Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Without the protection of accompanying heavy warships, the Great Yan's treasure ship-class warships could probably cut through them.

After reviewing the somewhat incomplete parameter table, the emperor made a preliminary judgment: if that's the case, then there shouldn't be any major problems.

"Keep an eye on them, and let me know immediately if they decide to build a larger ship."

The threat doesn't seem significant now, but the ability to build such transport ships in such a short time definitely indicates their strength and cunning. However, their money is truly tempting.

The Great Yan Dynasty had finally achieved a balance between income and expenditure, so naturally it did not want to cut down this cash cow too early, no matter how many corpses were buried under it. It would only take action when this cash cow became a threat to it.

As for the present, they'll just have their trusted Black-Clad Guards keep an eye on things, while Kazdel clearly doesn't care about the situation on the Great Yan side.

Because they don't know the true combat performance of those weapons and equipment right now. Not to mention them, even their own people don't know—because it's an experimental ship and hasn't been tested in actual combat yet.

By the time they found out, Kazdel's fleet had already grown to a considerable size.

At that time, Da Yan will have to consider the additional losses caused by rashly turning against them. As long as this side is not really planning to plot against Da Yan, there will be no problem.

Old Xia really didn't intend to use the Great Yan route to enter the northern polar region, not only because the Great Yan was powerful, but also because the Great Yan was actually an ally that could be won over for this strategic objective.

Reclaiming the northern lands invaded by demons has been the dream of the Great Yan rulers and their subjects throughout history. If they see hope, they will not refuse Kazdel's proposal.

In contrast, Ursus and Kosicheal were much more passive. Ursus's attitude was probably, "If I can't beat the demons, can't I beat you?"

They were determined to expand southward into the warm plains. Kosiché, on the other hand, was more pessimistic, believing that Ursus could only develop by expanding southward and that only constant war and plunder could allow it to prosper.

Chapter Fifty-Five: I Don't Want to Write a Title

Chapter 55

Four towing vehicles were in front, with steel cables at least as thick as a forearm taut and straight. Accompanied by creaking sounds and the sound of tracks rolling over alloy towing platforms, the earthy yellow metal monster, as large as a mountain, was slowly pulled out of the slipway.

The ship shuddered violently, its tracks thundering as they pounded the ground, leaving deep imprints. Then came the subsequent tracks, and the shock-absorbing and suspension components, resembling small towers, were bent and flattened like straw before the horrified eyes of the onlookers. Ultimately, however, this new Argor alloy withstood the enormous load demand.

When the last set of tracks came off the slipway, the engineers and designers watching nearby breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the land-based ship did not disintegrate when it came off the slipway, it meant that at least it wouldn't break apart while it was in operation.

Moreover, when running over people, it won't break your own keel; the fall off the dock is no different from a fall.

If it withstood the impact, it means that ordinary obstacles and crushing actions will not cause major problems to the hull.

If a breakage or detachment of the traveling mechanism occurs, it can be pulled back using the giant gantry cranes on both sides and the traction equipment located at the stern of the slipway for modification and improvement.

This was the fourth time the ship had been launched from the dock. The previous attempts had all failed, but after replacing some of the suspension and shock absorber alloys with Argor alloys, this time it was finally successful.

As the tractor released the ropes and the landship came to a stop in the berthing area outside the shipyard, groups of workers and engineers rode in various engineering vehicles up the open stern and forward ramps of the landship and rushed inside.

Many others used hooks and cables to hang from the outside of the hull, especially near the suspension mechanism which was still slightly warm and dusty, to inspect the machinery.

If there are no problems, then the shipyard structure, which is similar to the mobile city module, will be moved forward to begin installing external attachments.

For example, there are skirts that protect the walking mechanism and suspension system, anti-spell modules that protect key areas similar to reactive armor, cranes for self-repair in the field, and various external equipment.

These devices all have hooks and latches on their surfaces, allowing for quick replacement. The main structural armor of the land-based ship is not very thick, and it mainly relies on this external armor system for defense. The advantage is that if it is destroyed, it can be repaired and replaced by a crane, as long as there are enough armor plates inside the ship.

The cut armor plates resemble scales or armor leaves, with latches at the top and bottom and serrated edges on the sides, allowing them to be secured with other armor plates using rivets.

There is a space of moderate size between the outer armor and the main armor, which seems to be a structure copied from ancient land-based ships.

However, modern discoveries have shown that it also has many advantages for spell jet bombardment, so it has been used ever since.

However, the external armor structure of this land-based vessel is a bit different; its locking mechanism is sliding.

In other words, when the armor is being replaced, the side traction equipment pushes the armor modules, which are stacked like a metal cube, over, and then, like a slide, they roll up to the bottom and are fixed inward to the sides of the hull by the action of the Argonaut alloy side rods.

After the various locking mechanisms are engaged, a tower-type hot welder installed on the inner layer of the armor will extend from the sliding window to quickly weld these armor plates together. This means that the self-repair speed of the ship's outer armor layer has increased by nearly 5 times. On the battlefield, it is probably the type that can repair itself faster than the damage it suffers.

Meanwhile, at another testing site, dozens of alloy plates were arranged side by side on a fixed frame.

Opposite them were a thermal cannon, an Originium railgun, and a Great Flame Divine Light Cannon, as well as some small rapid-fire spell cannons and other weapons, and even a medium-sized missile launcher.

"Test begins!" Nian picked up the furry earmuffs on the control panel and secured them. The other staff did the same. Those whose ears were not easily covered by earmuffs due to horns or other reasons also covered their ears. When the staff around the test saw this, they scattered quickly as if being chased by ghosts and hid in the underground bunkers.

"Test of plate number one begins!" The overhead crane lifted several alloy plates, moved them to the center of the test site, and inserted them into a set of alloy brackets similar to those used in ship locking systems.

"Start with the small ones, prepare the thermomelt cannons!" The thermomelt cannon crew was aligned with the center of the first alloy plate. "Ready to charge!"

The winding pipeline connects to the wet component maintenance equipment, and the gurgling sound of liquid sliding can be heard. Soon the gun group begins to glow and heat up, and then a beam of ion jet shines on the target.

"Timer!" The jet of water splashed out, and amidst the ear-piercing sound of fingernails scraping a blackboard, the backplate began to glow red-hot, twist, bulge, and was finally pierced by the heat-melting beam.

"Time?" Ling glanced at the staff member next to him.

"17.2 seconds..."

"Passed, next item..."

"Test the railgun!" The damaged alloy plate was lifted by the crane and thrown into the processing and inspection area, while the large railguns aimed at the second alloy plate.

"Load Type A armor-piercing round!" The gunner gripped the handle, and the motor delivered a conventional armor-piercing round from the ammunition depot next to him. It was the solid kinetic energy round with a steel cone shape that Terra used most often.

"90-degree vertical impact test, commence!"

"Bang!" A streak of crimson light flashed by, leaving a dent in the armor plate as the projectile shattered upon impact. However, the backplate also cracked, scattering numerous metal fragments.

The year marked "unqualified" with an X. The armor plate, which combines the Dragon Steel technology of Da Yan with the metallurgical technology of Kazdel, is obviously not good. Its heat resistance and anti-jet capabilities are good, and it should be effective against hard armor-piercing projectiles, but it is too poor against high-explosive fragmentation projectiles.

The backplate and the frontplate are made of different materials, which causes the backplate to turn into shrapnel when hit by armor-piercing rounds and blast the hull.

Of course, as an external armor mount, this problem isn't serious. However, considering that the structure of Kazdel's land-based ships differs from other giant-gun-type land-based ships, this flaw is still quite fatal.

"Testing of Plate No. 2 begins." After hundreds of tests and improvements, the most suitable formula for Kazdel was finally selected from dozens of varieties.

A new type of composite armor made of Agor high-pressure conductive alloy and Ke Shifu's heterogeneous steel material.

When attacked by a magic cannon or a divine light cannon, most of the energy is transferred to the porous steel material, causing it to evaporate and form a metallic vapor that envelops the surface of the attacked layer.

It greatly disperses the energy of the laser and thermal jet, and the side effect is acceptable: the thermal penetration attack will become a high-explosive attack. The metal vapor will quickly absorb energy, plasmaize, and explode, which will further offset the impact of the thermal jet to some extent.

During testing, when attacked by thermal weapons, divine light cannons, and magic cannons, the armor layers were continuously peeled off and destroyed from the outside in. As the thickness was continuously reduced, the actual defensive effectiveness also decreased rapidly.

However, this defensive deficiency is acceptable considering that they do not need a sustainable fortress that can withstand a large number of attacks.

When facing attacks from hard armor-piercing projectiles and high-explosive fragmentation projectiles, the armor layer can be deflected or most of the armor-piercing rods can be broken. It is not until the use of Type C heavy armor-piercing projectiles that the armor layer can be penetrated at an angle of less than 90 degrees.

This armor-piercing projectile uses an Agor self-sharpening core and is launched under overload from the largest Originium railgun. For most kinetic energy weapons on Terra, this penetration efficiency is not achievable.

In other words, it can be confirmed that in the previous rounds of attacks, this external armor material was almost impervious to bullets and blades.

With the rapid repair module being tested over there, the drawback of continuous damage from attacks is no longer so troublesome. With just a few minutes of downtime, the ship can quickly replace a set of armor that has been severely damaged.

After passing the navigation and power tests and other hardware indicators, it was time to install the external electronic equipment and weapon systems. The super-giant crane lifted the entire integrated gun assembly onto the ship, and with the help of the laser positioning system kindly given by Lao Xia, the integrated gun assembly was slowly placed into the prepared slot.

The internal power and ammunition supply systems are ready. This modular artillery technology was provided by the Agors, who, due to their population and the actual usage environment, required many parts to be highly modular and easy to replace.

Because Haisi won't give you a safe retreat to base to slowly repair and replace parts, the shorter the time it takes to recover combat effectiveness and enter the front line, the better you can withstand Haisi's large-scale attacks.

"Claymore installed." With multiple cooling systems added, the rails of the shipborne rapid-fire Originium cannon, before being deployed, resembled a broadsword lying horizontally on the deck.

To cope with the natural disasters and sandstorms that are rampant throughout Terra, the gun rails are closed when not in combat, the diamond-shaped protective plates are shut, and the muzzles are covered with protective sleeves by the crew, making it look more like an enlarged cold weapon.

The gun aiming and fire control equipment on both sides are handguards, the gun rails and protective plates are the blades, and the recoil damper and ammunition feeding device at the rear are the hilt. If you didn't know better, you might think that Kazdel was planning to drive a landship up and use this giant sword to directly cut down the superstructure of the other party.

"Deployment Test" The protective plate folds open, the gun rails naturally separate to the sides, and the broadsword becomes a tuning fork. Then the protective armor retracts a short distance to protect the "hilt".

The equipment racks on both wings opened, revealing sophisticated gun aiming equipment that is vulnerable to damage from storms and natural disasters. The ammunition supply and power supply systems at the bottom were also automatically docked and calibrated with the help of the crew.

"Prepare for test firing!" The dense barrage of bullets destroyed a wrecked cargo ship that was being used as a target, just like a torrential rain. There were plenty of these around the shipyard, some of which were warships of the Great Yan military waiting for repairs. Over time, the fleet simply forgot about them, resulting in them being abandoned in the dock.

Others were warships that had to be scrapped due to lack of funds for maintenance, or unfinished hulls, while many more simply went through the normal scrapping process.

However, the fleet's military didn't have the money to dismantle them, so they could only be piled up like scrap metal in the shipyard's attached warship graveyard.

The place even turned into a new city or slum, where bandits, thieves, and all sorts of shady characters lived in these abandoned ship graveyards, with the undulating shipwrecks and wrecked hulls resembling steel hills.

However, such good things are no longer possible. Those items that had already been dismantled by scavengers were now being destroyed and recycled by Lao Xia.

Otherwise, with steel mills currently operating at less than 10% of their designed capacity, it would probably take another lifetime to build the experimental ship.

Those that were relatively intact were pulled out to be used as target ships for weapon testing. Some were modified by scavengers and bandits, and those with repair value were directly repaired and used as civilian transport ships or pieced together to be used as worker living quarters.

Of course, clearing out these illegal residents took a lot of effort; those days were practically like fighting in the streets. Fortunately, faced with a constant stream of Kazdel fighters and their reckless squandering of ammunition, these bandits, lacking supplies and reinforcements, eventually had no choice but to relinquish the ship graveyard.

"The destructive effect of high-explosive shells is still insufficient for heavy warships."

Inside the target ship, the smaller fighting ships were completely destroyed, while the ordinary warships suffered deck washing, with about 3% of their mass evaporated. The entire ship resembled an active volcano, with flames and molten metal structures flowing everywhere.

However, it cannot be said that they emerged unscathed from the massive warships and treasure ships with their multi-layered steel armor.

However, it could also be said that it remained completely still, looking rather desolate. But the staff conducting the internal inspection said that if this were on a battlefield, the treasure ship would have suffered virtually no fundamental damage.

In other words, it can still deploy an armored division on the battlefield and then act as a mobile fortress, beating people to a pulp, at most only killing some personnel and destroying some of the small external artillery positions.

"Even Type C armor-piercing rounds can't penetrate this thickness of plate, it's too thick!" Old Xia exclaimed in amazement. A 1.5-meter composite main armor belt, there is no hard armor-piercing round that can penetrate this thing. If you have to talk about using hard armor-piercing rounds, the Star Alliance probably doesn't have many weapons that can penetrate this thing - of course, they have other weapons that can crush this thing and everything inside it.

"It's so thick, how did you manage the weight?"

"How are mobile cities handled? This is how they're handled. The cost of building one treasure ship is higher than the cost of building a single urban area in Lungmen, and its movement speed is extremely slow. So don't expect your small arms to do any damage to it."

"Never mind, Letania doesn't have that anyway." Letania's fleet ranks around fifth or sixth. Victoria, Great Flame, and Ursus are the top three, needless to say, they can all bring out mobile fortress-class ships to overwhelm. Columbia has come from behind, its tonnage and number have not yet exceeded Ursus, but it has begun to produce new armored ships and weapons.

As for Letania, it's right behind Colombia, competing with Rembiton for fifth place. Casimir has been building a lot of ships in recent years and has barely secured seventh place. Then there's Iberia and Agor. They don't have land-based ships, but their surface warship tonnage is included in the calculation.

Unfortunately, the Iberian Armada is finished. Now, Minos and Syracuse have taken the eighth place. Kazdel, like Sargon, is at the bottom of the rankings. While Kazdel still has some assets due to its past colonial era and the excavation of ruins, Sargon really doesn't have a single proper land-based warship. With an astonishing total fleet tonnage of 0, it sits at the very bottom of the rankings.

They don't even have mobile towns. Of course, the Sargons, who live in carts, tents, and mud houses, don't need such things. They don't have any reliable large cities. When natural disasters come, they just hide in cellars. Anyway, there are only some tents and the like on the ground.

Moreover, to be fair, neither rainforests, swamps, nor deserts are really suitable for mobile cities.

However, the remains of those early inhabitants and the sturdy infrastructure still allow Sargon to have some cities and industrial areas, and it cannot be said that it was entirely a country composed of nomadic or even primitive tribes.

"We also can't underestimate the land fleets of other countries. What they're showing now are just mass-produced warships, not their trump cards. For example, Rhodes Island was excavated in Rembiton, and no one can say for sure whether there are more Rhodes Island-class land ships, or even early-life warships, beneath the Rembiton ruins," Kal'tsit warned, emphasizing the seriousness of the matter.

"Did your ancestors have land-based warships?"

"Theoretically speaking, no. The primary function of the land-based ships was to tow spacecraft, transporting them from the construction facilities south of Kazdel to the Arctic launch site."

"Wait, why didn't you launch it directly from the south, closer to the equator?"

"Then fly up and crash directly into the equatorial ring and the Originium defense barrier at that time?" the doctor asked rhetorically. "Back then, Terra's equatorial orbit was densely packed with Originium barriers to defend against the unstable bursts of energy from stars. Even when you're building a road, you know to put up a sign to slow down and detour. How much more so for such a large-scale project, which takes off from the equator and eventually exits from the poles."

"Besides towing spaceships, we also do the basic construction of space elevators and ultra-large-scale mining and transportation operations. The construction of starships is not something that can be done just by throwing some ore at them. I think you should have some idea of ​​how those craters in Rembiton came about."

"Yes, that makes sense. Our shipbuilding efforts are about the same, maybe even a bit greater. Generally speaking, when we see news reports about the discovery of a resource-rich dwarf planet and the preparation for exploration and mining, we know that another large mothership unit is about to start construction."

Old Xia nodded, and the doctor didn't ask about the relationship between the dwarf planet and the mothership, probably because he thought it was similar to the space mining that the Terrans did back then.

"So, Rembitox might have some of the mining landships that weren't destroyed back then?"