Chapter 172: Fleet Renovation and a Quantum Gamble

The moment Parlo sprang into action,

Tuoba wasn’t idle either. Now that he no longer had to worry about the Ziyang Empire, he could focus entirely on the Totran Kingdom.

That meant not just the remaining strength of the Kingdom’s forces, but also the warships they’d bought from the Federation over the past few years,

more than eighty percent of them were streaming toward Okka from every direction.

At this rate, in just another two years, he could easily claim the Totran Kingdom’s invasion of Okka as justification and start his so-called defensive counterattack.

Meanwhile, on the Federation’s side, over the past three years, they began by refitting their whole fleet.

They chose to reshape the Federation Fleet’s doctrine around the Seawolf-class general-purpose warship.

So, what does that actually mean?

Before the concept of a general-purpose warship, the Federation’s ships still followed the old Homeworld naval system. You didn’t need to be a jack-of-all-trades; you just got specialists for every task.

For hundreds of years, humanity stuck to that mindset—warships were divided into frigates, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and the capital-class Warstars.

Of course, a big part of that was the Solar System’s limited resources.

But ever since the Klein invaded, humanity slowly realized that being highly specialized in one area just meant being terrible at almost everything else.

Take frigates, for example. In an interstellar war, their role wasn’t even one percent as significant as a cruiser’s.

Does that mean a cruiser costs a hundred times as much as a frigate?

Obviously not. In fact, the real ratio is only about eight to one.

And what about crew size—does a cruiser need a hundred times more crew?

Nope, not even close. They barely need five times as many crew members.

So why does the Federation even bother building so many destroyers and frigates?

What interstellar warfare really demands isn’t everyone playing their own part, it’s overwhelming firepower, tougher defenses, and more speed. Those are the keys to victory.

At least, before you hit the level of a fourth-tier civilization, those three factors are everything.

Once you’ve balanced all three, the optimal solution becomes clear.

That’s how the general-purpose warship was born.

The arrival of the Seawolf-class marked a turning point. The Federation Fleet made up its mind—every warship except for the Warstars would be retired and swapped out for Seawolf-class ships.

Of course, those decommissioned ships wouldn’t just go to waste.

After all, with nine fleets combined, we’re talking more than 8,000 ships.

So, what do you do with all of them?

The answer is…

The Federation Navigation Security Command.

Maybe not a household name, but this department played its part in the three-year war. In other words…

It’s what used to be called Solar System Defense Command.

It began as a secondary armed force dedicated to keeping trade routes safe, reporting directly to the Presidential Office, where the highest position internally was Vice-Commander.

And as for Commander…

That role was always filled in person by the sitting Federation President.

But once humanity broke out of the Solar System and its borders kept expanding, the old name just didn’t fit anymore.

So, the Federation Navigation Security Command was established, responsible for every trade lane and shipping route in Federation territory.

However, after the Ziyang Empire and the Xitoris Kingdom ceded a total of forty-one stars to the Federation, even with an expanded force of 3,000 ships, the Command still found itself shorthanded.

That’s where the more than 8,000 warships retired from the Federation Fleet over the past few years really came in handy.

Sure, Federation servicemen these days might turn their noses up at these older ships.

But for the brothers in the Navigation Security Command, they’ve been itching for upgrades—waiting with paint buckets in hand for years.

The moment those ships show up, a fresh coat of paint is all it takes for them to join the fleet. No refit needed.

This isn’t the old Homeworld era—it’s fine if your patrol ships have a railgun and a few ion beam cannons. Who’s going to complain?

So, during the first two years of those three,

the Federation Fleet completed its mass refit. The total number of warships stayed the same, but overall combat power shot up tenfold or more. After all, before, over 6,000 out of 8,000 ships were just frigates…

Once everything switched to Seawolf-class, the jump in firepower was obvious.

Then, starting in the third year, the Federation entered a rapid expansion phase.

According to Fleet Headquarters’ five-year plan, in the next three years, the Federation Fleet would take delivery of 28,000 new warships.

Add that to the earlier 8,000 and you get 36,000 ships total.

The overall number of fleets would remain unchanged, but each fleet would be expanded to 4,000 ships.

But here’s the thing—Fleet HQ’s standard size for a fleet is actually 3,600 ships.

So if you do the math, where did those extra 3,600 ships go?

Well…

Out of the nine fleets, only eight follow the standard size. One of them is a special case.

You don’t even need to ask—it’s the Sixth Fleet.

That’s right. Once the plan is done, the Sixth Fleet will stand apart from the other eight and reach a size of 7,200 ships.

In fact, Fleet HQ thinks even that’s not enough. They’re already planning to set up a new battle zone dedicated to the Desolate Star Region.

And for good reason…

There are more than 30,000 stars in the entire Desolate Star Region…

——

Beyond expanding the fleets,

two years ago, in Federation year 333,

Lin Yu was officially promoted to lieutenant general. With that, he became a true member of the Federation Fleet’s top brass—hands-on command of their biggest fleet.

With his rank all but guaranteed, it was nearly certain that when a new battle zone was created in the Desolate Star Region,

the role of battle zone commander would be his for the taking.

At the same time, Lin Yun, who had spent several years on Earth, was now leading a special project in the First Laboratory of the Far East.

That project was called: the Quantum Bomb.

So, what is a Quantum Bomb?

In short, strip away the limitations of energy and materials, and what you’re left with is a heavily stripped-down version of hyperspace technology built for a single-use weapon.

Previously, it was mentioned that the so-called hyperspace engine works by forcibly opening a quantum window, letting a warship slip into hyperspace and escape the constraints of time and speed in normal space.

The ultimate goal is faster-than-light travel.

But obviously, humanity isn’t anywhere near building the core component behind all this.

That’s because it requires materials hundreds of times denser than electron-degenerate matter, all inscribed with impossibly complex structures.

Still, even if that’s out of reach, you can simplify the concept and turn it into a weapon.

It’s doable.

Imagine this: you use a hyperspace engine to open a quantum window, and there just so happens to be a warship right where it appears.

What would happen?

Actually, back during the Houyi’s hyperspace engine tests, they really did experiment with this.

And the result…

Anything that touches a quantum window, regardless of what it’s made from,

is erased in an instant—not even dust is left behind.

In theory, not even the energy shields of a fourth-tier civilization could block it.

So, look at it another way. If you don’t need to open a massive, ultra-controlled, long-lasting quantum window,

if all you need is a small, unstable, barely-controlled window that collapses a split second after it opens—

then the technical, material, and energy requirements are vastly easier than those of a full-blown hyperspace engine.

That’s how the Quantum Bomb project began.

Stuck on Earth and still without any leads on Lin Shuying, Lin Yun decided to stay on with the First Laboratory of the Far East and—

she took over and threw her support behind the project.