Chapter 99: Our Opponents Won't Wait Forever
To the sky?
To what sky?
The interns didn't immediately understand the meaning of this sentence.
"Cangyuan has a super factory in synchronous orbit," Lu Yuan explained. "There are more advanced facilities there than on the ground, capable of producing higher-level products. If you're interested, you can try working there as a space worker."
Space... worker?!
That name is really appealing.
With this title, they could totally swagger in front of those Engineers in Oasis City!
However, the word 'space' also signifies the unknown to the natives, and the unknown can breed fear.
After all, their fathers and grandfathers were Desert dwellers who struggled in the sand their whole lives, never even having been on a plane.
"Before going into space, we will first provide training, so there's no need to worry about safety. Now, those interested in signing up, please raise your hands."
Everyone was hesitant.
Although the Executive Officer had verbally guaranteed safety, and they believed the journey would be safe, they were still afraid of messing up due to lack of experience and losing this valuable internship opportunity.
At this moment, a female worker in her early twenties raised her hand.
Initially, her movement was not very expansive, but then, as if gritting her teeth and making a certain decision, she forcefully raised her hand as high as possible.
That was Susan's daughter.
The housewife who had moved into a two-story building early and meticulously cleaned it every day had a very simple requirement for her daughter participating in this internship.
"No matter what task the Executive Officer assigns you, you must rush to complete it. You must work hard and do a good job! Understand?"
Lu Yuan had not met Susan's daughter and didn't know her at all. He only saw that, spurred by this female worker, all 120 people eventually raised their hands one after another.
Surely they couldn't be more timid than a 20-year-old female worker?
Very good!
"Then let's start picking the most capable ones, 20 in a group," Lu Yuan turned to Black Smoke and said, "But who goes first or last isn't that important, these people will all eventually live on the industrial ship."
"Okay! Leave it to me!"
Sending the intern workers to the industrial ship was not a sudden whim of Lu Yuan.
Nor was it because doing so was cool and could showcase Cangyuan's strength.
He planned to attack the industrial station located on the Moon. To achieve this, he needed to build space fighters for escort.
But there was a technical problem here.
Currently, due to a lack of nuclear fuel, Cangyuan could only use chemical thrusters to go to the Moon.
The most advanced chemical thruster in the industrial ship blueprint library was actually the same model as the deceleration engine used by the previous drop pods,
Both were hydrogen-oxygen rocket engines with a vacuum specific impulse of 545s, far more advanced than similar products in the 21st century in 'reality', basically reaching the physical limit of hydrogen-oxygen engines.
However, a space fighter is not a rocket.
Compared to a rocket, it has a large amount of heavy payload inside, including radar, weapons and ammunition, landing gear, attitude control nozzles, pilots, etc. No matter how it is designed, the dry mass ratio is difficult to be less than 0.3, meaning at most only 70% of the weight is chemical fuel.
So, according to the calculations of Jubian, this expert, without additional boosters, a chemically propelled space fighter could at most achieve a velocity increment of 7.5 kilometers per second, its performance not even matching the spaceplane provided at the start.
The latter could achieve a maximum initial speed of 10 Mach, about 3 kilometers per second, within the atmosphere using jet engines. After the rocket engine ignited, it could barely reach Li Star's synchronous orbit at an altitude of over 35,000 kilometers.
Wanting to use this kind of 'primitive' fighter to go to the Moon was truly beyond its capability; it would be pulled back by 'Li Star' halfway.
But there was also a solution.
That was to play a 'left foot on right foot' sky ladder technique, first letting the spaceplane move like ants carrying things, taking workers and materials to the industrial ship, and then directly assembling and building space fighters there.
At this point, the gravitational pull from Li Star had greatly reduced, only one-fortieth of that on the surface. Going to the Moon would then be a piece of cake.
The industrial ship actually served as a natural springboard.
"Let's go, everyone!"
Early the next morning, Ying Ji Chang Kong, sporting a handsome face and a mischievous smile, walked towards the first batch of 20 intern workers, saying, "Let's go for astronaut special training!"
Shen Quan, sandwiched among the others, walked into the spaceplane cargo bay in a daze.
It was completely different from when he came last time. All kinds of equipment had been cleared out, and 20 chairs were reinstalled.
"Everyone pick a seat, fasten your seatbelts as soon as possible, and we'll depart in 5 minutes."
Chang Kong acted as both pilot and flight attendant, speaking to everyone.
"Yes, sir!"
"Not 'sir', it's Captain!"
Chang Kong stood with his hands on his hips and corrected them emphatically.
Speaking of which, Captain should be fine, right? A pilot is at least an officer. Heh heh, Caoyuan is just a squad leader, how lame. The spaceplane took off vertically, initially very stable.
The cargo bay had no windows, but there was a large screen displaying the cockpit view. The intern workers sat on the relatively comfortable chairs, looking up at the magnificent Desert scenery on the screen, their eyes full of novelty.
Many of them felt like they were on a trip.
Only those who had previously joined the militia and undergone Caoyuan's devil training knew that the truth was definitely not that simple.
Cangyuan? Traveling?
Heh heh!
Just wait...
They exchanged glances and silently gripped the armrests of their chairs.
As expected, Chang Kong carried forward the glorious tradition left by Caoyuan's instructor and did not disappoint the natives. The spaceplane suddenly increased its pitch angle, raised its nose, and began to accelerate, causing the cabin to vibrate violently.
"We will first climb to an altitude of 3,000 meters."
His voice came through the loudspeaker, and at the same time, Shen Quan felt himself being pressed firmly against the seat.
"What everyone is feeling now is G-force, the value is about 2G, which is two times gravity. During actual launch, it can reach over 5G."
Not bad!
Shen Quan thought to himself, besides feeling a bit breathless from the pressure, it wasn't particularly uncomfortable.
"G-force isn't uncomfortable, what's truly uncomfortable is weightlessness and negative G-force. You'll experience that later."
40 seconds later, the spaceplane reached its highest point, and its attitude suddenly leveled out.
"Our current altitude is 37,000 meters. Next, I will let the spaceplane freefall until it drops to about 1,500 meters, which will take a total of one and a half minutes. During this time, you can fully experience the feeling of weightlessness.
"It might be uncomfortable at first. I'll teach you a little trick: when you feel weightless, exhale slowly, and at the same time puff out your stomach, imagine emptying your lungs, and pushing your stomach and intestines down. Try not to keep air in your chest and mouth."
This is a breathing technique frequently used by fighter pilots to resist negative G-force, which can prevent blood rushing upwards and causing redout. It is a 'breathing method' that exists in reality.
The plane began to freefall, and many people screamed uncontrollably, their internal organs feeling like they were suddenly surging upwards.
This was the ultimate PLUS version of a roller coaster. Inexperienced people would definitely feel uncomfortable.
After a brief panic, Shen Quan adjusted his breathing method according to the essentials taught by Chang Kong, and indeed, he felt much more comfortable instantly.
The nausea caused by weightlessness was concentrated only in the first ten seconds. After gradually adapting, everyone unfastened their seatbelts and floated around in the cargo bay.
"Oh my god, I'm flying! Are we in space already?"
"Of course not! Weightlessness, do you understand weightlessness?! We're just falling in sync with the plane. You've given everything the school taught you back to the teacher."
"Never mind, this feeling is kind of awesome!"
"Watch me do a flip!"
Hmm... physical fitness is pretty good, better than expected.
Chang Kong glanced at the cargo bay monitoring screen.
Just like that, the astronaut training was conducted at a high frequency. Chang Kong and two other pilot players rotated, going up and down dozens of times a day. The number of trainees participating in the training also quickly increased from 20 to 40, then 60.
On the other side, the new players were also growing rapidly, completing all the novice tasks in less than three days. The camp now had another 60 exoskeleton players, becoming a reliable combat force for defending the base.
All-terrain vehicles frequently shuttled between Devil Mountain Camp and the Red Iron Town branch base. During this time, they saw Apollo's 'hummingbird' reconnaissance plane fly low overhead more than once.
Sometimes, the other party would even fire a burst of autocannon fire next to their route, openly provoking them.
Lu Yuan knew that from Apollo's aerial perspective, Cangyuan's trend of outward expansion could not be more obvious, and the location of the main camp could also be easily determined by the direction of the convoy.
Therefore, when Apollo's reconnaissance plane appeared again less than 50 kilometers from Devil Mountain Camp, he decisively ordered the laser cannon to fire and shoot it down.
Now, hiding for one more day is one more day.
The crash incident paused Apollo's probing for two days, but starting from the third day, that annoying fly-like aircraft appeared on the horizon again, just slightly smarter, no longer venturing deep, only climbing high to observe.
Regardless, all signs indicated that Apollo had made up its mind to act.
Lu Yuan thought back, he shouldn't have done anything wrong. So, the reason Apollo changed its strategy must be due to guidance from a master behind the scenes.
Alright, time to ramp up the intensity...
He had the players act late at night, secretly sending some production materials to the Stormwind Gang shelter they had previously captured, to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
But this was not enough.
Faster, even faster!