Chapter 230: Beyond a Tier 1 Warship
Before departing for New Hope for a “visit,” Caoyuan came to the industrial ship’s captain’s quarters and handed Lu Yuan a document.
“Report! Executive Officer, the post-battle review of that previous engagement has been completed!”
This once tenacious warrior and excellent sniper had now grown into Cangyuan’s de facto Military Operations Commander.
“Very good, you’ve worked hard.” Lu Yuan took the paper report and placed it on the table. “Why don’t you just tell me directly? Why did we win that battle, and why did the Punishment Fleet lose so badly?”
Lu Yuan placed great importance on post-battle reviews.
Regardless of whether the battle result was a win or a loss, or whether the process was smooth or difficult, only those skilled at summarizing experience could determine the next steps for improvement and continue to grow.
Additionally, for him, the decision-maker, leaning back in his chair after a game and listening to his subordinates report the details of victory was itself a form of relaxation.
“Alright!”
Caoyuan also wanted to share his findings from his work, so he pulled up a chair and sat opposite Lu Yuan’s desk.
“On the offensive side, our heavy electromagnetic cannons have far greater power than all of the Punishment Fleet’s direct-fire weapons.
At full charge, a single shot reaches 4.2 TJ, which is 4200 times that of Galan’s electromagnetic cannons.
Converted into continuous output power, it’s 420 GW, which is 50 times the simultaneous firing of their 12 laser main cannons!”
“Why is the Punishment Fleet’s energy output so small?”
Lu Yuan asked, putting himself in their shoes.
From his perspective, this was a classic case of a big ship carrying small guns.
A bit brainless…
“Even if they can’t develop high-power single units like ours, theoretically, they could increase total energy output by adding more weapons.”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”
Caoyuan shook his head.
“Take Apollo’s flagship, the ‘Soul Reaper,’ for example. Its laser energy output is the highest in the Punishment Fleet, reaching 9 GW.
But this isn’t actually the upper limit for laser cannon installation; it’s the upper limit of their reactors.
The entire warship’s energy distribution plan during combat is: 9 GW for weapon output, 0.2 GW for radar, 2 GW for the power system, 17.5 GW for unavoidable waste heat, and their two reactors can only provide 30 GW, so energy supply is very tight.”
“What about us?”
Lu Yuan asked.
“During combat, the electromagnetic main cannon charging power is as high as 420 GW, laser cannon output is 13 GW, radar is 2 GW, waste heat is 37 GW, kinetic shields and the Entropy Zero Element Furnace consume 90 GW, and 12 GW is reserved for the power system for emergency escape; our three large reactors have a total power of 600 GW, and less than 5% of energy remains.”
“Oh—” Lu Yuan understood.
600 versus 20, a 30-fold energy difference—this is pure numerical Rolling!
If the reactors of the two Qinling-class frigates were both used for power generation, it would be equivalent to 15% of all human electricity consumption in reality.
It must be said, it’s a bit terrifying.
“Then can’t the Punishment Fleet install larger reactors?” he asked curiously.
“I also found this question very suspicious, so I consulted Jubian,” Caoyuan replied.
“What did Jubian say?”
“After comparing the Star Alliance reactor product parameters sent back by the branch, he believes our reactor technology has reached the top level in the market.
This is mainly because we obtained key research parameters from Emerald Star, allowing us to use room-temperature superconductors to generate stronger confinement magnetic fields and apply neutron-free fusion technology. These two technologies significantly increase the energy density inside the reactor chamber.”
So many technical terms, it certainly sounded like Jubian’s speaking style.
“So the Star Alliance can’t build reactors with such high energy density as ours?”
“This—this is just comparing the top civilian products. In the military field, I still recommend erring on the side of caution. It’s not good to make such simple conclusions. But even if they could, with Apollo and Galan’s current warship designs, the hull would be unable to dissipate heat effectively due to the lack of an Entropy Zero Element Furnace.”
Hmm…
Lu Yuan thought about it, and it made sense.
The Punishment Fleet’s warships all visibly had three heat sinks installed at the stern.
To avoid mutual heating, these three heat sinks were arranged in a Y-shape. When fully extended, each one was 200 meters long, comparable to the hull, and looked quite disproportionate.
If the reactor power were to increase dozens of times, each warship would have to carry heat sinks over a kilometer long into battle, which was clearly unrealistic.
This would be too easy to damage in combat.
“Wait a minute.”
Thinking of this, Lu Yuan recalled an exception.
“When Xian Yu and the others first went to New Hope, they saw two one-kilometer-long Super Democratic Empire capital ships in the dock area, and they didn’t have heat sinks—”
“Yes, Executive Officer! According to normal logic, at least the Super Democratic Empire, like us, has also mastered a series of advanced technologies such as high-density reactors, heavy electromagnetic cannons, and the Entropy Zero Element Furnace, and—they are probably even more advanced than us.”
Caoyuan said in a deep voice.
Good heavens, so the Super Democratic Empire actually knows about the existence of Entropy Zero Element, but they just keep it strictly confidential—
And besides himself, is the Super Democratic Empire truly the only one who knows this secret?
Not necessarily!
“So this brings up a question,” Lu Yuan said, “is the Star Alliance’s so-called ‘Tier 1 Warship Standard’ truly the highest standard? This determines whether we will misjudge the opponent’s strength, which is very important!”
Caoyuan immediately sat up straight.
“Right! That’s what I wanted to talk to you about! Logically speaking, weapons that appear on the military sales market are definitely not the strongest and most advanced in the developer’s hands. They are usually second-line, or even third-line products.
So I highly suspect that above the Tier 1 Warship standard, there exist ‘Special Tier’ and even ‘Super Tier’ standards! The weapon output power of these warships is at least comparable to the Qinling, but they are for self-use only and strictly forbidden for export!”
“Which forces do you think possess Special Tier and Super Tier ships?” Lu Yuan pressed.
“Those forces that truly possess independent military industrial capabilities and large-scale research and development capabilities. Currently, these are mainly the Super Democratic Empire, the Human Exploration Federation, New Hope, and Paradise Island. Apollo and Galan are not among them.”
“Yes, their fleets are all bought; they can’t produce them themselves. I’ve noticed that too,” Lu Yuan muttered.
It seems there are also differences in strength among Tier 1 forces!
Forces like Apollo and Galan, to put it nicely, are Tier 1 gatekeepers; to put it harshly, they are just putting on a brave face.
They can bully the weak, but they can’t compete with the strong.
In Lu Yuan’s mind, those two majestic kilometer-long capital ships appeared again.
In fact, facing the Super Democratic Empire, wasn’t Cangyuan also a minor player at present?
The reactors on the Qinling class have a single unit power of 200 GW, which is also the largest nuclear fusion reactor Cangyuan can build, with an energy output equivalent to 9 Three Gorges Dams in reality.
Three such reactors are needed to power a single heavy electromagnetic cannon.
However, the main cannon of the Super Democratic Empire’s capital ship has a single-shot power that reaches 20,000 to 30,000 times that of the Qinling. The kinetic energy of its shells is equivalent to a strategic-level giant nuclear bomb, far more potent than a meteorite 100 meters in diameter and weighing 500,000 tons!
Even if such a main cannon takes 5 or 10 minutes to charge, the corresponding energy level of the entire ship is a thousand times that of the Qinling—
Considering that a kilometer-class capital ship is at least two tiers larger than the Qinling, which is a battleship class under Star Alliance standards, then the damage output of the Super Democratic Empire’s 200-meter-class equivalent ship is probably 10 to 30 times that of the Qinling!
They are simply not opponents on the same dimension…
Although he was reluctant to admit it, Cangyuan currently found it difficult to even come close to this level of warship, let alone have any clue how to reverse engineer it.
Lu Yuan began to realize a cruel truth:
For space civilizations, each increase in technological level brings not just a percentage or even a doubling of warship strength, but a qualitative leap in orders of magnitude!
It’s a difference of ten, or even hundreds or thousands of times!
“Fighting above one’s weight class” is basically impossible, unless it’s a sneak attack by a dozen or so warships surrounding a single, isolated warship, gaining the initiative.
Cangyuan has a long and arduous journey ahead.
The next step must be to strive to raise the technology level from the current 8 to 7.5, or even 7!
We must find a more efficient energy source than nuclear fusion!
Next, Caoyuan introduced Cangyuan’s warships’ advantages in defense. These were all old topics and had no particular points to note.
Then, he discussed the shortcomings of the Joint Punishment Fleet. Besides being at a complete disadvantage in warship performance, their personnel quality was also difficult to describe.
The two commanders, Gerald and Vice Admiral Sige, both had obvious personality flaws.
Among them, Gerald was short-tempered and easily agitated. Although his major strategic judgments were sound, he misjudged many battlefield details.
As for Sige’s command, it was a complete disaster.
In Caoyuan’s words, his quality and abilities in many aspects were even inferior to ordinary people; he was arrogant, obstinate, inexplicably overconfident, extremely poor at adapting, and at the same time, cowardly and indescribably idiotic.
Of course, Galan’s lower-ranking officers and soldiers weren’t much better.
They were almost all lax in training, in an extremely relaxed state. During peacetime, debris was piled up in the corridors and cabins of their warships, making damage control and repairs difficult after battle damage.
After the battle began, they didn’t even wear anti-flash suits, let alone space suits, which objectively prevented them from evacuating the air inside the ship beforehand.
As a result, after the warships were damaged, a large number of crew members were blown out of the ship and suffocated to death.
The most ridiculous point was that almost all crew members, including Vice Admiral Sige himself, were even wearing sandals, or even flip-flops, which were very popular in Galan—damn it!
That last point truly made Lu Yuan, who had just fallen into unease, laugh, becoming a rare moment of lightness today.
However, from another perspective, defeating such an abstract opponent could only be considered normal performance, with nothing too exciting about it.
“Record it all, and distribute it to the staff, reminding them not to make similar low-level mistakes in the future.”
“Yes!”