Chapter 186 "Fog Umbrella" Project_1

```

The 200th year of the Crisis Era.

In the Red Meridian 14th Time Zone, 50 astronomical units away from the sun, on the outer side of the Kuiper Belt, is the Linger-Fitzroy Monitoring Center.

This is a giant telescopic array, a super telescope system composed of multiple telescopes and antennas.

By combining their signals through interferometry, it creates a virtual super telescope with an extremely high resolution and sensitivity.

Typically, array telescopes are used for radio astronomy observations, but they can also be used for visible light and infrared observations, although not commonly.

The Linger-Fitzroy giant array telescope commemorates the two scientists who first discovered the Trisolaran Fleet's traces, accurately speaking, one scientist and one military strategist. Since then, it has always followed the pattern of having one scientific director and one military director.

It consists of 3,000 small telescopes and 250 sets of medium and low frequency aperture arrays.

Each small telescope is composed of seven giant reflective mirrors and antennas, with each mirror having a diameter of at least 50 meters, using nanomirror film materials in strange designs.

The 3,000 small telescopes spread over an area of 10,000 square kilometers, ensuring comprehensive surveillance of the Trisolaran Fleet and the Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint.

Unlike in the original story, the Linger-Fitzroy telescope there consisted of six giant lenses, with the largest one having a diameter of 1,200 meters.

Moreover, it was located outside the asteroid belt, on a solar orbit, far inferior to the current array telescope in both performance and military value.

"The Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint has gone dark! We've lost them!" the chief scientist sighed.

The Soothsayer Imprint going dark meant that its propulsion engines were shut off. When the Soothsayer Imprint entered the outermost layer of the solar system, the Oort Cloud, the deceleration began.

The surface materials of the Soothsayer Imprint are incredibly tough. During a voyage of four light-years, it only needs one acceleration and one deceleration, unlike the stop-and-go of the Trisolaran Fleet, although the time for acceleration and deceleration is relatively long.

Because its engines are ignited in the direction of the sun during deceleration, human space telescopes can track it based on the light emitted by the Soothsayer Imprint's engines.

"How far is it from us now? Can we calculate their current speed?" the military director asked.

"Based on prior multifaceted parallax method measurements, they are currently about 500 astronomical units away.

"After deceleration, their speed is approximately 0.16% of the speed of light, which is about 30 times the third cosmic velocity. It is estimated that they will arrive in five years," replied the chief scientist.

"What is to come has finally come, they... they have finally arrived.

"The timing of their arrival is difficult to predict. They could also accelerate again and adjust their course, and we can't foresee from which direction they will come.

"It's too small, too far, invisible to the naked eye, and even directional radar and neutrino detectors are unable to track it," the military director said.

"Tracking it, discovering it, that is the main mission of the human world at the moment. The Command Headquarters' Science Advisory Board has prepared an engineering project called the 'Fog Umbrella' project.

There is a kind of oily substance in Neptune's Rings that, under high temperatures, turns into rapidly spreading gas, which then condenses into tiny nanoparticles in space to form space dust.

The gas that results from the evaporation of this substance is highly diffusive in space, with a small amount forming vast areas of 'oily dust,' the key being that it is difficult to disperse by solar wind.

The 'Fog Umbrella' project involves using nuclear explosions to vaporize and disperse the oily material in space. After dispersion, the material wrapped by each nuclear bomb is almost the size of the sun.

"If the Whirlwind Stomp passes through the oily dust, it will leave a clear trail, and we will discover it," declared the chief scientist.

In his heart, the military director felt that this project was pointless. The 'Fog Umbrella' project covering a Red Meridian time zone would require millions of Starbuster nuclear bombs.

Moreover, the Whirlwind Stomp could entirely avoid the oily dust, but as this was the plan of the Command Headquarters, it had to be executed. That is the quality of the Space Force in this era.

"If we could predict the path of the Whirlwind Stomp and deploy several 'Fog Umbrellas' in its travel direction, there is indeed a possibility of finding it, although the chances are slim," the military director said.

"It is said that all of humanity is now in action, with everyone aware that the Whirlwind Stomp is definitely coming to complete some task.

```

```

"Facing such a formidable human military force, can their mission really be accomplished?"

"When something deviates too far from our conceptualization, it's not a good sign," the Chief Scientist said with some concern.

"This is also what we're worried about. There's a lot of speculation about the Whirlwind Stomp on the internet, and many believe it to be a super bomb beyond our theoretical imagination.

"It's not an antimatter bomb, for even if the Whirlwind Stomp were entirely made of antimatter, it would be of little use in space.

"What do you think?" the military officer also became interested.

"If you asked a middle school student this question, his answer might be more reliable than mine; my knowledge system limits the space for my imagination.

"I partly agree with the super bomb theory, but I don't think there's a place for such a bomb in interstellar space," the Chief Scientist replied helplessly.

"My son just started high school, and he has a guess: he thinks it's a hyper-dense neutron star material bullet that will release a huge amount of neutrons on its way to the Solar System, killing everyone with radiation.

"That's an interesting thought, though the little guy probably doesn't realize how many neutrons it would take to kill us all over the span of the entire Solar System.

"According to our monitoring estimates, the Whirlwind Stomp is about 3 to 4 meters in length, the size of a small truck.

"Even if such a small object were composed entirely of neutrons, and we didn't destroy it, its radiation wouldn't be enough to cover a very large area of the Solar System," the Chief Scientist said with a smile.

"Hmm, in order to figure out its mass, we even built a large-scale Gravitational Wave Detector.

"The Whirlwind Stomp being 3 to 4 meters in length, and calculating by the density of neutron star material, its mass would be about 10 to the 17th kilograms, which is roughly the mass of ten Phobos.

"Such a massive mass, even at 3000 astronomical units, should be detectable by the large-scale Gravitational Wave Detector.

"However, up to now, the Whirlwind Stomp has shown no reaction on the Gravitational Wave Detector at all, which can only mean its mass is probably very small.

"I really can't figure out what it is, or what its purpose in coming here is," the Chief Scientist replied.

"Whatever it is, it's still matter, it still obeys our physical laws. Just as the Wallfacer Lin Sen said, Trisolaran technology can't be much more advanced than ours, at most a hundred years.

"Even if the Whirlwind Stomp is to us what a nuclear bomb is to a smoothbore gun, we are not afraid, especially since there are only 20 of them.

"Speaking of Wallfacers, the most concerning thing for humanity now must be the awakening of Wallfacers, right?" the military officer said.

"Yes, I wonder if a Wallfacer could guess what it really is," the Chief Scientist said.

For some reason, the Chief Scientist's mind kept lingering on the neutron star material he had just mentioned, deducing from its mass that the Whirlwind Stomp couldn't be the indestructible neutron star material.

Suddenly, the Chief Scientist felt a shudder inside, hoping his own guess was wrong.

It doesn't need to be neutron star material, just some of the properties of neutron star material.

Then... what can humanity use to resist...

PS: "Project 'Fog Umbrella'" is the precursor to the Snowfield Project in the original work, where the ultimate plan of Logic is hidden; the "shine" of the sun reveals the coordinates of the Solar System.

The Snowfield Project relies on 5000 Starbuster hydrogen bombs left by Rey Diaz and the human "Fog Umbrella" project.

It's a stroke of luck that the 5000 Starbuster hydrogen bombs, coincidentally transferred to Logic after two hundred years, weren't expended in humanity's internal wars.

Rey Diaz also left behind the Cradle System, allowing Logic to use his own life to deter Trisolaris.

In the original work, all the plans are intricately linked, each seemingly crafted to enable others.

Each plan may not seem special on its own, but when connected, they reveal a staggering power.

```