Chapter 133: Boosting Federation Power Through Galactic Trade

Lin Yu found nothing wrong with what Mu Xingchen said.

After all, right now the only truly developed region of the Federation is the Solar System.

As for Proxima, it’ll still take a long time before it’s fully built up.

Relying on just one star system, there’s only so much productive power you can muster.

Given the current capacity of their military industry, the Federation is struggling just to expand its own fleet. There’s no way they have spare warships lying around to sell.

So, not selling off-the-shelf products is only natural.

Now, as for future orders…

That’s not an issue at all. No matter how big your order is, I’ll just expand the factories as needed and ramp up production to match.

The raw materials can always be sourced from the buyer, and there’s no need for massive amounts of manual labor like in the old days.

Honestly, this wave of military exports could let the Federation multiply its productivity tenfold, dozens of times over, maybe even by a hundred times in just a short period.

It’s a textbook case of using your resources to build my factories.

And, in the end, I’d only have to return maybe one percent, or even a thousandth, of those resources.

Of course, there’s an important prerequisite for this…

Your product has to be something the other side truly needs, and they have to be unable to make it themselves.

In that regard…

When it comes to military tech, humans—now considered a Level 2.5 civilization—fit the bill perfectly.

They might not offer Zero-Point Modules or their latest-gen energy weapons, but selling previous-generation energy gear—like the ion cannons that used to equip Federation destroyers and above—is no problem at all.

Besides that, the Federation can also provide things like high-energy lasers and particle weapons.

On top of that, Mu Xingchen mentioned that during this past month, they’ve rushed to design a brand new versatile warship.

Yep, this ship exists solely for export.

Its main weapon is still the railgun, but every ship comes with two ion beam cannons with eighty thousand kilometer ranges.

For your typical Level 2 civilization, that’s already a very respectable warship.

This is set to be the star product in the Federation’s arms trade with the civilizations of the Wasteland Sector.

But just like Lin Yu noted in his report…

Whether it’s a standalone weapon or a finished warship, the Federation always installs backdoors.

That way, if necessary, with just a single command, every weapon and warship bought from the Federation in an entire star system…

Can be shut down—or even made to self-destruct.

So the more weapons they sell, the more control the Federation will have over the civilizations in the Wasteland Sector in the future.

——

When the meeting ended,

Lin Yu and Mu Qingxue took the list of military trade options provided by the Federation Fleet Headquarters.

They cut the long-range comms.

After that, the fleet, which had been stationary for hours, started moving again.

They sailed into the stellar current.

Like mentioned before, Proxima and Alpha Centauri—a binary star—are just 0.21 light-years apart.

That means the trip only takes a little over four days.

Compared to the route from the Solar System to Proxima, this is way faster. You barely notice the journey.

Meanwhile, in Alpha Centauri, Tuoba’s pioneer fleet had already withdrawn, leaving behind just one warship to handle the handover with Lin Yu.

Actually, Lin Yu didn’t bring the entire Sixth Fleet this time either.

If he’d brought everyone along, Proxima would be left undefended and unable to respond to emergencies.

But during the earlier meeting, Mu Xingchen already told Lin Yu that since Alpha Centauri and Proxima are so close, the Presidential Office decided all three stars would be managed under the Proxima administrative district instead of creating a new district.

At the same time, with this change in administrative oversight, the Federation Fleet made the corresponding adjustments.

It’s now set that Alpha Centauri will fall under the Sixth Fleet’s protection. Plus, given Alpha Centauri’s importance, the Sixth Fleet will be expanded—its end size matching the First Fleet, adding three more sub-fleets for a total of 317 warships.

And as for the ships, over ninety warships from the Seventh Fleet, which is still being assembled, will be transferred over to reinforce the Sixth Fleet first.

The remaining ships should all arrive within a year.

So, even though Lin Yu’s forces seem a bit thin right now, he just needs to hold on for a little longer.

For now, Lin Yu’s plan is to station one sub-fleet at Proxima, two at Alpha Centauri, and have the Houyi battlegroup rotate as needed—though it’ll stay at Alpha Centauri for now.

And although Alpha Centauri has a planet that’s suitable for terraforming, even with current Federation technology, transforming a world isn’t quick—it usually takes anywhere from ten to fifty years.

An exact timeframe can only be set after a full on-site evaluation.

For now, they’ll build a simple space city in Alpha Centauri, serving as the main hub for their trade.

That’s why over a hundred transport ships made the trip as well.

First, they’ll assemble the core city using modular parts. Later, with equipment and personnel continually ferried in, they’ll expand further and process materials on the spot.

The asteroid belt at Alpha Centauri is a major resource, and even if there aren’t many rare elements, basic resources are plentiful.

Space mining, space refining, space manufacturing—it’s all part of a now fully developed system for the Federation.

With these steps, they can quickly create a complete industrial chain up in orbit.

The plan is to finish the city’s core assembly within a month, have it partially operational in half a year, and finalize all expansion within three years.

At the same time, the scientific team will immediately get to work on a thorough planetary assessment, quickly drafting a terraforming plan and time estimate.

Everything is moving forward in perfect order.

Now, there’s something really interesting about Alpha Centauri.

How interesting, you ask?

There are two stars here, but only…

One planet!

Those two stars are what we call Nanmen Er—one named Nanmen Er A, the other Nanmen Er B.

Oh, and Proxima is only 0.21 light-years away from here.

For a long time, people considered all three as members of the same star system.

But in reality, Proxima and Alpha Centauri are separate and don’t influence each other, so lumping them into one system isn’t exactly accurate.

Either way, from today onward,

This place falls under the Proxima administrative district, protected by the Sixth Fleet.

After the two sides wrapped up the handover and agreed on when to start trade talks, the other party left.

As for humanity—

They dove straight back into another massive round of construction!