The stars, but they become the gray wind

Aze, who is also a fan of wonders, has become interested and decided to go big with Kalisi.

Looking at these two excited guys, Renlong and Yuki decided not to say anything more. Although Miss Cabot, as the boss of everyone, was an irresponsible person, as long as she was there, no matter how much trouble their group made, it would probably be a small matter that could be easily solved by the Star Governor Cabot.

The lily is guilty of my dam, the forest, and the hills.

At this time, as everyone's boss, our dear Miss Cabot was lying on a beach lounge chair wearing sunglasses, basking in the sun, and holding a glass of iced lemon soda in her hand, enjoying it happily.

Through her powerful perception as a member of the United Fleet, Cabot also sensed the huge anti-gravity explosion in the distance. However, for a member of the United Fleet like Cabot, this explosion was just as small as a firecracker and did not arouse Miss Cabot's sufficient interest.

On the contrary, what really interests Cabot is the series of disruptive actions that his subordinates are planning to carry out next.

"It seems that the natives of this planet have mastered some weapons that are somewhat dangerous to them. However, with this level of power, it is not even as powerful as the earliest nuclear weapons. Let's see what fun these natives can come up with in their fight for this bomb-related technology..."

"And on the other hand, it seems my cheap subordinates are planning to do something more interesting. What interesting consequences will happen when they truly demonstrate their power to the natives of this planet? I'm really getting more and more curious."

Cabot, wearing sunglasses, unconsciously smiled in anticipation of what was about to happen.

Chapter 15 Stonehenge Orbital Defense System Plus?

After realizing that he had no way of stopping the creativity and desire to show off of these two wonder builders, Calisi and Aze, Yuuki, who was always the most steady among the group, also agreed to their plan to build the Stonehenge Railgun, the Hundred-armed Titan, and the Alicorn.

However, the reason why Yuuki and Renlong agreed to let Kalisi and Aze build something like Stonehenge is actually because the island where they are located and the surrounding areas do lack effective air defense and anti-sea firepower strike capabilities. At present, the only defense force around the entire island is the fifty spherical drones used to protect the hydropower platform, and these drones generally lack beyond-visual-range combat capabilities. Although the four plasma weapons carried on them are extremely powerful and have a super-strong killing ability that is almost a one-shot kill for individual soldiers and lightly armored targets, due to the lack of beyond-visual-range strike capability and the ability to destroy heavily armored targets, once they encounter heavily armored targets or solid reinforced concrete fortifications, their combat efficiency will be seriously reduced.

Therefore, both Yuuki, who was the most steady, and Renlong knew very well that what they needed most at this stage was a sufficiently far-reaching beyond-visual-range strike capability and sufficiently strong destructive firepower. The Stonehenge that Calisi, a wonder lover, planned to build actually happened to meet everyone's current needs for beyond-visual-range strikes and destructive firepower.

A formerly densely wooded area in the center of the island was quickly cleared and leveled by a group of nanomachines in just fifteen minutes. This would become the ground base for eight future Stonehenge railguns. Assisted by the silver sandstorms and slime miners composed of nanomachines, the ground of this circular clearing with a diameter of over a thousand meters was quickly hollowed out. The soil and rocks on the surface and near-surface areas were being devoured and decomposed at high speed by the squirming silver-white slime miners, and soon a huge underground space 100 meters deep was excavated in this one-kilometer-diameter clearing in the forest.

This fairly spacious underground space will serve as the underground part of the future Stonehenge railgun array, used to install the Stonehenge railgun's complex and large high-speed loading system, spare ammunition storage devices, multiple small deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor power supply devices for the operation of Stonehenge itself, and the most important brain part of the entire Stonehenge orbital defense system: radar and Al fire control system and a complete set of supercomputers to control Stonehenge.

After studying the fission reactors used to power Stonehenge's original design, it was discovered that each cannon needed to be powered by a separate fission reactor. Considering that these eight fission reactors that individually powered each cannon would become the biggest weakness in actual use, Calisi decided to replace the original fission reactor power supply device with a more advanced multiple small deuterium-deuterium fusion reactors, and concentrate all the deuterium-deuterium fusion reactors themselves in the deepest part of Stonehenge to ensure the safety of the reactors.

At the same time, in addition to the power supply from the underground deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor, Calisi also added a wireless power transmission receiving device to this improved version of Stonehenge that can receive microwave power from the hydroelectric platform. It serves as a backup for the deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor under Stonehenge. Once a problem occurs in one of them, such as the deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor at the bottom of Stonehenge is paralyzed, the microwave power supply device of the hydroelectric platform will immediately take over Stonehenge's energy supply needs.

Calisi also devoted considerable effort to improving the 1200mm caliber shells used by Stonehenge. First, the design focused on high-powered high-explosive ammunition. Inspired by the Alicorn's 600mm, 128-caliber main gun, capable of firing kiloton-yield neutron bombs or small nuclear weapons, Calisi sought to design a heavy nuclear shell specifically for direct firing from the Stonehenge railgun. After careful design, Calisi produced a high-yield heavy nuclear shell capable of being fired directly from Stonehenge's 1200mm barrel. With a warhead nearly three meters long, the shell's explosive yield could be adjusted between 5 and 1500 tons using an adjustable fusion device within the shell. Calisi even designed an extended-range guided propulsion system for this specialized nuclear shell, extending the Stonehenge artillery's range to nearly 2300 kilometers.

After the design of this artillery shell was completed, Calisi also discovered that if a nuclear artillery shell was designed based on the Stonehenge 1200mm caliber, there would be a serious problem of excessive power. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of excessive power of nuclear artillery shells in most conventional use environments, Calisi had to develop a shell with relatively less destructive power.

Soon, a shell that used metastable metallic hydrogen as the warhead charge was born in the hands of Calisi. Although this shell that used metal hydrogen explosives as a killing method was much smaller than the 1200mm nuclear shell with an explosive equivalent of more than one million tons, the amount of metal hydrogen charge in its warhead after detonation was only equivalent to a TNT explosion of thousands of tons, but its advantage was that it could be used in a more diverse combat environment.

With the help of the nanomachines' ability to construct matter at the subatomic and even quark levels, metallic hydrogen, which originally required countless efforts and resources to synthesize, was easily produced in the hands of Calisi, who had become Grey Wind. Through the nanomachines' advanced technology that was capable of changing the physical and chemical properties of matter, it was forcibly transformed into a substance that could be stably stored at room temperature and pressure.

"It's like I've accidentally created something incredible... I remember how countless scientists and technicians in the world before we traveled through time spent countless hours, resources, equipment, energy, and money... just to synthesize a tiny, almost negligible amount of metallic hydrogen. Even after creating it, they couldn't preserve it."

"As a result, we now use nanomachines to produce and manufacture such large quantities of metallic hydrogen with ease. If the scientists of the past saw this, wouldn't they explode with envy?"

Carlisle looked at the smooth spherical piece of stable metallic hydrogen in her hand and couldn't help but sigh.

After redesigning and improving Stonehenge's power source and ammunition, Calisi also upgraded its fire control and other control systems. While maintaining the same basic architecture, the supercomputer's computing speed, originally comprised of 8192 processors and boasting a 100 petaflops supercomputer, was boosted from 100 petaflops to over 3700 petaflops, representing an explosive, exponential increase in computing performance.

While increasing computing performance, Calisi also added a more intelligent AI recognition and control system to Stonehenge, which can identify and record all targets within its range and reconnaissance range with high precision.

After this magical modification by Kaleesi, the Stonehenge railgun array, which was already extremely powerful and known as TitanGuns, has made a qualitative leap in destructive power and accuracy compared to the original version, and its performance has become even more outrageous.

With the continuous construction of nanomachines, the underground engineering and ground base of Stonehenge have been completed. The eight giant rail guns arranged in a circle on the huge ground base of Stonehenge are also gradually taking shape under the printing of nanomachines.

After the last of the eight rail guns on the ground was completed, the muzzles of the eight guns were pointed to the sky. The exterior was painted gray-white. The deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor at the bottom of the gun's electromagnetic hybrid-driven acceleration rail gun began to inject a steady stream of energy into the gun's various systems. The entire Stonehenge seemed to come alive, and began to rotate the seemingly bulky and huge gun body at high speed under the remote control of Calisi, pointing the muzzle at the sea not far from the island. Then eight tungsten shells were lifted from the fully automatic feeder at the bottom of the turret and sent into the barrel.

Then, Kalisi shouted softly, "Fire!"

Eight heavy tungsten shells instantly rushed out of the barrel at a speed of 6000 meters per second, creating a series of short sonic booms and shock waves at the muzzle. The shells, flying at a speed close to Mach 18, created a huge explosion and waves when they hit the distant sea surface.

Looking at the huge waves caused by the tungsten shells filled with conventional TNT exploding in the distance, Carlisle, who suffers from a fear of insufficient firepower, smiled happily.

Chapter 16 Carrier-Based Aircraft

Yuuki listened to the loud noise coming from the test firing of the eight giant rail guns in the center of the island, the subsequent explosion of the shells on the sea surface, and the series of circular shock waves produced by the shells flying in the air at a supersonic speed close to Mach 18. Yuuki turned his head to look at Renlong beside him.

"Tell me, isn't it a bit of an overkill to use this thing to deal with those big, slow, iron-turtle air battleships and those short-handed surface ships with questionable gun range in this world?"

"Although using air-to-air missiles or anti-ship missiles to deal with those bulky aerial warships can indeed solve the problem, it is always better to make some extra preparations." Renlong replied calmly.

"Are you sure this is just extra preparation and not some kind of swatting a mosquito with a cannon?"

"Is it really necessary to use such an outrageous thing to deal with a bunch of backward iron turtles?"

"Just in case. After all, there are a lot of them. Each ship weighs tens of thousands of tons and can fly at 150 kilometers per hour. It's always better to be cautious."

"Besides, after all, Stonehenge was originally a weapon designed to intercept asteroid fragments. Don't you think there's some strange similarity between dealing with a bunch of man-made floating iron lumps weighing tens of thousands of tons and asteroid fragments that could each weigh tens of thousands of tons?"

"What do they have in common?"

"Look, both the asteroid fragments and the 10,000-ton man-made iron turtle are large and heavy. Isn't that a strange thing they have in common?"

"Have you been infected by those two spectacle-obsessed people, Kalisi and Aze, and their fear of insufficient firepower?

Yuuki held his forehead helplessly.

"Not really. Although I'm not a miracle-building geek like Aze and Kalisi. But well..."

"But what?"

"But... there's one thing I do agree with... that is, bigger is beautiful, more is better, caliber is justice, and range is truth!!!"

"So... things like Stonehenges, Alicorns, and Centauri Giants should be as numerous as possible. One or two simply won't be enough! We should build dozens or even hundreds of them to form a complete surface and air strike fleet!"

Renlong shouted excitedly, clenching his fists.

Looking at the white-haired dragon girl in front of him who had obviously turned into a cannon and big ship fanatic, Yuki, as the most stable person in the team, felt a headache.

After completing the construction and test firing of the Stonehenge orbital defense system on the island, Kalisi happily found Aze and together they began to design and manufacture the P1112 fleet and the Alicorn submarine aviation cruiser.

"The original P1112 still uses fossil fuels, which results in terrible endurance. We don't want to have to shut down its radar and become blind every three days, and then have to use six heavy tankers to refuel it."

"So, I designed this: a nuclear-powered version of the P-1112 Hundred-Armed Titan, along with its accompanying nuclear-powered electronic warfare support ship, the P-1113, and the fleet's regional air defense ship, the P-1114."

"The nuclear reactor inside is a small deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor derived from the same technology used for the spherical drone and hydropower platform. The propulsion system utilizes a scaled-up and improved version of the small anti-gravity vector engine used on some drones, providing the entire air carrier with greater lift and speed, while also leaving ample redundancy for the hull engine."

"For example, the P1113 and P1114, used to escort the Hundred-Armed Giant, originally had only six engines. Damage or failure of even a few could lead to insufficient lift, potentially causing a crash. However, after improvements were made, incorporating a scaled-up version of the anti-gravity vector engine used by drones, the lift provided by these engines could ensure the entire carrier remains operational even if four engines, or two-thirds of the total number of engines, were lost. This prevents the P1113 and P1114, acting as escort aircraft, from expiring in actual missions due to engine damage."

"At the same time, to adapt to the current situation in this world where there is no electronic warfare environment or demand, I also plan to make some modifications to the P1113, a specialized electronic warfare escort ship. For example, I plan to install a large number of 1130 close-in weapon systems and additional low-power laser interception weapons to supplement its limited electronic warfare capabilities and insufficient firepower."

"By the way, speaking of this, what type of carrier-based aircraft do you plan to equip the P1112 with as its main weapon?"

At this point in the discussion, Aze suddenly thought of this key question and asked it to Yiqibaba Linqiliuyi Kalisi.

"While we can certainly convert the Su-34 fighter jet into an unmanned aircraft, I suggest we opt for a true drone."

"Among drones, I recommend the MQ101 and ADF-11F Raven."

Kalisi answered seriously.

Chapter 17 Carrier-Based Aircraft Application Methods and "Advantages Are My"

"Oh, can you tell me the reason specifically?"

"The reason we recommend the MQ101 is that, although the hangar on the P1112 is large, the number of carrier-based aircraft it can accommodate at one time is ultimately limited. If the Su-30 or Su-34 are our primary carrier-based aircraft, then the P1112 can only carry about one squadron of carrier-based aircraft. Even if we cut out all the life-support equipment, living space, and areas originally provided for the crew, the space saved would only allow us to carry one more squadron of Su-30 and Su-34 fighters at best."

Although we can convert the Su-30 or Su-34 into drones by adding the ZOE artificial intelligence piloting system, the Su-30 and Su-34 are inherently large, and even if converted into drones, the cost and effort required to operate them is far higher than that of a true drone like the MQ-101.

"In comparison, while the MQ-101 drone's air combat performance may be inferior, it offers a greater carrier-based aircraft carrying capacity and more flexible deployment capabilities. When it comes to carrier-based aircraft, quantity is clearly more important than quality. Furthermore, in the current combat environment, where the enemy lacks the technological level and weaponry to match ours, there's no point in excessively pursuing quality in carrier-based aircraft."

“我计算了一下在选择搭载MQ101无人机的情况下，P1112百手巨人可以最多携带60架MQ101舰载机，而如果换成苏30或苏34的话，可搭载的舰载机数量就会骤降到仅有24架。”

"Obviously, what we need now is a larger number of carrier-based aircraft to suppress all enemy air and surface combatants."

"I basically understand. Since the MQ-101 is suitable for the current carrier-based aircraft because of its relatively small size and higher carrying capacity, what about the ADF-11F Raven you recommended? It completely contradicts almost all the requirements for the P1112 carrier-based aircraft, right?"

"This thing is ridiculously large even among all the conventional fighters in Ace Combat. The ADF-11F alone is 29.52 meters long. Even if it's detached, the head of the ADF-11 is almost as big as an F-16."

"If you're equipping a large number of MQ-101s for the sake of quantity, I understand. But using them as carrier-based aircraft is completely incomprehensible to me. If we use Su-30 fighters as carrier-based aircraft, we can at least fit a full squadron of fighters inside the P1112. If we use ADF-11F Ravens instead, I'm afraid we can't even fit half a squadron. So I really can't understand why you would recommend something like the ADF-11F as a carrier-based aircraft?"

"Although there is indeed a small part of the idea that we can directly use seventh-generation aircraft in our atmospheric air combat technology, the main reason is not actually this."

"What is that? Apart from anything else, its size alone doesn't make it suitable for a carrier-based aircraft, right?"

"In fact, the reason I recommend the ADF-11F is precisely because I don't intend to use it as a carrier-based aircraft at all."

"Carrier-based aircraft are called carrier-based aircraft because, aside from a few days of combat time, they spend the majority of their time aboard their mother ship. Both the ADF-11F and MQ-101 are equipped with all-electric propulsion systems that can receive microwave power. This gives them exceptional endurance within the microwave power range. They can even accompany their mother ship 24/7, flying thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers without landing or refueling. Once a fighter jet using all-electric propulsion takes off, it rarely needs to land."

"Therefore, a massive fighter like the ADF-11F doesn't need to occupy the hangar space of the P1112 at all. Instead, it will accompany the Hundred-Handed Titan, acting as the mothership, throughout the entire journey and in all weather conditions. It has the ability to fly continuously for tens of thousands of kilometers alongside the White-Handed Titan, spanning the entire globe, for military deployment."

"So you're planning to use the ADF-11F as a wingman and floating gun for the P1112 formation?"

"exactly."

Kalisi and Aze looked at each other and answered very seriously.

"In fact, in actual use, if the ADF-11F does not need to occupy hangar space, we can carry a large number of MQ101s as carrier-based aircraft, and also carry a large number of ADF-11Fs as permanent wingmen to provide accompanying air defense and escort for the Hundred-Handed Giant."

"The ADF-11F itself can also carry two UAVs that can act as active defense systems as wingmen. Using them as miniature carrier-based aircraft is actually completely possible."

“我所规划我们的空中军事力量不久以后将是这样的:由一架P1112空中巡航管制机/空中航母作为整个舰队的核心，两架电子战支援舰P-1113和两架区域重火力防空舰P-1114作为辅助，P1112、P1113、P1112都将会搭载一套输出氘氘聚变核反应堆能量的小型化微波供电系统，用于供给伴飞的ADF-11F与MQ101无人机的全电推进系统。

"Although this microwave power supply system is miniaturized, its power supply and maximum transmission distance have been specifically enhanced to ensure it can maintain power supply to all-electric fighter jets at distances of 1500 kilometers."

"With this additional Hundred-Handed Giant ship-borne micro-power supply system, we can create a spherical air defense and strike zone with a radius of up to 1500 kilometers centered around the entire fleet. Within this 1500-kilometer radius, the ADF-11F can strike any target at any time and, in conjunction with the ship-borne MQ-101, form two tight air defense zones."

"Even if these two air defense circles are breached, the seven 'Light Wheel' vertical missile launchers on the Hundred-Armed Titan are capable of instantly sending the enemy to their doom."

"Not to mention the enemy using Nimbus missiles. They would have to break through the first two powerful air defense circles constructed by the ADF-11F and MQ101, which is already almost impossible."

Aze looked at Kalisi, who was demonstrating her strategic and sophisticated military planning, and said calmly, "But why do I remember that someone's military tactics were basically just relying on fuel and F2As? And with you looking like this, why do I feel like I have the advantage?"

"Although my military tactics skills can't be called outstanding, I don't think I should be compared to a transport captain, right?"

"But you're giving me the feeling of a transport captain who thinks 'the advantage is mine' right now."

"Could you please stop being so discouraging? My military command skills aren't that bad, okay?"

"And even if my military command skills are poor, at worst we can just rely on our advantages as nanomachines to fight a war of quality!!!"

"But have you ever heard the saying, 'Even if a dragon hits your face, you still lose?' I feel like you're giving off exactly that vibe right now."

"Don't worry, I guarantee it. If I still lose despite such a huge technological gap, I'd be called Kalisi!!!"

Chapter 18 I think we should just call this island Taylor Island

While Kalisi and Aze were busy designing the new P1112 fleet, Yuuki and Renlong also came to the entrance of the artificial sinkhole in the center of the island, intending to improve their current industrial system.

At this time, the entrance to the surface sinkhole with a diameter of more than 200 meters has been transformed by nanomachines into a huge expandable hemispherical artificial dome. And 1500 meters below the dome is a cylindrical underground cavity with a diameter of 80 kilometers and a height of more than 10 kilometers dug by nanomining machines.

Now, the entire cave is empty and appears to be very spacious. Only the metal walls printed and installed by nanomachines at the edge of the cave are shining a little. In an area at the bottom, the slime miners made by rice machines are still digging downwards. Under Yuki's orders, these slime miners will continue to dig deeper after completing the project of this giant underground facility, and in the process, collect various rare mineral resources that are more abundant in the deep crust.

"Speaking of which, Yuki, how deep do you plan to let the mining machine dig? It seems that if they keep digging like this, given enough time, they might even be able to dig through the Earth."

"I'm not going to dig through the Earth, but I do intend to have these mining machines at least dig through the crust first. Maybe even down to the depth of the upper mantle."

"That's pretty deep, isn't it? I bet no one on this planet will surpass our record for digging depth for at least half a century."

"That being said, we're not digging this deep for scientific research, but to create an underground space or city that can accommodate a fully automated industrial system."

"Regarding this underground industrial city, I assume you already have a plan?"

Renlong stood beside the metal wall at the edge of the underground cave, raised his left hand and touched the cold metal wall made of special material which had a cooling effect, and asked Yuki who was not far away.

"Of course, the first issue is energy. While we can use electricity from the hydroelectric platform above, for safety reasons, we still need to build a deuterium-deuterium or (II) Reinhardt III deuterium-helium fusion reactor here. Using this fusion reactor as the primary energy source for this underground facility is undoubtedly the safest."

"Another resource that's worth using is the geothermal energy here."

"I think you've just noticed that we're clearly at a depth of over 11,000 meters, so why is the temperature so cool?"

"At our depth, the ambient temperature should have already exceeded 900 degrees. Although we, as gray winds, are hardly affected by external temperature changes, we are also sensitive to changes in the external environment."

"The reason why the temperature is so cool at this depth is because of those special metal walls you just touched. These walls, made of nanomachines, have special metals that have unique heat-absorbing and cooling capabilities. For example, they've managed to lower the underground temperature, which should have soared to nearly 1 degrees Celsius, to a stable 15 degrees Celsius, maintaining the same normal temperature throughout the underground space as the outside world."

"With so much geothermal energy lying around, it would be a complete waste if we didn't utilize it. While building the deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor as the primary energy source for the entire facility, I will also install a geothermal energy conversion device on the ground floor of the facility as a backup energy source to ensure that this geothermal energy isn't wasted.

"Also, the Hundred-Armed Titan formation that Kalisi wanted to build requires a large number of carrier-based drones. We also need to build a fully automated drone production factory in this underground facility that can produce MQ101s, ADF-11Fs, and various other fighter jets."

"Considering the need for that guy named Kalisi who's afraid of insufficient firepower, this drone factory will need to be able to produce thousands of various types of unmanned combat aircraft a day to meet our needs."

"Also, if my guess is correct, those two wonders and giants fanatics, Kalisi and Aze, will definitely not be satisfied with just aircraft at the level of the P1112. They will definitely create something even more outrageous in the future, so I also plan to make some preparations in advance."

"Oh, what are the preparations? Can you tell me more about them?"

Renlong completely agreed with Yuuki, Kaleesi and Aze's assessment.

"So in order to deal with the bigger things those two guys create in the future, we may have to prepare a mass accelerator that can launch those big things in advance."

"Although P1112, P1113, and P1114 all have the ability to take off and land on the water, it's precisely because of this that we have to prepare for the mass accelerator-related projects in advance. Otherwise, if those two people create something big and it can't fly because there is no launch device like a mass accelerator, it will be ridiculous.

"But speaking of this, I suddenly thought of something." Renlong touched the back of his head and reminded Yuki.

"what's up?"

"It seems that this island we are on doesn't have a name yet?"

(2) Lingba Wulin Jiujiu "It seems so..."