The work efficiency of the Engineering Department lolis was astonishingly high.
One month later, the Loli Science Division delivered good news.
"Commander, we've completed the design for the Starbase!"
In the Science Division's conference room,
Setsuna met with Senju Kayo and around three hundred lolis specializing in engineering research.
They chattered excitedly like elementary school students at a class meeting.
But if one listened closely, the topics were all cutting-edge: "anti-gravity devices," "stellar energy extraction," and "cosmic microwave radiation shielding."
A stark contrast to their apparent age.
When Setsuna entered, the lolis immediately swarmed him, chirping "Onii-chan!" until Senju Kayo waved them quiet.
A holographic display projected a massive fortress-like structure floating in space.
Its design was extraordinarily complex—the outer schematics alone spanned thousands of pages, with the internal structure even more expansive.
If printed on paper, it could fill half a city.
Thankfully, everything was digitized now—no need for hand-drawn plans.
"Commander, this is our designed Starbase—Citadel."
"It's approximately 1,600 kilometers in diameter, suspended above a star using anti-gravity technology. It draws power directly from the star to maintain operation."
Senju Kayo gave a brief overview.
"The base is protected by a shield that blocks stellar heat. Inside, it's divided into residential zones, research labs, and most importantly—the starship assembly dock and hangars."
"Thanks to zero-gravity conditions, the assembly dock can construct and retrofit even larger-scale starships—like the Titan-class or Colossus-class ships you mentioned."
"Additionally, the Starbase allows for advanced space-based scientific research—some experiments can only be conducted in orbit."
Just hearing the scope of the project left the shipgirls dumbfounded.
Space architecture is three-dimensional, unlike Earth's flat surface.
With a diameter of 1,600 km, factoring in stacked levels and extensions, the base's surface area would exceed that of Earth!
Not to mention the colossal docks designed to manufacture Titans and Colossi—the assembly lines alone spanned hundreds of kilometers.
"Hiss... so you've gone straight for the top-tier Starbase design in one go?"
Setsuna was a little surprised.
Typically, civilizations start small—outposts, then starports, citadels, and eventually bastions. Jumping straight to a Citadel was unheard of.
What kind of spacefaring civilization launches with a Level 5 Starbase?!
"Our engineering theory is already advanced enough. I figured going all-in would be simpler, Onii-chan."
Senju Kayo beamed with pride.
"..."
"They've grown up way too fast..."
Yat Sen and Hai Tien whispered to each other.
Thinking back to just over a year ago, when these girls were runny-nosed, underfed lolis, and now—they'd become top-tier scientists. It was awe-inspiring.
Even the shipgirls were benefiting from their research.
"These are geniuses among geniuses. After studying so much for so long, it's only natural they finally have a place to shine, right?"
Hai Tien and Chen Hai responded with a smile.
As their teachers, they were most aware of the girls' learning speed.
Fueled by the desire to save their Commander, the lolis worked with unwavering enthusiasm.
"Actually, even before we started our research, the base's theoretical framework was already quite comprehensive,"
"All we really did was piece together the existing theories and turn it into a cohesive building design."
Senju Kayo modestly bowed in thanks.
"With the help of the universal angels, designing the Starbase went smoothly. Even without us, Meowsh could've probably finished it with more time."
"No!"
"Without you all, it would've taken me years—no, maybe decades, meow!"
The repair shipgirl twitched her ears and firmly praised the loli engineers' work.
"..."
Setsuna looked at the design schematics and felt dizzy.
Even with his background in civil engineering, this was way beyond his scope.
Thankfully, he was the Commander. He didn't need to get bogged down in the fine details.
"Isn't this a little... too complex? Can we actually build it?"
Richelieu posed the final concern.
For a civilization with no prior experience in space construction, starting with a Citadel-class Starbase was like sending a ping-pong rookie to the world championships.
"Call Bulins."
Setsuna waved his hand.
A few minutes later, over a dozen special-type Color Bulins marched in carrying their signature meow-meow hammers.
"Take a look at this and tell me—can we build it?"
"Buri?"
The Color Bulins cutely crowded around the screen.
A dozen round heads leaned in to examine the schematics, flipping page after page at lightning speed.
Their hand movements were so fast that Setsuna could see afterimages.
"A building on a star, burin? Looks super fun, buri!"
"If there's any problem, leave it to Super Meow Meow Unit No.1, buri!"
After a while,
The lead Color Bulin looked up.
"This project needs tons of resources, and lots of Bulins to burin it together!"
"Only I can do it—my two idiot sisters can't help, buri."
Special-type Color Bulins were incredibly expensive to make and far more capable than Gold or Purple Bulins.
They were the elite among Bulins.
"So it is doable?"
The shipgirls pressed.
"Bulin thinks it can be done!"
The Color Bulin nodded and patted her chest.
"Excellent! That's all I needed to hear."
Setsuna snapped his fingers decisively.
"Prepare the materials, pack up, and get Bulins into space!"
...
...
A few days later.
At the aerospace base,
Over 30,000 starship-modified Special Color Bulins, fully loaded with supplies, boarded the Eternal Snowfall and several other shipgirls' vessels.
Thanks to the advanced shipgirl tactic, a matryoshka-style deployment of resources was now possible.
The Bulins packed all the required resources in their ship holds, then retracted their riggings to ride inside other shipgirls' hulls.
A single ship could carry enough to construct an entire city.
"Make sure you don't manifest your riggings during transit—you'll overload the ship."
Setsuna reminded them.
"Bulin understands!"
The Color Bulins responded in unison.
Looking at the identical uniforms, hairstyles, and hammer-wielding Bulins standing perfectly in formation in the ship hangar, Setsuna found the sight unexpectedly hilarious.
Maybe one day during a military parade, they could have a dedicated Bulin formation.
Just imagining a legion of Bulins holding up wrenches, drills, and hammers in salute was already funny.
Boom—
Led by the Eternal Snowfall, the starships launched one after another, sending wave after wave of thrust across the launch base.
Trailing rainbow-colored exhaust plumes, the fleet soared into the skies.
Through the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere...
Soon, they entered outer space, surrounded by a sea of stars.
"Oh! We're in space again, burin!"
The Bulins excitedly pressed against the portholes to stargaze.
Light takes eight minutes to travel from the sun to Earth, but since the fleet hadn't unlocked FTL technology yet, the journey would take even longer.
Fortunately, that meant more time to admire the cosmic scenery.
The fleet passed by the Moon, and across the lunar mare, they could still see the massive heart shape Taihou had carved with her super-graviton cannon, along with marks from other weapons testing.
"That was my mark of love for the Commander!"
Taihou's yandere-tinged voice echoed.
"We'll have Bulins patch it up on our way back."
Richelieu twitched slightly.
Two days later, after passing Venus and reaching Mercury's orbit,
The sun—usually no larger than a fist from Earth—had now become a searing, titanic fireball looming close.
The sun is 1.3 million times the volume of Earth, and even at a distance of 50 million kilometers, it was a blinding colossus.
Outside the hull, temperatures soared past 400°C.
Inside the bridge, however, everything remained stable—they hadn't even needed to deploy the Klein Field.
"It's incredible..."
Gudako and the Servants stared, utterly mesmerized, her face nearly pressed against the glass.
Just looking at the orange-red inferno, one could almost feel the waves of heat radiating off it.
Before a star, one truly grasped how small they were.
"Beautiful, right? One day we'll build a Dyson Sphere around it."
Setsuna ruffled Gudako's hair.
"???"
"Are you telling me myths now?!"
Ritsuka Fujimaru looked utterly baffled.
"That's no myth—it's a proper galactic-level megastructure," Setsuna chuckled.
"But we'd have to build it around another star. If we wrapped the sun in a Dyson Sphere, Earth would freeze over."
"So we build it around someone else's star? Who cares if their planet dies, right?"
Gudako said, applying the logic.
"..."
Setsuna stared at her for a moment:
"Were you born an avatar of humanity's evil, or did I corrupt you?"
...
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