"..."
In orbit above the star, the concept of day and night didn't exist.
Whether it was 3 AM or noon, looking out the window only revealed a massive orange-red fireball.
When Setsuna opened his eyes again, he glanced at the time.
He'd been here for nearly 20 hours.
Without the rhythm of day and night, one's sense of time started to blur.
Beside him, Chen Hai was still sound asleep. Her jet-black hair spread across the bed, and her flawless arm rested on the blanket, revealing one soft, fair shoulder.
She still wore a pair of black silk gloves—Setsuna loved the delicate feel of them.
A carrier who understands your tastes is truly amazing.
Setsuna sighed with appreciation.
Chen Hai's usual outfit of a short hanfu paired with black tights was like someone dancing right on his personal preferences.
She understood him well—maybe a bit inexperienced, but she still did her best to please him in every way.
The sense of conquest in winning over a mature, seductive onee-san like her was indescribable.
"..."
"Mmm..."
Chen Hai slowly opened her eyes, gazing at Setsuna with a drowsy expression.
One hand propped up her head while the other gently stroked his face.
"Commander, do you like Chen Hai?"
"Of course."
Setsuna pulled her into his arms again, the two getting cozy for a while longer.
Until a call came through from the Eternal Snowfall.
A holographic screen flicked open.
Gudako's face appeared, with Jeanne Alter and Jeanne d'Arc peeking curiously behind her.
"Commander?! Do you know how long you've been off the grid?!"
"Was it fun on the Chen Hai?!"
"..."
Setsuna tilted the camera down a bit.
Just enough to show himself in bed with Chen Hai, one arm around her, the other waving at Gudako.
"Very fun. I think I'll stay a few more days."
"???"
Gudako was stunned.
"What about the details? Let me see!!"
"Wouldn't pass review. Use your imagination."
...
After the initial batch of Bulins set up the Starbase framework, Setsuna quickly summoned more from Earth.
Nearly 500,000 special-type Bulins arrived one after another at the construction site.
Wielding their signature meow-meow hammers, they used Bulin-style construction to pound out each part of the base bit by bit.
The purple Bulins without construction ability didn't sit idle either—they formed transport teams, hauling supplies to the Starbase from Earth and other worlds.
In total, the mobilized Bulin count reached nearly one million.
With dazzling techniques and astonishing speed, they assembled and built the Starbase.
For civilizations just stepping into the space age, a single outpost or tiny star fortress would already be a huge deal.
But the Bulins skipped straight to the top—building a full-scale Citadel.
Setsuna realized that starship-mode Bulins had perfectly solved a critical problem in interstellar expansion: infrastructure.
If it involved engineering, and a Bulin said she could build it, there was no issue.
Whenever colonizing another planet, all you needed to do was drop off a pile of Bulins.
If the efficiency wasn't high enough, that just meant you didn't bring enough Bulins.
While the Bulins worked, Setsuna continued throwing parties aboard the Eternal Snowfall.
With new members joining, each party lasted a little longer.
He also discovered a new benefit of time acceleration and deceleration—it could be used to skip story segments. Wait—no, to idle.
When activating time deceleration on himself, a day aboard the Eternal Snowfall could equal ten days or more in the outside world.
It worked just like a quick-wait feature in a game.
However, since Earth still occasionally required remote attention, he hadn't used that power too much.
Over two months passed.
Above the sun, a grand, colossal structure appeared before their eyes.
Seen from above, it formed a precise dodecagon shape, constructed entirely of dark gray alloy, with a diagonal diameter exceeding 1,500 kilometers.
The outer perimeter housed space docks large enough to accommodate Colossus and Titans, with weapon mount points pre-installed at each corner.
If necessary, the Starbase could serve as a defensive platform for the entire star system, using fixed artillery to repel invaders.
But with no enemies in sight, the weapon systems hadn't been installed yet.
At the center stood the massive main building, a towering structure hundreds of kilometers tall, resembling a gigantic castle rising from the heart of the base.
With no gravity in space, structures could be built horizontally—and vertically.
Flanking the central structure were sprawling space docks and starship assembly yards, stretching hundreds of kilometers.
In zero-gravity conditions, their scale surpassed the capital's aerospace base by dozens or even hundreds of times.
"Whoa..."
"So this is the Starbase..."
The shipgirls in the fleet were awestruck.
Witnessing a space megastructure up close was overwhelming—its sheer scale was like moving an entire Earth nation into orbit.
Just a few years ago, the idea of setting foot near the sun would've been unthinkable.
"It won't fall into the sun, right?"
Shinano asked, swaying her large tail.
"Nope. The anti-gravity system neutralizes the star's pull, and the base itself draws power directly from the sun. The structure is incredibly stable."
Setsuna smiled and explained space-era architecture to the shipgirls.
Though many had been refitted into starships, some hadn't fully adjusted their way of thinking.
"Come on, let's take a look."
Whoosh—
As the fleet entered the Starbase's dock, they could feel just how massive this structure truly was.
Dozens of starships—including the 10-kilometer-long Eternal Snowfall—occupied only a tiny corner of the docking zone.
The docking and repair bays alone were exponentially larger than anything planet-side.
Due to the immense interior, small shuttles were still needed to move around inside the base.
Along the way, they saw many Bulins still working.
The base's framework had been completed, with only interior outfitting left to finish.
"Too bad the Manjuus can't work in space..."
Richelieu said with a bit of regret.
The little yellow chicks didn't have the Bulins' modifications—they were biological, and couldn't function unprotected in space.
"The Starbase has air circulation and artificial gravity. Later, we can ship some Manjuus up to do odd jobs."
"But we'll have to train them well. If they fall, it's roast chicken."
Setsuna joked as they landed.
The entire Starbase was enveloped in a Klein-field shield. Inside, the temperature and air composition were no different from Earth.
Even the gravity was perfectly simulated.
If not for the blazing sun in the distance and the star-filled sky overhead, the base felt almost identical to being on Earth.
Once inside the main building, the interior felt vast and open.
Only teams of multicolored Bulins were inside, crafting furniture and other equipment.
Ding ding dang dang—it sounded like a massive renovation.
The interior of the Starbase was effectively an independent spacefaring kingdom.
It had a science sector, hydroponic agriculture modules, industrial zones—everything needed to support over a million residents.
Of course, in Setsuna's plan, the future inhabitants would mainly be Bulins responsible for ship construction and modification, plus science-loving little lolis.
Add in a few all-purpose angels to handle daily living, and that was enough.
After touring the main building,
they arrived at the most important area of the Starbase: the Starship Assembly Plant.
This was also what the shipgirls were most excited to see.
When they saw the two massive shipyards, everyone had the same thought:
Huge. Just... way too huge.
The orbital shipyards resembled a pair of open pincers, holding vessels in place with gravity tech and magnetic fields for construction.
The assembly plant stretched as far as the eye could see, vanishing into the starlit void.
"The ships they can build here... must be enormous."
"I feel like such a tiny speck now."
Formidable tiptoed to peek in. She guessed the shipyards could assemble hundreds of starships her size at once.
"The Citadel can build Titans and Planet-Killer Colossus—those things are over 100 kilometers long."
"Oh, and Juggernaut too. Those monsters push 500 kilometers or more. Want me to upgrade you to one?"
Setsuna teased Formidable.
With no gravity restrictions and boundless space, spaceship construction could be as excessive as desired.
Pile on armor, install as many weapons as you want.
"A ship that's hundreds of kilometers long?... No thanks. I'd really turn into a fat dragon then."
Formidable pouted and shook her head.
"Mmm... even when I got starship refitted last time, I felt like my old clothes got a bit tight. If I refit again, I'll have to buy a new wardrobe."
She tugged slightly at her low-cut evening gown.
"So the bigger the ship, the bigger you get!?"
Setsuna eyed her curiously.
Some shipgirls really did seem to grow dramatically after upgrades—as if they'd become different people overnight.
Suddenly—
"Commander!!!"
A pink-haired shipgirl lunged at him.
"Can you give Little Sara a bigger ship body? I don't care how big! Unlike Formidable, I want it!!"
"..."
"You? You want to size up too?"
Setsuna ruffled Saratoga's hair.
"Maybe consider a different role? The carrier category's too stacked with hidden dragons. Try competing with destroyers to build up confidence?"
"..."
Gudako glanced at Saratoga.
"Commander, if you don't have something, you can't find it—no matter how hard you try."
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