Chapter 240-3: Initial Contact, I Am a Calamity (3) |
At once, the war platforms in Earth’s orbit activated.
The bottoms opened, revealing honeycomb-like launch bays.
Each bay contained multiple relay nodes wrapped in transparent energy shields.
The intelligent assistant’s voice echoed through the conference room.
“Drop program initiated. Countdown: 3, 2, 1… drop.”
At the end of the countdown, the relay nodes were ejected from the bays. Their energy shields traced streams of light in space like a meteor shower, falling toward Earth’s surface.
Upon entering the atmosphere, friction between the energy shields and the air emitted a dazzling glow.
The shields’ surfaces automatically adjusted shape and altered course to ensure the nodes landed precisely in the target areas.
“Atmospheric entry successful. Energy shields stable. Estimated arrival at target areas in 3 minutes.”
At about 1,000 meters above ground, the energy shields automatically disengaged. Four wing-like support structures unfolded from each node’s surface, beginning deceleration and attitude adjustment.
“Deceleration program initiated. Prepare for landing.”
An energy barrier appeared beneath the nodes, and they landed precisely on the designated sea surface.
At the moment of touchdown, the communications nodes automatically absorbed surrounding energy and rapidly unfolded into small tower-like structures. Their tops released energy fluctuations that formed hemispherical signal coverage zones.
The intelligent assistant’s voice sounded again:
“Relay nodes activated. Signal coverage meets expectations. Begin restoring communications links.”
Made from anti-interference materials, the relay nodes, once deployed, successfully filtered out the energy interference of the fluorescent spores and quickly established stable communications links with nearby war weapons.
“Relay nodes deployed. Signal strength is increasing.”
“Ground network connected. Data transmission restored to normal.”
At this time, the No. 1 Governor also issued a new order.
“Import battlefield data into the command system immediately and reassess the situation.”
At once, the holographic Earth imagery, real-time sea-surface feeds, and weapon systems all successfully linked up, and the data streams reappeared on the light screens.
The spores released by the floating jellyfish could no longer effectively affect the communications links.
The probing confrontation resumed.
During the engagement, the Lunar Eclipse race also collected the characteristic abilities of the bio-weapons.
They sought to find whether there were any exploitable weak points while the bio-weapons remained alive.
As the number of lost weapon units continued to grow, the No. 1 Governor ultimately chose to flex some muscle.
It had been discovered in combat that conventional weapons were of limited effect against these organisms.
Energy beams released by ordinary drones and unmanned machines were absorbed and conducted by the floating behemoths’ special gelatinous surface, shedding most of their power.
So this time the No. 1 Governor activated the space-based particle cannon deployed in near-Earth orbit.
After inputting coordinates, the particle cannon locked onto the area where the floating behemoths and floating jellyfish were located. Once operational, it began accumulating energy.
The core acceleration ring emitted a low hum. The energy-guiding patterns engraved on it gradually lit up, like a giant beast about to awaken.
Within the acceleration ring, energy was bound by magnetic fields to form a dazzling sphere of light that expanded continuously.
During this period, energy density rose sharply, and the surrounding space even showed slight distortion due to energy fluctuations.
On the holographic projection screens, energy feedback values climbed continuously, finally stabilizing.
With the No. 1 Governor’s order given, the cannon’s core light sphere contracted in an instant, and an energy beam over one hundred meters in diameter shot out from the barrel.
The beam pierced the atmosphere like a sword of light falling from the sky, tearing the clouds and pointing straight at the target area.
A huge circular void appeared in the sky. Sunlight poured through it, casting a layer of golden radiance over the sea.
The three floating behemoths and the floating jellyfish exploded instantly under the impact of the beam, and their shattered body parts were dissolved completely under the beam’s continued wash.
The beam also pierced the sea below, creating a collapsed pit several kilometers in diameter.
A vast amount of seawater evaporated in an instant.
Then the surrounding seawater rushed back, raising towering waves.
On the command center’s holographic projection screens, the real-time imagery of the strike area was displayed.
A gigantic whirlpool gradually formed on the sea surface and did not subside for a long time.
With the invading organisms wiped out, the nearby spatial energy interference field gradually dissipated. Without the floating jellyfish’s control, the spores no longer released energy waves, and they disintegrated automatically and fell into the sea.
But the spatial fissure was unaffected and continued twisting and wavering.
With this strike, the Lunar Eclipse race intended to demonstrate that they had full capability to easily destroy these bio-weapons.
They wanted the other side to think twice and avoid the outbreak of war.
Yet the spatial fissure still did not close.
Perhaps a new round of probing attacks was brewing, or perhaps the race on the other side was discussing whether to continue the invasion of Earth.
Meanwhile, the Lunar Eclipse race also convened a round of pre-war meetings.
As governors of the Lunar Eclipse race, they were also wartime commanders of the Earth Alliance.
If war erupted, they would be responsible for organizing the Earth Alliance’s counterattack. Each governor would be responsible respectively for military affairs, weapons research and development, intelligence, diplomacy, resources, logistics, strategic planning, and so on.
Therefore, a clear war deployment plan and wartime division of labor were themes of this meeting’s discussion.
During the meeting, the No. 1 Governor stood before the holographic projection platform and pulled up a power distribution map of the Earth Alliance.
“Now we need to formulate a global strategy and clarify each race’s wartime duties. We of the Lunar Eclipse race, as the core force, will take charge of three directions: technological research and development, overall command, and main-force operations. The other races will, according to their specialties, respectively take on defense, resource preparation, and even the construction of new defensive facilities. In particular, the Breakers race. They possess excellent rapid construction ability, which we can make use of this time.”
“Second, we need to establish a complete defense chain. Earth is the main battlefield of this war. For now, we will forsake the Moon in the defense chain and layer defenses around the area of the spatial fissure to ensure the enemy cannot easily break through and to avoid spreading the war to the races’ cities.”
As the No. 1 Governor spoke, three-dimensional images of the races appeared one after another.
Different races were arranged in different regions of the holographic Earth image, and each race’s model was labeled with a specific division of labor.
An hour into the meeting, just as the governors were fiercely discussing which measures to adopt to respond to the potential invasion, the figure of Starnet appeared at the center of the conference room.
The governors of the Lunar Eclipse race rose to greet him.
“Go on. How do you plan to respond?” Starnet asked calmly.
In response, the No. 3 Governor, who had been sharing his ideas, continued.
“Release the sealed weapons to arm the races of the Earth Alliance, and at the same time gather the war resources held by the races of Earth and let us allocate and use them. Doing so is for the benefit of the Earth Alliance. I believe the races will agree.”
As soon as the words fell, the No. 2 Governor shook his head and offered a different idea.
“I believe resources should first be concentrated on research to counter corrosion materials. Through technological iteration, we should quickly develop a material that can reduce the killing power of corrosion. With our current technology, although we cannot gain an advantage in material strength, we can respond in terms of material structure.”
The No. 4 Governor stood and said in a deep voice.
“I agree with No. 2’s view. If war breaks out, it will obviously not end in a short time. Only by finding a way to counter it can we gradually seize the initiative.”
“Second, we cannot focus only on defense. I propose that we proactively carry out cross-space reconnaissance and conduct in-depth scans of the world on the other side of the spatial fissure.”
“We need to know more about the opponent civilization, including their true level of technology, resource reserves, and even strategic intentions. Only by knowing ourselves and the enemy can we formulate an effective counterattack strategy.”
The No. 1 Governor nodded in succession.
“In addition, since the other side has launched probing attacks, we can respond in a similar way. I suggest deploying a Level A war platform to cross space to the other side for direct confrontation testing.”
The No. 6 Governor also spoke at this time.
“I support technological research and development, but we also need more live-combat testing. I suggest starting simulated combat training and allocating computing power. Through live testing, we can discover technical flaws more quickly and optimize them.”
After hearing the series of proposals from the Lunar Eclipse race governors, Starnet seemed a little intrigued.
“It seems that the early invasion wars have created habitual thinking in your approach to war. You clearly have not realized what our most powerful weapon is.”
Hearing this, the Lunar Eclipse race governors fell silent.
At this moment, the No. 1 Governor asked.
“Starnet, I do not understand what you mean.”
Starnet smiled.
“There is no need to make it so troublesome. Just send a spatial coordinate detector over. The next war will take place in their world.”
Hearing this, the No. 1 showed doubt.
This idea had just been raised by the No. 4 Governor, who suggested conducting in-depth investigation of the potential invading force on the other side of the spatial fissure.
But Starnet would clearly not voice a meaningless deployment at this time.
It recalled that Starnet had just said they had forgotten what the most powerful weapon in their hands was.
He also said that times are advancing, but their way of thinking had fallen into habitual error.
After a brief thought, a flash of insight burst in the No. 1 Governor’s mind, and he blurted out.
“Starnet, you mean first detect the spatial coordinates, then build a spatial passage in the Monster World, and ignite an anti-invasion war using the bodies of players?”
Starnet nodded in satisfaction.
“Exactly. No matter how you deploy a war, once it starts there will inevitably be slaughter and it will cause serious impact on Earth’s environment. The races of the Earth Alliance will also lose many cities because of this war, and many of our people will die. The outcome of the war is also hard to predict.”
“But if we participate in this war as players, we will suffer no losses, only sacrificial power gains.”
“So as long as we participate as players, victory is already decided.”
After listening to Starnet’s explanation, No. 16, who had already obtained game qualification, looked excited.
“In reality we are just ordinary living beings, but once we put on the identity of players, we are a calamity.”
[T/N: Nah, nerf Starnet, he is too OP. This didn’t even cross my mind, are there any big brain readers who caught on to this possibility?]