Doomsday: I Build a Space Fleet

A low shout successfully silenced the survivors.

"If you all know each other, choose a leader. Or, let each family send one person who can manage things, and confirm your future treatment."

Seeing the whispering group, Lorraine and Platinum exchanged a glance, then sighed helplessly.

"Three minutes, or your turn will be gone."

The two men, carrying their weapons, turned around and moved slightly away from the group of survivors.

The two then activated the communication system and discussed the whereabouts of the survivors.

"What are you planning to do with these people? Throw them at Ethan?"

"How could that be? Ethan only has about a hundred people who can actually get things done. Giving him these 200-plus people will only make him more overwhelmed."

"We can't just lock them up with those laborers."

Although Platinum also felt that these people were not easy to manage, doing it this way was clearly somewhat inhumane.

"It depends. If they have a good attitude and can put themselves in a suitable position, we'll transport them back to Kauna City, give them a piece of land, and let them continue farming."

"As for those with bad attitudes and who don't know their place..."

Lorraine paused for a moment, then spoke in an even more sinister tone.

"Then lock them up with those coolies."

Three minutes later, the two turned around and returned to the noisy crowd of 200 people.

"quiet."

A low shout did not quell the noisy crowd of 200 people; only a few people nearby stopped their discussion and stood obediently in place.

"Ugh!"

Lorraine first gestured to those who had noticed him to cover their ears, then quietly turned up the volume of the external speakers.

Finally, he took a deep breath and roared.

"Quiet!"

The shout successfully silenced the still-noisy crowd, who were now kneeling helplessly on the ground, clutching their heads.

Lorraine glanced coldly at the kneeling crowd, then beckoned to four or five families nearby to come with him.

Platinum silently removed the rotary machine gun from his back, then started it to spin, putting it into pre-feed mode. However, to avoid friendly fire and ensure rapid response, the barrel was angled towards the ground.

Lorraine led the nearly one hundred people to the back of the transport plane, blocking the view of the other survivors.

"Alright, everyone who's in charge, come to the innermost circle. Let's talk about where you're headed next."

Then, five middle-aged men with slightly robust builds stepped forward and stood in front of Lorraine.

"5 companies, 86 people in total. The person on the far left, please introduce your situation first, and then rotate clockwise."

"Camden Greenleaf, there are 17 people in our family. We mainly grow wheat and barley in the fields and raise sheep on the farm."

"Carter Buchanan, there are 15 people in my family. We mainly grow rapeseed and some vegetables in the fields, and we can make oil. We mainly raise sheep on the farm."

"Lyman Dillard, there are 16 people in my family. We mainly grow sorghum and vegetables in our fields and we make wine."

"Theodore Ashton, there are 18 people in my family. We mainly grow sugarcane and wheat in the fields, and we also brew wine and make sugar. We mainly raise beef cattle on the farm."

"Brendan Ellsworth, there are 20 people in our family. We mainly grow wheat and barley in the fields, brew strong liquor, and have some textile skills."

Listening to their descriptions, Lorraine raised an eyebrow and retrieved the location of their farm from the database.

He then looked at the map in the upper left corner of the display screen inside the helmet, and then at the five survivors he clearly recognized.

"Your companies seem to have complementary strengths, and you seem to have a good relationship?"

The survivors before them were immediately taken aback, wondering what Lorraine meant by that.

"Alright, it's not like I'm going to hurt you. Just tell the truth. Can you explain?"

Standing to the right front of Lorraine, Theodore Ashton, the shortest of the other four and with a full beard, stepped forward.

"Sir, in the 15 years since the apocalypse, we have indeed supported each other. Could you perhaps allow our five families to..."

"We can consider it. Have you looked into the remaining 10 companies in detail?"

"some."

After some communication, Lorraine understood the strategies of the remaining 10 families and why these 5 families were able to maintain friendly relations in the apocalypse.

In fact, these five survivors came to this land after the Red Earth Federation changed its appearance, and they belong to a new generation of pioneers.

The other 10 companies were actually older pioneers who evaded trial and remained on the fringes of it.

"Tsk, why do I always seem to run into all this crap?"

However, Lorraine and others do currently lack cash crops such as sugarcane and cotton, as well as the personnel to cultivate them.

Not only were most of the farmers under Ethan's command planting grain crops, but Yao Guang's supply depot also had no seeds of cash crops left.

"I will arrange a good location for you, but this requires my people to conduct an assessment. I will mark the location of your food storage in a moment, and I will send someone to retrieve all of these things."

"These grains will be stored directly in the granary, and then you will be given food in proportion to their weight."

Then, Lorraine turned around and took a box of smartwatches from a driverless car behind her.

"Bring these things with you, and you'll be considered one of us. All your future payments will be processed through this form."

Then, Lorraine handed Theodore Ashton an unremarkable tablet.

"This tablet contains 3D models of all your survivor camps. You just need to mark the location and weight of your stored food on it."

Then Lorraine waved his hand, signaling Qiexue and Xuan Tie to keep an eye on these people, while he turned around and returned to Bai Jin's side.

"These people probably don't need to be watched anymore; just throw them into the same group as the laborers."

"Um?"

Lorraine transcribed the previous notes into text and sent them to Platinum.

"They passed the lie detector test in Cleveland, so they're most likely telling the truth. Now we're just waiting for the drone to take a look at their camp."

Upon hearing this, Platinum activated the scanning module on his armor and began a deep scan of these people.

"These two groups are not of the same race; they appear to be the same group of peripheral members who ran away back then."

"Hmm? You've even fought bandits before?"

"There's no other way. They're almost everywhere on the land. One country simply can't handle it all. Plus, the coalition government needs to mitigate the impact, so we have to deploy special forces from all countries together."

"Back then, it was the fleet of the Great Yan that transported us to this coast, it was the special aviation regiment of the Free Federation that led us to infiltrate under the night sky, and it was the supersonic stealth bomber squadron of the Snow Country that carried out the bombing mission."

"It can be said that all the unconventional troops that could be deployed were used back then, and even so, many peripheral members still managed to escape."

"This led to various countries leaving behind a number of rapid reaction forces in this area to suppress any potential unrest that might follow."

"Moreover, due to the vast land area, sparse population, and rich mineral resources of this continent, various countries have subsequently built many large-scale facilities on this land and dispatched a certain number of rapid reaction forces to garrison this area."

Upon hearing this, Lorraine's heart skipped a beat, and he almost instantly confirmed the usefulness of the Stonehenge system.

"It seems we need to accelerate fleet development; ideally, we should be able to take to the skies as soon as we capture the Stonehenge system."

Lorraine then glanced at the future laborers, opened the communication system, and instructed Cleveland to build another labor facility around Kanna.

Finally, he waved his hand, signaling the riot control robots waiting nearby to escort these future laborers onto the plane.

Faced with the crowd that suddenly became chaotic, Lorraine showed no mercy, and riot grenades made of rubber exploded one after another in the middle of the crowd.

The powerful impact sent these people scrambling for cover, only to be tackled to the ground by riot control robots wielding rubber batons.

Lorraine calmly watched all of this, and only after the riot control robots had carried the unconscious laborers onto the plane did he and Platinum leave the airport.

After returning to the flagship by helicopter, Lorraine and Platinum immediately found Ouyang Nian in the design studio, and the three discussed the subsequent development plan.

Lorraine's very first words shocked Bai Jin and Ouyang Nian.

"Now I roughly know what's in that blank area in the center of the mainland."

"Um?"

"ah?!"

Lorraine didn't say much, but instead opened the database and asked Cleveland to mark the existing electromagnetic catapult technology and power systems.

"Given the current technological level of the Great Yan, they have already developed an electromagnetic catapult track capable of accelerating objects weighing hundreds of tons to the speed of sound, and it is highly likely that it has entered the stage of practical deployment."

"There should also be a major breakthrough in the related electromagnetic railgun technology."

Then, Lorraine opened the map and pointed to the blank area.

"The coordinates here are approximately -23, 132, which is relatively close to the equator."

"If an experimental electromagnetic catapult track and track defense system were built here, they could save a considerable amount of the transportation costs for raw materials."

"Aircraft launched via this electromagnetic catapult track can quickly enter equatorial orbit."

"If the coalition government has the idea of ​​building a space elevator, then the rich mineral resources in this land will be their primary target."

"In this way, with the help of electromagnetic catapults, they can obtain a cheap and efficient space cargo route. After all, how much does a kilowatt-hour of electricity cost?"

Lorraine then zoomed in on the map, pointing to the continent that straddled the equator to the east of the Red Earth Federation.

"This continent also possesses extremely rich mineral resources and an extremely vast area, making it undoubtedly the best location to build a space elevator."

Bai Jin and Ouyang Nian scratched their heads, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information.

But as a soldier, Bai Jin understood the rationale behind this reasoning after a moment's thought.

"So the reason they went from global confrontation to cooperation was because of the discovery of unidentified extraterrestrial life?"

"To be precise, an unidentified signal from outer space was detected."

"Then everything makes sense."

Platinum had long wondered why so many countries would engage in positive military cooperation, with nations that once had deep-seated hatred putting aside their differences and fighting side by side.

"What are you two talking about?"

Seeing Ouyang Nian's bewildered expression, the two smiled helplessly and then told her the whole story.

"So now we need to build more and more powerful ships!"

"So you thought about it for so long and came up with this."

Both Lorraine and Platinum had slight twitches at the corners of their mouths, but she didn't despair; instead, she believed that facing the situation optimistically was the best outcome. So, without saying much, they began discussing the future development of the fleet.

"The data in the current database is insufficient to support a spacecraft with full-domain stealth capabilities."

"Furthermore, judging from the situation of that level 5 overlord, it might be necessary to use a shell made of metallic hydrogen to kill a level 6 overlord."

Upon hearing this, Ouyang Nian pondered for a moment, then raised his head and asked Luo Lin.

"How does the difficulty of killing those war behemoths compare to that level 5 overlord?"

Lorraine spread his hands and smiled wryly.

"It's like comparing heaven and earth. After all, we have so many ways to deal with creatures on land, but we really don't have many ways to deal with giant creatures underwater."

"But if we only consider the explosive yield required to eliminate these two types of creatures, they are actually about the same."

"After all, the anti-submarine torpedoes and depth charges currently equipped on ships are designed to target submarines. And the world's largest submarine is only less than 3 tons."

"And most importantly, such a large submarine will still suffer considerable damage after being hit by two heavy torpedoes."

Upon hearing this, Ouyang Nian looked at Luo Lin with great surprise.

"Then what are you worried about?"

"Since we can easily wipe out the existing life forms, why don't you start expanding? This is the apocalypse, nothing can stop you."

Then, Lorraine looked at Ouyang Nian with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot.

"Guess what's limiting our expansion speed?"

"Mineral resources."

"But we don't have enough mineral resources right now."

"Then expand!"

"But expansion requires mineral resources."

"Forehead...."

Then the two heard a crisp sound.

"Snap. My mistake, I forgot that these mines have only just been acquired and haven't started large-scale mining yet."

Ouyang Nian said helplessly, rubbing his forehead, which he had slapped red.

Lorraine steered the conversation back to the topic, highlighting the surrounding mines that had been captured and those that had not on the map.

"Currently, the only iron ore mine producing steel on a large scale is this one near the port of Jask."

"The nuclear power furnaces from mines No. 5 and No. 6 cannot be transported back yet because the railway has not been completed."

"I will mobilize the helicopter fleet later and have them transport the three surviving nuclear power reactors over."

As she spoke, Lorraine turned her gaze to Ouyang Nian.

"How is the research on that anti-gravity unit progressing?"

Ouyang Nian helplessly spread his hands, his little face crumbling as he complained.

"It's a black box. We can't figure out how it works at all. We can only vaguely sense that it changes the weight of the ship in some way."

"Um?"

This conclusion greatly startled Lorraine, who had thought that the anti-gravity unit helped the ship take off through basic forces.

"Furthermore, I have carefully studied the technology in the database these past few days and found that the technology in the database has only shown a branching phenomenon. It is highly likely that a large number of branch technologies will not appear until level six."

"Well... never mind, let's use all the remaining resources to manufacture secondary nanocores and level 2 nanocores first, and improve the fleet's shipbuilding capacity first."

"This is probably the only way now."

After a moment's thought, Lorraine inquired about the flagship's upgrade and modification plan.

"Actually, preparations are almost complete. The conditions for producing the axial cannon are in place, and the raw materials for producing the fusion reactor are expected to arrive within three days."

"Then let's build the axial cannon first, just in case we encounter something that's hard to hit with conventional bombs. That way we'll have a backup plan, and whether we run or fight is up to us."

"As for those nuclear-powered furnaces, let's give them to the surrounding mines first and let them start production. We'll talk about the others later."