61: Chapter 61 Expansion

At the end of the second quarter.

Xia Xingchen woke up again.

This time, Serra brought Xia Xingchen some good news.

"The warships have been found."

To be precise, four warships were found in total.

A cobra-class destroyer, an Anvil-class repair barge, a whale-class transport ship, and a Universe-class mass conveyor.

Xia Xingchen couldn't believe it—so many?

Xia Xingchen looked at the report on the optical screen in front of him.

"How were these warships preserved?"

Xia Xingchen looked at the content on the optical screen; he knew that the Anvil-class repair barge and the whale-class transport ship were special Imperial vessels that could land directly on a planet's surface.

The problem was that it was impossible for a cobra-class destroyer and a Universe-class mass conveyor to land on a planet's surface.

Nuwa, standing by his side, answered this question for Xia Xingchen:

"We discovered several giant Obelisks; their energy creates a strange anti-gravity field."

Yu Chen looked at the Obelisks—surely these weren't creations of the Necrons.

Here—impossible, don't overthink it; having Necron creations doesn't mean this is a Necron Tomb World.

Nuwa then spoke of the Iron Heart Society's speculation:

"Therefore, we have reason to suspect that after the Great Crusade ended, a certain Tech-Priest Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus studied these Obelisks and activated them. Upon discovering their powerful anti-gravity capabilities, they preserved several warships here."

Having said that, Nuwa pointed a mechanical arm at the warships on the optical screen.

"We have reason to suspect that this place was originally planned to be built into a Forge World for the Empire's transport transit."

The speculation of the Iron Heart Society and Nuwa was not without reason, as most of these warships were transport ships, with only one destroyer for escort.

Xia Xingchen nodded, then turned his gaze to those transport ships; of these two transport ships, one could be converted into a Spaceport.

"Which warship do you think is most suitable for conversion into a Spaceport?"

Xia Xingchen looked at the two warships and then asked Nuwa beside him.

"The whale-class transport ship."

Nuwa pointed at the whale-class transport ship and suggested to Xia Xingchen that it be converted into a Spaceport.

whale-class transport ship:

6 kilometers long, with a width and height both of 1.5 kilometers.

Its original purpose was to transport the Astra Militarum; it could carry a full-strength Astra Militarum regiment.

Its defensive capabilities are extremely robust; records show it has maintained stable operation even after losing over 75% of its protective armor.

The whale-class transport ship has an internal space of 4 billion cubic meters; even if only 60% to 70% of the area is usable, there is still 2.4 to 2.8 billion cubic meters of space.

There is more than enough space for modification, and Xia Xingchen can also expand and build platforms on this warship to further increase the usable space.

Xia Xingchen was very satisfied with the whale-class transport ship; it was the perfect choice for a Spaceport.

"Follow your plan and convert it into a Spaceport."

Nuwa nodded, then summoned Leovitos and Hua Ke to begin the modification of the whale-class ship.

However, relying solely on the original ship's systems wouldn't suffice; enough defensive weapons had to be installed, using it as the core to build an entire orbital defense platform.

After Xia Xingchen finished reading this, he was about to enter the hibernation pod again, but he didn't expect that when he casually opened the system software to glance at any major events, he found several messages in his inbox.

Xia Xingchen clicked on them; they were sent by Chen Yuan.

[Friend, Governor Vanad has been officially judged as a rebel by the Empire; he has declared himself king and is constantly expanding outward.]

[Brother, Governor Vanad's probes into my area have become more and more frequent recently; I suspect his next target is me.]

[Brother, I've considered it, and I don't plan to develop in the Far East region anymore; I intend to move to the Taiping Sector, where there are the most Chinese organizations and they are strong. I'll see if I can find an organization to join.]

[Brother, I'm leaving this vacant fortress to you. Although my development of this fortress is very low, please believe me, this is a frontline fortress left over from the Great Crusade era. If it can be repaired and modified, it can fully take on the heavy responsibility of defending the Vanad System.]

After Chen Yuan finished these messages, there was no more news, and the time these messages were sent was exactly when he had entered hibernation for the second time.

Which means that four whole months have passed since then.

Xia Xingchen instantly realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for expansion.

Xia Xingchen now had the capital to expand.

The Vanad System is located directly to our west, and the distance isn't far, only a few hundred light-years; our dream star can reach it easily.

Now the plan has changed; this expansion is of unimaginable value to us.

Since Governor Vanad has betrayed the Emperor, his legitimacy of rule has vanished.

Upon seeing this sudden news, Xia Xingchen immediately decided to end his hibernation and prepare to commit the entire army to the operation to seize the Vanad System.

Xia Xingchen quickly shared this news with Nuwa and had her immediately summon the Department of Military Affairs to begin formulating a battle plan.

Nuwa was also somewhat incredulous upon seeing this news.

"How did we learn of Governor Vanad's rebellion? We've never left this place."

However, Nuwa chose to believe Xia Xingchen's words unconditionally.

All personnel of the Department of Military Affairs were immediately summoned, and Zheng Hai also descended from the dream star to the Department of Military Affairs.

Inside the Department of Military Affairs's operations command room, as Zheng Hai was the last to take his seat, all personnel had arrived.

Nuwa, Leovitos, Hua Ke, Zheng Hai, Saint Sabbat, and Xia Xingchen sat around the table.

The table itself was a giant holographic virtual screen.

The star map of the Ultima Segmentum displayed on it was the Dark Age of Technology star map obtained from Katrus, which had been jointly studied and cracked by Leovitos and Hua Ke.

After half a year of effort, they successfully cracked a portion of the content, the most important of which was the detailed division of sectors and systems in the Ultima Segmentum.

Furthermore, Hua Ke and Leovitos also discovered a mysterious star system that was heavily marked; this system had only one entry and exit path, surrounded by chaotic asteroid belts and unstable space storms.

Hua Ke and Leovitos also found it very strange—why was this place so heavily marked?

Obviously, this discovery didn't attract much of Xia Xingchen's attention; all his focus was on attacking the Vanad System.

This is a single-star system; the Vanad System has only one star and one terrestrial planet, making it a standard Imperial Habitable Civilized World.

Governor Vanad originally possessed five to seven warships, but after several were destroyed by us, he should now have no more than three warships in his hands.

His orbital defense platforms and Spaceports are old Imperial models, having seen little maintenance or updates for at least a thousand years; they pose little threat to our warships, but we still need to be extra careful.

The troops he can control are mainly his private army, though it's also possible he persuaded the local Astra Militarum to defect and join his camp.

After detailing the intelligence on the Vanad System, Zheng Hai proposed a battle plan.

"Lord Archon, we can launch a blitzkrieg."

Zheng Hai said while operating the optical screen:

"Let the dream star quickly reach the orbit of Vanad Planet, while using the ship's conventional shells to immediately paralyze all orbital defense facilities. Any target that dares to resist will be subject to precision elimination.

At the same time, after seizing space superiority, the transport ships on board will quickly deploy, land at the Spaceport, and control the entire Spaceport and defense platforms at the fastest speed, focusing on controlling the cargo elevators.

The rest of the plan is simple: the dream star will conduct precision torpedo strikes from space, minimizing collateral damage, with the main targets being the government buildings and the Governors Palace on Vanad Planet. Then, ground forces will be deployed to seize the entire planet."

Xia Xingchen nodded after hearing Zheng Hai's plan.

This was a standard approach of playing to one's strengths and avoiding weaknesses, fully utilizing the advantages of their own warships, while the ground forces were primarily responsible for seizing the enemy's key locations.

Looking at it this way, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Zheng Hai's plan.

Xia Xingchen asked for the opinions of the others, and everyone expressed their agreement.

Since that was the case, they would prepare to execute the plan.