Chapter 96: Set Sail
The Clone housing Li Qingsong's consciousness stood in the control room of a Space-Air Carrier, gazing out the viewport at the river of stars beyond.
In the vast, boundless expanse of space, dozens of massive Space-Air Carriers were neatly arranged, like dozens of shining stars.
'Back when I first arrived on Ceres, I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams that one day I'd be undertaking such a magnificent project.'
Fifty Space-Air Carriers, carrying a total of about 450 million tons of cargo, were about to embark on a long voyage of over 15 billion kilometers, traveling from the distant depths of space to the Inner Solar System.
The total cargo, approximately 450 million tons, was incredibly diverse and complex. A detailed count would likely reveal no less than tens of millions of different items.
This included complete sets of power plant facilities, metallurgical equipment, foundry equipment, and mining equipment. For every piece of machinery in every industrial sector, Li Qingsong had brought at least ten units of each.
He had no desire to arrive in the Inner Solar System only to have to start building a base from scratch again.
With these complete sets of industrial facilities, as soon as he landed on a planet, he would immediately possess considerable industrial strength and be on the path to rapid development.
This meant that the industrial facilities Li Qingsong needed to bring were both vast in number and incredibly heavy.
Their combined mass was as high as 110 million tons, occupying a full 370 grids and taking up 13 Space-Air Carriers!
Besides industrial facilities, the other largest category of supplies Li Qingsong carried was consumables for the voyage itself.
This long voyage had a total distance of over 16 billion kilometers and would take about six years to complete.
During these six years, people needed to eat and drink, the ships' various systems needed to operate, and the engines needed to provide thrust. How many resources would all that require?
For drinking water and water for general use alone, Li Qingsong prepared 5 million tons. For mechanical systems, he prepared over 20 million tons.
And that was even with water recycling systems in place.
Although the secondary-pressurization engines greatly saved on chemical fuel consumption, their usage was still far, far too high compared to nuclear fuel.
Thus, Li Qingsong had no choice but to carry over 30 million tons of methane, ethane, liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, and the like.
Fifteen million Clones, with each Clone weighing 75 kg, meant that the mass of the Clones alone was over 1 million tons.
It would be inconvenient to carry out planting and animal husbandry operations during the voyage, but the Clones needed to eat every day. So, Li Qingsong could only bring massive quantities of food like flour, rice, fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and fish.
Calculated at a rate of 1.5 kg of various foods per Clone per day, 15 million Clones would require approximately 50 million tons of reserves for 6 years.
But Li Qingsong obviously couldn't just bring 50 million tons and call it a day. After all, even without considering accidents, he had to account for the initial consumption after arriving at the new planet.
In the first year or two, he probably wouldn't be able to produce much food.
Therefore, Li Qingsong had to bring a total of 80 million tons of various foodstuffs.
In addition to all this, there were also a large number of starships that needed to be taken.
Aerospace dual-use craft, combat ships, specialized industrial ships, probe ships, satellites, space telescopes, space antennae, and all sorts of complex space devices—added together, their mass was another tens of millions of tons.
And this didn't even include the cargo ships. At an empty weight of 10,000 tons per cargo ship, dozens of them would add another several hundred thousand tons.
Because these cargo ships were equipped with secondary-pressurization Thrust Devices, they didn't need to be carried by the Space-Air Carriers and could fly to the destination themselves.
They could also be loaded with some supplies to serve as an emergency reserve. In addition, they could carry some of the Clones, so the Space-Air Carriers wouldn't be so crowded.
And so, the vast array of various supplies, when added up, managed to fill all 50 Space-Air Carriers almost completely.
At this moment, this massive fleet, composed of 50 Space-Air Carriers and 60 large cargo ships, had finished assembling in orbit above Ceres.
Not a single Clone remained on the vast surface of Ceres.
Just like Enemy God Star, the once-bustling Ceres had now fallen into a complete, dead silence.
Looking down upon a Ceres that had once again fallen into darkness, Li Qingsong's heart was filled with emotion.
An image spontaneously surfaced in his mind: centuries ago, when he had just arrived on Ceres with only a handful of Clones under his command, struggling to survive.
'Without me even realizing it, several hundred years have passed since humanity disappeared.
Where on earth did all of you go?'
Li Qingsong was silent.
'But, whether you're here or not, this Solar System belongs to Human Civilization.
I will not allow any alien civilization to occupy it.
The enemy is indeed powerful—so powerful that I can barely fight back. But even if I have to give it my all, even if I have to fight to the very last Clone, I will never surrender.
Since I'm the only human left in the Solar System, then let me be the one to protect our Star System.
I hope to see you return one day. When that time comes, I will give you back a Solar System that is still peaceful and beautiful, and an Earth that is still vibrant, still magnificent and blue…
Order… fire!'
Under Li Qingsong's watch, over a thousand Interstellar Missiles with nuclear warheads launched violently from the combat ships.
Trailing long fiery tails, they crashed down like meteors onto the dim, dead land of Ceres. Then, in a series of fireballs, each one brighter than the Sun, they scoured away every last trace Li Qingsong had left behind, leaving nothing.
After this, Li Qingsong turned his head resolutely and looked in the direction of the Sun.
Set off!
From the rear of every giant cargo ship, from the rear of every Space-Air Carrier, a total of over a thousand bright, searing blue flames erupted, pushing each vessel into a slow acceleration.
Their speed increased very, very slowly. With each passing second, their velocity increased by a mere 1 centimeter.
But the acceleration was extremely stable and perfectly constant.
Thus, after more than two hours of acceleration, and after circling Ceres several more times, the fleet finally reached the velocity needed to escape Ceres's gravitational pull. No longer bound by its Gravity, they began their journey into the vastness of Deep Space.
The entire fleet maintained an acceleration of 0.01 meters per second squared.
Gradually, a month passed. The fleet's speed had accelerated to about 27 kilometers per second, and it had traveled a total distance of about 36 million kilometers.
At this distance, neither Enemy God Star nor Ceres could be seen any longer.
The vast cosmos, with its myriad stars, surrounded them.
Li Qingsong felt as if he had entered an ocean of void and stars. It was a sea so boundless that, no matter how long they traveled, it was impossible to feel any sense of motion.
But with the aid of the Deep Space communications network and their own positioning and navigation systems, the massive fleet continued to travel, steadfast and unwavering, toward its predetermined destination.