"There's no catching how the link works."

Shen Cong shook his head. He wanted to and couldn't. For two days running he had tried every method he could think of to catch the mysterious link between Luo Shouhai's sheet-iron box and his carrier-vehicle material.

Every one of them ended in failure.

All he could do was give it up for the time being.

The satellite experiment needed more testing. An Sanshun's next step was to send Luo Shouhai's carrier-vehicle material back to Beijing with the iron person Shao Hai, when his team returned. That would test the sensing question at a greater distance still. The research would be shared with the new government at the same time, so that the new government could take part in it too.

After all, the ultimate goal of the satellite experiment was to actually "launch a satellite," and launching a satellite meant aviation and aerospace, high-end technology. Without the government taking part it was next to impossible.

If Shen Cong wanted to break out past the Earth, that stock of technology was indispensable.

"The mysterious link can't be decoded for now, but going by the property itself, I can work new ideas into the monster truck and iron lion modifications. And the Fortress Plan can be expanded—not just fusion, but separation too... Reconnaissance, combat, transport, resupply. If every part can run independently, the Vajra Fortress is bound to become an unassailable fortress."

"And an unassailable fortress has to go up into the sky in the end. So this plan gets called—Space Fortress."

Shen Cong wrote and sketched on paper.

Filling out the Space Fortress Plan he had just named.

"Two directions of development for the Vajra Fortress. The main body moves toward a Transformer, the outer parts toward a Space Fortress. Just like Lockdown, the bounty hunter in Transformers: Age of Extinction!"

Lockdown was the final boss-grade Transformer in the fourth film. He belonged to no faction—an independent bounty hunter, hired by the Creators, come to take Optimus Prime.

Lockdown had a spaceship, and under him a crowd of robot mooks and a pack…