Chapter 197 Wallfacer Headquarters_1

After the Wallfacer hearings.

All three Wallfacers had come to the Jupiter Orbit, Redshift Zone 6, which internally had become known as Wallfacer Headquarters.

Rey Diaz immediately set about the retired battleship retrofitting plan, taking over ten large dockyards and all the retired battleships.

Most of these retired battleships were between 100 and 150 years old, and even the silhouette of Emperor-class could still be seen among them.

After repeated checks, it was finally confirmed that no more than 400 ships were worth retrofitting; although their various systems were barely functional, important aspects such as offensive capabilities and propulsion were severely affected due to parts aging.

According to current military theory, their design fell hopelessly behind the times and held no maintenance value; they could only be relegated to military museums.

Space battleships actually don't age that easily in space. With the use of various space materials, space battleships could last much longer than their naval counterparts, with no issues using the ship's mainframe for thousands of years.

However, some of the internal precision parts needed constant replacement and maintenance, just like the main cannon of battleships from the era of dreadnoughts, where some even needed their barrels replaced after just a few dozen firings.

When these battleships were handed over to Rey Diaz, he was thrilled. Mighty warships stood before him, and a surging pride welled up in his heart.

As for the Advisory Staff's assessment of the battleships, Rey Diaz was noncommittal, often remarking with emotion,

"When times were tough, everything in my car worked except the horn.

"By comparison, these battleships can still move and still fire; that's much better than I expected."

These space battleships had a characteristic: they were bulky and equipped with multiple sets of controllable nuclear fusion engines. With a full-load tonnage exceeding two million tons, such battlehips actually had poor survival capabilities in the interstellar space. They lacked both a relatively comprehensive industrial system and military force like the Deep Space Fleet, and the powerful performance of modern, cutting-edge battleships.

The early space battleships were built when the technological level was relatively low. To ensure stability, weapon capacity, protection, and survival abilities, battleship designs evolved toward size and completeness, with propulsion achieved by continuously increasing the number of large controllable nuclear fusion engines.

With breakthroughs in various material technologies but without fundamental changes in weaponry, battleship designs became smaller and smaller. The latest battleships were only 300,000 to 500,000 tons, but their speed, attack, and defense performance were not inferior to those of the large millions-ton-class behemoths.

In modern space combat strategy, battle line combat, which is a fiery exchange of cannon fire in a battle line, is not well-regarded, and with Sophon's influence, battle line combat is even less likely.

The Ship Design Bureau also didn't design multi-cannon battleships, unlike traditional navies. In the navy, adding tonnage meant only adding half the corresponding power, so ships got bigger and a uniform battery could increase hit rates.

But in space, a ton is a ton of power, and bigger isn't always better.

Now, all space battleships had entered the Wallfacer Headquarters dockyards, awaiting retrofitting.

Advisory Staff: "Mr. Rediaz, the major retrofitting task for these retired battleships lies in their main cannons, which are the most sophisticated components on the ships.

"The retired battleship's directed-energy high-energy particle beam weapons were designed with an effective attack range of up to 10 astronomical units, but now they are essentially scrapped. After retrofitting, the expected effective range might only be 1 astronomical unit.

"The directed-energy laser beam weapons were designed with an effective attack range of up to 7 astronomical units and basically need to be completely replaced. The expected range after replacement might also be only around 0.5 astronomical units."

Rey Diaz: "What I'm concerned with is the cost of retrofitting."

Advisory Staff: "On average, the cost of retrofitting a main cannon has reached half of that for building a new one."

Rey Diaz: "There's no need to proceed with the original plan then. If I only require high firepower and not range, how much could the cost be reduced?"

The Advisory Staff actually had some reservations about Rey Diaz, an ancient figure who barely understood modern space stations and basic theories, yet voiced seemingly arbitrary opinions. However, they were still required to execute the Wallfacer's orders faithfully.

Advisory Staff explained: "The effective attack range of a battleship's main cannon is actually a reflection of its firepower; it's at close range that the firepower is at its greatest.

"For example, a laser beam's power starts to decay from the moment it leaves the barrel. The latest battleship lasers can attack targets 25 astronomical units away. Beyond that, the energy decays to the point where it's almost non-lethal, yet the laser continues to travel.

"So indeed, there isn't a retrofitting solution for short-range high firepower."

Rey Diaz: "What if my requirement is just for an attack range of the distance between Earth and the Moon? Wouldn't that mean only needing the ability to direct nuclear power, without those precision parts?"

Advisory Staff: "In that case, the cost would be only one-fifth of the original. But would battleships like that be of any use?

"We have no clear understanding of the Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint's attack patterns.

"The prevailing guess is that it might be a device capable of emitting some unknown lethal 'radiation' to humans, making it extremely dangerous to get close."

"So we suggest still retaining the means for remote attacks."

Human speculation indeed went in the opposite direction of reality, but it was relatively reasonable. If the Whirlwind Stomp was not composed of neutron star material, nor was it a super bomb, then the biggest possibility was that it could release deadly "radiation" unknown to humans.

This was also the mindset of humans in this era, never underestimating the Trisolarans.

Rey Diaz, "With so many remote attack warships at your disposal, along with a Stellar Defense System that spans 25 astronomical units, can they even get close to us?

"I don't need targets that are too far away, but one-fifth is still not enough. It seems that the portion that needs to be modified according to this plan is quite small, but are there other aspects that need modification?"

Advisory Staff, "The remaining main issue is the fusion engines. If reduced, those engines won't be able to maintain their original power."

Rey Diaz, "I remember most of the warships have six sets of Controllable Nuclear Fusion Engines, right? Just dismantle four sets and keep two sets.

"This way, the weight of the warship would also be significantly reduced. Fill up the space left after dismantling the engines with the resources needed by the warship."

Advisory Staff, "Indeed, this would greatly reduce the modification costs, to as little as one-fifteenth of the original.

"But the warship's acceleration would be very low, and it would be extremely difficult to evade threats in an emergency, basically lacking the ability to survive, not much different from a fixed turret in a naval port."

Rey Diaz, "It's still not enough. We must control the costs to one-twentieth of the original."

Advisory Staff, "But there's no need for that. The human government hasn't restricted your resources in this area. Even if you applied for twice the original resources, it would be fine."

Rey Diaz, "I'm used to being frugal, but this isn't just about saving resources, it's about saving time. Tell me, how long would your modification plan take?"

Advisory Staff, "It's estimated to take 3 years."

Rey Diaz, "I can only give you one year.

"Nobody dares to say the Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint will reach the Solar System in three years, maybe it has already arrived nearby."

…

Hines also came to the Wallfacer Headquarters.

He summoned a large number of experts to jointly study spherical lightning, although nobody was optimistic about this research, similar to the mindset of Rey Diaz's Advisory Staff.

In addition, Hines also secretly took over the pair of macro atoms – matter and antimatter – that had been discovered.

The probability of finding a macro atom pair of matter and antimatter in the Solar System was extremely low. Even to this day, many macro atoms had been discovered in space, yet the only known pair was the one Tyler had discovered.

Hines's main task at the moment was to use Mind Tactility to contact Tyler in Quantum Space.

In these 200 years, had Tyler found Lin Yun? By combining the four of them, could they create a Mind Quantum Array?

All these questions required Hines to re-establish contact with Tyler to find answers.

…

Logic's Snowfield Project was the largest endeavor among the four individuals, involving countless human and material resources and encompassing most of the top engineering teams.

The Snowfield Project was conducted simultaneously in Jupiter Orbit and the Kuiper Belt. The project was actually very simple: using transport ships to deliver nuclear bombs wrapped in oily film material to designated locations and then using ion thrusters to adjust their precise positions.

For this plan, humans had almost exhausted the oily film material from Neptune's Rings and deployed 20,000 stellar-class hydrogen bombs. Even in this era, such a project was no small feat.

They also used large broadcasting stations to communicate with each other, forming a honeycomb-style communication network. All nuclear bombs were connected to the Cradle System's network, maintaining their non-triggered state.

Unlike the original, the Cradle System was not installed in his own heart but was made into a button.

Of course, installing it in the heart was also a minor operation that could be done in a few minutes.

But if installed in the heart, given the Trisolarans' enhanced understanding of stratagems, it was very likely they would discern the real plan behind the Snowfield Project's stellar flicker.

The entire project was expected to be completed in 8 months, with the majority of the time spent on the journey. Even with modern technology, a round trip between Neptune Orbit and Jupiter Orbit by transport ship would take over three months.