Chapter 273: Planetary-Class Battleship "Kunpeng"

After receiving materials from Chu, the federation began constructing planetary-class battleships. Now, it had been nearly 10,000 years since the initial acquisition of these materials.

The situation was far more challenging than Yan Xia had anticipated when they first obtained the materials. The federation had invested too much expectation in the planetary-class battleship; if it were merely a slightly larger version of a dwarf planet-class battleship, what would be the point?

In terms of power sources, the planetary-class battleship sought to achieve a higher sustainable energy output. The initial plan was to store massive amounts of antimatter, but developing antimatter requires energy for replacement. Consequently, the federation's antimatter resources were limited; they could support wartime usage but were insufficient for propulsion.

The annihilation of 1 gram of antimatter with 1 gram of matter releases $$1.8 \times 10^{14}$$ joules, equivalent to 43,000 tons of TNT. One kilogram equates to 43 million tons of TNT, and one ton of antimatter and one ton of matter annihilated equals 43 billion tons of TNT—approximately the power of an asteroid impact that could wipe out the dinosaurs.

So how much antimatter is needed to propel a planetary-class battleship?

The answer could be as high as 1 million tons.

Accelerating the battleship to escape velocity might require 50 million tons or more. To reach speeds of 30,000 km/s or even close to 40,000 km/s would demand an unfathomable amount—possibly around 50 trillion tons.

This was an astronomical figure, enough to consume all the federation's stock in a single launch.

Thus, the second plan continued from previous ideas: to embed a planet within the battleship to provide a continuous energy source through its gravitational pull. Additionally, using gravitational assistance and electromagnetic forces, a combined tokamak device would be set up inside the planet to supply nuclear fusion energy for antimatter capture.

Nuclear fusion and gravitational energy would primarily supply the ship's power while antimatter would directly feed into the propulsion system.

This was currently the most suitable plan; gravitational forces would significantly reduce energy losses from other sources. The ship itself wouldn't need to expend vast amounts of energy to maintain gravity.

However, this approach would compromise the battleship's detection accuracy; for instance, detecting gravitational waves would rely on auxiliary ships.

To minimize the planet's size while ensuring sufficient mass, the federation specifically selected stellar cores. After suffering destructive attacks, these cores are typically left as solid remnants, especially in low-mass stars that likely die off completely. These solid cores can have densities exceeding $$20 \text{g/cm}^3$$, denser than gold.

Some stellar cores can be as small as a basketball or even smaller and mostly originate from red dwarf stars.

The question arises: where do we find these stellar cores?

In fact, there is no need to search extensively; when the federation sought resources previously, they had destroyed many stars and could now choose suitable stellar cores at will.

Since this was the first planetary-class battleship, the federation aimed to compress manufacturing costs as much as possible. This ship served as a prototype, similar to how Kunlun was initially developed.

However, possessing a stellar core meant that this colossal ship could not be small in size.

The overall shape of this massive vessel is elliptical—not like an American football but more akin to a rounded egg. 

On its horizontal axis, the ship measures about 24,100 kilometers in length with equal height and width at 20,200 kilometers. The core's diameter is approximately 15,700 kilometers (Earth's diameter is about 12,742 km), and its mass is roughly 7.66 times that of Earth.

The total mass of this ship reaches $$7.1967 \times 10^{25} \text{kg}$$, equivalent to about 12.05 times Earth's mass.

Approximately 40,000 years after the birth of the first dwarf planet-class giant ship Kunlun, finally, the federation's first planetary-class giant ship "Kunpeng" was born.

Utilizing the federation's most advanced giant antimatter propulsion system with a diameter of 7,125 kilometers, it can maintain a speed of 34,217 km/s.

It would not be an exaggeration to call this a milestone.

However, it felt somewhat underwhelming because Kunlun's speed was already at 24,858 km/s; thus, there was only a 37.6% increase in speed over those 40 millennia—indicating that propulsion technology had not undergone revolutionary changes during that time.

With Kunpeng, the federation achieved multiple firsts:

- The first construction of a planetary-class giant ship.

- The first embedding of an actual planet within a giant ship.

- The first installation of an artificial intelligence system aboard a warship.

- The first realization of a complete ecosystem within a warship.

- The first manufacture of an ultra-large single propulsion unit.

- The first deployment of super-distance weapons on a warship.

- The first creation of a Lagrange orbit system for warships.

- The first installation of dwarf planet material extraction devices on warships that can convert dwarf planets into energy sources.

...

Countless firsts.

Of course, Kunpeng also had its unique firsts.

Its inaugural achievement was reaching the endpoint of the Cosmic Silk Road—a true battlefield.

Thanks to breakthroughs in P=NP technology, Kunpeng was also uniquely controlled entirely by its mainframe; it housed no living entities inside. The implementation of a complete ecosystem within the warship was merely an experiment.

Since it contained an actual planet within its structure, constructing a complete ecological chain on that planet's surface proved feasible; experimental results confirmed this.

However, later on, this internal ecosystem was dismantled due to resource consumption required for maintenance.

In theory, Kunpeng could dismantle small components and transport them via super-conduction devices; however, practically this proved impossible due to the presence of its core—the battleship could be disassembled but not the planet itself.

Thus Kunpeng could only fly directly to the endpoint of the Cosmic Silk Road on its own.

"The planetary-class giant ship will shine brilliantly on the battlefield," Ella said confidently to Yan Xia regarding Kunpeng.

"The computational power installed in Kunpeng has surpassed previous systems lacking P=NP technology; theoretically speaking, it isn't just a battleship but rather a fortress."

Ella changed how battleships were named; planetary-class battleships were now referred to as interstellar war fortresses due to their immense size and capacity for production. In fact, Kunpeng did not need to carry any battle units since it could produce them itself continuously throughout its journey. By the time it reached Olive Branch Civilization's star domain range, it would have developed into a massive fleet.