Chapter 303 The Starry Sky Advance Base Project is Officially Launched

Two hundred kilometers of high-speed rail, outside the main platform.

If just two weeks ago this place was merely a solitary space fortress with a massive Peregrine-07 aloft, now, this dark near-Earth orbit is beginning to exude a suffocating roar of heavy industry.

At the edge of the massive shadow of Peregrine-07, three new escort tracks have been cleared.

A modified light rail towboat, spewing a ghostly blue tail flame, slowly reversed into the parking space. Behind it, within a titanium crystal capture net, lay a metal-rich meteorite, radar-designated "Shattered Star-21," weighing approximately two hundred tons.

This is the fourth small celestial body that the Orbital Resources Group has towed back this week.

"The Severing Star-21 has entered port. The small damping array has been activated and unloading has begun."

On the communication channel, Chen Shi, one of the first batch of astronauts from the Engineering Department to take up his post, was calmly reporting on his work. He was not wearing a bulky high-pressure suit, but instead relied on his extremely weak but tenacious true energy to anchor himself steadily on the surface of the meteorite.

A few minutes later, under Chen Shi's precise guidance, several miniature cutting arms began to break open the shell of the new meteorite.

The Peregrine-07 remains the "pillar of stability" in the high-orbit industry, providing the most crucial and hardest pressure-resistant keel materials. But humanity is no longer satisfied with just tackling this one mountain of iron.

With the maturation of traction anchor technology and the addition of astronauts, the orbital resource team has continuously marked a large number of small and medium-sized metal debris clusters in the near-Earth capture zone. These are cheaper to capture, faster to process, and more effective.

More importantly, a new mineral, named "magnetic nickel," was discovered among these newly captured small celestial bodies.

It lacks the extreme deep-space cold-pressing characteristics of the core material of the Peregrine-07. After simple vacuum cold forging and purification, it can perfectly adapt to the oxygen-rich and spiritually rich environment on the ground.

In just one week, the first batch of ferromagnetic nickel blanks were transported back to the ground by a heavy-duty transport container.

These heavy metals, imbued with deep-space magnetism, were quickly fed into the high-pressure furnaces of the surface military factory. The long-dormant flying sword base production line was restarted, and the array nodes on the outer perimeter of the city's protective formation, which were on the verge of collapse due to material embrittlement, were finally replaced with an indestructible new framework.

The skeleton is produced in the sky, and the blood is transported underground.

The high-orbit resource chain is no longer just an internal circulation for "self-use in the sky," but has truly begun to continuously feed back to the Earth's surface.

However, when the fourth meteorite was dragged into the temporary sub-forging area near the main platform...

"Engineer Lin, the No. 2 refining chamber is overloaded! The No. 4 temporary anchor point is about to collapse!" Old Liu's voice rang urgently in the communicator.

Inside the temporary control room of the main platform, Lin Feng frowned as he looked at the numerous red alarms flashing on the holographic panel.

It wasn't due to operational error, but because it "bursted."

The original main platform was just an orbital hub and breakwater. But now, it is surrounded by a Peregrine-07 and has been newly attached to four asteroids.

The mining area, cold forging area, transfer area, and pyromagnetic nickel refining area were all squeezed into the temporary engineering trusses extending from the outer edge of the main platform.

The first batch of eighty astronauts, who had just completed the first round of selection, did not have dedicated space for rest and training. They had to squeeze into an extremely cramped life support module with the original resident personnel. Personnel rotation, material scheduling, and equipment maintenance—all the functional pressures rested on the main platform, this "single-plank bridge."

"We can't keep doing this."

Lin Feng turned around and looked at the joint control room on the ground on the other side of the screen. His tone was extremely solemn. "Professor Wang, the resource flow is running smoothly, and the astronauts have started working. But if we continue to tie all the mines, refining equipment, and personnel to the main platform, what if a meteorite causes resonance imbalance, or a micrometeorite impact on a certain transport chain..."

"That would be a chain reaction disaster for the entire main platform," Wang Mingyuan continued Lin Feng's words.

In the control room, representatives from the Military Industry Department, the Resources Group, and the Array Court wore solemn expressions.

We used to worry about not having enough mines; now we're worried that even if we get mines, we can't fit them all in our homes.

"The main platform's role is to maintain the stability of the space elevator; it is not, and should not be, a large mining hub," Wang Mingyuan said, crossing his arms and scanning the entire room.

"Gentlemen."

"Now that we have the ability to continuously capture extraterrestrial resources, our astronauts have proven that they can operate in a vacuum for extended periods of time."

Wang Mingyuan's eyes instantly turned extremely aggressive: "Then we can no longer treat mining as guerrilla warfare. We must completely separate resource development, cold forging and refining, and personnel stationing from the main platform."

Wang Mingyuan slammed a top-secret document, drafted overnight, onto the holographic screen.

"I propose that the project be formally approved and constructed as the [Starry Sky Advance Base]."

The moment those six words were uttered, the entire conference room seemed to pause, even the sound of breathing seemed to hold.

This is not about adding a few more space station modules in the old-fashioned sense of space exploration.

This is an unprecedented industrial behemoth born from the forced stitching together of cultivation civilization and aerospace heavy industry!

It is a bridgehead that was forcibly established in the sea of ​​stars, with the space elevator as its root, the traction anchor, the star gathering platform and the astronauts as its skeleton, and the continuous capture of deep space resources as its blood.

"This is the first step in the cultivation-themed interstellar expansion plan," Wang Mingyuan said firmly.

Immediately afterwards, the first version of the "Starry Sky Advance Base Phase I Planning Map" was displayed on the big screen.

This is a design drawing that exudes a strong sense of heavy industrial pressure. The main structure of the base does not prioritize aesthetics, but rather serves the operational requirements of deep space. The first phase of the plan clearly delineates six core functional zones:

First, the outer orbit capture and mooring area. This is a vast "anchorage" composed of heavy titanium crystal trusses and array networks. It is specifically used to dock and secure newly towed small to medium-sized meteorites, and to conduct initial stress relief and hazard assessment.

Second, the rough cutting zone for mining. Small celestial bodies captured will undergo their first round of stripping here by astronauts. No longer temporary scaffolding, but an assembly line with fixed tracks and standardized cutting robotic arms.

Third, the vacuum cold forging and material refining area. This will be the core of the high-orbit base. It will be equipped with the highest-level heavy-pressure array and micro-star-gathering nodes, specializing in processing celestial raw materials to produce high-orbit-specific magical artifacts, skeletal components, and transport cabin keels.

Fourth, the deep-space storage and transshipment area. This allows for the diversion of resources. Items suitable for high-orbit transport remain on-orbit, while those suitable for surface transport are sent back down. It achieves seamless docking with heavy-duty transport modules and rail-mounted towed vessels.

Fifth, the astronaut training and residence area. This is the true "home" for the first batch of astronaut monks. It has an independent life support system and a microgravity adaptation training cabin.

Sixth, high-orbit escort and emergency response. Protection against depressurization, micrometeorites, and interstellar cold pressure leaks is provided by resident astronauts in the combat sequence, offering a backup force.

I second that.

I second that.

"The military provides full support."

There was no wrangling. Faced with the absolute temptation of survival and expansion, the will of the entire alliance reached an unprecedented level of unity at this moment.

"Since there are no objections, proceed immediately." Wang Mingyuan slammed his hand on the control panel.

Two hundred kilometers of high-speed rail, outside the main platform.

Accompanied by a series of dull mechanical clicking sounds, the external expansion interfaces that had been dormant for several years slowly unlocked under the drive of the array.

The first batch of sixty astronauts, led by Chen Shi and others, were divided into three teams and officially moved into the external construction site of the first phase of the base project.

Behind them, two heavy-duty transport capsules, fully loaded with surface infrastructure modules, advanced composite arrays, and life support equipment, were accelerating into the air, spewing exhaust flames.

Further away, a third orbital towboat was slowly entering the designated mooring area, towing a brand-new meteorite.

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