89: Chapter 89 Capturing Asteroids

At the edge of the Asteroid Belt, 60 kunpeng no. 2 spaceships were quietly docked.

Not far from the fleet, an iron asteroid with a diameter of over 80 kilometers floated silently.

In reality, the asteroid was constantly orbiting the sun at high speed; it only appeared stationary because the 60 kunpeng no. 2 spaceships were matching its orbital velocity.

Su Fan stood inside the lead kunpeng no. 2, gazing out at the asteroid before him with a distant look in his eyes.

"Red Queen, transmit my orders. Calculate the respective angles and release the Star-Capture Cables!"

"Understood, Captain!" the Red Queen said seriously in her soft, cute voice.

Upon receiving Su Fan's orders, each ship immediately adjusted its orientation.

From the stern of each vessel, a massive metal drill bit was instantly launched, trailing a thick rope made of specialized materials.

The metal drills were fired by modified ED100 Electromagnetic Kinetic Cannons, possessing such immense kinetic energy that they could penetrate the surface of a kilometer-sized asteroid and sink tens of thousands of meters deep into the ground!

Once the drill bit reached a depth of tens of thousands of meters, it would release numerous needle-like filaments in all directions. These filaments, hundreds of meters long, would burrow deep into the surrounding soil and rock.

In this way, no matter how much force was used to pull the rope, neither the rope nor the surrounding soil and rock would be pulled out.

This was because these slender needles were held by the pressure of the entire planet; the harder one pulled, the greater the pressure they received from the planet itself!

It was like sticking a chopstick into a barrel of rice; as long as the rice was packed tightly enough, a single chopstick could lift the entire barrel!

Sixty Star-Capture Cables were accurately embedded into the asteroid from various directions and angles, following the Red Queen's calculations.

After confirming the Star-Capture Cables were securely fixed, the 60 spaceships began to slowly accelerate in the direction of the asteroid's orbit around the sun.

The reason they didn't drag it directly toward Mars was simple: forcibly changing an asteroid's trajectory is extremely difficult.

This asteroid was only 80 kilometers across, so 60 kunpeng no. 2s could force a change in its orbit.

However, an 80-kilometer asteroid wasn't the ultimate goal; dwarf planets like Ceres were!

Attempting to forcibly change the orbit of the 940-kilometer Ceres with only 60 spaceships was nearly impossible, as the two were simply not in the same weight class.

Capturing this 80-kilometer asteroid was akin to a military exercise before a real war, or a mock exam before the final test.

Therefore, they had to follow the same procedures required for capturing Ceres.

"Asteroid drag-acceleration initiated!"

"Asteroid velocity has exceeded the Third Cosmic Velocity; it can now break free from the sun's gravity!"

"Asteroid orbital shift guided!"

"Based on Mars's position, the asteroid's new trajectory has been generated!"

"New orbit established, continuing asteroid acceleration!"

"Maximum speed of 2,000 kilometers per second reached. Impact with Mars expected in two days!"

The Red Queen's voice reported continuously as Su Fan kept his eyes glued to the simulation display on the screen.

During this impact between the asteroid and Mars, the Blue Planet's position was very far from Mars, so there was no concern about it being affected.

Seeing the asteroid proceed according to the planned route, Su Fan breathed a sigh of relief.

Though it sounded simple, this task would never have been so easy without the Red Queen's supercomputing power and the zero-latency foundation of Quantum Communication.

Two days later, the kunpeng no. 2 spaceship fleet, dragging the asteroid, was about to reach Mars.

Su Fan logged on again, his consciousness possessing a Android.

"Red Queen, recalculate the impact point. Ensure that the asteroid's landing on Mars won't affect Mars's orbit!" Su Fan commanded.

Doing this for the first time, it was better to be cautious.

"Understood, Captain!" the Red Queen replied seriously.

After a moment, the Red Queen's voice rang out: "Recalculated 666 times. Impact point is precise, and there will be no impact on Mars's orbit or rotation!"

Su Fan nodded. "Proceed."

"Yes!" the Red Queen replied.

"Spaceships beginning final angle adjustments!"

"Impact point confirmed: Martian equator."

"Impact countdown: 20 minutes."

"Impact countdown: 10 minutes."

"Impact countdown: 3 minutes. The spaceship fleet has retracted all Star-Capture Cables and completed evacuation!"

"Impact countdown: 1 minute. All systems normal. Asteroid is proceeding on its intended trajectory."

"Impact countdown: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

"The asteroid has successfully reached the designated impact point!"

On Mars, the asteroid plummeted rapidly onto a small mountain on the equator.

BOOM—

The entire planet of Mars shuddered!

The mountain couldn't withstand the asteroid's impact at all and vanished into thin air. A massive crater appeared on the Martian surface.

The surrounding surface cracked instantly, and magma began to erupt with a 'pfft-pfft-pfft' sound, looking like a scene from the apocalypse.

Aboard the spaceship in space, Su Fan couldn't hear the sound, but he could see the massive plume of dust kicked up by the asteroid's impact, some of which was even ejected into space.

The entire planet of Mars seemed to be awakened. Across the Martian surface, volcanoes began to erupt, and earthquakes exceeding magnitude 10 occurred near the asteroid's impact point!

"Is this the power of an 80-kilometer class asteroid?" Su Fan murmured to himself.

He thought of the dinosaur extinction on the Blue Planet.

There are several theories regarding the extinction of the dinosaurs: the volcanic theory, the continental drift theory, and the sudden climate change theory. But the most persuasive—or the one accepted by most people—is the asteroid impact theory.

The asteroid impact theory states that 65 million years ago, a 10-kilometer diameter asteroid struck the Blue Planet.

The impact first triggered earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.

Initially, the volcanoes and massive amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide led to global high temperatures.

Then, the impact and global volcanic eruptions caused countless dust and volcanic ash to blanket the entire Blue Planet. Sunlight couldn't penetrate, eventually leading to a global ice age.

And then the dinosaurs went extinct.

In fact, even if humans encountered such a situation, if they didn't use weapons to shatter the asteroid and let a 10-kilometer asteroid fall, they would be finished!

A 10-kilometer asteroid was already this powerful, let alone an 80-kilometer one.

And it had struck Mars, which was much smaller than the Blue Planet!

After watching for a while, Su Fan ordered the fleet to set sail again, with their destination still being the Asteroid Belt.

However, this time the target would be the largest dwarf planet in the Asteroid Belt—Ceres.

Ceres had long been considered a planet by international astronomical organizations until 2006, when it was redefined as a dwarf planet.

Ceres is the largest dwarf planet in the Asteroid Belt, accounting for about twenty-five percent of the belt's mass. Although its volume is far less than Mars, its massive size—with a diameter of over 940 kilometers—would create an absolutely thrilling scene once it struck Mars!

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