Chapter 213: Heavenly Craft Space Station Begins Construction

First stage: self-replication.

This is the core concept of Heavenly Craft: the first batch of robots don't directly start building ships, but first make more robots.

Only twelve robots, divided into four groups, began taking parts from the core cabin's materials warehouse.

Mechanical arms moved, they built frames in space, installed motors, connected circuits…… One hour later, four new robot prototypes had appeared.

"Efficiency is 15% higher than ground simulation." Chen Guang stared at the data.

"In microgravity, assembling large components is more convenient."

"That's because there's no gravity to mess things up!" Wang Hao grinned.

"On the ground, hoisting something requires preventing sway; in space? A light push puts it in place!"

At lunchtime, everyone ate in the control center.

Naturally, it was Zhao Gong's specially made space meal packs, today switched to fish-flavored shredded pork flavor.

Wang Hao gnawed while watching the monitor screen.

In just a short while, the number of robots had increased from twelve to twenty-four.

"This growth rate…… will it exceed a hundred tomorrow?"

"If materials are sufficient, after seventy-two hours the robot count can reach one hundred forty-four." Chen Guang pulled up the prediction curve.

"Then we enter the second stage: constructing the Giant Spirit God mechanical arm."

"Giant Spirit God" is a super-large mechanical arm designed specifically for Heavenly Craft, 150 meters long, weighing eighty tons itself, yet capable of moving loads of up to a thousand tons.

Its joints use dragon-scale space material, the drive system is directly powered by fusion energy, and control precision reaches millimeter-level.

"How long does it take to build that thing?"

"If a hundred construction robots work together, it's expected to be completed in forty-eight hours." Li Yang had finished his meal pack and was wiping his hands.

"Then we can start hoisting Penglai's dragon bone modules."

"When will the dragon bone be transported up?"

"Tomorrow morning, Azure Cloud-Heavy II will launch." Feng Yan walked in, surprisingly holding a normal lunch box—inside were rice and stir-fried vegetables.

"Brother Feng, you're cheating!" Wang Hao protested.

"Why can you eat normal food?"

"Because I have a meeting at the space agency this afternoon." Feng Yan sat down.

"Moreover, Zhao Gong said space meal packs can be sampled at most twice a day, otherwise the stomach will protest."

He said as he opened the lunch box, the aroma of sweet and sour ribs wafted out.

It made Wang Hao's eyes go wide.

The afternoon's construction process was like watching a sped-up documentary.

The robot count grew exponentially, and around the core cabin a robot cloud gradually formed.

They worked in an orderly manner, some transporting materials, some assembling components, some debugging newly activated companions.

By six in the evening, the robot count reached sixty-eight.

And the base framework of the first Giant Spirit God mechanical arm had already been erected.

"Let's wrap up for today." Feng Yan glanced at the time.

"Leave duty personnel in the control center; the rest go back to rest. Tomorrow is the main event."

Wang Hao stretched: "That's a must! Tomorrow the dragon bone goes to space, I have to see it myself!"

On the way back, Li Yang and Zhao Kaiyuan walked side by side.

"Old Zhao, have you noticed?" Li Yang suddenly said.

"What?"

"We're now chatting about sending over a hundred tons of stuff into space as naturally as chatting about buying a cabbage at the market tomorrow."

Zhao Kaiyuan stared for a moment, then laughed: "Indeed, three years ago we were careful transporting a mech part, now…… the orbital shipyard has begun construction."

The canteen indeed had normal meals in the evening.

Wang Hao piled his plate full, found a corner, and sat down.

Just after two bites, a person sat opposite him: Xiao Liu of the Materials Group; Zhang Mingyuan having been arrested, he was temporarily acting as group leader.

"Brother Hao, the final batch of test reports for tomorrow's dragon bone module materials has come out." Xiao Liu handed over a tablet.

"Dragon-scale space type: strength compliance rate 102%, toughness 99.8%, self-repair performance…… can't be measured yet, because the tests showed no damage needing repair."

"Awesome!" Wang Hao gave a thumbs up, "Zhao Gong's skill is truly amazing!"

"It's just that production still lags a bit." Xiao Liu sighed.

"The entire Penglai fleet needs eight thousand tons of this material, but current monthly output is only five hundred tons."

"Have Zhao Gong hire more people! We're not short of money now!"

"Zhao Gong said the key process for this material must be personally overseen by him; hiring more people won't help." Xiao Liu gave a wry smile.

"He's already slept in the lab four days this week."

Just as they were chatting, the canteen's big screen suddenly switched the image.

Under Heavenly Craft's real-time monitoring, the gradually forming shipyard framework in space gleamed with metallic luster, while dozens of robots fluttered around like fireflies.

In the lower-right corner of the screen were small words: "Orbital height 412 km, current robot count 74, construction progress 11%."

"Hey, it's even being livestreamed?" Wang Hao laughed.

"Chen Guang's idea." Feng Yan sat down holding his tray, "He said he wanted everyone to see the progress to boost cohesion."

At ten p. m., Feng Yan was still in the office.

The screen was split into three windows: left, Heavenly Craft monitoring; middle, the loading-arrow inspection record for tomorrow's dragon bone module; right, an encrypted report.

The report came from Lei Jindong: "Based on clues provided by Wang Zhen Guo, we have locked onto seventeen nodes of the overseas intelligence network."

"Eight of them are within our controllable range, and countermeasures have been taken."

"The remaining nine are overseas; recommendation: technical countermeasures."

"So-called technical countermeasures involve sending false or misleading information through the opponent's information channels."

"Feng Yan pulled up Penglai's false information file, which was the bait document previously given to Wang Zhen Guo, but upgraded."

"It contains more details, more 'confidential' material, and furthermore… more traps."

"For example, the 'actual range' of the Kuafu-3 missile (exaggerated by 30%)."

"For example, the energy shield weakness of the Biban-3S mecha (actually a counter-trap; once the opponent designs a weapon targeting this weakness, it triggers the mecha's overload counterattack mode)."

"Another example is Penglai's 'scheduled test sea area' (underneath that sea, the navy has already laid out a monitoring array)."

'"Send it." Feng Yan clicked confirm.'

'These "gifts" will return via the encrypted channel previously established by Wang Zhen Guo, going back the same way to his upline.'

'Then they are passed along layer by layer until they reach their destination.'

'Closing the report, Feng Yan looked at the Tiangong monitor.'

'The number of robots has reached eighty.'

'The joint section of the first Jingling Shen mechanical arm is also currently being installed.'

'He recalled that three years ago, Li Yang assembled the first mecha joint in the warehouse using scrap motors and bicycle chains.'

'Back then, their biggest dream was to build a robot that could walk.'

'Now they are building a shipyard capable of building spaceships.'

'His phone vibrated; it was a message from Chen Guang: "Torch Dragon detected abnormal energy fluctuations at the Jibajiu Baqi R&D base; the characteristics suggest a fusion test."'

'"The spectral features have been recorded; recommendation: strengthen space monitoring in the direction of the East Sea."'

'Feng Yan replied: "Add the spectral features to the Kuafu-3 target identification library. If Baqi dares to show its head, we'll blast it with our missile."'