area51novel Chapter 25 Production Upgrade
Chapter 25 Production Upgrade
After returning from Dr. Birdbeak's acid swamp, Andy locked himself in the core workshop deep inside the vault.
For three days, except for changing the coolant every eight hours, he hardly moved from his spot.
Over the past three days, the entire shelter's production pace has been rapidly accelerated by Andy's series of commands issued from the data terminal.
The first step is the processing of raw materials.
Not a single drop of the dozen or so barrels of sulfuric acid and saltpeter that Gamma-9 brought back from the Skinners' lair was wasted.
Andy designed a simple yet efficient chemical purification device using STC.
Essentially, it involves using sulfuric acid and saltpeter to react to produce nitric acid, and then using a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid to nitrate starch.
The process is not complicated; the difficulty lies in temperature control and stirring speed.
Once the temperature exceeds the critical value, the entire can will turn into a powerful bomb, sending half of the shelter to the sky.
Unfortunately, under Andy's direct computing power monitoring, the probability of such a thing happening is zero.
Soon, the first batch of pale yellow nitrated starch powder was produced.
This is not an ordinary explosive, but a fairly stable double-base propellant precursor.
When Bauer received the batch of samples, his hands were shaking.
As a tech fanatic, he knew all too well what this thing meant.
Previously, the most commonly used material in the bottom nest was black powder, which burned slowly, left a lot of residue, and lacked kinetic energy. The bullets fired would drift away after flying only two hundred meters.
The energy density of double-base propellant is three times that of black powder.
When loaded into those batch of stamped automatic gun bullets, the muzzle velocity increased directly from 300 meters per second to 700 meters per second.
Double the penetration power and double the range.
Those ramjet guns, which were originally only used to shoot ordinary people, now have the ability to penetrate mutants and light armor.
……
Then, Andy opened the lead box containing "Penicillin variant P-772".
This fungal strain, which has been lingering in the bottom nest for who knows how many years, has an incredibly strong vitality.
Andy did not follow the primitive "organ culture method" used by Dr. Birdbeak.
That method was not only inefficient, but the resulting liquid was full of corpse poison. Drinking it might save your life, but Andy found it really disgusting.
Therefore, Andy chose the path of independent research and development.
The raw materials are readily available, such as high-yield starch balls produced by hydroponic farms, which become the perfect carbon source after hydrolysis.
Add ammonia, a byproduct of the saltpeter refining process, as a nitrogen source. Pour these ingredients into the fermentation tank in the golden ratio, maintain a constant temperature, and aerate and stir.
Under this process, the bacteria are like mice that have fallen into a honey pot, and they begin to multiply wildly.
In just forty-eight hours.
The liquid in the fermenter becomes cloudy and viscous, which is the result of a high concentration of mycelium.
The next steps are filtration, extraction, and crystallization.
The sophisticated centrifuges and chromatography columns haven't come off the production line yet, but fortunately, Andy has homemade alternatives.
By taking advantage of the differences in solubility of different solvents, the pH value is adjusted using acids and bases, and finally, activated carbon is used for decolorization.
Although its purity does not reach the 98% pharmaceutical grade standard, it is definitely several orders of magnitude higher than Sisyphean green soup.
Soon, the first bottle of pale yellow crystalline powder was sealed in a glass bottle.
Andy gave it a very simple name: "Andy Biochemical One".
If you take this stuff and sell it on the black market, one bottle can be exchanged for a brand new explosive gun, or for ten adult strong laborers.
But Andy doesn't intend to sell, at least not now.
After all, mass production is not possible for the time being. Putting aside everything else, there is a lot of room for optimization in the production line itself.
……
……
Speaking of that "Eden-class original species", its recent performance has surprised Andy. Originally, Andy was worried that it would run out of energy and was thinking of sending it back to the monster-filled Mine Area 39 to recharge.
But inspired by the data brought back from the bird-beaked doctor, Andy discovered that the seed was actually an omnivore.
It can not only absorb geothermal energy and solar energy, but it can also consume "biomass".
The rotten flesh soaking in the jars by the bird-beak doctor, the failed mycelial waste, and even ordinary organic garbage.
Just break these things up and throw them into the culture medium of the original species.
The golden seed will absorb the bioenergy within it like a sponge, converting it into its own energy reserves.
Upon discovering this, Andy immediately modified the original species' protocol.
Previously, those bioreactors required regular changes of the nutrient solution, but now they don't.
All kitchen waste, domestic wastewater, and even corpses generated in later battles produced in the shelter can be used as feed for the original species.
The highest achievement in agriculture is to eliminate waste and eliminate misplaced resources.
In addition to these breakthroughs in core technologies, the infrastructure of the shelters has also been developed.
The population has grown to over five hundred.
Besides the original refugees, there were many homeless people who had heard that there was food and work to be had here, as well as some small groups of survivors who had been scattered by other gangs.
Andy welcomed all these people without hesitation.
As long as you're not a cunning scoundrel, a severely mutant, or an incurable believer in Chaos.
When you arrive, they'll give you a shovel and a bowl of thick porridge.
Get to work!
Of course, with more people, management also becomes a major problem.
Andy did not resort to gangster-style violence or engage in mystical religious brainwashing.
He implemented a simple work point system.
The more work you do, the more points you earn. You can exchange those points for food, other necessities, and even the limited-edition "Andy Biochemical No. 1".
This system is extremely fair and transparent.
In a world rife with fraud and exploitation, this very fairness is a tremendous attraction.
This led to many people working even harder than they used to work for the gang, which Andy was quite satisfied with.
Andy wasn't really optimistic about his own model. As the population of the shelter increased, Andy was always ready to use Sisyphus's violent religious methods. The fact that Sisyphus was able to integrate Dr. Birdbeak within five years showed that he was really efficient.
However, it seems that no extra effort is needed now.
But there are hidden worries behind the prosperity.
Andy stood on the command platform, looking down at the bustling production scene below.
On the STC map he drew, the surrounding red area was constantly expanding.
The Helios Group's expansion has not stopped; on the contrary, it has accelerated.
The main structure of that so-called tenth-generation fully enclosed processing plant has been completed, and equipment is being installed.
Meanwhile, the purple-skinned, bald workers came and went like ants every day.
Meanwhile, although the Skinners gang was almost completely wiped out by Andy, the Underhive did not become peaceful as a result.
Several other major gangs, such as "Iron Skull" and "The Reapers," have already set their sights on the Vault.
The aroma of starch wafting from the shelter, along with the brand-new stamping guns, has attracted the covetous eyes of many.
Probing attacks happen every day.
Although they were all driven back by Gamma-9 and its escort team, the pressure was increasing.
Andy knew he had to upgrade his fighting force.
Small arms are now widespread, but that's not enough.
Faced with potential armored units or even bio-weapons from the Tyranids, automatic guns are utterly useless.
Andy turned his attention to the heavy weapons section of the STC database.
The originally gray icon is now brightened up considerably thanks to the support of chemical raw materials.
XPG-200 Individual Rocket Launcher
From Andy's perspective, the structure of this thing is quite simple; the difficulty lies in the propellant and warhead of the rocket.
Now that we have dual-base propellants, the propellant problem is solved.
Once the high-energy explosives production line was successfully established, the warhead issue was also resolved.
Moreover, Andy also plans to add some extra ingredients to it.
The strong acids that Dr. Birdbeak used could be encapsulated in warheads to make special acid bombs.
One shot can not only explode, but also corrode a large hole in the enemy's armor.
In addition to these, the armed forces also include a series of defensive weapons such as improvised landmines.
Simply put, the explosives are sealed in a specially designed empty can, stuffed with some scrap iron, and buried in the path that the shelter must take.
As for his own people, Andy uniformly required them to memorize the path and solution.
Although this passive defense system is insidious, it is extremely effective.
Finally, Andy decided to build a real war machine.
His previous half-track truck was good, but it was a civilian-modified vehicle with thin sheet metal.
Andy plans to use the high-strength shape memory alloy steel plates he just got from Dr. Birdbeak's inventory, combined with the light armored vehicle blueprints from STC, to handcraft a "Chimera" youth version.
It doesn't need a complicated electronic system; it just needs to be tough enough and fast enough to carry that twin-mounted heavy logging gun around.
Production is already at full capacity.