Chapter 11: Chapter 11, Black Box Manufacturing Machine
Helping the Abandoned Cave Society establish production capacity was already part of Gu Hang’s plan.
Gu Hang looked down on the meager mineral output of the Abandoned Cave Society; these people struggled just to feed themselves, so what surplus value could they have?
Only by developing them could he achieve his goals.
And Gu Hang’s goals were not merely to have these people pay their taxes. He wanted to make the entire planet more prosperous, he needed more armies, more weaponry, more material foundations…
The Abandoned Cave Society was a starting point, but it was also an important showpiece. If he succeeded, he intended to continuously replicate similar models.
But first, he had to make the showpiece work.
Originally, his plan relied on the “Quintet” Starship floating in the sky.
When Gu Hang set out from the Star Sector Capital to take up his post as the Planetary Governor of the Rage Owl Star, he certainly did not go alone. He was one of the current core members of the Gu Family, an old political household in the Tianma Star Sector.
The “Quintet”, a Watch-class Strike Cruiser belonging to the Imperial Navy of the Tianma Star Sector, carried him all the way from the Star Sector Capital.
After completing the task of escorting the governor, the “Quintet” did not leave. It would orbit the Rage Owl Star for a two-year mission. It was to obey the governor’s orders and be the strongest support for the governor to revive the entire planet.
It was only Gu Hang who received this treatment; the previous governors had to make do with an Escort Ship.
In theory, with the “Quintet” looming in orbit, Gu Hang could walk sideways on the Rage Owl Star. Above the wasteland, there was nothing that could threaten the “Quintet”. On the contrary, the “Quintet” could carry out terrifying orbital bombardments on any location on the planet’s surface.
At the same time, the “Quintet” could also bring great help to Gu Hang in other aspects.
This eleven-kilometer-long giant of the Star Sea was equipped with a crew of over one hundred thousand. There were androids, slaves, combat personnel, technicians, elite marines, mechanics, spiritual energy masters…
All kinds of people, performing different functions.
In a sense, such a giant ship was like a city drifting in the sky.
Primarily, the crew relied on conscription and replenishment from various planets, but due to the lengthy space travels, chances to depart were rare. Many of the crew were simply the offspring of the starship’s personnel, born and likely to die on the starship, never having left it in their lifetime.
This huge sky city could provide Gu Hang with many things. The initial three thousand slaves, three hundred android soldiers, and thirty marines he started with were brought down from the starship.
He originally planned to meet the construction needs of the Abandoned Cave Society from above as well.
The “Quintet” could provide manpower, weapons, and equipment. When Gu Hang said he wanted to select one hundred soldiers from the Abandoned Cave Society and arm them, it wasn’t just talk. He planned to get the ammunition from the starship.
However, some of the production equipment in his plan was not so easy to obtain. He originally intended to get it from Revival City, after all, he was the Planetary Governor, the head of the Rage Owl Star “Alliance”. Even if his control over the Alliance was insufficient, skimming a little off the top was still feasible.
But now, it seemed unnecessary.
The “Technology” function offered by the system provided much more than skimming could.
Without a second thought, he called Patel over, informed him about the production line endeavors, and managed to excite the leader of the Abandoned Cave Society immensely.
After sending Patel away, Gu Hang left the Abandoned Cave Society and went to the outskirts.
His soldiers were also stationed outside; the people of the Abandoned Cave Society had gradually come out, and under the leadership of a person named Butch, they started to build their ground camp. Patel began to select the one hundred Abandoned Cave Society soldiers who were to be trained, and soon settled on the candidates.
To be honest, Gu Hang was not very satisfied with these people from the Abandoned Cave Society as the source for soldiers. They were all from laborious backgrounds, but also malnourished, making it difficult to nurture robust physical conditions. Not only did they appear somewhat small and thin, but their bodies also had many hidden injuries due to prolonged hard labor.
Although they had the mental resolve to endure hardship, they were still not considered a very excellent source of soldiers.
But he had no other options for the time being.
The three thousand slaves brought down from the starship who were in the temporary camp weren’t much better.
Next, Gu Hang left a hundred android soldiers behind and, with the rest of the people and the one hundred newly recruited youths from the Abandoned Cave Society, headed to the temporary camp.
He did not plan to wait for Yan Fangxu, who was off to clear the remnants of the ‘Forsaken Prisoners’, to return. That man wouldn’t run into any trouble. After completing his mission, he would leave behind a small squad of elite Marines to take charge of commanding the android soldiers remaining in the Abandoned Cave Society.
“`
Those brainless servant soldiers have hardly any ability to fight independently.
…
After several hours, Gu Hang returned to the temporary camp.
The entire camp was still a bustling construction site. After initially leveling the ground, sourcing materials locally to build a rudimentary fence and temporary buildings, most of the servants were busy with one thing: constructing the landing field.
The landing field was for starships—not for the entire starship to land, but to facilitate transport ships flying down from the starships to dock with the ground.
This was not a particularly efficient mode of transport. On some planets with better conditions, space elevators and orbital starports were the mainstay of interstellar transportation.
However, again, it was a matter of conditions. Where could Gu Hang afford to construct space elevators and starports right now? He could only rely on the ships carried by the starships to transport materials between space and the ground.
This required a landing field—or rather, an airport—to improve efficiency.
The work to complete the project thoroughly wasn’t small, but there was no need to do everything at once; getting something operational was the priority.
After briefly checking on the progress of the project, Gu Hang found a deserted place outside the camp and materialized two Black Box Manufacturing Machines.
Those two manufacturing machines really were ‘black boxes’.
Made of unknown materials and pitch black, these two machines were shaped like large, square black boxes.
They were two different sizes, resembling two buildings. Each of them had two ‘doors’: one for inputting materials and the other for outputting products.
Gu Hang scratched his head, feeling somewhat dumbfounded.
The system never mentioned these black boxes would be so big.
How was he supposed to move them?
He could only resort to using engineering machinery, as relying purely on manpower was too exaggerated.
But on second thought, Gu Hang felt there was no need to transport these two devices to the Abandoned Cave Society. The finished black boxes could be put to use by importing ore from the Abandoned Cave Society—although doing so somewhat went against his promise to Patel to establish a production line for the Abandoned Cave Society.
But in fact, there was no conflict; the finished black boxes were certainly for producing top-tier alloy steel materials and wouldn’t have a high output.
As for the production line of the Abandoned Cave Society, it could rely on the various parts produced by the mother machine black boxes. These parts would be transported to the Abandoned Cave Society, where they would be assembled on-site to construct an alloy smelting plant.
One could imagine that, as both camps continued to develop, the transport exchanges between them would become very frequent. Building roads was certainly necessary, but so was transportation equipment.
He didn’t want his subordinates to have to push hand carts, taking eight hours to make a round trip.
Vehicles and construction equipment were very much needed.
He looked up at the sky.
It seems he still needed to fleece the “Quintet” for resources, including the hundred sets of weapons and equipment promised to the Abandoned Cave Society.
However, the thought of having to deal with that woman made Gu Hang feel a bit annoyed.
……
Although the word count is still low, I ask my dear readers to please support the new book as much as you can during its early stages!
If you can recommend me, that would be even better!
I’ve always wanted to write a book with a sturdy setting, and for this one, I will put in the effort and hopeful for a good outcome, not letting everyone down!
Thank you very much, red cloth to all!