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Chapter 519: The Follow-up to the Sophon Incident_1

Upon hearing Yun Tony's speech, Shi Mingwei sighed deeply, realizing that he had been off base from the start.

Reutilizing the ships originally around Paradise was merely a technological plan. Compared with Yun Tony's proposal, his own ideas were incomplete.

Yun Tony continued, "Putting forward the plan's developmental approach is due to the fact that in the coming half-century, humanity's strength will undergo a qualitative leap.

"But at the same time, the threats from Paradise and the Dark Forest are likely to render the New Continent Star System and its surroundings unsafe.

"At that point, we'll use the strength we've accumulated to pursue new levels of development.

"Although planar development is dangerous, we can't simply abandon this developmental mode as it allows a civilization to concentrate its power and self-develop.

"To make this form of development safer, I believe that within the next century, we must master the technology to smash Two-Dimensional Fragments.

"Additionally, we should have the capability for Two-Dimensional Strikes, the confidence to challenge the majority of middle-level civilizations, and even a portion of advanced civilizations!

"We all know that Two-dimensional foil may not be the most advanced weapon of a high-level civilization, but we need to make them understand, we can deter them, and that humanity is not to be trifariously bullied!

"My speech has concluded, thank you all."

The entire auditorium burst into enthusiastic applause, and even Shi Mingwei couldn't help but clap for Yun Tony. He had to admit that Yun Tony's topic offered a far more profound vision than his own.

Afterward, during the debate segment, things didn't get as intense as everyone had expected.

Shi Mingwei himself admitted, "I only looked fifty years ahead, whereas Brother Tony looked a hundred years further."

Thus, the debate ended shortly after it began, with Shi Mingwei graciously conceding.

Although Jiang Yu didn't announce the outcome on the spot, everyone understood that Yun Tony would be the next Wallfacer.

After the debate ended, before there was time to discuss it, the higher-ups of the Solar System State were immediately called to the conference room next door.

The military and political leaders from Earth also attended the meeting in the form of holographic images.

At the beginning of the meeting, Jiang Yu said to Belinsky, "Give us a briefing!"

Belinsky stood up and said, "Wallfacers, ladies and gentlemen, on September 15th of the 18th Year of the Galaxy, a Sophon from the Trisolarans appeared on Earth's flight path..."

He first summarized the Sophon incident from two years earlier, marking the start of the confrontation from that time.

Belinsky also disclosed Jiang Yu's speculation about the Trisolarans' intentions and the search for the Trisolaran First Fleet over the past twenty years.

Belinsky said, "Since the Sophon incident, Earth has continuously deployed the mobile 'Catcher' System fleet to search nearby regions, pretending to hunt for Sophons, but really looking for traces we might have overlooked.

"Finally, a year ago, one fleet found this."

On the main screen of the conference room, a high-resolution image of a planetary system appeared, and after zooming in on the star's location, a faint small black dot could be seen at one corner of the star.

Belinsky continued, "According to the analysis from Galaxy III, this is likely the trail of a Curvature Spaceship!

"Earth is now only about 1.3 light-years away from that star system, a very short distance on a cosmic scale that makes it easy to spot trails outside of safe distances.

"It's worth mentioning that the location where this trail was discovered is precisely where Earth passed two years ago!

"So now, the Sophon incident is essentially clear—the star system with the trail is likely where the Trisolaran First Fleet has been hiding.

"Based on the trail, it seems that a portion of the First Fleet's Trisolarans have already used Curvature Spaceships to pursue the other two fleets."

"Some Trisolarans hadn't had the chance to flee, and probably did not expect that although they had put a safe distance between them before entering light-speed travel,

"the angles of the stars, their trajectories, and Earth were such that there was a significant chance Earth-based observers could spot these trajectories.

"That's why the Trisolarans sent a Sophon to distract our attention.

"Their plan was very successful since we had indeed overlooked this information at the time.

"But later we managed to locate them, and after finding the hiding place of the enemy's First Fleet, we named it Star System Three.

"The Earth Corps immediately dispatched an elite force to strike, which entered light-speed travel about a year ago, and is expected to reach the designated battlefield in nine months.

"What we can now be fairly certain of is that the enemy's First Fleet is comparatively weak at present, which is why they used such means to conceal their whereabouts."

Many people in the room were taken aback as the high level of secrecy around the battle had meant many of them were only now learning that humanity's new round of war with the Trisolarans had already begun.

Belinsky continued, "About an hour and a half ago, Earth's monitoring systems detected a signal from Star System Three similar to that of a first season life form.

"Even though this signal has only just been detected, it was probably sent over a year ago.

"Our 'Catcher' System's attack range is only thirty thousand kilometers, so our discovery of the activities in Star System Three is unlikely to have escaped Sophon surveillance.

"It's also possible the enemy discovered our actions based on the trajectory of our warships as they entered light-speed.

"In conclusion, our surprise attack has been detected by the enemy, hence they sent out such information.

"Our intelligence department speculates that this is likely a communication method used by first season life forms, which the Trisolarans have mastered.

"Thus, by using such a method, employing first season life forms to extricate themselves, Earth could now face an assault by first season life forms!

"This is something we had not anticipated!"

After saluting everyone, Belinsky's briefing was over.

Jiang Yu then said to Zhuang Yue, "Talk about Earth's current military situation."

Zhuang Yue nodded, "After reorganization, the Earth Corps has a total of six group armies. The First, Second, and Third Group Armies are the mobile units, and right now, the most elite Second Group Army has been dispatched by me to eliminate the remnants of the enemy's First Fleet.

"The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Group Armies are defensive units, equipped mostly with old warships, tasked with the defense of Earth and the Moon.

"The problem we face now is that since the Sophon incident, our hypothetical enemy has always been the main force of the Trisolarans.

"Yet now we must prepare for an attack by first season life forms.

"With the Trisolarans, we've had a few skirmishes and know them quite well.

"With the Earth Corps' current strength, combating a Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet of three thousand spacecraft, we wouldn't be at a disadvantage.

"According to the Strategic Department's analysis, after the blows dealt by the Dark Forest, the Trisolarans could not possibly possess an armed force of this scale.

"However, our current tactics and strategies might not apply in dealing with an attack by first season life forms, and we could be caught completely off guard!

"That's all!"

After Zhuang Yue finished speaking, Jiang Yu said, "Based on the intelligence we have, not all first season life forms necessarily resemble planetary beings like Venus; there are a variety of other appearances.

"Be that as it may, these are unknown enemies. While we still have time, let's hear it—does anyone have any good strategies?"