After the meeting concluded, Liu Hai accessed the military merit exchange page to review his accumulated points. From entering the Hera Star System until now, he had participated in two battles and two auxiliary engagements, earning a total of only 222 merit points.
The first skirmish and the second accidental intrusion into the Katon Exploration Fleet's base had together yielded a mere 24 merit points. Half of that—12 points—had been allocated to Irina, leaving Liu Hai with just 12 points.
The advisory role provided to the Stardust Star Region had only granted him a symbolic single merit point. The real windfall came when Liu Hai dispatched the Angel Battleship to destroy the Katon Exploration Fleet's main base in the Third Spiral Arm, netting him a staggering 197 merit points overnight.
Though these merits could exchange for several Battleships from the military, a few Battleships wouldn't significantly enhance the current Starsea Fleet's capabilities.
After pondering the exchange catalog for some time, Liu Hai opted for two mid-tier Kro Motherships, costing 180 merit points in total. Upon confirming the exchange, he would need to arrange for personnel to retrieve them or hire a logistics company for delivery.
Model: Kro Mothership
Origin: Manufactured at the Second Shipyard under the Star Queen Overlord
Dimensions: Maximum length 3.5 km, width 800 m, height 300 m
Power Source: Antimatter Reactor (instantaneous output of 150 degrees)
Engines: Space Jump Engine (40 light-years), Warp Drive (100x light speed), conventional propulsion (15% sublight speed)
Shields: 5,000-degree Energy Shield, 4,000-degree Deflection Field
Control Core: Fifth-generation Kro Drone Central Control Core, optimal control for hundreds of thousands of Fighter Jets, maximum capacity 200,000
Armament: Directly carries 50,000–70,000 Fighter Jets (deployment rate: 5,000 per second), equipped with two Fighter Production Lines assembling 400 jets per minute.
35 sets of Matrix Particle Close-In Weapon Systems.
Crew: 800
The two Motherships could simultaneously carry 100,000 Fighter Jets, with the capacity expandable to 140,000 by sacrificing redundancy. While this paled in comparison to the 200,000 jets crammed into modified transport ships, the Motherships far surpassed transports in deployment speed, maintenance logistics, and centralized command.
Take, for instance, the battle in the third star system of the Stardust Star Region. Using planetary-based control cores to command nearly ten million Fighter Jets against three Katon fleet divisions, any breach in the jet interception network would spell catastrophic destruction for the fleet.
The sheer volume of jets had overwhelmed the control cores, nearly crashing the ground-based systems with torrents of data every second. Only after the Fighter Swarm broke through the defensive lines and engaged the fleet did the situation stabilize. As jets were depleted in large numbers, control efficiency gradually recovered, showcasing the swarm's formidable combat prowess during the siege of the fortress.
Now, the Brolly Star System was following their example, stockpiling second-generation Sparrow Fighters in asteroid hangars.
However, without fleet fire support, such massive Fighter Swarms struggled to close in on enemy formations. A single wide-area attack could annihilate vast numbers of jets, so their practical utility depended heavily on battlefield conditions.
Now the Starsea Fleet possessed two standard motherships, plus two modified budget-version motherships, bringing the total carrying capacity to 500,000 fighter jets with a deployment rate of around 13,000 per second. This was more than sufficient for fleets of comparable scale, even leaving considerable surplus, greatly improving battlefield fault tolerance.
Liu Hai relayed the exchange information to Li Yali, letting her arrange the retrieval process independently.
Upon receiving Liu Hai's message, Li Yali immediately contacted the military logistics department and assigned the transportation task to the Third Logistics Company, which was already collaborating on resource shipments.
With the addition of two motherships, the Starsea Fleet became busy again. The advisory group had to redesign combat systems around the new motherships, while the fleet needed to incorporate them into training exercises.
The Brolly Star System was bustling with activity, especially the management departments. Tens of thousands of employees now worked across various planets and space stations, with just the daily logistics allocation keeping dozens of logistics personnel overwhelmed.
The distribution of construction resources formed long queues of small transport ships stretching across the sky in the Brolly Star System. Coupled with the arrival of large Third Logistics transport fleets every ten to fifteen days, the existing space stations could no longer meet demand, necessitating further expansion to accommodate more loading and unloading operations.
Liu Hai reviewed the current resource collection status. Overall, the Star Sea Group was in a resource-rich phase, but compared to the dozens of pages of production plans, there were still gaps requiring increased collection efficiency.
Before long, Igor reported that the Xue Family's order had been finalized. They agreed to exchange one-third of their trade volume for merit points, adding a zero to Liu Hai's nearly depleted account balance.
"One hundred and thirty merit points," Liu Hai murmured, his face breaking into a wide grin as he saw the deposited points.
This meant he could exchange for another mothership.
Shaking his head, he dismissed the idea. With the fleet's expedition needs already met, motherships were no longer critical. It would be wiser to save up for a fortress instead.
"They're demanding order completion within two years. They must have noticed something to be in such a hurry."
Liu Hai pondered the clues behind the transaction. Only two years had passed since the last war, and even with the additional two years making it five total, this timeframe was still insufficient for the Pioneers to recover their strength, let alone advance further.
Traveling from the Wormhole Star Region to the Stardust Star Region via warp would take about four years. Add another year-plus for procurement, transportation, installation, and debugging—assuming they could even secure ready-made goods.
Currently, Pioneers across the Hera Star System were purchasing defensive weapons to fortify their bases. Established Pioneers fared better, some possessing their own production capabilities and seeking high-end weapons that didn't compete with mid-to-lower-tier Pioneers.
But the latter group struggled. Hundreds of thousands of Pioneers simultaneously scrambling for armaments drove market prices up nearly 10%, with delivery not included—they had to arrange transportation from central star regions themselves.
They should count themselves lucky. Had they not connected with the Elizabeth Family and hitched a ride with Third Logistics earlier, they'd be agonizing over how to transport their hard-earned resources back too.
Time—the vast expanse of the cosmos is never short of it, yet it is also the most scarce resource of all.
The Pioneers' alliance from Xue Jia clearly believed another battle would erupt within two years, which explains their desperate willingness to settle the bill with partial merits. But does this imply something is happening on the Kardon side?