Rebirth of the Super Battleship

Chapter 464: Remodeling a Planet

Luka Three and Luka Four both held the position of Chief Scientist, but Number Three’s seniority was much greater than Number Four’s. Within the Luka society, Luka Three’s status also ranked ahead of Luka Four’s. When Luka Three entered the conference room, Xiao Yu saw Luka Four, who had been so aggressive just moments before, immediately quiet down.

“The Institute of Physics is the foundation of all disciplines. If physics does not advance, all other disciplines are castles in the air. Without physics, is it your Life Academy of Sciences that can develop, or your Computational Academy of Sciences, or your Military Academy of Sciences?” Luka Three’s voice was very calm, yet within that calm there was an unquestionable authority.

Over these several thousand years, Luka Three had long since changed from a callow youth into a dignified elder. His countless outstanding contributions to the Divine Ark Civilization had earned him exceedingly high prestige. Within the Divine Ark Civilization, aside from Xiao Yu, Luka Three’s status was second only to Luka Two.

“Another one come to request a construction quota.” Xiao Yu thought with a slight headache. “How to allocate the construction quotas is indeed a vexing matter. Every discipline is equally important. Every discipline must develop. We cannot favor one over another. How to coordinate the proportions among the various disciplines requires careful consideration.”

Luka Three continued, “I am not here to request a construction quota from the Master. I know everyone is contributing to our Divine Ark Civilization, and there is some truth in what everyone has said. But the progress of a civilization cannot be supported by a single discipline. All our disciplines must develop. We cannot favor any one of them. In this regard, I trust the Master’s overall coordination ability. Do not tangle over this here any longer. Go do what you should do. I believe the Master will certainly present a fair and just allocation plan.”

“Luka Three truly has a far-reaching view.” Xiao Yu thought with some surprise. After considering for a moment, he said, “So be it. Our time is still ample. We have a full two hundred years for development. Here, I promise everyone that all the construction tasks you have requested will be realized within fifty years. For now, do not argue over these things.”

“Very well.” Luka Four agreed somewhat awkwardly. Seeing Luka Four make a statement, the other scientists could only echo in unison.

“At last, one headache is resolved.” Xiao Yu let out a small breath and looked ahead at the ever-approaching planets and stars, his mind filled with countless thoughts.

Conventional navigation lasted for less than two days before Xiao Yu’s fleet reached its destination. During the period of flight while fleeing, Xiao Yu’s ships had suffered further losses. By now, fewer than one million ships remained, and most of them were damaged. Under such circumstances, a thorough overhaul was very necessary. Thus, after placing the fleet into low orbit around this rocky planet, a vast amount of robot units set out.

Once again, Town-Class ships undertook the task of shuttling between space and the planetary surface. No fewer than one hundred thousand Town-Class ships, carrying vast amounts of industrial equipment and tens of millions of robots, began heading for the planet’s surface.This planet possessed its own atmosphere and even its own magnetic field, but its atmosphere was too thin and its magnetic field too weak, and it was a bit too far from the primary star. In such an environment, it was basically impossible for life to arise. Of course, nothing is absolute. Perhaps some lifeforms in forms Xiao Yu had yet to comprehend were surviving here.

In short, overall this was a dead world. Its specific environment was probably not much different from Mars in the solar system.

At a point one thousand meters above the surface, Xiao Yu’s ship captured the following scene.

In the image was an endless expanse of yellow earth, like a desert on Earth. Although the atmosphere on this planet was thin, it still had wind, and a rather powerful wind at that. After a brief calculation, Xiao Yu concluded that the strongest winds here were enough to roll boulders the size of houses. Such winds would definitely hinder Xiao Yu’s construction tasks, but fortunately these winds generally existed only along the planet’s equator and would not spread to other regions.

The planet’s surface was very level, with basically no high rises. The tallest peaks were only a few hundred meters. After a brief survey of the planet’s geological structure, Xiao Yu understood why this was the case.

The answer was obvious. The geological structure on this planet had already stabilized. There was no plate drift, no earthquakes, no volcanoes. It was not like Earth. Due to frequent geological activity, speaking in terms of the geologic timescale, Earth’s terrain is changeable, plains can become high mountains, and high mountains can become plains. Even the height of the Himalayas is constantly changing. Geological activity combined with wind power produced Earth’s ever-changing terrain.

But on this planet there was wind without geological activity. In other words, no new mountain ranges would form on it, and the heights of existing peaks would not increase. Under such circumstances, the mountains on this planet would have only one outcome, under the blowing of the wind, after tens of millions to hundreds of millions of years, they would disappear from the planet.

Judging by the present, this process was almost complete. The small hill before Xiao Yu’s eyes might have been nearly ten thousand meters high several hundred million years ago, but by the time of Xiao Yu’s arrival, it was only a few hundred meters tall.

Aside from these peaks, the planet’s geology was truly somewhat unremarkable. It was too monotonous. Apart from yellow sand, there was still only yellow sand. There were basically no other features, no canyons, no plateaus, no hills. For Xiao Yu, however, this was a good thing. Monotonous terrain would greatly facilitate mining and factory construction.

A three-dimensional structural map of this planet had long since been compiled, with clear markings on the map indicating what kinds of mineral deposits were hidden in each location.

Before reaching the planetary surface, the one hundred thousand Town-Class ships had already dispersed, each carrying different instruments toward different mining areas.

Here was a tin ore district, the most valuable tin mine for extraction in this entire star system. Xiao Yu planned to build a large-scale mining plant here.

Nearly a thousand Town-Class ships, carrying instruments, landed here. The retro rockets on the ships blasted the surface into billowing dust, and amid this haze, large batches of robots and mechanical equipment descended from the ships to the ground. They first erected communications equipment, then smelting plant buildings. While the smelting facilities were being built, heavy mining equipment also began construction. The work efficiency of robots is extraordinarily formidable, especially when their number reaches well over one hundred thousand. Thus, in just half a month, this base had begun to take shape.

This was only a small part of Xiao Yu’s development of this planet. In the first wave of construction projects, Xiao Yu selected several hundred such sites in total. These several hundred bases would support Xiao Yu’s initial construction process. In the future, after the robot factories were completed, the number of robots would continue to increase at a rate of nearly ten thousand units per day.

In addition to carrying out large-scale construction on this planet, Xiao Yu also dispatched two hundred thousand ships, carrying the necessary robots and equipment, to the other gas giant.

Due to its special internal environment, a gas giant produces certain materials that are extremely rare yet very important. These ships were going to extract those. Beyond the gas giant, its dozen-odd moons were also among Xiao Yu’s targets. In the days to come, these moons would also undergo surgically precise transformations at Xiao Yu’s hands.

The deathly stillness and quiet of this star system were completely shattered. Under Xiao Yu’s immense executive force, this star system was compelled to change the face it had maintained for who knows how many hundreds of millions of years, and began earth-shaking transformations.

After one year, Xiao Yu had preliminarily completed the construction of the industrial system. Various mining and smelting bases, and various factories, began operating on the right track. Thus, Xiao Yu began the second phase of construction tasks.

In this phase, while expanding the scale of the basic industrial system, Xiao Yu also undertook construction tasks on an even larger scale. That old circumstellar large particle collider, after Xiao Yu’s modifications, was put back into service to let the scientists of the Space Academy of Sciences study what effects extremely high energies would have on space. In addition to this large collider, two others were in preparation for construction. The blueprints for the space-based Computational Academy of Sciences had been completed, and preliminary construction had already begun, with estimated completion in fifteen years. On a moon of that gas giant, countless robots were busily excavating the surface, attempting to dig a giant pit two hundred kilometers deep. The Life Academy of Sciences would be built within this pit. Besides that, there would also be the Military Academy of Sciences, the Social Academy of Sciences, the Energy Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Physics, and so on.

The entire Divine Ark Civilization entered a state of busyness. Xiao Yu’s computing power was maintained at a high level of eighty-five percent almost all the time, hardly ever dropping. All the scientists, too, could not rest for even a moment. They were engaged in intense research work, preparing for the commissioning of the new laboratories.

The whole star system was filled with a scene of vigorous development.