Chapter 396 JOKER

Indeed, infrastructure work is time-consuming and labor-intensive. For a foreigner like him, it is a big problem if he wants to gain a foothold in the Star Alliance. &vertex&

As the saying goes: "Rome wasn't built in a day." However, this sentence does not apply to him, how big is the Ypsilon relay station in "The Lost Lands"? The diameter is 700 kilometers. Although Tang Fang ordered S to repair the damaged rudder stock, the length is less than one-tenth of the diameter of the relay station, and it is only 40 kilometers at most. But if it is placed in human society, what is the concept of a 40-kilometer space station? Duke Dan's Sigma Shipyard is no more than that.

Of course, what s performed was just repair work, and it couldn't be compared with the construction of a space station. However, when repairing the relay station, only a dozen s performed this task. What if it was doubled, or even ten times? Not to mention there are two "Cupids" to assist, the Zerg's King Worm, Corruptor, Flying Dragon, and Human's Iron Crow can all come in handy.

With such a flexible and changeable combination, as long as the materials are sufficient, is it difficult for him to build a large dock? You must know that when he was in the megastar system, he almost moved the "Sigma" database, from docks, space ports, to satellites, space-based platforms, to battleships, speedboats, to shuttles, small aircraft, from large to Small, from people's livelihood to military use, what type of aerospace technology is there?

As for the relationship with the top executives of the Star Alliance... After the "Battle of Logia", it must have sounded the alarm for the top government officials. His idea is not that anyone can fight him if he wants to. These people must be mentally prepared to lose their wives and lose their soldiers.

"Territory...territory..." muttered twice, his eyes fell on the star map projection on the combat command platform.

"Captain?" Yuffie, the ship officer, turned around and asked.

"Start the warp drive."

"Yes." The girl turned her head and sent an order to the driving team on the first floor: "Start the warp speed engine."

"Maximum output of zero element reactor, warp speed engine activated. Level 6.5, jump countdown 10, 9, 8..."

After 10 seconds, the surrounding space distorted for a while, and the Morning Star slowly elongated, and finally turned into an afterimage and disappeared at a point.

...

3 days later. When the Morningstar was still traveling at a warp speed, somewhere in the Skynest star region, a red giant star that was tens of times larger than the main-sequence star stage was slowly rotating in the dim universe, and the dark red pro was churning and twisting on its surface. , forming one after another fiery surges that look extremely enchanting, yet awe-inspiring.

A quarter of an AU from the edge of the red giant star, a fan-shaped space station stands quietly in the dim void filled with a large number of solar particles.

In a viewing cabin on the space station facing the red giant star, there is nothing else in the room of nearly a thousand square meters. The only chair, one person.

No cigarettes, no alcohol, no women. The man looked to be in his 40s, with a slender and well-proportioned figure, clear lines on his face, especially his eyes, which were very unusual. Under the dim light of the red giant star, there is a kind of green light.

He holds an unusual playing card between the index finger and thumb of his right hand. The front is colored or, and the back is a group of purple flames. With the rotation of the playing cards, it gives people a sense of transpiration, as if it is a burning flame.

There is a glass display screen fixed in front of the seat, on which a battleship is constantly rotating back and forth. If the crew of the Morning Star were here, they would be surprised.

That's right, the battleship on the monitor is the Morning Star that just left "Jakartapur" 3 days ago.

"Wei Hongguang still failed..." The man sighed, his hoarse voice was like a whirring bellows next to the stove.

"Well, that's good too. It saves me from having to go to the trouble." Talking to himself, the man slowly raised his right hand and swung the poker cards between his fingers behind him.

"Crack!" The playing cards stopped in mid-air, and there was a muffled sound. With a flash of blue, a figure was slowly outlined in the originally empty place.

"Black 7 listens to your call." The voice was cold and crisp, like a piece of ice falling on the ground and shattering.

The visitor is wrapped in a black armor, which is different from the harsh environment protective clothing of the OS. The black armor is made of a fibrous substance similar to horns, and the surface is densely covered with stripes of different colors. Under the dark red light of the red giant star Under rendering, it looks like human muscles peeled off from a distance.

His face was tightly covered by a mask, which was different from the coating of the armor. The mask was made of metallic silver, with only the eyes and nose protruding slightly.

"Go, go to the Star Alliance..."

"Yes." It was still a clear and cold sentence. He didn't ask the target of the action, nor when he would leave, nor did he have the slightest doubt.

Youlan slowly rippled like water waves, and Black 7's body became lighter and lighter until it disappeared. But that poker card seemed to lose its original quality and slowly fell to the ground.

The "or" on the card was laughing, wantonly.

The man on the seat was very calm, with a calm expression on his face, his fingers crossed in front of his chest, and his green pupils fell straight on the restless red giant star outside the window.

...

On the frontier of the Star Alliance, 20 light-years away from the border of the Sulu Empire, in the Dilar star system.

In the center of the star system is a young red giant star that has just passed the main sequence star stage and is about to enter its old age. It is throwing out a gaseous shell a little bit. There are 6 planets of different sizes orbiting around it.

The fourth planet in the Dilar star system, "Lachesis", has three satellites, and the second-ranked "Crystal", in terms of size, mass, body shape, and element distribution, is similar to the birthplace of human civilization ------ The Moon is similar to the Earth's satellite in the solar system.

"Lachesis" is a desert planet, very far away from "Dilal", with a huge temperature difference between day and night, and the gravity is too strong, so it is not suitable for transformation into a habitable planet. In addition, there is another restrictive factor. Because it is close to the border of the Sulu Empire, and it is not far from the site of General Harrington Harris, one of the stronghold forces, if a settlement is built here, there will be safety concerns. A big hidden danger.

Between the Dilar star system and the Mubarak star system controlled by Harrington? It is composed of an unmanned star system. The isolation zone that separates the stronghold forces from the actual control area of ​​the Star Alliance), and there are many manned and unmanned reconnaissance sentries in the starry sky on the side close to the Star Alliance, and the "Apollo" controlled by the Star Alliance , "Black Pearl", "Cobra" and other large pirate groups frequently appear. Generally speaking, the safety factor is low, but it has not yet reached the "Sokanada Defense Line" where the Star Alliance, the Phoenix Empire, and the Silver Eagle Group have massively stationed troops. "That tension.

In such a situation. As a semi-military buffer zone, the Dilar star system is definitely not suitable for settlement. In terms of mineral resources, there are no zero elements, only some ordinary manganese, titanium, rare earth, platinum, etc. If a mine is built here, It is inevitable to invest a lot of manpower and material resources, and to divide troops to guard, wasting the precious troops of the Star Alliance.

therefore. After weighing the pros and cons, the high-level government decided to approve a business bill, and leased the right to use the Dilar star system to major and medium-sized enterprises and consortia in the Star Alliance through bidding. The winning bidder is allowed to exercise the right to garrison, develop, use, and construct various facilities on the Dilar star system during the lease period. Of course, if the winning bidder is engaged in the sale and purchase of mineral mining and smelting, it must also submit a qualification application to the relevant agency, and obtain mining rights from the government through methods such as one-time buyout, sales share, and equity split.

In the end, after fierce bidding, the Dilar star system was taken by the "Venus" pharmaceutical group. Used for various drug research and biological experiments. Manufacturing and other business activities.

"Venus" pharmaceutical group is in the territory of Star Alliance, according to its market share in the same pharmaceutical industry, it is between medium-sized enterprises and large-scale enterprises.

There is an old saying that goes well, a horse cannot be fat without night grass, and a man cannot be rich without windfall. There is another saying that is even better, the golden belt of murder and arson. Repair bridges and make up roads without corpses. In this era of rapid development of civilization and the explosion of science and technology, in order to gain technological advantages in similar industries, poaching, sending spies, and setting up tricks... such insidious behaviors have become very common social phenomena.

Especially in an economical country like the Star Alliance, shopping malls are like battlefields. "Natural selection, the weak prey on the strong" is an eternal truth. Enterprises engaged in drug research and development and manufacturing such as "Venus", if they really abide by the laws of the Star Alliance, behave according to their duties, and do things in a down-to-earth manner, then they will never try to become bigger, stronger, tricky, or even seek death!

More than 200 years ago, some large pharmaceutical companies in European and American countries knew to go to developing countries to conduct scientific experiments, test drugs, and even artificially spread certain viruses for the purpose of research and profit, let alone now.

Which of the top pharmaceutical companies in the Star Alliance does not have its own star system? Which one has no private army? Similar to this kind of behavior, externally, it is called fast and convenient, easy to manage, and research-production integration. It also increases jobs, taxes, and indirectly expands the country’s military power for the Star Alliance (the Constitution of the Star Alliance stipulates that in emergencies, the government The right to expropriate private armed forces of local enterprises), in fact? It's just an excuse they use to cover up their crimes.

In an environment where the entire star system is controlled by corporations, it is difficult for the media and government judicial departments to obtain effective evidence for some appalling research (such as human experiments, gene modulation). In all fairness, this kind of thing is cruel, but it has really promoted the development of human medical level and brought certain technological advantages to enterprises.

The top management of "Venus" is very clear that if they have been engaged in production and research under the nose of the Star Alliance government, they will inevitably have their hands tied. Moreover, if some scandal breaks out, the company may fall into a slump and disappear in the long river of history. .

Therefore, for the development and growth of the enterprise, even if the rental price of the Dilar star system is very expensive, the board of directors spared no expense to win the right to use the Dilar star system from many competitors. However, the senior executives of "Venus" guessed the beginning, but they couldn't guess the end. Shortly after taking the right to use the Dilar star system, the company suffered heavy losses due to the malicious sabotage of its competitors, resulting in a break in the capital chain.

In order to take care of the overall situation and stabilize the foundation for decades, the board of directors had to make a decision to suspend the "Dilal Development" plan, and prioritize the investment in the research and development of a drug that can fill the gap in the market.

Of course, the comprehensive development of the Dilar star system was temporarily suspended, but such a piece of "land" can't be left empty, what a pity. After high-level research, demonstration, and submission to the board of directors for approval. "Venus" relocated some of the insignificant artificial organ production lines and related research and development departments to the second satellite of "Lachesis" "Christelle", which can be used as a precursor to the comprehensive development of the Dilar star system in the future, and secondly. Come and do some controversial research secretly.

After nearly a year of intensive construction, a large-scale pharmaceutical industrial park was finally built on "Cristier", of course, due to the geographical environment. Most of the buildings and equipment in the industrial park are located underground.

Only a small supply port and a space-based scientific research station have been built in space. The former is a small space station that provides resource supply, maintenance, berthing and other services for a small mercenary organization with 88 large and small warships hired by "Venus", while the latter is a small space station that provides space weightlessness, strong radiation, etc. for related scientific research units. Space-based facilities for special experimental environments.

The reason why it does not build a large-scale comprehensive space station integrating supply, maintenance, production, and service like "Lokia" is related to the geographical location of "Crystal". Secondly, a large space station is not a ground structure, there are many aspects to take into account, and it cannot be built in a short time at all, besides. Compared with underground buildings, space-based facilities are more dangerous and fragile without natural shelters.

The industrial park of "Crystal" is a facility for production, research and development, etc., not a service-oriented star port like "Lokia". Therefore, except for some shipbuilding industries, special metallurgical industries, and plantations, few enterprises build production lines in space.

In fact, there is another advantage of building an industrial park on a planet. A cosmic environment like "Crystal" without an atmosphere can rely on land. Build a solid defensive front, and its defense difficulty is much lower than that of large space stations.

Because the function of the industrial park of "Cristier" is relatively simple. The production equipment is not cutting-edge technology, so there are not many armed units guarding the star system. Except for the mercenary fleet consisting of 88 large and small warships, there are only a handful of space-based defense platforms and the surrounding industrial parks. The surrounding fire defense network.

The top management of "Venus" did not think that Harrington Harris' stronghold forces would attack the "Crystal" industrial park. after all. The various resources that can be obtained here are much lower in value than battle losses, and they are definitely a thankless business for a shrewd master like Harrington Harris. How could it be possible to do business at a loss.

This consideration is very realistic. It is true that Harrington Harris will not have the idea of ​​"Christelle", but this does not mean that other people will sit back and watch "Morning Star" do some nasty tricks.

On this day, the Dilar star system, which had always been calm, became particularly lively. Light, flames and explosions almost illuminated the dark side of "Lachesis". A combat unit, following a certain combination, launched a violent offensive against the supply station, space-based weapon platform, and ground defense module on the outer side of "Cristier".

The flag flying by this fleet is not a known stronghold force, nor is it the Covenant Navy. The deck and two strings of the battleship do not have any identifiers that can distinguish the faction it belongs to. There are only bomb craters, remaining paint, patches of different colors, and privately modified. Metal pendants... The composition of its ships is also varied, Longsword-class frigates and Tomahawk-class cruisers of the Star Alliance, Seahorse-class destroyers and Walrus-class battleships of the Sulu Empire, Viper assault ships of the Charles Federation, Sea Dragon-class cruisers, Solo The Night Devil-class destroyer of the Long Empire, the Chaos Master-class battleship, the Curse-class interceptor...

This kind of warship characteristics, such a combination of ships, there are only two types of armed forces in the Tianchao star area, one is the mercenary organization, and the other is the pirate force.

Under the rule of the Star Alliance, the mercenary organization is generally quite law-abiding, rarely doing immoral things aboveboard, even if business needs, most of them are black hands, knocking sap, and sneaking in. But the pirate forces are different. Although a large pirate group of this size usually has a strong background in the Star Alliance government, it is controlled by senior officials and even the parliament. However, in daily actions, it is inevitable that there will be situations where "the general will not accept the order of the emperor abroad".

This so-called "will not be accepted by the king's life", in fact, it is just an excuse used by different factions and organizations in the parliament to "play Tai Chi". The hidden tool of the Star Alliance, in addition to killing people with a knife and sniping against the increasingly crazy stronghold forces, has another function, that is, the political factions of the Star Alliance are used to check and balance each other, and weaken the opponent's trump card to rely on the economic strength of the enterprise.

Just like the current "Crystal", as long as people who understand the political background of the Star Alliance look at it from a distance, they can come to the conclusion that "dog eats dog, bites".

At this moment, "Venus" is at an absolute disadvantage. There are only sporadic space-based defense platforms in the outer void of "Crystal" that are tenaciously resisting the crazy attack of the pirates. The resource supply station is already crumbling. The cabin gushes out, and then sprays out large streams of sundries, metal utensils, high-pressure gas, and even human stumps and arms. (To be continued..)