章 173: Chapter 173: Battleship Sequence and Economic Issues
Some spaceships were hovering in the starry sky.
Because in the distance, a terrifying object appeared.
It was a huge eyeball, rotating like a living creature.
"We received a response from the Federal Star Patrol, telling us not to approach. This eyeball is the Federation's new biological battleship."
The Federal citizens who heard this news were incredulous.
"Are you saying that in the future, we will be fighting in interstellar battles inside this thing?"
It felt a little hard to accept.
Yan Xia also felt the same way.
"Why is it shaped like an eyeball? It looks a bit creepy."
Ella handed Yan Xia a cup of tea, with an eye floating in it, which startled Yan Xia so much that he threw the tea away.
Ella said seriously from behind, "This is the best eye tea in the Federation. This eye is a plant that just happens to look like an eye."
Yan Xia felt that Ella was definitely doing it on purpose.
The tea actually didn't look much like an eye. If it were any other time, Yan Xia would never have thought of it that way. But looking at this battleship, and then at this tea, which was red tea, Yan Xia had almost thought that Ella had handed him a cup of blood.
"So, why make it into an eye?"
Ella looked up some information.
"The giant ship is already in the research and development stage. Once we enter the giant ship era, the rest of our battleships will become auxiliary."
"So, the biological battleship has been determined to be an auxiliary direction 580 years ago. The giant eye battleship has a simpler structure and more outstanding abilities, so it was manufactured."
"It is mainly used for reconnaissance rather than attack. One advantage of biological battleships is that they can hide their energy sources, achieving an invisibility effect in the universe. The giant eye has excellent vision, with an eye resolution of up to 100 billion pixels, capable of detecting high-frequency rays like alpha rays, as well as low-frequency rays."
"This is a great light-sensing tool."
Yan Xia was actually a bit disappointed because he had hoped for a more handsome battleship rather than this Cthulhu-style battleship.
Ella seemed to understand Yan Xia's thoughts.
"Don't be so discouraged, Yan Xia."
"The most critical part of a biological battleship is that it is a living organism, and living organisms are more malleable than metal."
"So, we have also considered giving the battleship a function."
"This function is temporarily called the 'Battleship Sequence'."
Individuals have sequences, so why can't battleships have sequences?
Ella looked at the giant eye floating in deep space, and the giant eye seemed to sense her gaze and began to expand.
Something pierced through the front end of the eyeball, and an object grew out of the eyeball, covered in a layer of bony scales. It was a skull, a sturgeon's skull.
The sturgeon's body followed, and the eyeball itself began to shrink, forming the sturgeon's tail.
This sturgeon had a distinctive feature, a longer snout, which was a prominent characteristic of the paddlefish family.
"Chinese Paddlefish, a species that went extinct with the industrialization of the Earth."
"To adapt it to the universe, this white sturgeon has a more slender and elongated body. The cells of its outer skin can change colour at will, currently white, but it can also be black, grey, five-coloured, seven-coloured, or camouflage."
"The bony scales and the entire skeleton have been reinforced. It is now considered a hard-boned fish, and this natural creature should better suit your aesthetic standards."
Indeed, its appearance went from -100 to +100 points.
"What are its specific abilities?"
Sequences usually have corresponding special abilities.
"No."
"Biological battleships differ from ordinary living organisms. Their true purpose is to reduce the cost of battleships."
"So, the biological body is just the shell, and the internal machinery is what truly functions."
"When transforming from an eyeball to a sturgeon, some of the internal mechanical structures are activated, turning the reconnaissance ship into a battleship."
"You've noticed it too, right? The protruding object in the sturgeon's mouth is a cannon."
This 40,000-metre-long giant sturgeon's exterior was not exactly the same as a real biological organism. Instead, it had some metallic components, such as the large cannon, and the end of the heterocercal tail was a row of thrusters, providing power to the biological battleship.
"The purpose of shape-shifting is to change functions, and flesh can do this more easily."
"If it were made of metal, it would have to use a lot of liquid metal, which would be too expensive. Alternatively, it could be made with a very complex structure like a Transformer, which would also be costly. However, the biological sequence can significantly reduce costs."
"This allows for dual-use, which is another cost-saving measure."
Every sentence Ella spoke was related to "cost".
The biological battleship itself was developed to suppress the cost of battleships, so Yan Xia felt that the most important aspect was also the cost.
"Then, what is the price of this battleship?"
Ella separated the biological battleship's blueprints into external biological components and internal mechanical parts, labelling the corresponding prices.
"The price of the weapon system is 1.09 million energy coins, the energy system is 7.07 million energy coins, the power system is 1.61 million energy coins, the detection system is 0.84 million energy coins, the engine is 0.38 million energy coins, and the price of the remaining battleship's internal cabins plus the external biological body is 0.17 million energy coins."
A total of 11.16 million energy coins.
This was a 40,000-metre-class battleship that could transform between two forms in a very short time.
Yan Xia remembered that battleships of the same level usually cost over 50 million energy coins. Of course, the performance of the biological battleship was definitely not as good as the original steel battleship, but the price difference of more than four times was enough to make up for everything.
"On average, it should be able to save 80% to 90%."
"The military budget will be significantly increased. Building 10,000 biological battleships will cost just over 10 billion energy coins, which is enough to build two dwarf planet-class battleships."
Yan Xia rested his chin in his hand.
In fact, the Federation had not yet entered a normal development mode, and its economy and actual production capacity were disconnected.
A Level 2.2 civilization can produce 100 billion energy coins of energy per second, and 3.1 billion billion energy coins of energy per year. In theory, the Federation should have at least 100 billion billion energy coins of sufficient funds each year.
However, the current Federation is very "poor".
The available energy is extremely low.
The entire Federation can only use an additional 200 million energy coins per year, which is 1/50 billion of the expected amount.
Why is this the case?
Because the Federation has been in an accelerated construction phase, with excessive energy being used for internal construction and maintenance.
For example, the Mobius ring world of Water Commission One requires more than two stars to maintain its operation. Additional energy must be continuously transported from other star systems.
Similarly, the mechanical gods in various star systems temporarily use energy that accounts for more than 50% of the total energy of a star system, and there are also the star cities.
The maintenance of a single battleship requires astronomical amounts of energy coins, not to mention the star cities.
Beyond the star cities are the interstellar factories, and beyond the interstellar factories are various giant structures.
If you were to ask which resource-devouring glutton is the most voracious in the Civilization Federation, every federal citizen would answer without hesitation: the simulated universe.
At this stage, the Civilization Federation only has two simulated universes, but the total consumption of these two simulated universes is 8% of the total energy production of the entire Civilization Federation.
The laser transmission technology developed by Yan Xia also consumes a lot of energy.
This is also why Yan Xia and Ella are so frugal with energy, even to the point of having scavengers collect energy through clean-up operations.
"By the time war comes, it will be too late with such a small number of battleships."
"The development of the Triangle Region must be accelerated. We need to increase our current total energy to the 100 million billion level, so we can complete the transformation and enter the giant ship era and the biological era."
"Pay attention to the internal economic balance, Ella."
"The proportion of machines can also be reduced, allowing more federal citizens to replace machines and take up important positions."
Just thinking about this made Yan Xia's head hurt.
To perfectly control a vast organization spanning 200 star systems and nearly a trillion citizens is not an easy task.
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