was transmitted, so Xia Fei boldly deduced that the actual size of this object was more than 1.5 billion cubic meters.
A metal object of 1.5 billion cubic meters was already shocking enough, and he had no idea how to describe it in words.
A few moments later, the Tomahawk passed through the layers of rocks and approached the gigantic metallic object.
Xia Fei and Phantom were both stunned when they saw it with their naked eyes.
It was a warship.
A warship that could not be described with words.
A giant warship.
Its size was definitely not 1.5 billion cubic meters but 15 billion cubic meters.
The Tomahawk was a battlecruiser that could roam the seas of stars. Its size was not small, but compared to this gigantic object, it was like comparing a watermelon to a sesame seed. There was no comparison at all.
Logically speaking, it was impossible for such a huge warship to go unnoticed in the asteroid belt because its size was close to that of a small planet. However, due to the layers of rocks, Xia Fei did not notice it in time. It was like a black sun, sleeping peacefully in the sea of rocks.
Two people, four eyes, and not a single one of them moved.
Xia Fei was not a person who liked to show off, but the appearance of this warship had completely shocked him.
The largest known metallic object in the Alliance was the top-tier warship of the four major corporations, the supercarriers.
Xia Fei had never seen the might of a supercarrier with his own eyes, but he had learned some information about it from the books.
As a super version of a normal carrier, a supercarrier had a size of 500 million cubic meters and had tens of thousands of crew members. Its cost was unimaginably astronomical.
Currently, aside from the few superpowers in the Alliance, the Adjudicators, the Monastics, and the Pan-Human Alliance Navy, no one else had such a top-tier warship. After all, the cost of a supercarrier was not cheap, and it was of great strategic importance. It was a symbol of the strength of a country or a corporation. Without enough strength, it was impossible to buy one.
A normal aircraft carrier could release a hundred iron cavalry drones with astonishing combat power. Each drone's defense and firepower far exceeded that of a normal frigate.
If a drone control module was installed on an aircraft carrier, it would be able to release up to 150 Iron Cavalry. Such a number of advanced combat drones would have a combat power comparable to a fleet.
Coupled with the unparalleled defensive capabilities of an aircraft carrier, a single aircraft carrier was enough to destroy dozens of battleships. Therefore, the saying that the flagship was the backbone of a fleet was not false.
Meanwhile, a supercarrier could release 1,000 to 1,500 armored cavalry drones, which was equivalent to the firepower of ten ordinary carriers. This was like an ocean of drones, which was enough to drown any opponent who dared to resist. It was the strongest combat power of the Pan-Human Alliance, with no equal.
Not only was the Supercarrier extremely powerful, but its defense was also incredible. Its thick energy shield was like a huge mountain, dispersing all attacks.
If a normal aircraft carrier were to attack a supercarrier, it would be like throwing an egg against a rock. The attacks would not even tickle the supercarrier. Once the supercarrier began its counterattack, it could sink an ordinary aircraft carrier within a few minutes. After all, its attack power was just too powerful.
Therefore, although a supercarrier's attack power was ten times that of a normal aircraft carrier, its true combat power was at least twenty times that of a normal aircraft carrier. It was the absolute behemoth of the Pan-Human Alliance.
Moreover, this warship was at least thirty times larger than a supercarrier, which was completely unimaginable!
It should be noted that it took 40 years to build a supercarrier, and after it was completed, it still needed to be installed, deployed, and tested, which would take another 15 years. The entire Pan-Human Alliance would only have a supercarrier set sail every 13 years and 9 months.
Building a supercarrier also required a dock that was as large as a planet. Just the construction of such a dock would take at least 80 years, and even the four top shipbuilding companies only had one such dock each.
How much would a supercarrier like this sell for?
A hundred billion, a trillion, or even a trillion?
If a supercarrier was sold for a trillion, then how much would the construction cost of a supercarrier be? How long would the construction period be?
Actually, the construction cost and construction period were not the key. The key was, how was such an unparalleled existence created? Was it created by humans?
That was when Harris felt that something was off, so he ran to the command deck to see what was going on. Based on the rules of the past, he had no right to set foot in this place, but now that he was wearing the life bracelet and had become Xia Fei's slave, the rules were naturally lifted.
As a result, the command deck was now filled with three dumbfounded people and six pairs of eyes that were so shocked that they could not be any more.
The huge black warship was like a planet, blocking Xia Fei's line of sight. The warship had long been in ruins, and it was riddled with holes. No one knew how many holes there were. Perhaps it was ten thousand, or perhaps it was a million. In any case, this behemoth had been beaten into a beehive.
This made Xia Fei even more shocked. Just how much firepower did it take to build such a huge warship that was beyond imagination?
After a while, Xia Fei finally closed his mouth and lit a cigarette before returning to his seat.
"Xia Fei, what is this?" Phantom asked in confusion.
Xia Fei smiled bitterly. "I still don't know who to ask. Let me think for a while."
Xia Fei rubbed his temples with two fingers. This discovery was just too shocking. Even the usually calm Xia Fei found it hard to calm himself down in such a short period of time.
"What is this thing?" Harris followed up right after Phantoms question. Since Xia Fei and Phantoms were communicating telepathically, Harris was completely unaware of Phantoms existence.
Xia Fei waved his hand, not saying a word. He really did not know what to say.
What he could be sure of was that this was a warship, for it had a thick armor plate. Furthermore, there were brackets on both sides of the warship to install super cannons, but for some reason, these brackets were empty, and the cannons were not installed.
After some thought, Xia Fei went to the command deck and ordered, "Circle this warship in a spiral, maintaining a speed of one kilometer per second."
The Tomahawk began to circle the warship at a moderate speed, and the more Xia Fei looked, the more surprised he was.
There were several large gallows on the other side of the warship. These gallows were made of extremely sturdy alloy, and each one was as thick as a small mountain.
"What is this?" Phantom asked curiously.
"Probably a gallows."
"A gallows?"
Xia Fei blew out a ring of smoke. "I've read in the books that large warships cannot be built on a planet. That's because an overly strong gravitational pull will make any shipyard unable to bear the weight of the warship. You'll need to first build a large shipyard in space, then transport the components of the warship to the shipyard in a large transport ship before assembling it."
Phantom nodded. "I understand. First, you'll need to break the warship into different modules, then transport them into space and connect them together, but what about the armor and structure? Won't it be easy to damage them if you use a modular design? "
"Indeed, the armor and structure can't be made of modules. They need to be molded in one go, so aside from a large shipyard, you'll also need a large smelting factory to melt enough alloy liquid in one go before pouring it into a mold," Xia Fei explained.
Phantom pursed his lips. It was easy to say, but how much metal would be needed to build a warship that was tens of billions of cubic meters in size? It was simply unimaginable to forge it in one go.
"What I'm talking about is how to build a normal warship in the Alliance. How to build a supercarrier is a secret among the major companies, and the books don't mention it, either. What I'm sure of is that building a supercarrier is much more difficult than you can imagine. As for this big guy, I really can't imagine who has the ability to build it," Xia Fei said.
It was just as Xia Fei said. Although the four major warship companies all had the ability to build supercarriers, they had never revealed any secrets about their technology to the outside world.
The four major warship companies claimed to have a new supercarrier every thirteen years, but in reality, it was far from that. It was said that the four major warship companies spent at least eighty years building a supercarrier, not fifty-five years as they claimed.
Some busybodies had once tried their best to gather information about supercarriers in the Alliance, but they were shocked to find that there were very few supercarriers in the Pan-Human Alliance. It was very likely that there were no more than two hundred of them. It must be mentioned that the Pan-Human Alliance was so big and had so many people that it was impossible to count them in detail. Less than two hundred supercarriers was not considered a lot when compared to the entire Alliance, which showed just how difficult it was to build a large warship.
Building a 500-million-cubic-meter super aircraft carrier was already so costly. Who would be able to build a 15-billion-cubic-meter super battleship?
The side of the warship was connected to a gallows. This was something that not only Phantom but also Xia Fei could not figure out. A gallows was usually connected to a dock, so if there was a gallows, then there should be a dock somewhere, too, but where was the dock?
"Now, switch to manual control," Xia Fei ordered the mainframe computer.
Two rudders suddenly extended out from the control panel. As most of the battleships were controlled by intelligent mainframe computers, very few people would manually pilot a spaceship. Therefore, the rudders were hidden and rarely used under normal circumstances.
He sat in the helmsman's seat, his two hands firmly gripping the rudders as he turned the warship around and headed toward the giant warship.
"What are you doing?" Phantom curiously asked.
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