The inspection and acceptance of the new spaceship was an important matter. Since it was a project that Sandora and I were personally following up on, we had to go and take a look at the inspection and acceptance. Thus, after breakfast, I tossed the noisy God race cops aside and went to the shadow space with Shadora, who was in a good mood.
The new spaceship was assembled on the back of the mother planet, Gaia. I was used to calling the side of Gaia facing the shadow city the front. Tawil had built a medium-sized spaceport here, which was specifically used to build all kinds of space facilities for verification. When Sandora and I arrived, Tawil was still directing his team to make the final system adjustments and initial energy injection of the new spaceship. We stood at the top of the A-2 tower on the side of the spaceport facing space. There was an open observation hall here. Through the transparent barrier of the observation hall, we could see two silver-gray alloy "bridges" extending from the main body of the spaceport below, straight into space. There were also a large number of metal or light "bones" extending from the bridges, making them look like strange multi-legged arthropods. This was a changeable berth, which should be used to fix the new spaceship. However, in the middle of the berth, I could only see the darkness of space. There was nothing there.
"The new spaceship is temporarily shielded by the invisible force field. I hope this can achieve a surprise effect." Tawil's … clone came up behind me and said proudly, "When the final adjustments are completed, Your Majesties will be able to see it. That is a beautiful big guy. "
The corner of my mouth twitched. Isn't it still a coffin? I saw the sketch of the new spaceship in Sandora's room the other day. The only improvement in the design of the coffin-loving glasses girl was that she changed the coffin into two parallel coffins. However, looking at the happy expression on Tawil's face, I was too embarrassed to say it out loud.
"Once the new spaceship passes the inspection and acceptance, it can be put into production directly," Sandora said without turning her head. "Also, make the universal technology on the new spaceship retrograde as soon as possible. Do a large-scale authorized upgrade of the existing starships of the Empire."
Tawil's projection saluted back. "Yes, Your Majesty. I am already doing that."
Shadora had mentioned 'authorized upgrades' and the upgrading of the dynasty's starships. I had come into contact with this quite a bit, so it would be better for me to explain this rather high-tech term to her.
We all knew that the Xiling Empire had many things that had been in service for millions or even tens of millions of years. A series of starships might have even been active on the battlefield longer than the civilization cycle of many races. For example, the Eternal-class battleship had been in service since the end of the expansion of the old Empire. It was still one of the most important main battleships of the Imperial Army. It was easy to give people the wrong impression that the weapons of the Empire were antiques that hadn't been upgraded for so many years.
In fact, it was the opposite. Not only were the war machines of the Imperial Army constantly updated, but they were also improving at an unbelievable speed. New equipment would be put into the frontline troops almost every moment. It was just that after passing the stage of being "limited by form", the military experts of the Empire no longer carried out drastic changes on the shell of the war machines. Instead, they carried out subtle but continuous "fine-tuning upgrades" on the equipment in service. In other words, they constantly used small technological breakthroughs to improve the starship, and when the new technology accumulated to the breaking point, they would carry out a major upgrade. The Eternal-class starship seemed to have not changed for millions of years, but in fact, its main structure would be completely updated almost every thirty to fifty years, and this complete update would be completed tens of thousands of times.
And each update was carried out simultaneously for all the troops in the Empire.
This kind of equipment upgrade sounded a little crazy, like a whimsical setting. In the real world, there was probably no normal logistics system that could support such a program: to develop a new screw, you had to run around and twist all the equipment in the country, and you had to do it every three to five days. The logistics department would definitely go crazy.
Therefore, the Shiring Apostles established the so-called "logistics" system that was neither ordinary nor normal. They used something called the "Authorized Upgrade Protocol" to carry out ultra-high-speed regular updates for their own troops.
The mechanism of this "Authorized Upgrade Protocol" was very complicated. The instruction manual weighed several pounds, but we only needed to know the general process. First of all, this protocol was based on two premises. One was the storage and link technology of the Shiring Apostles, and the other was the "information-material" conversion and production module that all medium and large war units would carry. These two technologies were the foundation of the "Authorized Upgrade Protocol".
The first step of the "Authorized Upgrade Protocol" was naturally the work of all levels of R&D departments. Military experts developed a new war machine, or a small component of the war machine. Any subtle technological progress could be used as a "unit" for the "Authorized Upgrade Protocol", even if the unit was just a new type of spaceship seat. This new "unit" that could be upgraded would be designed and manufactured by technicians. After passing the inspection, the advanced R&D team would make a judgment. If it was a new type of independent equipment, the blueprint would be sent to the various munitions factories for regular production. If it was a component of some existing equipment and met certain "specifications", then the "Authorized Upgrade Protocol" would be carried out.
All the information about the new components, including the production process, technical specifications, replacement process, and so on, would be packaged into "data packages" and uploaded to the Empire's data network. Then, it would be downloaded to every spaceship or military base in the Empire. The terminal that downloaded the data package could be as small as a troop carrier or a deep-space observatory with only a few dozen people stationed there. As long as this base station had a set of "information-material" conversion and production module, it would be fine. As we all know, it had always been a good habit of the Shiring Apostles to build munitions factories on their own spaceships. And the Empire's "Information Is Everything" technology allowed these factories to produce almost anything as long as they had the blueprints …
Therefore, the terminals that downloaded the data package would manufacture the new parts in a very short time, and then the autonomous robots, who had downloaded the installation tutorial at the same time, could complete the change in no time. All equipment had room for this kind of change, and even a full-power reactor could be removed and replaced with a new buffer chamber without shutting down the machine. For the "information-material" conversion and production module, there were no common problems such as difficulty in processing. As long as there was enough accurate information, the difficulty of producing a piece of armor plate in the Empire factories was basically the same as that of producing a starship's mainframe.
The only limitation in the production process was the "authority" of each base factory, and the "authority" in the "authorization upgrade", of course, referred to the steps of authorization authentication and transfer.
For those more basic units that did not have a production module, such as an ordinary Empire soldier, his rifle would have to be upgraded with a new type of trigger. Of course, the Empire soldiers would not carry a munitions factory with them, so their equipment would be upgraded with the help of alternate dimensional storage and interconnection technology. Everyone knew that the weapons and equipment of the Imperial Army were stored in their Dimensional Pocket, and these Dimensional Pockets could actually be opened by others under certain circumstances, such as the soldiers' immediate superiors. The Dimensional Pocket was not really like a pocket that always followed you around. It was a large warehouse independent of the current world, built by the higher-ups of the General Administration of Space Allocation. The General Administration of Space Allocation created this super huge "warehouse" and then divided it into countless small areas, like folders in a hard disk. And each soldier actually obtained the access code of one of these folders, or the virtual path and opening code of this space. As long as you had this access code, you could open an alternate dimension in any universe and any coordinates. And using this access code, you could also link all the alternate dimensions together, such as the munitions factory.
When the authorization upgrade began, the soldier only needed to put his equipment in the alternate dimension, and his superior would link the equipment to a general upgrade center. Usually, this upgrade center would be directly connected to the nearest munitions factory, and by directly modifying the information, the equipment would be upgraded in a very short period of time. When the soldier next took out the equipment, it would already be the upgraded model. If it was a relatively large improvement, the Empire soldier would also download a "weapon learning tutorial" authorized by the Empire's highest command. After a second or two of learning, they would be able to master their new weapon, and then happily use the more powerful weapon to open people's skulls.
This was the entire process of the "authorization upgrade agreement": the R&D department would carry out the research, and then the blueprints and other information would be made into data packages, which would be distributed to all the Empire troops along with the authorization letter and the tutorial. Every war machine of these troops could produce its own parts and complete the upgrade on the spot, or through the arsenal in the alternate dimension, it could be upgraded to its subordinate units. An authorization upgrade could be completed in at least 30 minutes. Now do you know what a crazy development model is?
If the highest research institute developed a new cannon, then in at least 30 minutes, every spaceship in the Empire that could afford such a cannon would be able to put the hot muzzle on the enemy's head — all produced on the spot!
Of course, the "authorization upgrade agreement" was not omnipotent. It could only be applied to regular upgrade projects. If it was a component that exceeded the production capacity of the basic units (such as a new model of the Galaxy Main Cannon), or a project with special production and resource requirements (such as raw materials that could not be produced using the "information-material" exchange technology, such as energy ores), then it could only be produced in a specialized inland production base, and then slowly upgraded bit by bit. Basically, this was a large-scale upgrade, and it might only be done once in a few years or even decades. For ordinary small-scale upgrades, such as updating the gun mounts or replacing the armor, the "authorization upgrade agreement" was more than enough.
Well, he did not expect that it would be so troublesome to explain the "authorization upgrade agreement" …
At this time, Tawil's assistant team finally completed the debugging of the sample spaceship. The steady voice of the spaceport's mainframe sounded in the observation hall. "Attention, Berth 2. The exit channel is clear. All Level B teams are to leave the berth within one minute. All Level B teams are to leave the berth within one minute. Level A team is checking the initial energy input. "
"Initial energy input is at 75%. Target value has been reached. Level A team is to leave the berth. The site will be taken over by autonomous robots."
"Connecting to the verification starship. Currently, the starship is in external takeover mode. Checking the operating status of various systems."
"Energy system normal. Safety system normal. Core control system normal. Power group powered on … normal. Armor strengthening system powered on … normal. Shield powered on … normal. Weapon group powered on … normal. Communication array powered on … normal. Commencing verification of device links 1 to 36 … All links online. Power up normal. Response normal. Confirming that all necessary equipment is online. Core preheating completed. Emergency shutdown component responding normal. Exiting self-test program. "
"Initiating verification starship mainframe. External activation … mainframe powered on. Hello, starship. This is the spaceport."
"Hello, spaceport. This is an unnumbered starship. I have awakened. Everything is working well."
"Starship, His Majesty the Emperor will personally inspect you. Wish you success. Long live the Empire."
"Starship, it is my honor. Long live the Empire."
The spaceport mainframe disconnected from external control of the new starship. From this moment onwards, the starship mainframe that had just awakened officially took over control of the starship. At the same time, under Tawil's orders, the berth removed the stealth camouflage on the starship.
As the water film of invisibility faded away, a huge silver object appeared before Sandora and me.
Elegant, magnificent, and perfect like a work of art. It wasn't in the shape of a coffin!
A holographic image appeared in front of us at the same time. It displayed the details of the new starship from various angles so that Sandora and I could see every corner of it clearly. At the same time, the holographic projection also displayed the various parameters of the spaceship. However, I only noticed its size: 6.2 kilometers. Compared to the Empire's warship families that usually took the route of a giant, it was considered small. It was much larger than a small-sized spaceship, but it should be the lightest among medium-sized spaceships. However, this was originally a new type of special warship. There was no need to delve too deeply into its size.
It still retained the general structure of the sketch I saw in Sandora's room. It was a catamaran with two main bodies arranged side by side. However, these two parts of the hull abandoned the angular rectangular shape and replaced it with a streamlined outer shell, like two extremely elongated rugby balls. This streamlined outer shell only covered the upper half. The lower half seemed naked, but it was protected by a dense layer of translucent shield. I believed that it would be even stronger than the heavy armor. Through the translucent lower layer of the shield, I could see the deep black structure inside and the blue energy pulsating like a capillary network. All the energy was concentrated in the middle of the hull, forming two dazzling blue halos below the catamaran.
The two parts of the streamlined hull were connected by a series of arc-shaped 'arch bridges' at the middle and rear ends of the hull. These arch bridges also had beautiful lines, like the curved neck of a swan. Its silver-gray armor was inlaid with golden stripes. According to the usual style of the Shiring Apostles, those stripes were definitely not decorative. But no matter what they were used for, they made this elegant, streamlined catamaran look like a perfect work of art in space.
I gawked at the new spaceship. My first reaction was that I finally didn't have to visit Tawil's laboratory with the mentality of visiting a martyr's cemetery. My second reaction was to pat the arm of the bespectacled lady next to me. "This design … You didn't design it, did you?"
Tawil had a rare look of embarrassment on his face. "Indeed, Your Majesty. After listening to your … teachings, I realized that my sense of beauty may be a little rigid. But I really don't have any more inspiration, so I asked Madam Liliana for some advice. Your Majesty often mentioned that you like the Protoss's beautiful buildings, so I guessed that her ideas would probably be to your liking … "
I instantly beamed with joy. I thought to myself that the novelty-hunting dark loli could also do something good. Then, I connected to Liliana telepathically, intending to praise her. I first told her about the inspection and acceptance of the spaceship. Then, I asked with a smile, "Liliana, did you help to improve the design of the new spaceship? Where did you get the inspiration from? It looks quite beautiful. "
It was rare for Liliana to be praised, so she sounded very excited. She replied excitedly, "The connecting bridge is an imitation of the ribs, and the hull is an elongated kidney …"
I was speechless.
"Your Majesty?" Tawil saw that I didn't respond for a long time and couldn't help but speak.
Tears welled up in my heart as I hung up. Then, I hit my head hard with my fist. "Forget what happened just now. Forget what happened just now …"
Sandora also heard the contents of my conversation with Liliana, but she didn't show any signs of her dreams collapsing. Instead, she looked at the spaceship outside the observation window and suddenly gulped. "Tawil, let's begin. Let's start with the weapon system."
"Yes, you will be satisfied with its new attack style."
The new spaceship silently floated up and quickly moved to a place a few kilometers away from the spaceport. Then, it nimbly turned to face the A-2 tower. I couldn't see where the propulsion system of this spaceship was, so it probably skipped the external engine and used a high-end coordinate engine as its main propulsion system.
At the same time, a giant sphere that was used as a target was launched into space and pushed more than ten kilometers away in the blink of an eye. This was because we were only verifying the power and stability of the new weapon. The range verification was a later project.
When the attack command was issued, the new spaceship didn't fire directly from the front as I had imagined. Instead, it was instantly wrapped in a black and distorted giant sphere and disappeared into space in the blink of an eye. At the same time, the target disappeared in the distance as if it had been erased by an eraser. Then, the black sphere with a diameter of nearly seven kilometers reappeared, but this time, it was several kilometers away from where it had disappeared. After the sphere faded, the spaceship reappeared in front of us.
"I have designed a new firing program for it," Tawil said with a smile. "It is now more like an assassin. As for the sphere … thanks to Lady Alleria's technical guidance, it is a shadow field. "
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