Chapter 34: Machine Guns, Artillery and Tanks
Given the vehicle’s structure and operating method, the Clone was almost in a flurry, shaking levers, pressing buttons, and pulling triggers, performing a series of operations before the vehicle slowly began to move forward.
There was no other way; primitive vehicles lacked any automated features, making operation this cumbersome.
Automatic transmission was out of the question; it was simply impossible. Even modern manual transmission couldn’t be achieved.
When shifting gears, the Clone needed to first operate a gear to disengage, then replace it with another gear in the transmission to complete the shift.
When starting the engine, the Clone also needed to precisely monitor the dashboard, observe the methane and oxygen pressure, and manually adjust the usage of both gases.
If the vehicle speed increased, the fuel supply also had to be manually increased, otherwise the vehicle would stall.
However, it didn’t matter; although this operation was complex, for Tom, it was still a minor task.
The Clone acting as the driver practiced and became familiar with it for a while, and then all the Clones learned to drive this incredibly complex vehicle.
After operating the vehicle for a lap around the Main Base’s perimeter, covering several hundred kilometers, Tom once again conducted tests on it.
The results were quite satisfactory to him, so after adjusting several hundred places that needed fine-tuning, the vehicle was immediately finalized and put into production.
It was evident that this vehicle was still far from perfect; through practice, Tom also discovered some designs that could be described as "anti-human" but could not be adjusted for the time being, and it could be confirmed that with future large-scale use, various design flaws would be increasingly exposed.
But it didn’t matter. As long as it worked, that was enough; after all, the Clones wouldn’t complain.
To produce various vehicles, Tom temporarily requisitioned dozens of workshops and built dozens of new factories.
Factories specifically for producing engines, bogies, fuel tanks, tires, vehicle bodies, glass, and so on and so forth.
Thus, this rudimentary off-road vehicle, named "Hunter Type-1" by Tom, was quickly produced, and soon a thousand units were assembled.
Tom then dispatched 1,000 Clones to serve as drivers, filled each vehicle with enough fuel to travel over ten thousand kilometers, and brought various foods, drinking water, sufficient oxygen, etc., sending out these 1,000 reconnaissance vehicles.
From this moment on, they would roam all over Loshen Star, searching for and determining the number and location of Monster Birds clusters.
When they didn’t find Monster Birds, they wouldn’t be idle; they would also conduct a survey of Loshen Star’s surface, confirming the reserves and locations of various mineral deposits, preparing for larger-scale development in the future.
With the experience of building vehicles, Tom immediately began to develop armored vehicles, tanks, and special vehicles like fuel tankers based on this foundation.
From a basic principle perspective, these special vehicles actually had no essential difference from off-road vehicles; they were all just large shells driven by internal combustion engines, merely with more armor, more weapon systems, or other things.
Anyway, the requirements weren’t that high; as long as they worked, it was fine.
While the vehicles were being developed and produced, another part of Tom’s work also continued.
Machine guns, artillery!
Based on the existing Assault Type-1 firearms, Tom intended to develop firearms with greater power, higher rate of fire, and also larger magazine capacity.
Ideally, firearms that didn’t even need magazines, but directly used ammunition belts.
Another point was artillery.
In fact, from a basic principle perspective, artillery and firearms also had no significant difference; both used gunpowder combustion to generate hot gases, using their pressure to launch projectiles.
The only difference was that artillery shells contained explosives, while bullets did not, relying entirely on kinetic energy for damage.
But even so, this required Tom to allocate a significant portion of Clones for research.
After all, these were weapons, unlike civilian equipment. If a barrel exploded and then ignited the ammunition depot, it would be a huge problem.
With these several lines progressing simultaneously, even though the war had temporarily ceased and the front lines no longer required excessive consciousness link allocation, Tom still clearly felt the pressure.
Not only were all the Clones withdrawn from the front line put into new production lines, but Tom also took a "shortcut" to meet the current human and brainpower demands.
Currently, the Clones responsible for perimeter security at various bases obviously didn’t need to be fully alert; only some Clones needed to maintain consciousness links and reconnaissance capabilities.
So Tom "stole" back three thousand consciousness link allocations and deployed three thousand backup Clones to join in production, barely managing to undertake the existing construction tasks.
Time quietly passed, and at the firing range, machine guns and artillery roared, causing the ground to tremble slightly.
In the vehicle factories, equipment hummed day and night, steel was kneaded like noodles into various shapes, and then assembled into vehicles of different appearances.
There were armored vehicles up to three meters high and weighing over 5 tons, tanks two meters high using tracked wheels and weighing up to 15 tons, with long gun barrels—that was the tank gun specially developed by Tom, and there were also vehicles five meters high, 20 meters long, pulling a huge tank with a volume of 120 cubic meters at the back, specifically for transporting methane or oxygen...
Like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, in a short time, various types of weapons and equipment appeared in the Main Base, a stark contrast to when they could only use kitchen knives as weapons.
At this moment, Tom’s confidence swelled unprecedentedly.
Although he still couldn’t build airplanes, with so many submachine guns, machine guns, cannons, and tanks, even if another hundred thousand Monster Birds came, Tom was confident he could wipe them out in one battle.
It was just that the situation at this moment seemed a bit strange.
A thousand reconnaissance vehicles roamed Loshen Star, searching for traces of Monster Birds, but up to now, except for a few dead Monster Birds, not a single living Monster Birds had been found.
"Where did they all go?"
Tom’s heart was full of doubt.
Tom absolutely did not believe that there were only less than a hundred thousand Monster Birds on Loshen Star as before.
They must have all gathered in a certain place, which was why he couldn’t find them.
But what were they doing gathered together?
This unknown made Tom feel subtly uneasy.
The search was still ongoing, with no progress yet, but something happened in the biological laboratory.
Tom looked at the undeveloped embryos in the culture tanks, his heart filled with shock.
Although they had not yet been born, even as mere embryos, Tom could clearly perceive their "excellence" and "strength" through some data.
Compared to the embryos he had cultivated before, they were much stronger!
And... such strong, healthy bodies, what high-quality brains would they develop?