88: On the eve of the decisive battle

The hand of time quietly slid toward the end of 2035.

This defense of the Solar System, known to later historians as the First Interstellar War, had already lasted for two full years.

In this long and brutal war, the resilience and creativity that Human Civilization displayed in the face of despair sometimes surprised even Lei Wen, the director behind the scenes who possessed a "God's-eye view."

If the human fleet a year ago was just a group of tribal warriors who had just learned to use iron spears, then after countless baptisms of blood and fire, they had rapidly grown into a well-equipped, tactically proficient professional legion.

Today, when you set foot on the busy starport docks of the Babel Space Station again, you will find that the starfish-class frigates docked here are no longer the slightly shabby-looking ones they once were.

Their appearance has become more streamlined and full of power, and the originally exposed pipelines and sensors have been integrated under more robust modular armor.

The most core changes come from their "hearts" and "claws."

Their once slightly clumsy Hall thruster arrays have been replaced by brand-new ion thrusters.

This new engine, based on new ion thruster technology and optimized and improved countless times by Earth scientists, can ionize inert gas propellant into high-temperature plasma and then eject it at a terrifying speed.

Theoretically, if a starfish-class frigate equipped with this new engine could maintain this speed for continuous flight, it would only take more than forty years to cross the 4.2 light-years to Proxima Centauri, the closest star system to Earth.

For Human Civilization, which once thought it was unreachable to even fly out of the Solar System, this is undoubtedly a milestone leap.

Of course, everyone knows that there is a huge gap between theory and reality.

Given the power of humanity's currently still "feeble" nuclear fusion reactors, accelerating a warship weighing tens of thousands of tons from a standstill to 10% of the speed of light requires an extremely long time and massive amounts of energy, and it must also utilize the gravitational slingshot effect of various celestial bodies within the star system.

Moreover, during long interstellar voyages, warships cannot maintain maximum speed throughout the entire journey; they must frequently turn off their engines to dissipate heat, must refuel the thrusters after the propellant is exhausted, and must undergo long deceleration before reaching the target...

According to the most optimistic calculations by Earth scientists, with the current technological level, it would take at least four hundred years to complete an interstellar voyage across a distance of four light-years.

Four hundred years.

For fragile humans whose individual lives were once less than a hundred years, this was a number that felt desperate.

But if humanity completes the full popularization of the blood orchid serum, then four hundred years no longer seems so distant for humans whose average lifespan will reach over three hundred years.

And at the very least, it allows humanity to see, for the first time, the dawn of hope to leave the Cradle of the Solar System and truly step into the sea of stars.

In addition to the propulsion system, the weapon system of the starfish-class frigates has also completed an upgrade that is like trading a bird gun for a cannon.

The electromagnetic railguns that once served as the main force have been replaced by a new, more powerful, and more sci-fi weapon—the particle accelerator cannon.

The principle of this weapon is to accelerate a small mass of heavy ions in a high-intensity magnetic field to infinitely close to the speed of light, and then fire it out like a micro-neutron star.

When this high-energy particle mass carrying terrifying kinetic energy hits a target, the massive kinetic energy and chain reaction generated are enough to instantly tear apart any solid matter in humanity's understanding.

In several previous small-scale conflicts, a starfish-class frigate that had undergone weapon upgrades once used a single precise particle cannon shot to cleanly cut a rebel warship of the same tonnage in two.

Humanity's "spear" has finally begun to become truly sharp.

December 24, 2035, Christmas Eve.

Babel Space Station, Earth Defense Force Supreme Command.

"Alert! Alert! Tachyon Radar has detected a massive enemy fleet assembly signal!"

The piercing alarm suddenly shattered the slightly peaceful atmosphere on the eve of the holiday, instantly putting the entire command headquarters into the highest state of combat readiness.

On the huge holographic Star Map, in that patch of pitch-black airspace outside Saturn's orbit, thousands of red light spots representing the rebel fleet were frantically converging toward the same coordinate point like iron filings attracted by a magnet!

Their numbers were so vast that they formed a huge, constantly expanding red nebula on the Star Map.

"Counting in progress... Confirmed enemy warship count exceeds two thousand!"

"Their flagship signal has also appeared!"

"Their target... Their target is the Babel Space Station!"

Looking at the aggressive red tide that seemed to want to swallow the entire Solar System, even Wang Quanjin and Reinhardt, two iron-blooded generals who had experienced many battles, showed extremely solemn expressions on their faces.

Everyone understood what this meant.

After two years of war of attrition and tug-of-war, that mysterious "rebel fleet" seemed to have sensed that its days were numbered.

They were unwilling to sit and wait for death.

They were going to make a final gamble!

"They are going to stake everything," General Reinhardt said in a low voice, watching the largest fleet ever assembled. "Their goal is clear—to launch a decisive all-out attack on our Babel Space Station with all their strength!"

"To destroy the superluminal suppressor here," General Wang Quanjin took over his words, cold light flashing in his eyes, "and then immediately flee this Solar System that has been turned into a cage."

"We must not let them succeed!"

The war machine of the Earth Defense Force was driven to its limit at this moment.

"Order all fleets currently resting and resupplying to cancel their leave immediately! All personnel return to duty!"

"Order all defense fleets stationed in Jupiter and Mars orbits to assemble to Earth orbit immediately!"

"Order all warships under construction at the Moon Starport, regardless of how much is completed, to immediately install temporary weapon systems and join the battle sequence as floating gun platforms!"

"voyager," General Wang Quanjin cast his gaze toward the flagship that represented humanity's hope. "Captain Li Zhenguo, you will be the spearhead of our decisive battle!"

"Concentrate all our strength, all our courage, and all our hope here!"

"Right here at Babel Tower," his voice spread throughout the entire communication network via the command channel, "to fight the final decisive battle with the enemy!"

"Humanity will prevail!"

The news quickly spread back to Earth.

People who were originally immersed in the peaceful atmosphere of the holiday eve did not descend into panic and chaos upon hearing the news.

Having experienced two years of war, everyone's nerves had long since become incredibly resilient.

They just silently raised their heads, looking up at the bright starry sky that was about to become the final battlefield.

In bars, people put down their glasses and quietly watched the scrolling pre-war mobilization footage on the news.

In churches, believers knelt before the statues of gods, offering final prayers for the young soldiers who were about to rush to the battlefield.

And in more homes, people hugged their relatives who were about to rush to the stars, expressing their love and reluctance in the simplest and most sincere way.

In the underground command room of Tianqiong City, Lei Wen quietly watched the epic decisive battle he had personally directed about to pull back its final curtain.

It was time to put a perfect end to this two-year-long war.

"Grey Wind," he said to the silver-haired girl beside him who was excitedly arranging troops on the virtual sand table, "have you memorized the script?"

"Relax, relax!" Grey Wind waved her hand dismissively. "Isn't it just having my minions charge in looking like big shots, then getting a few flagships taken out by that big guy of yours called voyager, then pretending to get angry, and finally being shocked by you humans' heroism and fearlessness, only to flee in a panic and be blocked by the 'regular' fleet and wiped out!"

"Let me tell you, I'm a professional! I guarantee I'll act more realistically than those Oscar-winning actors on your Earth!"

Her eager-to-try demeanor made Lei Wen feel a mix of amusement and exasperation.

"Don't worry! I know what I'm doing!" Grey Wind patted her chest and promised.

"Then let's begin."

Lei Wen watched the two massive fleets on the Star Map about to collide and said softly.

In a void hundreds of light-years away from Earth, a massive fleet emerged from the ripples of space.

All the warships of this fleet had dark golden hulls, which were a kind of regular geometric structure that could not be described from the perspective of Earthlings, and the clearly visible thruster nozzles were emitting flickering blue halos.

In the command room of the largest warship, a group of humanoid creatures with horns on their heads, crimson skin, and a pair of wide bat wings on their backs were chatting as if relaxing.

A creature who appeared to be the top leader of this fleet stretched his body and then asked his subordinates: "Any special discoveries in this star sector?"

The subordinate held a data terminal in his hand, looked at it for a moment, and replied: "No abnormalities found so far... only one small problem."

"A problem?"

"One of the probes we launched lost contact. The log information sent back before losing contact shows that it likely flew into the inner side of a star system during superluminal flight, causing the internal components to be completely damaged."

A wrinkle appeared on the leader's dark red forehead, as if he was frowning.

"Have our devices ever had such a problem in the past few hundred years?"

"Not in a thousand years, Commander," the subordinate replied. "I just had the ship AI compare the information sent back by the probe with our current Star Map. That star system does not exist on our Star Map, or rather, it didn't fifty years ago."

"Interesting." The leader's mouth cracked. "Did the probe have any other discoveries?"

"The data sent back by the probe might be much more interesting than you imagine." The subordinate also smiled and continued: "The probe's analysis of that star system shows signs of civilization."

"Oh? How strong is that civilization?"

"It should be far inferior to us, otherwise our probe should have been intercepted before crashing into the inner side of their star system. It's highly likely just a civilization that has just entered space."

The leader thought for a moment upon hearing this and asked another question: "Is there a supernova about to erupt near that star system?"

"There is one, a supernova 56 light-years away from them is about to erupt."

"Notify the governor of this star sector to go to that supernova, install a stellar deflector and an eruption mutagen, and align the rotation axis of that supernova toward the star system where the civilization was born."

The leader said lightly, as if destroying a civilization was just a small episode to him.

"Yes."