Chapter 198: Secretly Being Plotted Against

“T2?” Xia Fei was incredibly curious. He only knew that warships were split by grades. For example, Xia Fei’s Vampire was grade five, one of the highest among frigates, but he had no idea what T2 meant.

Ling Feng explained, laughing, “To put it simply, it’s a second-generation warship. It’s a completely different line of warships from the normal ones, greatly exceeding the first generation in all aspects of performance.”

Xia Fei was utterly shocked. The Alliance had already made second-generation ships without him knowing. However, due to the limitations in production technology, these second-generation warships were not entirely common, and most would not even know of their existence.

The two men boarded the Gaia Ares-class interceptor. The ship’s interior was not any different from other frigates; the crew cabins and the command deck were not anything out of the ordinary.

After assigning everyone their rooms, Ling Feng led Xia Fei to the command deck. A captain with a thick beard was busy at work there.

“Let’s head off; we’re going to the capital ring,” commanded Ling Feng.

Xia Fei furrowed his eyebrows. “Aren’t we going directly to Endaro Star Region?”

“Mr. Thuram wants to go there with you, so we’re going back to pick him up first.”

Xia Fei nodded. Originally, it would take over a month to reach Hek Star from where he was, but with the help of this interceptor, they could arrive in twenty days. Although he had wasted three days in the border area, it was still eight days faster compared to if Xia Fei traveled alone. Turned out Thuram had thought of everything.

Ling Feng took Xia Fei around the ship to check it out. Finally, the two of them arrived at the break room, closing the door after them.

“Xia Fei bro, what do you think of this Ares-class interceptor?”

Xia Fei nodded. “It’s not bad, especially the improvements to the electronics system and propulsion system; they’re simply incredible. Who knows what the speed limit is on this?”

“As the name suggests, the interceptor plays the role of catching up to an enemy and stopping them in their path. In order to catch up to the enemy and capture them in one fell swoop, one must first have higher speed and more precise positioning. This is the ultimate goal that the interceptors are designed for.

“If this uses the Black Mamba 130 engine on Vampire, the highest speed the ship can reach is probably over 30,000m/s.”

Xia Fei could not believe it. “That fast?”

Ling Feng laughed. “Heh, that’s not even the limit of it. Apparently, there are a few ships of the same model that got retrofitted to the extreme, exceeding 50,000m/s, but because this ship has been delivered recently, I haven’t undergone retrofitting yet.”

Xia Fei lit a cigarette and thought for a few moments. “The engine system of this ship is the same as normal frigates?”

“Yes, the same. It’s able to achieve such speeds because this ship’s warp calculation module has way more finesse than normal frigates. As for the increase in cruising speed, it’s because the ship is lightweight. This Ares-class interceptor is just a tenth of the weight of a normal frigate,” explained Ling Feng.

It was not easy to open a temporary wormhole in space. It required calculating the weakest node in the surrounding space, then using the wormhole generation module in the warp engine to rip space apart, creating a path that led far.

Environmental variables, gravitational variables, and the status of the links between nodes all required to be calculated using supercomputers before undergoing precise energy distributions. The amount of data involved was incredible.

The warp engine generated a fixed amount of energy. With an improvement to the warp calculation module, T2 warships could use the same energy module to create an even longer temporary wormhole, and the cruising speed was increased because the interceptor rid itself of its old cumbersome body, utilizing its lightweightness and accelerators while sacrificing its defense and firepower for the greatest improvement in speed.

After wrapping his head around all this, Xia Fei said, “I understand now; this T2 warship isn’t really built for intercepting opponents but for searching and discovering, instead, because its fragile armor and pitiful firepower aren’t threats to enemy ships at all.”

“Brother, you sure are thorough in your thought process. The interceptor is mainly used for chasing in combination with a fleet. If the enemies aren’t strong, it may be able to intercept them, but if it runs into something like your Vampire, there’s no way I’m letting this ship get anywhere close; Vampire’s firepower and energy-stealing systems are incredible, after all. Without energy, the Ares-class won’t be able to utilize its speed no matter how quick it is.”

Xia Fei replied with a smile, “Currently, the mainstream of warship development is multi-ship combat. Every warship has its pros and cons, and an excellent warship won’t be afraid of having shortcomings; rather, it’s having no specialities and being mediocre.

“Take this Ares-class; you can’t disregard it just because it has terrible armor and firepower. When the enemies are fleeing, there’s a need to advance quickly; the ship’s advantages will show then.”

Xia Fei could not help but recall the mysterious Titan while they were on this topic about warships. There was no perfect warship in the world, but the Titan-class warship was the only exception. After all, Titan had broken any concepts of what a warship should be, becoming the ender of ships in the universe.

“What are you thinking about?” Ling Fei stood up and grabbed two bottles of energy drink from the fridge, passing one to Xia Fei.

“I think that if one wanders through the universe, it isn’t enough just having one ship. They should have multiple ships with unique features each to cater to their different tactical needs,” replied Xia Fei.

“That’s right,” said Ling Feng. “Better yet, a group of teammates whom you can trust to form a complex and full-featured fleet, each performing their duty to maximize the combat effectiveness.”

Xia Fei smiled. “Third Ling Brother, where can I buy such an interceptor?”

Ling Feng patted Xia Fei on the shoulder. “Brother, I’m not trying to offend you, but there’s nowhere you can buy T2 warships. The four manufacturing companies have just recently finished developing these warships, and since the Adjudicator Union is one of their biggest clients, they sent over a few for us to test. A few bigger companies also received a handful for testing, but nobody knows how many of these are out.”

Xia Fei nodded with a hint of disappointment. There was a huge amount of data collection and testing from the development of a warship to its production phase. It might be over ten years before the large-scale production of the T2 warship came about.

“You could try speaking to Mr. Thuram. He’s the head of the weapons and equipment department, so there’s some hope there,” said Ling Feng after noticing Xia Fei’s disappointment. “But you should prepare yourself. I heard that the interceptor might very well cost over two billion star coins,”

“Pfft!” Xia Fei almost spat some of the energy drink he was drinking. “With two billion star coins, one can already buy a brand-new cruiser. That’s incredibly expensive.”

The Gaia Vexor-class battlecruiser that Thuram sold to Xia Fei had cost him half a billion star coins, yet this tiny interceptor cost over two billion. There was no way Xia Fei could produce that sum.

“It can’t be helped. New ships at the start of their production are usually quite expensive. With mass production and the process optimization, its price will come down along. ”

Xia Fei shook his head as he put away the idea of buying a T2 warship for now. Currently, he had just over 1.4 billion in his bank account, and Xia Fei planned to invest that money to Quantum Holdings.

As soon as the energy-shield booster entered production, the profits would come with it. The initial stage of any company was its hardest time, and all he could do was to wait for this period to pass.

…

On the outskirts of the capital ring, in a secluded asteroid belt.

It only took nine days to reach the capital ring from the boundary area of the Alliance, shorter than the initial plan of by a whole week. This went to show how fast the interceptor was.

There was a Caldari Caracal-class battlecruiser quietly suspended in the sky. Both ships opened their docking cabins at the same time as Xia Fei and Ling Feng stood at the passageway and waited for Thuram’s arrival.

Before one could see him, Thuram’s casual laughter could be heard from afar.

“Uncle Thuram, seems that you’re as good as always.” Xia Fei quickly walked forward to greet him.

“Same old, same old. I’m almost bored to death, staying in the office with nothing to do all day.

Ling Xiao and Ling Yun were also there. The Ling brothers, who had played a big part in the battle to destroy the Plumagers, were now entrusted with important tasks; sometimes, they might even accompany their superior when he went out. In short, their identity was not what they used to be.

As he greeted the Ling brothers, Old Porter left his room. Thuram’s eyes flickered as he saw Porter. The two of them gave each other a nod like friends who had not seen each other for a long time, yet they did not say a word.

Xia Fei felt that it was weird; could it be that Thuram and Porter knew each other?

“Head toward the Endaro Star Region immediately. Who knows if that old man Qin Mang is still alive?” ordered Thuram with his hand upside down.

“Yes,” Ling Feng passed his order to the command deck immediately.

“Xia Fei, follow me,” said Thuram mysteriously.

After inviting Xia Fei back to his room, Thuram took off his Adjudicator Union uniform and wore just a singlet and a pair of shorts. He then rested in bed and told Xia Fei, “It’s not our first time meeting; no need to be so formal and just grab a seat somewhere.”

Xia Fei nodded. He pulled a chair and sat next to Thuram’s bed before lighting a cigarette.

“You probably don’t understand why people are targeting you for no reason,” Thuram said in a deep voice. “I actually don’t know, either. Qin Mang hasn’t known you for that long, so why is he leaving things to you?”

Xia Fei was shocked. “Are you saying that the old man plans to leave some stuff to me? That’s why people are secretly plotting against me?”