After receiving Irina's communication, Liu Hai didn't rush back to the Brolly Star System. Having spent so much time developing in the Pisces Starfield, the Brolly Star System had only been equipped with some detectors and defensive installations—no living facilities had been constructed yet.
This time, along with the warships from the Elizabeth family, members of his own Starsea Fleet would also be arriving. Liu Hai needed to prepare proper living facilities for these tens of thousands of new employees.
Moreover, since the Brolly Star System was his publicly acknowledged headquarters, it had to be properly developed to demonstrate its importance. Otherwise, a single unmodified life planet would raise suspicions at a glance.
To gather the necessary basic construction equipment, Liu Hai spent another half a month before finally setting off with the reassembled Starsea Fleet.
The journey there had taken six months, but after reorganizing the star charts, the return trip was shortened to two months. With the Jump Engine of fifth-tier technology, it could be further reduced to just a few days in the future.
Upon returning to the Brolly Star System, Liu Hai immediately deployed the stellar energy collection devices from the three transport ships into the star's orbit to provide energy for the future Planetary Defense System.
Li Yali, leading the fleet, rejoined the two warships left behind and continued clearing out the Shade Beasts. Their previous departure had been too hasty, leaving most of the creatures in the star system untouched.
The grand construction plan for the Brolly Star System had begun. Due to the Shade Beasts, the planets couldn't be developed yet, but a star system wasn't limited to just planets.
In the vast emptiness of space, Liu Hai selected a location between the orbits of the third and second planets to build a simple space station—a place for fleet crew members to rest and relax occasionally.
Not wanting to reveal the situation in the Pisces Starfield, Liu Hai used only standard Federation materials and equipment, nothing out of the ordinary.
The construction style also matched the Pioneers' usual approach—simple, crude, and direct.
First, functionality was prioritized. Later, as local development progressed, the space station's capabilities would be upgraded and refined.
Thousands of Engineering Robots assembled a modular core for the space station, then expanded outward by adding various service facilities. Future upgrades would simply involve replacing the relevant components—a highly convenient process.
Next to the space station, Liu Hai also planned to set up an industrial facility to lay the groundwork for future development, making his rapid progress seem more plausible.
For now, however, it only needed to produce small fourth-tier ships, Fighter Jets, and Mecha—nothing requiring advanced manufacturing capabilities.
The transport ships had limited cargo capacity. Apart from the space station and the Smelting Plant, which were assembled from pre-fabricated parts, most other facilities required mining, smelting, and forging minerals from within the Brolly Star System. Soon, a few fully automated mining vessels appeared in the asteroid belt, extracting resources.
Two months passed, and with the fleet's arrival still about a month away, the Brolly Star System was already bustling with activity.
Irina arrived with her fleet, and some of the engineering equipment she brought was commandeered by Liu Hai to speed up construction.
With Irina's arrival, her crew members, having nothing better to do, often passed the time by piloting shuttles all over the star system. Of course, this was with Liu Hai's permission, as there was no sensitive information here that needed to be kept hidden from them outside the star system.
Irina's fleet's arrival also provided Li Yali with high-quality labor. With hundreds of warships working together to clear the star system, the cleanup speed increased significantly.
Finally, while Liu Hai and Irina were teaming up to play games on the StarNet, a military communication abruptly cut in, forcibly ejecting both of them from the network.
"This is the Elizabeth Fleet. We will arrive in the Brolly Star System in three days. Please prepare for reception."
A concise and to-the-point message.
Despite being kicked out of the StarNet, Liu Hai and Irina were quite pleased. Both were thinking they could finally wrap things up.
For Irina, it meant fulfilling her family's task by completing this transaction.
For Liu Hai, it meant finally concluding the deal, giving him the confidence to focus on farming and construction.
As for preparing for the reception—come on, in a star system still teeming with an unknown number of Shade Beasts, what exactly was he supposed to offer?
How about some chilled Shade Beast thigh meat?
"By the way, how many warships are there?" Liu Hai suddenly realized he hadn't paid attention to this detail. Everyone just referred to it as "a fleet," but fleets varied in size, with no fixed number.
Irina thought back to the information she'd received. "I think it's over five thousand warships, including three Mobile Fortresses."
"Huh? Mobile Fortresses? Your family has those too?" Liu Hai looked at Irina in surprise. The monthly maintenance cost for a single Mobile Fortress ran into tens of millions of Credit Points. Even wealthy families rarely kept them due to the massive strain on cash flow.
Irina rolled her eyes. "What's the big deal? They're just standard Federation equipment. You can trade for one with a few thousand Military Merits. Every family has them to serve as the core of their fleets."
"Normally, one Mobile Fortress is paired with ten Motherships, a hundred Battleships, five hundred Cruisers, two thousand Destroyers, and three to four thousand Corvettes to form a fleet—equivalent to half a legion in scale."
"But very few family fleets are fully staffed. At most, they have four to six thousand warships, mainly because maintaining such a fleet without large-scale warfare would plunge family finances into the abyss."
"However, as the core of a fleet and a weapon of war, every family tightens their belts to keep a few Mobile Fortresses, cutting back on ordinary ships to support them."
"Otherwise, if an Exploration Fleet discovers something valuable, it would be laughable if the family couldn't muster the firepower to secure it."
Liu Hai agreed wholeheartedly. Wasn't that exactly why he'd made the deal with Irina—because he lacked sufficient military strength?
If he'd had enough fleet power to defend the Brolly Star System from the start, why bother haggling? He could have just followed the rules and handled things by the contract.
Unfortunately, the Seed Ship's development time was still too short. In another ten years, once his Angel Fleet—built with fifth-tier technology—was complete, he wouldn't even fear a Lord. If he couldn't win, he could always run.
"However, a Mobile Fortress! Although a Mobile Fortress built with fourth-tier technology can barely match the strength of a fifth-tier Battleship, a Mobile Fortress is far more than just a firepower platform. It serves as a maintenance and repair facility for warships, a production factory for Fighter Jets—to put it plainly, a Mobile Fortress is a Seed Ship for a civilization. With the right technology, it can rapidly develop into an interstellar civilization."
Liu Hai wanted one too, but he couldn't afford to maintain it at the moment. The upkeep alone would cost tens of millions a month, not to mention other expenses—resources, manpower, various technical personnel, and so on.