65: Chapter 65 Orbital Defense Warfare

Three warships from the Gardener Civilization extremists approached Earth in a triangular formation. Their design was different from the previous probes—no longer perfect geometric shapes, but twisted polyhedra, their surfaces covered in sharp protrusions, resembling metallic sea urchins covered in spikes. This was the aesthetic of the radicals within the Gardener Civilization: they believed that order must be imposed through violence, and thus even their warship designs had to embody the aggression of "pruning."

"Three hundred thousand kilometers remaining to the Earth-Moon Lagrange L1 point." Nuwa's voice sounded across all nodes of the global defense network. "High-energy weapon charging signals detected. Target analysis: Beijing, Moscow, Washington D.C."

Lin Shen stood in the underground command center of the Dragon Nation, the real-time images of the three warships displayed on the large screen in front of him. Their weapon ports began to glow with a cold, white light, unlike any energy weapon known to humanity.

"Activate all city defense systems," Lin Shen ordered. "Gravity shield generators to maximum power."

On the ground, the skies over seven major cities began to warp. The gravity shields, built based on the builders' technology, formed transparent, lens-like regions above the cities, capable of deflecting or absorbing directed-energy attacks. But this was only theoretical—it had never been tested in actual combat.

The first attack came from the central Gardener warship. A pure white beam shot toward Beijing, reaching 0.9 times the speed of light. The defense system had almost no reaction time, but the gravity shield activated automatically. The moment the beam hit the shield, the entire sky turned into a kaleidoscope—light was warped, split, and scattered, creating an eerie rainbow effect. Ground sensors recorded a shockwave equivalent to a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, but the buildings remained largely intact.

"Shield efficiency at 87%!" a technician reported. "But energy consumption is massive! At this intensity, it can withstand at most two more attacks!"

Meanwhile, the other two warships opened fire. One beam shot toward Moscow, and another toward Washington. The shields of both cities were effective, but the shield generator in Moscow overloaded and exploded, causing severe damage to ground facilities.

"They are testing our defensive weaknesses," Academician Li Weimin analyzed. "The next round of attacks will likely concentrate fire to break through a single point."

In space, Max piloted the emergency-modified kuafu-3, hiding in the shadow of the moon. The ship's weapon system had been upgraded, equipped with a "spacetime distortion cannon" extracted from the builders' database—a non-lethal weapon capable of locally altering spacetime curvature.

"Max, you only have one chance," Lin Shen said over the encrypted channel. "Aim for the lead warship's propulsion system. Disable its mobility, but do not destroy it. We need to capture one to understand their true purpose."

"Understood." Max adjusted the targeting interface. But just as he prepared to fire, the Gardener warships suddenly changed formation. They began to orbit Earth at high speed, not on the same orbital plane, but in a three-dimensional spiral motion, like three deadly satellites.

"What are they scanning for?" Nuwa reported. "Deep-penetration scanning waves detected, frequencies targeting... the deep ocean? They are looking for the Mariana Trench!"

Lin Shen immediately understood: "They didn't come to destroy cities. They came to find the guardian node! Or... to find Sarah!"

Indeed, the three warships suddenly turned simultaneously, rushing toward the Pacific Ocean. Their speed was immense, taking only four minutes from orbit to the atmosphere. As they entered the atmosphere, plasma sheaths formed around the hulls, like three falling meteors.

"They're heading to the Mariana Trench!" Max turned the ship. "But why? Sarah has already..."

"The guardian node!" Lin Shen realized something. "After Sarah's reset, the node became the most complete sower facility in the Solar System. The Gardener extremists might want to seize it, or destroy it, to prevent the system from fully recovering!"

Above the Pacific Ocean, the three warships hovered over the Mariana Trench. They began to emit a type of pulse toward the sea surface—not a weapon, but more like... a detection signal. Under the influence of the pulses, the seawater formed perfect concentric ripples, like a massive water mirror struck by a stone.

In the deep sea, the guardian node sensed the threat. It had just completed its reset and was in a weakened state, but it still released a defensive force field. Beneath the sea surface, the outline of a massive icosahedron began to emerge, emitting a soft blue light.

"The node is rising!" an ocean monitoring station reported. "It is surfacing on its own!"

This might be the node acting to protect itself, or perhaps... the influence of Sarah's residual consciousness.

Lin Shen made a decision: "Max, stop them from making contact with the node! Use whatever means necessary!"

The kuafu-3 dove into the atmosphere, trailing long flames from its tail. Max locked onto all three warships simultaneously, charging the spacetime distortion cannon to maximum.

But the Gardener warships seemed to have anticipated this move. One of them suddenly turned, heading toward the kuafu-3, and the spikes on its hull surface began to glow. Just as the two ships were about to enter firing range, the warship made an unexpected move: it did not fire, but instead... disintegrated.

It was not an explosion, but a precise separation. The warship split into hundreds of small drones, each only the size of a car, swarming toward the kuafu-3 like a hive.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Max yanked the control stick, but the drone swarm was too fast. A dozen drones slammed into the ship's shield, triggering violent vibrations. Shield energy plummeted by 43%.

Worse, the other two warships seized the opportunity to accelerate their descent, almost touching the surface of the sea. They extended mechanical arms, preparing to make contact with the surfacing guardian node.

Just then, the sea surface suddenly erupted.

It was not an explosion, but an energy shockwave actively released by the node. A blue ring of light expanded from the node, sweeping across the two warships. The moment they touched the ring, the sharp protrusions on the warships' surfaces began to... soften. It was not melting, but a change in geometric form, transforming from aggressive spikes into gentle curves.

"The node is 'resetting' them!" Nuwa exclaimed. "It is using a local reset pulse, attempting to overwrite the Gardener warships' command systems!"

But the node's energy was insufficient. The ring of light dissipated after only three seconds. Although the appearance of the two warships had changed, their core systems seemed unaffected. Their mechanical arms continued to reach toward the node.

On Max's side, the drone swarm's attacks were becoming increasingly dense. The kuafu-3 had sustained damage in multiple areas, and the life support system was sounding alarms.

"Max, retreat!" Lin Shen ordered. "We have another plan!"

"What plan?" Max asked while dodging.

Lin Shen brought up the control interface, where a flashing red button labeled "Consciousness Projection Protocol" appeared.

"Before the reset, Sarah left a backdoor in the system," Lin Shen explained quickly. "Her consciousness fragments can temporarily merge with the node to perform limited intervention. But it requires an activation key... and the key is in her personality backup unit."

Max immediately understood: "You want to wake up the backed-up Sarah? But that's just a copy, not the real her!"

"We need her imprint and authorization!" Lin Shen had already made his decision. "Nuwa, prepare the consciousness projection. Max, try to stall for time, at least five minutes!"

In the underground command center, technicians retrieved the silver backup unit and connected it to the massive neural interface array. Lin Shen put on the connection helmet—he needed to act as a bridge because only he had had a deep consciousness connection with Sarah.

"Begin transmission." Lin Shen closed his eyes.

Consciousness space.

Lin Shen saw Sarah again—or rather, Sarah's shadow. She stood in a white void, wearing a standard research uniform, with no light patterns on her face, and her eyes were a normal brown. This was her state when the backup was created, Sarah before the reset.

"Lin Shen?" She looked somewhat confused. "This is... I remember I should be in the submersible. Has the node docking been completed?"

"It has, but not completely." Lin Shen communicated directly with his thoughts. "The situation is urgent now, and I need your help."

He quickly shared the current situation: the attack by the Gardener warships, the crisis of the node, and the dilemma of human defense.

The backup Sarah's expression turned serious: "They want the node... no, they want the builders' core database inside the node. That is the only information source that completely records the coordinates and status of all sower nodes. If they get it, they will be able to track and destroy all nodes currently undergoing reset, causing the system to collapse again."

"Can you stop them?"

[part:gemini-3.0-flash]

"I need to connect to the node," backup Sarah said, "but my backup is incomplete, lacking the latest memories and... emotional depth. I might not be able to fully control the node."

"As long as you can activate the node's defense protocols," Lin Shen said. "Does the node have a self-destruct program? Or... is there a way to temporarily hide the core database?"

Backup Sarah thought for a few seconds—in the consciousness space, thinking was almost instantaneous.

"Yes. The node can execute the 'Information Black Hole' protocol: encrypt and compress the core data into an infinitely small information singularity, hidden within spacetime folds. But activating this protocol requires over 90% of the node's energy, after which the node will enter a long-term hibernation, possibly taking several hundred years to recover."

"Then do it!" Lin Shen said. "It's better than being taken by the Gardener."

Backup Sarah nodded. Her form began to change; her work clothes turned into flowing light, and light patterns reappeared on her face—she was activating the Builders Imprint stored within her body, preparing to connect with the node.

But a problem arose during the connection process.

The node's consciousness—that newly repaired mixture containing Sarah's residual fragments and original instructions—refused backup Sarah's access. It considered the backup an "incomplete copy" without full administrator privileges.

"The node is resisting me," backup Sarah reported. "It... it thinks the real Sarah is already in the system, and I'm just a replica."

This was the cruel truth. The backup was indeed not the original; she lacked the experience of the last consciousness docking and the profound understanding of becoming part of the system.

At this moment, the external situation worsened further.

The kuafu-3 was finally hit by the drone swarm. The starboard engine exploded, the ship lost power, and it began to spin and fall.

"Max!" Lin Shen could feel his body's tension even in the consciousness space.

"I'm okay... for now," Max's voice was intermittent. "But the ship is out of control... I'll try my best to crash into the sea..."

On the ground, the mechanical arms of two Gardener warships had already touched the surface of the guardian node. They began forcibly downloading data, and the node's blue light began to flicker as if struggling.

Lin Shen made a dangerous decision.

"Nuwa, connect my consciousness as well!" he commanded. "Use the technology tree system as a bridge! If the node doesn't recognize Sarah's backup, maybe it will recognize the combination of her and me!"

"The risk is extremely high!" Nuwa warned. "Your consciousness might be overwhelmed by the node's information torrent!"

"Execute!"

A new connection was established. Lin Shen's consciousness entered the white space, standing side-by-side with backup Sarah. His technology tree system unfolded around them—that tree of light representing the human technological path now began to merge with Sarah's Builders Imprint.

Roots dug into the void, branches extended, and flowers of mathematics bloomed. Sarah's light patterns spread onto the tree, making the entire tree emit a soft blue light.

The node sensed this unique mixture: the potential of human technology plus the heritage of the builders, plus... a certain emotional connection—Lin Shen's trust in Sarah, and Sarah's commitment to her mission.

The resistance stopped.

The node granted access.

Backup Sarah instantly connected to the node's control layer. Her consciousness merged with the node's—this time not a deep, complete fusion, but a limited administrator connection.

She saw everything inside the node: the structure of the core database, the settings of the defense protocols, the state of energy reserves... and Sarah's residual fragment of consciousness.

That fragment was as faint as a candle flame in the wind, but it still existed. When backup Sarah approached, the fragment emitted a gentle ripple, as if saying: Continue, finish what I left undone.

Backup Sarah activated the "Information Black Hole" protocol.

Inside the node, the core database began to compress. Billions of information units were extracted, encoded, and folded into a theoretically infinitely small singularity. This process consumed vast amounts of energy, and the node's light quickly dimmed.

On the sea surface, the Gardener warships detected the interruption in the data stream. Realizing what was happening, they began to increase download power, trying to grab a portion before the data completely vanished.

But it was too late.

The node's blue light flared one last time and then abruptly went out. All geometric patterns disappeared, and the surface turned a dull grey. It slowly sank into the sea like a giant metal tombstone.

The mechanical arms of the two Gardener warships grasped at nothing. They hovered over the sea, seemingly reassessing the situation.

At that moment, the third warship—the mothership that had split into drones—suddenly recombined. But its recombination process encountered an error: some drones failed to dock correctly, causing the recombined ship to be distorted in shape, like a failed sculpture.

"Their coordination system relied on the node's reference signal," Nuwa analyzed. "After the node entered hibernation, the signal disappeared, and their precision operation capabilities declined."

The opportunity had come.

Max performed one last operation before the crash, concentrating the ship's remaining weapon energy and firing at the distorted warship. Although not a fatal blow, it was enough to make it lose balance and crash into the sea.

Seeing this, the other two warships began to ascend, seemingly preparing to withdraw.

But they didn't leave completely. Upon reaching orbital height, one of the warships sent a broadcast message to Earth—not encrypted, but public, receivable on all frequencies:

[Human civilization, you have proven your resilience. But this is not the end. the silencers are approaching. When the darkness truly descends, you will need more strength than you have now. We await you at the edge of the galaxy—if you can survive until then.]

Then, the two warships activated their curvature engines and disappeared into distorted space.

The battle was over. But the feeling of victory was hollow and heavy.

An hour later, the rescue team salvaged the wreckage of the kuafu-3 from the sea. Max survived but was seriously injured and rushed to the hospital.

The guardian node sank to the bottom of the sea, ten thousand meters deep, entering a hibernation expected to last three hundred years. Its core database was safely hidden, beyond the reach of the Gardener.

Backup Sarah's consciousness disconnected and returned to the silver unit. She requested that Lin Shen not wake her unless truly necessary.

"I now understand," she said before disconnecting. "I am just a tool, a copy that exists for a specific purpose. The real Sarah... she has become a greater existence. Let me stay like this."

Lin Shen respected her choice.

The world began to assess the damage: three cities were damaged, and the death toll was about two thousand, but it was far lower than the worst expectations. The gravity shield technology proved effective, and for the first time, humanity successfully repelled an attack from an alien civilization.

But before celebrating, everyone remembered the words left by the Gardener:

the silencers are approaching.

At night, Lin Shen stood on the roof of the command center, looking at the starry sky. Nuwa's voice sounded in his ear: "Based on the trajectory of the Gardener warships when they left, they detected abnormal spatial expansion in the direction of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. The rate is 0.7% faster than the standard cosmic expansion. This could be a sign of the silencers' activities."

"How far from us?"

"At current speeds, it will affect the Solar System in about one thousand four hundred years. But if the silencers accelerate, or if we expand in that direction..."

The time seemed long, but on a cosmic scale, a millennium was but a moment.

"Launch the second phase of the 'Civilization Leap Project'," Lin Shen said. "We need to reach a level where we can counter cosmic-level threats within a thousand years."

"What level is the target?"

Lin Shen looked at the stars, thinking of Sarah's—whichever Sarah—sacrifice and hope.

"At least Level 2.5. We must become the civilization the builders failed to be: united rather than divided, cooperative rather than controlling, lighting torches in the dark rather than waiting to be consumed."

He turned and left the roof. Behind him, new stars flickered in Earth's night sky—those were the first batch of deep space monitoring satellites humanity had just deployed, which would watch over the stars and prepare for the long journey ahead.

And in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, inside the sleeping node, the infinitely small information singularity floated quietly. It contained all the secrets of the Sower System, as well as the final imprint of Sarah Chen.

Perhaps in three hundred years, when the node awakens, humanity will be ready to accept this legacy.

Or, humanity will no longer need it, having forged its own path.

Time will give the answer.