Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 397 - 395: 10... 10 Alien Spaceships!

Chapter 397: Chapter 395: 10... 10 Alien Spaceships!

Without satellites or airplanes, the Taipu Civilization’s concept of warfare still widely remained in the era of giant ships and big guns. The more troops and the more ferocious the artillery one had, the higher their combat effectiveness. Also, to overcome air friction, the shells were extraordinarily massive, just a scaled-up version of what humans once used.

Besides giant ships and big guns, there was another mode of warfare—using airships to transport missiles for ground bombardment. Whichever side could fly their airships higher would stand invincible.

"War has never been far away..."

While watching television, a sleek, giant airship docked. O’Brien hastily finished his breakfast and joined the crowd of passengers boarding the airship.

Following that, the air pressure pumps "tut tut tut" started up, rapidly inflating the surrounding auxiliary gasbags. As the volume of the gasbags increased, the airship ascended very steadily.

This type of airship, codenamed "Lin Qibai," could reach a top speed of 80 kilometers per hour. In the city, each public airship had its own route, with a cruising speed of about fifty kilometers per hour.

Fortunately, there were no intermediate stops between stations, so this speed was acceptable.

Because there was no way to build skyscrapers, the area of land that could accommodate people wasn’t much, so the dwelling places of this civilization were laid out neatly like farmland, with the central core area inevitably being where the airships were docked.

O’Brien’s workplace was at the Observatory’s meteorological department, fifty kilometers away, just about an hour’s journey.

When he arrived at the Observatory, he found the atmosphere as usual, with most colleagues gathered together, casually chatting—the workday hadn’t officially started yet.

The Observatory was mainly responsible for exploring alien space and meteorological monitoring.

Of course... the latter was the priority.

The airship navigation system had quite high requirements for the climate, as either strong winds or heavy rain could lead to a transport paralysis. This required the Observatory to predict the weather conditions more accurately and issue notices promptly.

O’Brien’s greatest wish was to launch a real meteorological satellite... such a project had been planned, but it was ultimately aborted due to immense technical difficulties and high funding demands.

The entire nation found even manufacturing flying craft extremely difficult, let alone launching rockets.

Thus, the funds allocated for space exploration were minimal. Everyone thought it would be better to wait a few years for the technology to advance and then reconsider the matter, potentially saving a significant amount of money.

Moreover, since most Taipu people had never used artificial satellites, they didn’t feel the urgency; they believed they could live well without satellites and could predict the weather accurately. Only meteorologists longed for satellites, but their appeals often didn’t amount to much.

"Tomorrow after tomorrow will be another new day, and the government’s annual allotment is just a few million, enough at best to maintain a not-so-large telescope. Satellites? At this rate of development, they won’t be possible even in the next century!"

O’Brien sneered in his heart, continuously complaining about the politicians’ shortsightedness. Without visible benefits, politicians wouldn’t allocate funds.

A vast number of scientists were racking their brains on how to make airships fly higher, with all the funding going into airships. Since the last plan failed, the Taipu people hardly bothered to consider alternative flight technologies that could lead to a breakthrough. Many even outright believed that a chunk of iron capable of flying was impossible.

"How’s the weather today?" Pondering this, a colleague greeted him.

This wasn’t just a casual greeting but their actual job.

Since there were no satellites, climate observation had to be done through observation platforms on the airships above. Radio communication and computer technology had, however, already appeared on this planet.

O’Brien glanced at the computer data and snapped back to reality, "There shouldn’t be any major issues... but of course, that’s just my judgment based on experience. Our region is in a high-pressure state now, with sinking airflows, so the probability of rain is slim... and the air humidity is low."

"Just another easy day," his colleague stretched out lazily, as if not quite awake.

Just then, suddenly, a computer in the adjacent room emitted a series of "beeping" alarm sounds.

"It looks like the radio interferometer detected a signal from outer space."

Such incidents had happened more than once or twice before—neutron stars, pulsars, and even solar winds could produce electromagnetic wave signals. The atmosphere of this planet was thick enough that even the fiercest solar winds were insignificant in their impact on the planet.

"I’ll go take a look; it’s good to record it anyway."

O’Brien jogged over and recorded the signals onto a storage device. He suddenly realized that there was a certain pattern to these signals, which actually resembled the universal telegram code of the Taipu Civilization.

"Good thing I learned the telegraph language..." he scratched his head and, after tapping on the keyboard, the entire translation came out in an instant.

"Unknown civilization, hello, we are a human civilization from afar, coming in peace and goodwill."

"We adhere to the principles of equality and free trade; everything is for sale, everything can be bought, as long as you can pay the corresponding price..."

"We..."

When he saw this line of text, his colleagues who had come over to join the buzz laughed in disbelief, "I bet it’s just some bored individual on an airship sending out this message... Even the code is our telegram code, could it be that we Taipu people have inadvertently conquered the entire universe?"

"What’s the bet? A lunch meal? Consider it my treat," O’Brien, not taking it too seriously either, began to try controlling the space telescope: "But the direction of the radio waves does indeed seem to come from outer space."

"Their spaceship is staying above the atmosphere, really? You’re so boring, still looking for it; be careful you don’t get a scolding from the station chief." This colleague was still rambling next door, eyes glued to the screen: "Huh?! What?!"

His voice suddenly grew louder, escalating from a flat statement to a huge scream!

"Aliens... Aliens!"

A wave of colleagues heard the scream and rushed over, thinking something had actually happened.

A small shadow indeed appeared in the telescope!

It seemed... to be hovering at an altitude of 60,000 kilometers, where no airship could fly, as there was no atmosphere whatsoever.

The air fell into a dead silence, it was simply unbelievable!

Aliens, aliens had really appeared.

Every Taipu person held their breath as if their brains had crashed; then after several seconds, the more quick-witted ones hurriedly ran to find their leaders.

"Increase the resolution by ten times!" the chief of the Observatory, having heard the news, rushed over as well, his voice trembling.

O’Brien swallowed hard, looking quite pale.

The shadow on the screen gradually became clear.

One could vaguely see that it was not just one spaceship, but... 10!

There were a total of 10 spaceships, moving above the atmosphere!