Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

"What else is strange?"

"There are also those who think we shouldn't rush into the Arctic and should be fully prepared, because the demons will grow stronger with knowledge, and our rash actions will cause great trouble for other countries. Now the Ursus and the Great Yan people already have opinions, especially the Great Yan people." This is because compared to the sparsely populated Ursus, the Great Yan has a much higher population density and is attacked by demons much more frequently.

If the demons truly evolve because of Rhodes Island's Arctic campaign, the first to suffer will be the Great Yan. "Where is the Great Yan government?"

"There's no movement yet, but given the style of the Great Yan court, once there's movement, there will be no turning back." Kal'tsit sighed. The Great Yan court doesn't put everything on the table. By the time it's out in the open, it means all communication is over; it's just a formality to inform you, which is extremely troublesome.

"Some people in Iberia are saying we're engaging in economic colonization. While the Iberians aren't upset yet, it's hard to say what will happen in the long run." Currently, Iberia is reaping huge benefits from this cooperation, so they just laugh off these claims and propaganda—it's ridiculous! Economic colonization is economic colonization; we've only had enough to eat for two days!

However, this benefit will rapidly diminish as the living standards of Iberians recover and the resources required for the Kazdel space program continue to increase. When sufficient benefits cannot be provided to compensate for this, the emotions of the Iberians will naturally tend to explode.

“Right now, Syracuse and Agor are fine.” Agor knows the truth. Even if there are a few people who are not clear-headed, they will be brought to their senses once they see the space station wreckage on the seabed that was destroyed by the last solar storm in their core urban area.

Syracuse was simply a matter of the Godfather helping out a little. As far as the Mafia is concerned, they don't care whether what you say is right or wrong. Who the hell in the mafia cares about that!

They simply find you and politely tell you: what you said is true, but don't say it again next time, or you'll end up at the bottom of the canal.

"Our propaganda department tried to fight back, but it was no use..." When the other party has no morals, you can't morally blackmail them—but if you have morals, the other party can morally blackmail you in return.

Last time, Kazdel adopted a "I am a barbarian" attitude towards Da Yan. Now it's Columbia's or Victoria's turn, or perhaps Letania's turn to adopt the same attitude towards Kazdel.

"Forget it, as long as it doesn't affect our two plans, let them handle the rest. As for what is affected, let our propaganda department cover it up. Old Xia can't help with that; he can only suggest we enhance PRST's capabilities, which is exactly what they're doing over there."

"So how should we retaliate?"

"Why retaliate? The public's enthusiasm only lasts five minutes. Just overwhelm them with a saturation of entertainment news, the latest achievements, and sensational gimmicks. When you can't refute what the other side is saying, singing louder than them is a good idea."

"Moreover, the other side is shameless, bringing out their political jokes. Believe me, when people choose to engage in political commentary, most of the time they don't actually have any political opinions to express; they just need a sense of political participation."

"What if..." "If they really had some unshakable and uncompromising political opinions to express, they wouldn't be complaining in a place like this; they would be coming to talk to us with weapons." The doctor clearly saw things very clearly.

"Last time, when the prisoners of war and miners at the northern mines demanded shorter working hours, more soft drinks, and complained about the management withholding subsidies, they brought two boxes of metallic hydrogen bombs to express their opinions..." Kal'tsit gave a strange look. Indeed, it was very persuasive, clearly expressed, and extremely effective.

"So, as long as they don't come to the talks with bombs, you don't need to think about how to retaliate. In fact, it's quite useful to give everyone time and energy to vent and ease the tension. Just cover it up with more junk information." The doctor waved his hand. "As for those investors, as long as their resources are there, that's fine. For those who know some inside information and have the ability to make things happen, give them a warning: If you don't want the ticket, you can give it to someone who needs it."

Even if the Ark is repaired, and even if there is time to expand it and install Old Xia's warp drive to reduce fuel and resource requirements, it can only accommodate less than 1/10 of Terra's known population at most.

Why is it household registration and not population? — Because who knows how many war-related unregistered people there are, or how many tribes are hiding in places like the Sargon rainforest and desert — they're just unlucky.

So, literally speaking, if you don't want a ticket, you can give it to someone who needs it. Even in cases like Colombia where people voluntarily jump ship, tickets are still very scarce, and there's no guarantee that everyone can get on.

"We should actually be tolerant and bless these people. They have reduced the pressure on our space technology and improved the living standards of future generations by sacrificing their own lives and those of their descendants." The doctor's words sounded quite harsh, no wonder he wore a mask and dared not take it off.

Chapter Seven: Giant Beast

Chapter VII

On the northwestern border of the Great Yan, a giant landship, even larger than Rhodes Island, slowly approached the port. Despite its enormous size, the rusty structure and haphazard supports on its surface indicated that it was quite old.

The behemoth-class carrier is an ultra-large ground vehicle that transports starship modules. In order to ensure that the heavy starship casting modules can be delivered to the Tower of Babel for launch, in addition to the tracks, there are foldable supports on both sides, which is similar to the design concept of a children's car with a sidecar.

These supports could be deployed when traversing certain terrains to maintain mobility at the cost of reduced speed; however, these supports, which are now rusted and rotten, are no longer usable.

"So this is Koschei's trump card?" The doctor sighed. In the past, behemoths could indeed be called trump cards. In that era, Terra's landships were not even half the size of this thing. It didn't even need to fight; it could just crush them.

However, in modern warfare, behemoths with excessively thin horizontal armor are simply sitting ducks for Abaddon and Ursus's Perropov-class bombers.

As a carrier ship, the original template of the behemoth had two square grooves in the middle for fixing and installing starship modules. Therefore, the horizontal armor of this part was added by Kosichä later. Compared with the armor and protection strength of other parts, the horizontal protection is close to zero.

Unfortunately, modern Terran technology simply cannot power this thing. The two huge spaces become the reactor compartment. To put it simply, the heart of the behemoth is beneath its thin horizontal armor, which can be easily penetrated by an explosion.

In the past, when weapons with sufficiently long range to ensure a ballistic impact point perpendicular to the ship were unavailable, the seemingly impenetrable side armor and massive boarding forces of behemoth-class ships were insurmountable mobile fortresses. However, in modern times...

In the arms race, even the most conservative Victoria was drastically reducing the number of old boarding and close-range artillery warships, while frantically increasing the number of new long-range bombardment warships. Even the armor structure and design concepts were changing, and the original multi-layered gun decks that facilitated boarding and prevented boarding and the maze-like hull structure were being explored with new structural designs.

Most notably, in order to counter the super-heavy bombs that could be launched by the War Knight, almost all modern warships have an additional dome armor structure instead of the original multi-layered and weak horizontal decks. A bomb could penetrate three or four layers and explode on the lower layers. Now, the horizontal armor, the dome armor, the compartments filled with various miscellaneous items, and the functional areas are only below the compartment armor.

This would significantly reduce the efficiency of Kazdel's horizontal bombing. As for the new miniaturized urban air defense array, it goes without saying that it is still a long way from being deployed on ships. However, if Kazdel were to launch large-scale urban air raids and airborne operations like Hammer Lycania, the risks would be almost unacceptable.

For example, the port that the behemoth-class ships are entering is flanked by newly built anti-aircraft fortresses. The protruding part is two-story, with the top floor having twin small city defense cannons that fire beam attacks.

Even if this level of laser irradiation cannot destroy the Sky Throne's armor, it can still impair its flight capability. For a flying vehicle like the War Knight, which has almost no protective capabilities, one shot would severely injure it, and two shots would take it out.

The lower level consists of two smaller quadruple high-explosive anti-aircraft guns that use etched shells to blast a large number of shrapnel shells into the sky. Their purpose is to kill low-flying aircraft, drones, and personnel airdropped into the air.

In the middle of the protrusion is the air defense design command post. The large spell-sensing tower on top is like an enlarged detection staff, serving as a radar. Relying on the burn warlocks, Ursus successfully created such an advanced radar air defense system.

Similarly, Victoria and Colombia also have their own air defense technologies, and signs of an arms race are beginning to emerge. For every penny that Kazdel invests in aerospace, they are investing just as much in air defense and aviation, with countries spending far more in this area than in the shelter program.

After all, the apocalypse is at least several decades or even centuries away, and no one can guarantee that those demonic beings on the other side won't attack next year. For the older members of the upper echelons of various countries, the apocalypse shelters might be something they never have the chance to use before they die, which is incomparable to the immediate geopolitical threat and the possibility of being impeached and removed from office by the opposition next month.

"Finally here!" The last set of anchors was lowered, and the behemoth finally came to a stop.

"Looking at the situation, I'd be lucky if we could start activities next summer." I originally thought it would just be a simple renovation, but judging from the condition of this boat, it will probably need major modifications.

"Actually, it doesn't need to be that complicated. I checked it before. It doesn't look good from the outside, but the internal condition is still very good. Besides, removing these later-installed external equipment, replacing the new reactor, and laying out the new compartments shouldn't be too difficult."

"Rewiring this entire time is already a nightmare!"

“No, because its reactor itself was originally a delivery tank, only it was artificially sealed off. Moreover, Black Serpent spent so much time redesigning the interface and wiring, so as long as the power interface issue is resolved, the rest of the problems are not significant.” Nian examined the behemoth-level data he had obtained.

"Theoretically speaking, we don't need to do many modifications. We need to replace part of the outer hull, install filtration equipment on the upper crane, gates, and passages, replace the old reactors in the front and rear cavities with new ones, and then re-isolate them."

This ship is designed for boarding operations and has an armory, barracks, and training grounds. We only need to modify and install other functional compartments, which can be concentrated in two cavities. The entire modification plan has been considered. It looks very complicated, but in fact, due to the special structure of the behemoth, the amount of work is not as large as imagined.

"The rear cavity will be converted into a hangar and supply warehouse, the front into a functional cabin area, and other areas will only undergo minor modifications. The main focus of the modifications will be on air and various filters." Nian quickly checked the preset modification plan that had been discussed in the previous meeting. "That's it, we're still very pressed for time."

"Don't you need to upgrade your weapons?"

"Not for now. Abaddon will be with us to enter the outer cemetery later. The heavy artillery will be deployed in the forward base. The main weapons on the hull will be small rapid-fire cannons. Compared to heavy weapons, we need shipborne weapons with long endurance and high firepower density more."

In any case, for the demons, the power of shipborne weapons is enough to vaporize them. Firepower density is more important than power. Simply put, for the behemoth, a land-based vessel intended to be an armed exploration ship, a bunch of twin and quadruple rapid-fire cannons are much more useful than a few heavy naval guns.

Does the hangar need to be equipped with an ejection system?

"No need, we can't bring the War Knights in. It's mainly for the drone hangar." After all, the only thing we can use to resupply the exploration team when crossing the Demon Wilderness is large drones.

"Alright, let's proceed!" The dock quickly prepared for construction, and a few hours later, dense cutting sparks began to erupt around the behemoth-class ship. Large tower-type cutting machines cut open the deck, revealing the old Originium engines underneath.

These densely packed pipes and complex Originium engine units were disassembled bit by bit. The workers had to be careful not to be infected by the refined Originium vapor leaking from the pipes, and it took longer than expected to complete the work.

Next, the eight super-large tower boilers were delivered and installed. The core ancient generator remained unchanged. It was really difficult for Black Serpent. With the ancient people's nuclear reactor unusable, he managed to produce supersaturated steam to drive the steam turbine generator set using the Originium boiler.

However, the fact that she could disassemble an integrated nuclear power plant into two parts and then assemble them using inferior heating equipment shows that Black Snake's talent in professional technology far surpasses her political acumen.

Both Nian and Lao Xia inspected the steam pipe joints and concluded that the supersaturated high-pressure steam supplied by the eight tower furnaces should be able to pass through. However, when reconnecting the pipes, the sealing and pressure-resistant materials need to be replaced.

"Prepare for docking!" The giant pipe, resembling a subway tunnel, slowly moved towards the docking point. "Boom!" A huge metallic roar rang out, followed by the sound of the locking structure inside the double-layered inner pipe rotating and locking.

"Green light one!" One green light lit up on the indicator light below the connector, but the remaining four were still red. "Install the sealing sleeve." The high-strength carbon nanofiber-wrapped ceramic sealing sleeve, manufactured by Lao Xia, rotated and moved over, snapping into the sealing ring area and locking it in place once again.

"Testing airtightness"

"Yellow light, airtightness not complete, start over!" After several tests and a whole week of work, this part finally turned green.

"Inner core sealed, green!"

"Fixed lock, green!"

"Sealed outer casing, green!" The area around the pipeline is now filled with arrays of various supports and hydraulic rods, resembling a series of suspended train tunnels. There are eight such tunnels in total, and with the emergency pressure relief pipeline, that makes ten.

After the pipeline connection was completed, the power pipeline area was transformed from a spacious area that could be used for military exercises into a steel maze filled with pipes of all sizes, metal scaffolding, and various platforms. The foreman led the team to clear the area several times to make sure no one was there before notifying the reactor to start the test run.

"Install the fuel rods!" The crane on the teleportation track clattered as it moved, and the Originium fuel rods output from the fuel depot hung below.

Each one is like a small tower, with a diameter of 3.5 meters and a height of 7.5 meters. The titanium alloy shell of the super-large fuel rod has indicator strips and various functional components. The cost of each one is almost equivalent to that of a small land-based ship.

The track radiates outwards, then coils above the reactor into a complex structure resembling a Chinese knot. The delivered fuel rods enter the top ring track, and under the workers' guidance, their ends are aligned with the fuel filling port below.

"Dock!"

"Bang!" The sound of metal colliding was deafening. If anyone on the ring-shaped maintenance platform were standing there at that moment, they could easily be crushed into a pancake along with the platform.

"No damage? You fucking better watch out! If this thing explodes, my whole team will be buried with you, you idiot!" the foreman roared furiously. These guys were really too clumsy.

"Dock complete, green!" The engineer checked the situation and thankfully, a collision avoidance design had been incorporated from the beginning. "Fuel rods in place!" The giant fuel rods rotated and moved downwards, stopping only after they had entered about two-thirds of their length.

"Catalyst preparation!" A viscous gurgling sound came from inside the soft pipe, and soon the transparent indicator area outside the reactor showed the crimson liquid level rising continuously.

"Scale 2650, scale 2760, scale 3000, scale 3300, stop adding, switch to mode three!" The engineer observed the catalyst level scale and used the walkie-talkie to instruct the control room to switch to automatic mode.

"Final check on the cooling system!"

"Cooling unit inspection complete, green!" Workers at the cooling array in the distance waved to indicate that they had also completed their task. "Blade coolant injection, cooling tank in place." While fuel was being installed here, cooling rods were being installed simultaneously there. One super-large blade cooler was responsible for two tower furnaces. "Cooling mode one, ready for test run, non-monitoring personnel immediately enter the refuge chamber!"

Even if something goes wrong, the entire team won't be wiped out.

"Test run begins!" The gurgling sound, like boiling water, gradually grew louder, and the scarlet liquid surface slowly began to glow. First, it was a beautiful cyan, then a dark gold from the Originium reaction, and finally it turned into a warm and unique light green that complemented the light gold indicator bars.

"Click, hum~ whoosh~" The cooling system was working at full capacity, and the temperature of the entire power zone seemed to rise along with the roaring fan. The pipes in the heat exchange zone made a slight noise, indicating that the load had reached the threshold.

From the outside, the thick steam and white smoke from the cooling grilles on both sides of the land-going ship spewed out like train whistles, and the white mist spread below the dock amidst the sharp whistling sound.

The reason for building a mobile city instead of a flat dock is this: if it were a normal parking lot structure, the hot land-based ship would steam the people around it.

Therefore, the dock surface must be a certain distance from the ground to avoid the heat dissipation grille exhaust port of the land-based ship. However, after the steam pressure reaches equilibrium, there will be no more high-temperature steam jets. But, hot exhaust gas, which is also rich in Originium particles, will still be sprayed out wildly.

The land-based ships powered by tower furnaces are relatively better, but the heat from the corresponding exhaust gases is also enormous. Even with blade coolers, the heat doesn't simply disappear; this enormous amount of heat must be exchanged. Even though Old Xia designed an Originium thermal differential charging system to recover some of the waste heat for work, a large amount of heat still needs to be discharged.

It now appears that the high-powered air-cooling system of a regular land-based warship could not withstand it. "So, I used dissipative gel, which just has a rather unpleasant smell."

The production of this gel is not complicated; it can be produced internally by the land-based ship. The only problem is that it produces a lot of smoke when it dissipates. After all, the correct use of this gel is to defend against laser irradiation in space. Rapid evaporation and dissipation, along with the release of a large amount of metallic particle smoke, can temporarily envelop the ship's surface in defensive smoke, greatly enhancing its ability to defend against lasers.

This is one of the very few materials produced on agricultural planets that are used for industrial purposes, because it requires the use of synthetic materials such as biological organic crystals.

Compared to the absurd idea of ​​searching for nitrogen atoms in the universe one by one or even using high-energy rays to break carbon into nitrogen, directly dropping two ammonia ice asteroids into a relatively balanced desert would yield higher output, lower cost, and even generate additional benefits.

This question is like asking whether we still need to extract oil after the invention of nuclear fusion. The answer is: yes. Real-world industrial and energy systems are not the simplistic narratives in novels or games, where oil is only used for burning and advanced fuels eliminate the need for it.

In reality, if mining were to stop, prices for everything from synthetic rubber to carbon ink would skyrocket. This means that prices for almost 8% of the essential raw materials in the entire industrial society, including bakelite, plastics, ink, sealing rings, carbon black, and paving asphalt, would also skyrocket. Even fertilizer prices would be astronomical if we consider associated natural gas from oil.

It's not like outsiders imagine that energy is unlimited (in fact, fusion isn't some kind of unlimited energy source) and then it becomes free, with zero electricity costs and prices dropping. On the contrary, if fossil fuel extraction were completely abandoned, these resources would increase dramatically—unless you have some kind of magical technology that creates something out of nothing.

The electricity savings cannot actually offset the cost of the entire process change brought about by the change of raw materials, let alone offset the problems of reduced synthesis efficiency and increased mining costs caused by the change of raw materials.

Therefore, even the Covenant can extract oil and has related petrochemical technologies. However, it is difficult to find a planet with oil in the universe, so synthetic oil technology is commonly used. But, in order to save costs, these synthetic oil raw materials also need to be obtained by farming or hydroponics.

"Therefore, the problem now is that thermal gels require a lot of organic crystals and petrochemical materials, and we can't lay a natural gas pipeline to the Arctic. So, do the Arctic have these resources?"

"Can't it be biosynthesized?"

"Then let me put it another way, can you farm in the Arctic?" Old Xia looked at the black and white dividing line in the distance. The white line was the snowfield, and the black line was the demonic wilderness, clearly separated.

"Then what about transporting the gel directly?"

"You need to know that this thing dissipates heat incredibly fast!"