Chapter 126: Building a Fleet

“Interceptor?” Boateng shook his head. “Never heard or seen one before. Is it a large warship?”

Xia Fei looked slightly disappointed. “No, it’s about the same size as a frigate but has a 14,000m/s cruise speed. I’m guessing that this isn’t its limit; its top speed can probably break past the 20,000m/s threshold.”

“My goodness!” Boateng was at a loss for words; evidently, he could barely believe the 20,000m/s that Xia Fei estimated. “There existed high-performance proton engines before the advent of warp engines. Although those engines allowed for incredibly high speeds, they were largely unstable, requiring plenty of fuel, and were troublesome to maintain. Nobody uses those anymore.”

Xia Fei searched through his memory before shaking his head. “From what I’ve observed, the ship doesn’t have a proton engine. Whatever. Since we can’t figure it out, we’ll just let it be.”

The two of them left the office for the yard of the factory. There were twenty or so ships in the yard, and combined with the plant and equipment, everything should be valued at over one billion star coins. Old Porter was quite generous with gifts to his four apprentices.

The Anathema-class frigate sat quietly in the middle of the yard, barely noticeable. Only in battle would this top-tier hybrid frigate show its fangs.

“Why are you flying this ship, instead? What happened to my master’s naval-issued Eagle-class frigate?” Boateng asked with furrowed brows.

Xia Fei’s story in the Wild Star Region when he spoke about it had Boateng sighing regretfully. “That’s quite unfortunate. That warship has been sitting there ever since I started at the factory thirteen years ago. Master would wipe it down by hand from time to time, too.”

“It couldn’t be helped. Since you lost it while escaping with your life, I’m sure the master wouldn’t blame you for it.” Boateng understood Xia Fei’s position. After all, the latter had done everything he could at that time. If others had been in his position, they would have been unable to get Lunar Eclipse out of the Wild Star Region, too.

Boateng and Xia Fei entered Vampire, and the former was shocked by the mess within, exclaiming, “You must’ve been in quite a nasty situation! Why else would the interior look so bad after your modifications?”

Xia Fei nodded. “I didn’t have much time then, so everything was done in a hurry.”

“What’s so special about this Anathema-class?” Boateng asked.

Xia Fei went through the ship’s unique features and its origin. Boateng was more and more surprised the more Xia Fei spoke, and his eyes almost fell out of their sockets when he heard about the energy-draining device.

“A frigate that can support an energy-draining device… My goodness! No wonder you picked this over Lunar Eclipse. That function is just too incredible; I would’ve done the same in your place”, Boateng said after swallowing his drool.

“How do you plan to retrofit Vampire?”

“The same way I did with Lunar Eclipse: reduce the living space by two thirds and use it all to house combat equipment. I also want to install a second energy-draining device.”

Xia Fei already had an idea of what to retrofit Vampire with long before he arrived at the warship graveyard. The greatest advantage of Vampire was its ability to house an energy-draining device, so Xia Fei wanted to use this to its greatest potential.

Once the second energy-draining device was installed, Vampire would have double the energy-draining speed. With two energy-draining systems, the original five minutes it took to suck an enemy ship’s energy dry would be cut down by half or this Cruor frigate might even be able to deal with two enemy ships at once, maximizing its combat power.

“While equipping your ship with two energy-draining systems isn’t a bad idea, I think that you should install two, heavy energy shield systems, too. Once those energy-draining devices are turned on, Vampire will have enough energy to maintain two energy shields at once, greatly increasing its defense,” said Boateng after some thought.

Xia Fei patted Boateng’s shoulder with a smile on his face. “You sure do understand me well. Get these comfort furnishings out of here. As long as I get to possess great offense, I’ll be more than happy to sleep on the command deck every day.”

After confirming the retrofitting directions, work started immediately.

……

Old Porter’s factory became quite busy that afternoon.

Having worked in the factory before, Xia Fei knew the other staff quite well and had a decent relationship with them. These workers offered to work overtime just to get everything done on Vampire.

Xia Fei did not refuse their kindness, contacting Sonny on the sly to provide them with the best support. Good food and drinks were a must, and the menu should be varied.

The work progressed quite quickly, and all the parts that would not be used were taken off the Vampire within a night.

The luxurious marble bathtubs, soft mattresses, all-metal kitchen… all of them were given to the workers. Obviously, they were more than happy to receive them, for not everyone was willing to sleep on a cold, hard floor like Xia Fei.

A storage battery was also added to the power system, meaning that he could store stolen energy from enemies, thereby avoiding wastage.

The warp disruptor and traction control module were rearranged, and the four Beam laser cannons were swapped to dual laser cannons. This meant that two beams of lasers would be shot from each of the cannons instead, increasing the ship’s firepower by sixty percent. Xia Fei was not worried about the additional energy consumption as the energy-draining device could claim energy from an opposing ship as its own, meaning that it would be more than enough to support the simultaneous use of all this equipment.

There was also the twice heavy CL5 energy shield recharge system, which could continually replenish shields, increasing defense by over thirty percent.

As Xia Fei brought over a bunch of equipment, which was previously on Lunar Eclipse, most of the parts needed not to be purchased. Moreover, Vampire was a new ship, so few parts had to be swapped, making the work go much faster than before.

However, some trouble was still encountered when installing the second energy-draining device. The original high-tier energy-draining device was made by Shasan Manufacturing Company. It had an incredible performance, but top-tier equipment like that was incredibly difficult to find on the market, so Xia Fei had to settle for a normal one. That was probably the only flaw in Vampire.

At the same time, the eight Iteron-class industrial ships were brought over from all parts of the warship graveyard one by one. These industrial ships looked quite broken down and needed immediate repairs. After the work on Vampire was done, these industrial ships would enter the garage next for fixing.

Xia Fei even picked out two frigates, a Mittallian Rifter and Caldarian Kestrel, to take on the task of escorting the cargo ships.

The Rifter’s high speed made it suitable for performing tracking tasks, whereas the Kestrel had high firepower, which allowed it to dish out heavy damage. The two frigates had their unique strengths and, together, formed a team with great maneuverability and offense—a great combination, indeed.

The eight Iterons cost Xia Fei ninety-three million star coins, the Rifter twenty-eight million star coins, and the Kestrel thirty-five million star coins.

The ships in this fleet alone cost a total of one hundred fifty-six million star coins, and this did not include the price of fixing them. Xia Fei estimated at least two hundred million star coins would be needed to make the fleet fully operational. It was also worth mentioning that Boateng sold the ships to Xia Fei at their base cost, not making even a cent of profit as a result.

It was actually quite safe to travel around within the Alliance. Pirate robbery was totally an uncommon occurrence in this part of the universe. Xia Fei had other things in mind when he insisted on buying these two frigates, though.

Once built, this fleet would be the Earth Federation’s first space fleet. It could greatly increase the prestige of his company, Quantum Holdings. It should be known that the Federation did not have a single warship to its name, yet his company managed to gather one without external help; this feat was bound to shock the people of the Federation.

Doing business was also an art; the better the reputation a company had, the more business partners and profits they could acquire. It was just like decorating a store before its opening. Reputation and impression had always been things that should not be neglected by anyone doing business.

Moreover, his fleet still needed to be flown to high-tier planets far away. What would the aliens think if they found out Quantum Holdings did not even have frigates? Who would do business with a company that had no power?

Since he had decided on building himself a fleet, he might as well go all out. Some money could be saved, but others had to be spent.

Xia Fei’s bank account was steadily spiraling down. The two hundred million spent on building the fleet, the two hundred million that went into the company for liquidity, and the amount dedicated to retrofitting Vampire reminded Xia Fei how easy it was to spend money.

Luckily, Boateng was unwilling to sell the tools Porter left him. It was difficult to part ways with the tools he had used for such a long time, so he planned to bring all the tools and maintenance equipment with him when he moved to Earth, saving Xia Fei the costs he would have incurred if he bought such stuff himself.

After ten days, the finished Vampire was pushed out of the garage with a brand-new look. Everything that ought to be done was finally done.

“Xia Fei, your ship looks incredibly lowkey. It doesn’t look anything like a top-tier special ops frigate at all,” commented Boateng.

“Yeah,” Xia Fei replied with a smile. “You’ll live longer being lowkey; it’s never a good idea to be too flashy. I’ll leave the rest of the industrial ships and frigates to you. I need to head back to Heaven Execution Training Camp tonight.”

Boateng nodded. “Don’t worry. Once all the work here is done, I’ll deliver your fleet safe and sound to Earth. Still, I need to deal with and go through this factory that my master left me with, so it may take some time.”

Boateng then turned around reluctantly, losing himself as he looked at the old factory as well as the ships he and his master had repaired together.

Xia Fei lit up a Hongtashan cigarette. “Take your time. Old Porter put a lot of effort into building this factory; you should take good care of it even if you’re selling it, and sell this factory to a buyer with a good reputation; don’t let anyone ruin your master’s reputation.”

“Yup, I’ll be sure to sell it to a trustworthy buyer,” Boateng agreed firmly. “By the way, Sonny told me in private that he wants to go with us to Earth. Although he’s a bit unpredictable at times, he’s not a bad guy. Plus, he has experience with driving and maintaining warships, so he should fit well as my assistant.”

Xia Fei furrowed his brows. “I’ve been seeing him quite a lot these days; why didn’t he ask me this personally?”

Boateng laughed. “Sonny might be all smiles day in, day out, but he fears his mother the most. She told him not to bother you, and that’s why he’s taken the roundabout way of asking me to ask you.”

Xia Fei gave it some thought. Sonny was quite clever, but he somewhat lacked composure; as long as he was not holding an important role, he should be of some help to the company.

“Sure, let him know that I agreed. Get Sonny’s mother and his brother Nemo to come with you guys to Earth, too. They are all natives of the warship graveyard, so Sonny and his family can be companies to your wife and daughter.”

Ever since Xia Fei decided to include Boateng among his people, he had started to be more considerate of anything related to the latter. Sentimental men like Baoteng did not care about money but being emotionally satisfied, instead. Likewise, the moment Boateng treated Xia Fei as his own, it was a matter of course for him to do everything in his power to help the other with anything he needed.

“Alright.” Boateng stared at Xia Fei, feeling touched. “Thanks for being so thoughtful of my family. Let’s go; the brothers are waiting. You should head back to the training camp after this drink. Getting into Heaven Execution Training Camp is no easy task, so you should cherish it.

“If my master contacts you…”

Xia Fei patted him on his shoulder. “You can relax; if Old Porter contacts me, I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

The Vampire slowly landed at the airport outside of Otter City.

Xia Fei rushed toward Heaven Execution Training Camp sans dilly-dallying. It was 9 a.m., the time when work would usually start. Xia Fei skipped the dorms and reported straight to the library immediately.

It was winter on Hek Star. Xia Fei could see the white library was surrounded by garbage yet again. It was littered with leaves, paper, and thick snow, returning to its former state in the time Xia Fei was away.

The heaters were more than sufficient in the library, and Qin Mang was still sleeping with that big black cat in his arms at this time in the morning.

Xia Fei gently placed down the tea leaves Qin Mang wanted on the table. Yuqian Longjing tea was incredibly rare, and Andre only managed to find twelve catties of it after a long time of searching. Therefore, Xia Fei brought other types of high-quality tea, like Dahongpao and Biluochun, for Qin Mang, too.

Xia Fei gently placed the brewed pot of tea on the table before quickly cleaning the dust in the library.

Qin Mang slowly opened his eyes, petting the lazy, fat, black cat with his right hand as he quietly observed Xia Fei who was busying about.

When Xia Fei noticed that Qin Mang had woken up, he hurried over with a smile, pouring the latter a cup of tea. “Old man, this is Dahongpao, a specialty of my hometown. Although it’s not as fragrant as Yuqian Longjing, it has its uniqueness. Go ahead and have a sip.”

Qin Mang brought the teacup to his lips and took a small sip, savoring it before muttering, “Mellow yet rich—not a bad tea.”

After placing down the teacup, Qin Mang brought out two, old-looking keys. “These are the keys to the two rooms in the basement. Hold onto them; from today onward, clean the basement on top of your regular duty.”

Xia Fei was shocked before grabbing the keys from Qin Mang’s hands. The old man had never let him near the two mysterious rooms in the basement, but today he had given him the keys. What did this mean?