Chapter 1611: The Changed Qinling

The port area of the Lagrange Space Base.

Looking at the “unrecognizable” Qinling ship docked on the berth, Deng Yuanshu, whose face was completely frozen, was at a loss of words for a second.

If the previous Qinling without the missile system, point defensive artillery, and reactive armor that accounted for most of the weight was a chicken, then it was a completely different species now.

The interface of the missile module was completely removed and replaced with twelve small electromagnetic guns and a U-shaped large-caliber mass accelerator was located on the central axis of the starship.

Obviously, after this transformation, the weapons that were removed to reduce the weight wouldn’t be put back anymore…

After gulping, it took a long time before Deng Yuanshu squeezed a word from his throat.

“What’s this…”

Looking at Captain Deng Yuanshu, who was standing there motionless, Lu Zhou walked to his side and explained with a smile, “In order to better adapt to the environment in the hyperspace channel and to take into account the requirements for the combat capability of this starship, I asked East Asia Heavy Industries to carry out a certain degree of transformation of the hull.

“In addition to the mass accelerator that you saw, we also helped you replace it with the latest second-generation controllable fusion reactor as the energy source… Of course, these modifications have been reported. All were done under the authorization of the First Fleet!”

Deng Yuanshu’s eyebrows twitched fiercely. He finally couldn’t help it. He turned his head, stared at Lu Zhou, and said, “The f*ck… My Qinling is a guided missile cruiser! You changed it to… What? A large destroyer?”

Among all the ships of the First Fleet, only close combat destroyers and small ships used kinetic energy weapons such as electromagnetic guns.

For large ships such as cruisers and aircraft carriers, kinetic energy weapons were rarely seen. Even if they were used, it was mostly to counter defense weapons such as carrier-based aircraft or missiles from a certain distance.

This was why Deng Yuanshu was so angry.

After all, after this transformation, the powerful missile system of the Qinling was abolished, and it also couldn’t be installed back.

“You can call it a battleship.” Ignoring Deng Yuanshu’s complaints, Lu Zhou gave a light cough and said in a comforting tone, “Okay, let’s not get excited. The main reason for this change is chemistry. Energy weapons pose a serious safety hazard in the hyperspace environment. Moreover, I discussed with the engineers at the command center and agreed that such a change is the best choice as it has both combat effectiveness and safety.”

Hearing these words, Deng Yuanshu almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Are you sure this still has combat capability?”

“You will know when we test it in a while. Don’t worry, you will have at least 27 flight missions in the next month. If you have any problems, just report to me. By the way, in addition to reporting to the headquarters, I hope you can provide me with an additional experimental report… I will send you the template in a while, and you can fill it out according to the template.”

Lu Zhou reached out and patted Deng Yuanshu on the shoulder. He gave him an encouraging look and spoke with a smile.

“You got this!

“The future of the First Fleet depends on you!”

…

Although he was still worried about the fact that Lu Zhou changed his ship without his consent, these were orders. As a soldier, he would still complete the orders issued by the headquarters without compromise.

It took two days to get acquainted with the new equipment on the ship, and after confirming that there were no problems, the first experiment soon began.

In accordance with the requirements of the experimental outline, Deng Yuanshu commanded the Qinling and set off from the Lagrange Space Base. He ordered the warp drive to be activated five minutes after leaving the base station and disappeared into the twisted space at an incredible speed.

When the starship reappeared in the universe in the next second, it had already reached the airspace near 1.1 million kilometers away from the asteroid belt.

“The gravitational coordinates confirm that… we have arrived.”

“Turn on the radar and search the nearby airspace!”

“Received! The radar has been activated and the search is in progress… The search is completed, it is confirmed that there are no civilian ships and space equipment in the nearby airspace.”

Inside the bridge.

After listening to the staff’s report from the front, Deng Yuanshu watched intently at the ring of asteroids and meteorite fragments outside the porthole as he continued to give orders in a calm and composed tone.

“The limit of reactor output power is increased to the maximum, the fire control system is turned on, the radar is adjusted to the enemy detection mode.”

“The search for the enemy mode has been activated! The nearby airspace is being retrieved… Missile arrays were found in an area of 2.01 million kilometers away!”

As the light blue cursor swept across the holographic screen, a series of red dots quickly appeared on the radar and projected on the holographic screen directly in front of the bridge.

Looking at the target presented on the holographic screen, Deng Yuanshu gave the command to fire with a sonorous voice.

“Fire!”

As the attack order was issued, the electromagnetic guns displayed on the ship’s hull immediately vented fierce firepower towards the front.

It left behind an orange-yellow trajectory in the endless deep sky. For a while, even the cold night was faintly lit.

Looking at the naval gun that fired out the bullets, the rain of bullets that were moving towards the asteroid belt like a waterfall, and the portholes that were lit by the tracer lights, Deng Yuanshu froze.

What is this…

Electromagnetic gun?

An electromagnetic cannon that can be fired after half a minute of charging?!

Although he had heard about the energy of the second-generation controllable fusion, he did not expect that he could directly cut off the capacitor module of the electromagnetic weapon and use fusion energy to increase the energy output power of the naval gun!

Everything in front of him exceeded his imagination and even subverted his understanding of space operations.

In the face of such fierce firepower, no matter how fast the missiles, torpedoes, and carrier-based aircraft were, they would have nowhere to hide. If it was coupled with a fire control system with a quantum processor as the core, even if they were separated by an astronomical distance, they could easily reach the opponent’s ship!

With the advent of warp speed technology and second-generation controllable fusion, aerospace operations seemed to have changed from the “anti-missile guidance” era to the “ancient” era of missiles fired from outside the line of sight. It had evolved into a head-to-head match between firepower and speed.

At least until there were defensive means that could effectively defend against kinetic energy weapons, such as the force shield technology in science fiction movies, this trend would remain the same for a certain period of time.

“Captain…” Looking at the spectacular scenes outside the porthole with a dumbfounded expression, Liu Zhengyi said in a trembling voice, “Is this… really a weapon from Earth?”

After gulping, Deng Yuanshu nodded.

“Obviously…”

Earlier, he was still a little dissatisfied with the command headquarters’ hasty decision and that Lu Zhou dismantled the missile system on the Qinling without even asking for his opinion.

But now, he was completely impressed by the new equipment on the Qinling…

This is too strong!