From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 478 Planetary Landing Fortress?

"Planetary landing ship? You Jeram people have this thing?" Amber asked curiously, "I thought you guys were always very careful when you were 'cleaning up' other intelligent creatures."

"Well, we still need to fight on the ground occasionally, especially when we encounter a planetary cave dwelling civilization, or a civilization that has taken refuge in underground cities. If we don't want to destroy the planet directly, then fighting on the ground or even underground is inevitable."

"Wow, it seems that you Jeram people have seen a lot of intelligent creatures of different forms~"

"."

There was something strange in Saleh's expression. She felt that this conversation was a bit awkward - a member of a race on the Jeram people's 'cleansing list' was seriously discussing with her whether or not he needed to land during the 'cleansing' process.

At the same time, Amber stopped joking and asked seriously: "Can you tell me more about this planetary landing ship?"

Salih nodded and then described the Jerram vehicle to Amber.

According to her, the role of this planetary landing ship is to deploy a large number of ground troops to the surface of the planet at one time. For this purpose, the Jeram people have also designed different models according to the scale and needs of the combat mission.

The smallest and most common type is a planetary landing ship called the "Purple Star" by the Jeram people. It can carry 6000 fully armed Jeram soldiers at a time, as well as the necessary combat equipment and supplies.

Of course, depending on the actual situation, the number of soldiers on board can be reduced to load some combat biological weapons or large combat vehicles.

Since the Forerunners' technological level is, in most cases, one level higher than the civilizations they destroyed, even the least important and most basic Jeram soldiers in the battle sequence have extremely strong individual combat effectiveness.

According to Amber's speculation, it is almost a "power-enhanced" version of the Immortal Legion, with higher defense, more powerful firepower, more compact size, and more importantly, each of them has psychic powers.
If we start from actual combat, taking into account the pioneers' technical weapons, combat biological weapons, and combat support units, with the current level of human civilization, the garrison of an entire planet could be handled by just sending down a boatload of people.

This also means that the Forerunners often do not need to deploy a large number of troops, and can complete the "cleaning" of an entire planet with only a fleet and a small number of ground units.
In addition to the most common "Purple Star" planetary landing ships, the Jeram people also have "Large Cup" and "Super Large Cup" planetary landing ships. Both types of planetary landing ships can deploy tens of thousands of troops at a time.

Obviously, compared to the 'Purple Star' that can carry 6000 people, Amber is more interested in the latter two.

After all, Atlas' combat troops cannot achieve the same "one against a hundred" as the Forerunners, so there is a requirement for the number of troops deployed. At least 10-12 brigade-level units must be deployed at once - that is, about the size of an army group - in order to gain a foothold and carry out subsequent combat missions.

"Deploying more than 8 troops at once, not to mention a large number of combat vehicles, equipment, and supplies." Saleh frowned when she heard the demands made by Amber.

Amber: "In addition to these requirements, protection must also be in place, because there may be a situation where you have to force a landing under ground-based air defense firepower."

"To be honest, we in Jerram rarely encounter situations where we need to deploy such a large force. If such a large force is required to handle it, we generally choose a more efficient method."

"what way?"

"Starburst." "."

Seeing Amber's expression of difficulty, Saleh smiled and said, "If you don't ask for takeoff again, as long as you can land smoothly, it is still possible."

As she spoke, Saleh opened the interface of the design software and shared it remotely with Amber. Since she had been at the dock helping with the design and construction of the Infinity and subsequent warships, she had already become extremely proficient in using human design software.

"I don't recommend loading 8 people on a single ship. Whether it's design or actual combat, the risks are too great. To use an old saying of yours, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket.'

Therefore, I suggest setting the standard carrying capacity at 1 to 2 people. When you need to deploy what you call an "army group"-sized force at one time, you can use 6 to 10 such vehicles to deliver the personnel and equipment.

Moreover, if multiple vehicles land simultaneously, by adjusting the landing positions of each vehicle, a large "safe zone" can be controlled at the first time, laying the foundation for subsequent combat or support force deployment."

"Control a large 'safe zone' in the first place?" Amber asked curiously. He didn't expect that the Forerunner's think tank deacon was actually "quite experienced" in this regard.

Saleh nodded. "That's right. I was planning to tell you this before. Now that we're talking about this, I'll just say it straight. Based on your current needs, I don't think it's necessary to develop a 'beggar's version' of a planetary landing ship. It's better to just make it into a planetary landing fortress."

"What the hell? A fortress?" Amber's eyes widened.

"Yes, make the main propulsion array and jump engine disposable. After following the fleet to the orbit of the target planet, these additional components can be discarded. Then, with the help of highly redundant defenses, they can forcibly break through the atmosphere and land smoothly with the help of gravity control technology.

After landing, it will directly serve as a frontline base or frontline fortress for the troops on board, using the fixed weapons on board to provide long-range firepower support to the troops within a certain range. At the same time, the battleship-class fusion furnace previously used to power the main propulsion array is also sufficient to power all the facilities in the fortress, including the deflection field generator.

Salih proudly explained her ideas, and at the same time she finished the design.

Judging from her initial draft design, this 'planetary landing fortress' that had abandoned most of the equipment required for a ship was like a huge 'door panel'. When sailing, the main propulsion array was simply and roughly installed at the rear, and the jump engine was half-buried in the upper deck after being covered with an outer shell.

After discarding these 'navigation components', this 'planetary landing fortress' completely became a large door panel.

Saleh designed the bottom deck to be very thick because it is the largest "confrontation surface" during the landing process. However, according to her, combined with the plasma layer surrounding the "fortress" when breaking through the atmosphere, conventional anti-aircraft firepower is actually difficult to pose a threat.

What's more, before the official landing, the combat fleet will also conduct multiple rounds of orbital strikes around the landing site as "fire preparation", so there is actually nothing to worry about in terms of countering anti-aircraft firepower.

After listening to Saleh's description, Amber stared at the draft design that the other party had just made on the spot for a long time, and finally spoke.

"I, Amber, have invested in this project."

(End of this chapter)