222: Chapter 222 The Strange Earth

Gao Yuan had a look of bewilderment on his face; it was impossible for a celestial body to simply vanish...

If it was gone, the most likely possibility was that it had been destroyed.

But how could Europa have crashed? Could it be that after the impact, the energy erupting from Jupiter directly swallowed it?

Gao Yuan couldn't figure it out...

At this moment, the physicist Kule spoke up beside him, "Gao, my guess is that the Moon collided with Europa, and they fell into Jupiter together! We calculated before that the Moon alone was unlikely to trigger such a powerful starburst! If Europa hit it as well, then it's possible!"

Gao Yuan frowned; anything said now was just speculation.

Regardless, Europa had already disappeared.

Europa was gone, but they still needed to regroup and refit.

Gao Yuan began heading toward Ganymede. Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon, much larger than our Moon, with a radius reaching 40% of Earth's! It's even significantly larger than Mercury! In the Solar System, it's considered a relatively large celestial body.

Ganymede's surface was originally a frozen layer, with a liquid ocean beneath the ice.

However, when Gao Yuan reached Ganymede, he saw that its appearance had changed. The ice layer, originally 150,000 meters thick, had completely melted, and a massive amount of seawater had been blown off Ganymede by the jupiter winds.

After the jupiter winds passed, this water was pulled back by Ganymede's gravity, forming a layer of water surrounding the moon.

This water layer wasn't circular, but rather an oval shape, similar to an egg.

The side facing away from Jupiter had been stretched long by the jupiter winds, while the side facing Jupiter was now also being elongated due to Jupiter's gravity...

Ganymede was like the yolk of an egg, encased in seawater.

Seeing this peculiar sight, everyone was stunned.

Gao Yuan had originally intended to come here to search for ruins of the Jupiter Civilization and to find a place to mine and refit.

But in this current situation, he feared even landing would be very difficult.

Because to land, one would first need to pass through a seawater layer over a hundred thousand meters deep.

"Marshal, what should we do?"

"There's nothing left here either! Let's check the other moons!"

If Ganymede was like this, Gao Yuan guessed that the other moons would likely be in a similar state.

After all, these moons bore the brunt of the high-energy radiation and jupiter winds!

Two days later, Gao Yuan arrived at Io...

Io is Jupiter's third-largest moon, and its volume was originally much larger than the Moon's...

It was only slightly smaller than Ganymede.

But when Gao Yuan saw Io now, he could hardly believe his eyes.

It was a tiny thing, with a diameter likely not exceeding nine hundred kilometers; its size could only be compared to Ceres!

This...

"Marshal... is this Io?"

"It should be, but it doesn't look like it!"

Zhong Guoqiang sighed.

"It is Io. Only Io could be in this position!"

"Then how did it become like this?"

"Io's outer crust has been blown away. It's too close to Jupiter! Only the inner core remains! Although Io is a moon, its geological conditions were similar to Mars, but its geological activity was far more intense. When the jupiter winds emerged, Io bore the brunt! It is the closest of the large moons to Jupiter; those smaller moons are likely gone... That Io managed to retain its core is already a rare feat!"

Gao Yuan was now certain that no traces of civilization remained in the Jupiter Sector.

"Marshal, where do we go next?"

"Let's go check Mercury..."

Perhaps the jupiter winds hadn't reached Mercury yet. The fleet didn't need to be too fast; they could wait for the jupiter winds to pass Mercury before entering the Mercury Sector...

As for refitting, Gao Yuan could only manufacture a filter net en route to capture small meteorites in space, accumulating them bit by bit to slowly replenish supplies!

Repairing while traveling...

What excited Gao Yuan was that after they left the Jupiter Sector, the Academy of Sciences and various research labs suddenly experienced a technological explosion, as if various technologies were welcoming a wave of breakthroughs.

First it was Stealth Coatings, then Energy Shields, and even the Laser Cannon broke through its power limit. Good news arrived continuously regarding various smaller aspects as well...

Hearing this news, Gao Yuan became pensive.

Could this be the civilization factor? The Jupiter Civilization was destroyed by his own hand, and by coming here, he had received the civilization factor that originally belonged to them, which is why human technology was experiencing this massive explosion!

These technologies raised the attack and defense of the Human Fleet by a significant margin!

However, Gao Yuan couldn't bring himself to be happy.

One impact had allowed him to sweep through half the Solar System. Presumably, Mercury and Venus would also soon be destroyed.

When that time came, humanity would ascend another two major levels.

The closer it got to that time, the more nervous Gao Yuan became.

A month later, humanity passed through the Earth Sector. Seeing Earth from a distance, many people stood by the starship windows, gazing at it.

Where were there any traces of civilization left on Earth now?

The jupiter winds had passed through...

All cities were destroyed, plants were extinct, and animals had vanished! Seawater had also surged upward on Earth; it wasn't as exaggerated as on Ganymede, but there was also a thin layer of seawater surrounding Earth's exterior!

"Do you want to go back to Earth to take a look?"

Gao Yuan asked.

By now, the Jovians inside Earth must have certainly gone extinct.

Bai Moyu was beside Gao Yuan. She also missed home, even though her family was currently on the aerospace carrier...

But Bai Moyu always felt that this wasn't home.

"Can we go see it?"

"Let's go..."

Gao Yuan actually wanted to say a final farewell as well!

Perhaps Earth could provide the final bit of comfort to this Human Fleet.

The closer they got to Earth, the more nervous people became.

When the starships passed through that layer of seawater, many people screamed.

The scene was so magical; when people stepped out of the starships, they looked up to see a layer of seawater in the sky, with sunlight shining down and refracting into rainbow colors.

The ground was no longer entirely ocean either; since the seawater had been blown into the sky, many shallow seas had turned back into land.

The scene had become completely different from before...

However, the surface temperature of Earth was currently as high as 78 degrees Celsius!

At this temperature, it had reached the point where protective suits were mandatory.

Gao Yuan stood on the ground and looked up; Earth was no longer a home suitable for human habitation.

Let's do one last refit; perhaps we will never land on Earth again.

Gao Yuan arranged for a two-month refit period. On any exposed ground, he deployed 3D Micro-printers for integrated mining and manufacturing. Traces of humanity appeared on Earth once more.

The aerospace carriers had to be replenished, because the aerospace carriers were humanity's production bases; all of humanity's basic biological resources and research labs were maintained on them!

Tens of millions of robots appeared on Earth once again...

And Earth's condition changed every day.

Seawater returned to the ground every day in the form of rain, and the oceans reclaimed their dominant position.

The temperature was also gradually dropping.

When all the seawater had returned to the ground, Gao Yuan knew it was time for them to leave.

If they didn't leave, perhaps the Mercury and Venus civilizations would have a chance to recover.