Chapter 280: The Executive Officer's Secret Departure
With the fall of Apollo and Dark Sun, this pair of "Yin-Yang Twin Stars," Cangyuan once again entered a rare period of relative peace.
A large number of battlefield currency settlements were cashed out.
Besides being able to purchase a fully equipped "Fierce Poison" power armor with these battlefield funds, some players with outstanding military achievements also had a significant amount left over.
Some of them, who enjoyed the management gameplay, exchanged their funds for production lines and invested in factories on Li Star.
Others, who preferred exploration, exchanged their funds for equipment like radars and reactors. This way, once their professional guild advanced to level two and obtained a vehicle purchase coupon, they could immediately buy a blank slate space fighter or yacht at the most affordable price, assembling their own interstellar ride.
At the same time, Lu Yuan commanded the fleet to conduct a large-scale interstellar deployment.
He leased four of the 10 newly produced frigates to more merchant fleets, as agreed.
The remaining six frigates were divided: half were used for local defense and to train more new Sailor players; the other half, along with the four previously purchased cargo ships, formed a support fleet. This fleet planned to carry a large amount of raw materials, prefabricated components, and industrial drones to Ruins Star. Their mission was to quickly build a shipyard in orbit around the planet to repair the fleet damaged in the previous battle, and simultaneously begin construction of a ground-based sub-base.
Afterward, the repaired old fleet would then be able to rotate with this new fleet and head to New Hope at full strength.
Lu Yuan would never allow his military forces to appear in the Star Alliance media's view in a tattered, awaiting-repair state.
This would greatly reduce the corporation's reputation and lead other forces to mistakenly believe that the true strength of Cangyuan's entire fleet was not much higher than Mr. Sang's Dark Sun Pirates, thus leading them to harbor ill intentions and initiate military provocations.
Because they did not know that what truly gave the fleet a hard time was actually the kilometer-long battle body from the ancient AI empire and its incredibly powerful particle beam main cannon.
And considering the existence of the Deep Sea, which needed to remain secret until the warp drive was completed, Lu Yuan could not publicly dispel this "misunderstanding."
In other words, although Cangyuan had achieved several major victories in a row, it was currently in a relatively fragile period, showing signs of over-expansion.
Currently, Cangyuan's sphere of influence includes three strategic strongholds—Li Star, New Hope, and Ruins Star—that need to be defended, and two trade routes—westward and southwestward—that require escort.
Theoretically, at least five sub-fleets are needed, and this doesn't even count Emerald Star, whose existence is unknown to the Star Alliance. This backyard planet is currently completely undefended!
With the 16 warships in Lu Yuan's hands and the 8 escort ships assigned to merchant fleets, it is barely enough only if all ships operate at 100% attendance.
Once major battle damage like the current situation occurs, or other situations require warships to return to the factory for repairs, resources immediately become stretched thin.
This prevented Lu Yuan from immediately fulfilling his previous promise to Anya to dispatch a permanent naval force to New Hope. He could only temporarily leave that area undefended, entrusting the heavy responsibility of defense to New Hope's own fleet, hoping they could protect their future shares.
The feeling of insufficient troops and insufficient logistics is truly uncomfortable...
The future formation of the home fleet and the expeditionary fleet must be carried out separately!
Two parallel construction plans and two different fleet configurations must be set up; otherwise, major problems will definitely arise.
After confirming the development direction, Lu Yuan contacted the butler AI, who had been stationed on Li Star, and conveyed his internal affairs strategy to him.
"Sir, your plans will consume a lot of time and production capacity—"
The butler, in a formal suit, said over the cheat-level instant communication.
"Taking the plan to build a space shipyard on Ruins Star as an example, it will take at least two weeks here to produce the relevant components and industrial drones. During this period, the production of all warships on Li Star, as well as the construction of new shipyards, will have to be suspended.
"Afterward, it will take three weeks to transport the components and other materials to Ruins Star, then two weeks to complete the shipyard assembly there, one week to repair the fleet, and two weeks to take the repaired fleet to New Hope.
"At the same time, Li Star needs to digest the results of the future third procurement, further expand production capacity, and build at least twice the current number of shipyards, factories, and mining sites.
"Hmm—in short, according to my estimate, in the next nearly two months, we probably won't have any surplus capacity for military expansion. At most, we can only build about 5 more frigates. Are you sure the situation will remain as stable as we hope during this period?"
I was hoping you'd give me some advice!
"It's okay, just proceed with this plan for now. As long as the Deep Sea is equipped with a warp drive, everything will be fine!"
Lu Yuan sat at his desk in the Xianyang's captain's office, rubbing his temples hard.
After Cangyuan began to evolve from a single-star system civilization to a multi-star system civilization, he felt that he too had to evolve, but his evolution target was to become a bald powerhouse!
Managing a cosmic giant enterprise is truly not a job for ordinary people. The good news is that more and more political guilds are being established, which can share a lot of his pressure.
Jubian formed the 【Future School】, responsible for discussing the cutting-edge technologies and social forms of various forces, including those confirmed and potentially existing doomsday-level forces.
Xian Yu, while serving as the Vice President of the 【Keyboard Political Bureau】, also established the 【Wargame Society】.
The daily activities of this guild involve deducing various operational plans.
They research how to destroy various Star Alliance forces, or how to avoid being destroyed; it's a "war criminal" club with full belligerence and sense of crisis.
As soon as it was established, it immediately attracted a large number of P-society fans to join.
In addition, numerous "sect"-style combat guilds formally submitted applications for establishment. Their main functions are to team up for missions, pass on combat skills, and also for daily socializing and casual chat groups.
Every player in the game can choose to join one combat-type guild and one political-type guild.
Lu Yuan decided to observe these guild organizations for a period first.
If the management was responsible enough, he planned to transfer the authority to issue most daily missions and new player growth missions to them, only being responsible for periodically checking results and issuing important missions with strategic significance.
However, even if these guild organizations truly performed as expected, or even exceeded expectations, there was still a serious problem facing Lu Yuan.
The speed of interstellar travel.
Whether it's 60% light speed or 99% light speed, warp travel is still too slow, which severely limits Cangyuan's expansion speed. A simple Li Star-Ruins Star-New Hope triangular rotation, the total time spent on the road, actually lasted for 5 weeks,
Over a month!
It's important to know that the area enclosed by these three points, when viewed on a plane, only accounts for 4% of the entire Star Alliance cosmos.
At this speed, how long would it take to control the entire Star Alliance? How long to go beyond the Star Alliance?
Ten years? Twenty years?
Such a slow pace, even if he could accept it, the players would definitely not be satisfied.
The importance of the jump drive became increasingly apparent.
It is imperative to quickly recover faster interstellar travel technology!
Lu Yuan pondered for a long time at his desk, and finally connected to Cao Yuan's communication.
"Executive Officer, is something wrong?"
"Help me gather an advance team willing to be pioneers to Paradise Island. Load their stasis pods onto the Qiangyun. I'll go with them to New Hope. We leave tomorrow."
"Tomorrow—do you need an escort fleet?"
"No. This is a secret navigation mission. The main reason is that time is precious and cannot be delayed any longer. We must start the exploration mission and find cangyuan one as soon as possible!"