Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

In the eastern snowfields of Ursus, the natural disaster and cold wave gradually subsided. The ruins of towns and abandoned villages were scattered across the land like frozen pearls. The blockade line was practically dead in every sense. The Fourth and Fifth Armies had both withdrawn to their starting points to re-consolidate the defenses of the noble residences and core economic zones.

As for those villages, towns, and mobile cities that were forcibly relocated south of the blockade line, they were essentially abandoned, "which was also part of the plan."

The black serpent, who had almost been buried by the natural disaster, returned to its home city, though it didn't understand why Talulah had so many neural signals. However, that no longer mattered.

Even without Talulah, the Reunion Movement or the forces on the snowfields have already achieved their goal: the blockade has collapsed, and their next step will be to head south.

It's simply a matter of the empire winning or losing. If the empire wins, the emperor will be forced to shift internal development to a civil war mode.

If we can't win, that's fine too. After all, if we can't defeat the threat from the north, surely we can defeat the weaklings from the south? We'll follow in the footsteps of the late emperor once again. If we can't defeat natural disasters, surely we can defeat you?

"Now, these cities are a burden to them." Regardless of the outcome, it's all part of the Black Serpent Plan. If they become a burden to the other side, then they can legitimately launch an expedition to the north, deplete the population, plunder wealth, and feed the rest of the population.

If the other party completely absorbs it, it will grow rapidly and become a major threat to the emperor. How can the emperor allow others to snore on his bed?

However, the young emperor's thoughts were completely different from those of the black snake. "Witt, I have a very important task for you."

"His Majesty?"

"Do you remember that topic we discussed last time?"

"The Xia Group's affairs? If you're referring to the Empire's tax collection, that's a bit..."

After all, no entity could be found to collect taxes. The other party had not established offices or corporate headquarters in any Ursus city; their headquarters were located in the abandoned snowfields.

"No, I've changed my mind..." The young emperor smiled. "Witt, my friend, answer me seriously, without any flattery or exaggeration. How big is Ursus, truly mine, no, truly the Ursus Emperor's Ursus?"

"His Majesty……"

"I won't blame you, tell me the truth." The emperor stood up and walked to the study window. The capital city in summer seemed to be shrouded in a light crimson hue. There were palaces with red walls and golden roofs, noble mansions with solemn crimson hues, and pale green onion-shaped spires. In the distance were undulating streets and bustling markets, but beyond that, nothing could be seen.

The sheer drop, like a precipice, clearly divides the capital's aristocratic district, wealthy district, commoner district, and slums. The cliffs and metal armor made of carbon fiber, resembling city walls, are the physical barriers that separate the different social classes of Ursus.

For the emperor, who lived in the most upscale palace in Saint-Germain, even if he strained his eyes, he could only see a portion of the mansions and spires in the wealthy district. The vast majority of his subjects were blocked from looking at the palace by nobles and landowners, who seemed to form an invisible wall separating the royal family from the people.

"If it is only the area that your authority can reach, then the entire Ursus, Your Majesty."

"What if it truly belongs to me?"

“If you mean the area under your command, the place where your orders and will can reach…” Witt stretched out his hand and drew a circle along the boundary between the wealthy and noble districts, “It’s about this big, Your Majesty…”

"It seems you understand, Witt, my friend."

“Yes…” Witt sighed. Relying on the inner guard, the emperor’s authority could extend throughout Ursus, but the emperor’s orders and policies could only be carried out by these nobles. Only by negotiating, compromising, making concessions, and checking and balancing them could his orders be considered orders. Therefore, the reach of his will was limited to the outer walls of the noble district.

“What I want is not Saint-Germain Castle, but the whole of Ursus, so…” The Emperor looked out the window and said nothing, but his closest friends and comrades already understood what he was about to say.

“I will make the trip myself, but I don’t think the results will be very good. You have too little to offer, especially the most crucial item, which you cannot offer as a bargaining chip for the time being.”

“Unless I pledge the crown?” The Emperor smiled. “If necessary, I will. And you, Witt, I need you to be my eyes and ears, to let me know whether they are worth pledging the crown and betting the entire Ursus Millennium Dynasty on them.”

"Then, Your Majesty, you must give me a clear answer: do you desire the crown or the imperial power?"

"Can I have both?"

"I think this could be very difficult."

"If it's just a crown, what's the difference between me and how I am now?"

"That was just His Majesty wearing a golden crown."

“I understand. What I want is the whole of Ursus, in whatever form.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, I will prepare to depart immediately.” Witt took his leave.

"Is the crown still the imperial power?" The young emperor looked at the invisible dividing line in the capital. "It's just a golden crown. Witt, you're certainly getting bolder and bolder."

As long as the crown is present, it only maintains the existence and nominal rule of the royal family. It is just a golden crown, and no one would oppose the royal family for a simple golden crown that is not very comfortable to wear.

But as long as the imperial power remains, the crown may not be preserved, and the royal family may disappear. However, he may use this as leverage to seize power in a new empire—even if that power is limited to his generation.

To have both is to be the emperor of the Great Yan, possessing both the crown and imperial power. However... in Ursus, this is far too difficult.

At the same time, "Test drive begins!" The metal behemoth slowly stepped off the platform. Just as Lao Xia complained, the 4X dual-track design was simply deadly. Whether it was the suspension or the size, it was basically a miniaturized land assault ship.

The vehicle features a robust carbon fiber chassis, suspension and load-bearing system, four sets of tracks at the front and rear, and three engines: two at the front and two at the rear to provide transmission power, and one engine to provide steering power.

To avoid an overly complex and daunting gearbox system, this thing's forward and reverse movements are separate. Simply put, the front and rear tracks can only rotate in one direction. When moving forward, only the rear engine is working, and when moving backward, the front engine is working.

It also does not support differential steering. Steering is achieved by a dedicated engine that forcibly distributes the vehicle's weight to the rear and then rotates the front track assembly. It is a design that would leave even German engineers speechless.

Such an extreme design meant that it initially used a rigid suspension. Fortunately, Lao Xia provided air-hydraulic suspension technology. Otherwise, the ride experience would have been unbearable.

In other words, this thing is not mobile, or at least not agile, and its huge body is not concealable. The cooling of the front and rear engines depends entirely on the blade cooler.

Of course, the good news is that the crew's protection may be more stringent. After all, after the enemy penetrates the front armor, they still need to penetrate the engine box and the heavy and sturdy Originium engine before they can injure the crew inside.

The bad news is that, according to Mr. Ivan, who had experienced it before, once this thing is running, it feels like sitting in a sauna built on a roller coaster. Now, it's slightly better; the presence of Ye Lengguan makes it barely habitable inside.

"The Ye Lengta heat exchange system dissipates all the heat into the cooling water, which is then ejected from the rear of the turret. All that's needed is a water tank to keep the engine and vehicle cool," Master Yike proudly explained about his new improved version.

Meanwhile, Lao Xia on the other end of the communicator just wanted to stuff him into the organic waste recycling bin, which not only didn't simplify things but made them bigger and more complicated.

Moreover, the proportion of wet parts had doubled, but in the end, considering that he was responsible for the maintenance himself, they let it go.

However, there are some highlights. The large Originium railgun has finally been finalized and put into production. And because of its huge activation box and particle source power box, it can only be installed on this kind of monster.

Considering that Terra's anti-armor capabilities largely rely on city siege artillery and artillery sorcerers, this colossal war machine cannot be said to be useless.

At the very least, it is certainly more flexible than a mobile fortress or landship, while its firepower can inflict sufficient damage on such units.

"Two rotating electromagnetic crossbows, four secondary gun turrets converted from individual thermal cannons at the front and rear, a twin railgun turret, plus four firing ports around the vehicle body, allowing warlocks to fire destructive spells..."

The driver said loudly and proudly, "This is a small mobile fortress, and it's cheaper and easier to deploy than a regular mobile fortress!"

"Uh..." From this perspective, it is indeed excellent, if it is defined as a mobile metal fortress.

"Also, what was the new device you mentioned you installed?"

"This!" The Sarkaz sorcery device provided by the Patriots, once activated, quickly covered the vehicle body with a layer of red, high-density Originium particle cloud.

"Is it ready?" The little sheep raised its staff. "Yes, attack!" Fireballs of magic rained down like a storm, but were absorbed by the cloud of particles.

"The Originium Shield can greatly reduce spell damage, so enemy artillery and some city defense weapons will not be able to destroy a Titan tank in one go!"

"Uh..." Old Xia rubbed his temples. "Whatever makes you happy. But for dealing with the Ursus troops, this equipment is indeed sufficient."

Next, the behemoth, designated as the "Titan Chariot," rotated its turret and aimed at a distant target: an abandoned Ursus assault ship, obtained from Hrag, supposedly to dismantle useful parts. Although Hrag was suspicious, he still gave it to them.

"Charge!" Two cylindrical braking components on the outside of the launch box popped up, and the blocked Originium particle stream quickly entered the pressurization track under the guidance of the gunner's Originium Arts. The entire gun rail began to light up gradually. As the pressurization level became too high and the particle flow speed exceeded the speed of light, the transparent honeycomb grid structure on the side of the entire gun rail, which was composed of white horse alcohol-ketone array synthesis material, began to light up with blue-shifted radiation.

"Charging complete." The gunner released the charging handle, and the loader took a uniquely shaped shell from the ammunition rack.

The tail section is a projectile made of pure Originium and polymer. The pure Originium forms a light golden transparent ring like gold inlaid with jade. Then there is a slender needle-shaped projectile cast from foreign steel. In the middle of the projectile is a tubular structure made of transparent pure Originium crystals, and the inner core is a launch tube.

At the moment of impact, the pressure causes the Originium to rupture, triggering the tower tube and detonating the Originium. This causes the armor-piercing rod at the front to accelerate further and melt into a metallic jet. Talulah's Originium Arts jet then follows closely behind, detonating the ring-shaped Originium at the rear as well. Finally, it transforms into a raging storm powerful enough to melt a city's structure, blooming inside the target.

Previous routine test firings revealed that the impact velocity was not high enough to trigger the phenomenon of compression and implosion, so now that the new railgun has come out, we're going to try this thing out.

"The bistable system is functioning normally, the blade cooling system is under low load, first-stage pressurization complete, loading!"

The gunner loads the shells into the launcher, then cranks the handle to send the thing into the launch rail waiting area, closes the breech door, and opens the exhaust systems on both sides.

"Type 1 penetrating missile is fully loaded and ready to fire at any time..."

"Fire!"

"Bang!" A huge muffled sound rang out, and high-pressure hot steam spewed out from the side of the gun rail and both sides of the turret. Fine overload Originium particles, like tiny red sprites, surrounded the gun rail and the trajectory, leaving a faint red trail visible to the naked eye in the air, which slowly dissipated over time.

"Thump!" The mobile assault ship's armor, which had provided almost no effective defense, turned into a hot melting hole. The horizontally launched railgun broke off, the launch tower was activated, and then high-temperature plasma erupted from every hatch of the target. Although it did not release energy and gas as violently as explosives to shatter the landship.

However, the actual destructive effect looked even more terrifying, because the thing weighing nearly a thousand tons began to collapse little by little, like a chocolate bar stuffed into a microwave oven. The main beams inside were melted. Even if it didn't die on the spot, it would be scrapped after being towed back.

The flames lasted for about three minutes. Judging from the situation on the battlefield, the person inside was probably reduced to ashes. If they were unlucky, there might not even be ashes left. The only explanation for where the person inside went was the inexplicable clumps of slightly high carbon content metal that dripped and condensed.

Even if Sister Tako herself were to use this Originium Arts, she would have to consider whether she could withstand it, and whether it would be a suicidal act.

However, when her somatic cells are cloned and cultured into wet-packed explosives, the desired effect is self-destruction.

Master Ke even came up with an even more outrageous idea based on Lao Xia's wet parts technology: since some nerve cells and brain cells have already been cloned and induced to serve as this tower-type internal combustion warhead, why not simply cultivate more of them?

It is transformed into a neural network and a preliminary cerebellar motor mechanism, and then optical neural signals are connected into it using Rhode Island's neural technology—this is how the "Talulah Smart Gun-Launched Missile" can be obtained.

[Abbreviation: Tasmanian projectiles and shells, Purple Label official equipment, nods—]

It could also develop civilian technologies such as the "Yelena Smart Firefighting Missile," but Lao Xia stopped him. Cloning a small number of nerve cells and brain cells is still within the scope of conventional biomedical engineering.

Cloning a complete nervous system and local brain structure would be a crime committed by the Covenant.

Because then it can be defined as an independent life, even if it has low intelligence or is disabled. You can't deprive people with brain atrophy or intellectual disabilities of their human status.

“It’s definitely much more powerful than if I used it myself…” Talulah nodded as she watched the whole thing. Unlike Yelena, she didn’t believe that her cells could be turned into boilers and that her abilities could bring warmth, civilization, and work to the people of Ursus and even all of Terra.

Rather than becoming mere tools for killing, this was something the nobles were very satisfied and pleased with as a source of pride and a means to flaunt their wealth.

However, turning it into cannonballs is still a bit unsettling, but considering that necessary force is a prerequisite for ensuring that the gains of the infected and the oppressed are not plundered and exploited, this use is still tacitly approved.

Moreover, Master Ke also said that this kind of engine can be used on artillery and steel furnaces. It can power a tank weighing nearly 200 tons, and it can also power a tractor weighing 200 tons for farming. A sword can be used as a plow, and conversely, a plow can be used as a sword, depending on who is using it and what they are using it for.

"Speaking of which, Mr. Xia, I heard you're working on a super wet component project. What are you doing?"

Old Xia, the "Bio-industrial computer," had an expression as if he had just eaten shit. He was fed up with those guys who would use Originium Arts "magic" to ignore the process at the drop of a hat. To achieve automation and automatic management, a computer with sufficient functionality was necessary.

It's a good opportunity for the company to carry out IT reforms at the same time; otherwise, he would have a headache just looking at all those piles of paper documents.

"Biology what? A calculator?"

"No, it's something more complex." One of the industrial products of the Covenant's farms is this bio-computer, which uses animal brains and comes in two types: "emotional" and "logical."

The raw material for the emotional type is primates, which eventually form a biological computing brain chip, used as a regular component in the manufacture of the Star Alliance's AI computing matrix. The logic type can use any animal, but the most important one is... a pig's brain.

Because pigs have the most developed brains among animals, second only to primates and dolphins, they are actually very intelligent.

Moreover, pigs are very easy to raise. Lao Xia has all the processing procedures. The workshop is already using the brains of the pigs they slaughtered before to make packaging sheets.

The wet component computer is different from the SAM-dropping machine like the old Xia's handmade leaf cold box. There is no need to make it form a complete brain structure. It looks similar to the shape of a packaged electronic chip, except that it does not contain silicon wafers, but living cells and a nervous system.

It needs to be used in a low-temperature environment and has a complex system to maintain cell viability.

Its lifespan is much shorter than that of the Star Alliance's standard quantum chips, requiring replacement approximately every 14 months. In terms of performance, it ages and declines after about 8 months.

However, it serves as an alternative when you cannot actually manufacture quantum chips, and it is also a material for some implants. In a biological environment, its lifespan can be extended to more than ten years.

If a complete wet computing array is assembled and immersed in a biomimetic liquid, its lifespan can essentially match that of a normal computer.

Moreover, it appears to be a normal electromechanical structure, simply immersed in liquid and connected by numerous capillary tubes.