Chapter 262: Chapter 261: Cycle
Li Qingsong’s massive fleet finally arrived at Planet Two. Immediately, numerous industrial ships, energy ships, and supply ships began to land, forcing their way down despite the harsh environment that still plagued the planet’s surface.
All the space elevators on Planet Two had been destroyed, and there was no time to build new ones on-site. Yet, an immense amount of supplies needed to be transported. What was the solution?
Li Qingsong’s solution was simple: land the large ships and use them directly as starter factories.
The large starships Li Qingsong had built were not yet capable of taking off from a major planet’s surface. Once they landed, they would never be able to lift off again.
‘But it didn’t matter!’
‘If they can’t take off, so be it. I’ll just build new ones in the future. Right now, the most important thing is to quickly establish a foundational industrial system.’
And so, each large ship became a power plant. With the landing of numerous energy ships, Li Qingsong instantly possessed a more-than-sufficient foundational energy supply.
With one industrial ship after another landing, supported by the energy ships, he immediately established a preliminary industrial production capacity.
And with the landing of one Supercomputer Spaceship after another, Li Qingsong gained the capacity for intelligent construction.
A preliminary industrial system was established in a matter of days. After that, Li Qingsong truly began to develop the planet.
Disregarding the hostile environment left behind by the numerous Hydrogen Bomb detonations, swarms of machines and robots built from Strong Core materials began production. Like ants, they moved swiftly under the dual command of the Divine Craft AI, the Clones, and the Blutuk People.
Vast quantities of ore, some still in a molten state, were recklessly mined and tossed directly into smelting equipment.
Railway lines leaped across ravines and traversed lava-covered plains, directly connecting mines to factories. Countless blast furnaces shot up from the ground, processing endless streams of ore into all sorts of raw materials according to Li Qingsong’s will.
Just as Li Qingsong finished establishing his preliminary industrial system, the enormous fleet from Planet One and Planet Three arrived.
It was a force of several hundred thousand Manned Warships and millions of unmanned warships, accompanied by endless supply ships, transport vessels, and other craft, as well as an almost incalculable number of Interstellar Mines, Cannon Platforms, Missiles, and satellites.
Fueled by the grief of losing their friends and family and burning with the fury of vengeance for their people, the Harville Civilization’s retaliation had arrived.
Hundreds of billions of pairs of eyes watched the battle unfold. Hundreds of millions of soldiers piloted their Manned Warships with everything they had. Countless workers on the home front operated intelligent machinery day and night. Innumerable factories hummed, and massive machines roared to life.
They had only one objective.
To defeat Human Civilization!
Faced with this all-out assault born of grief, Li Qingsong felt immense pressure.
At that moment, Li Qingsong had just over 600,000 Manned Warships remaining, along with their corresponding unmanned support forces.
Under normal circumstances, while this force couldn’t defeat the enemy, it should have been able to hold its ground.
But now, the Harville Fleet’s combat effectiveness seemed to have increased dramatically out of nowhere. Not only were their supply lines more robust and their repairs more timely, but even their tactical proficiency and coordination had improved significantly.
In the past, Li Qingsong could always vaguely sense signs of poor coordination between their various military elements. For example, one fleet might not coordinate well with another, or in terms of logistics, one fleet might receive supplies promptly while another experienced slight delays.
This was perfectly normal. After all, no civilization is without internal conflicts. A civilization that could keep such conflicts within manageable limits, preventing them from affecting the overall situation, was already an exceptional one.
But now, the Harville Fleet’s offensive was flawless.
‘It’s as if, in this moment, they’ve eliminated all internal conflict. Everyone is focused on fighting this one battle, and everyone wants only one thing: to destroy me!’
Even with Li Qingsong dedicating all his forces to planetary defense, the tide of battle instantly began to turn against him.
Every second, a vast number of his warships and unmanned combat installations were being destroyed.
Feeling the immense pressure from the battlefield, Li Qingsong not only resisted with all his might but also poured every ounce of his energy into industrial production.
A truly all-out effort that could only be described as frenzied industrial production.
Countless railway lines spread across the scarred surface as if growing of their own accord. Heavy-freight trains roared day and night, while in the sky, heavy fixed-wing aircraft shuttled back and forth, never stopping for a moment.
Li Qingsong, too, was giving it his all.
But…
‘Even so,’ Li Qingsong felt, ‘my construction is proceeding far too slowly.’
There was nothing to be done. He had lost two billion Clones building the Unified Force Field.
Now, he had fewer than one billion Clones at his disposal.
He also had about 600 million Blutuk People, but their combined productivity was, at best, comparable to that of a few million Clones. They had virtually no impact on the grand scheme of things.
‘Rapidly restoring the number of Clones is the most urgent priority right now.’
To this end, Li Qingsong pulled tens of millions of Clones from his already stretched-to-the-limit workforce and threw them into the construction of cloning factories. All industrial materials were prioritized for these factories, even taking precedence over the production of war materiel.
Under these conditions, the first cloning factory, capable of producing one hundred million Clones annually, was completed in just a few months. The first batch of clone seeds was immediately put in to begin development.
In just half a year, fifty million Clones would be born.
After this, the Clones who had built the factory were not reassigned to other industrial production. Instead, they immediately began work on a second cloning factory without a moment’s rest.
Half a year later, fifty million Clones were born.
By now, the situation on the battlefield was dire. Even with hundreds of millions of Clones working at full capacity, their production still couldn’t keep up with the rate of consumption in the war.
Under the Harvillers’ frenzied assault, the front line was on the verge of collapse.
But even so, these fifty million new Clones were not sent to bolster industrial production. Instead, they too were assigned to the construction of more cloning factories.
In this way, the number of Clones under Li Qingsong’s command began to recover rapidly. The more Clones he had, the faster the cloning factories could be built. The faster the factories were built, the more Clones he would have. It was a self-perpetuating cycle.